Talking About Organizations Podcast

Talking About Organizations
  • 4.6 (13)
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  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
Talking About Organizations Podcast

Talking About Organizations is a conversational podcast where we talk about one book, journal article or idea per episode and try to understand it, its purpose and its impact. By joining us as we collectively tackle classic readings on organization theory, management science, organizational behavior, industrial psychology, organizational learning, culture, climate, leadership, public administration, and so many more! Subscribe to our feed and begin Talking About Organizations as we take on great management thinkers of past and present!

  1. 122: Cultivation and Curation of Professional Knowledge (Part 2)

    6 DAYS AGO

    122: Cultivation and Curation of Professional Knowledge (Part 2)

    We are launching the TAOP Resource Center! The Resource Center is a repository for entry-level scholars to learn more about “what’s out there.” What are the major fields of scholarship, tools of the trade, and phenomena of interest to researchers and practitioners alike. This release is an introduction to the structure of the Center and how to navigate it. We also invite contributions!

    14 min
  2. 122: Cultivation and Curation of Professional Knowledge (Part 1)

    FEB 11

    122: Cultivation and Curation of Professional Knowledge (Part 1)

    The Talking About Organizations Podcast website is more than just a host for great conversations. It is also a resource for rising scholars of organization theory and management science. And so, to launch our 10th year of podcasting and with 120+ episodes covering so many great classics of organization studies, we decided the website and the program needed a boost. Part 1 is a conversation about professional knowledge in which we explain some of the challenges that organizations face in maintain their corporate base of knowledge and expertise

    43 min
  3. 121: Rhetoric vs. Reality -- Mark Zbaracki (Part 2)

    JAN 28

    121: Rhetoric vs. Reality -- Mark Zbaracki (Part 2)

    In Part 2 on Zbaracki’s “The rhetoric and reality of Total Quality Management,” we look at contemporary examples of rhetoric-reality gaps. Not being confined to “business fads,” there are many other cases where threatened legitimacy of an organization can lead it to acting defensively and avoid public acknowledgement of significant problems. What can or should managers do to avoid getting caught in a “lie” (or a really robust “fish story”)?

    38 min
  4. 121: Rhetoric vs. Reality -- Mark Zbaracki (Part 1)

    JAN 21

    121: Rhetoric vs. Reality -- Mark Zbaracki (Part 1)

    This month we explore a renowned multiple-case study commonly assigned as foundational readings in organization studies programs. Mark Zbaracki’s “The rhetoric and reality of Total Quality Management” chronicled the development and introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM) into the corporate environment, only to find that in many cases its implementation did not align with the promises made by leaders about process improvements nor did firms fully exercise all the practices and activities that TQM required. The question that Zbaracki posed was more than to what extent did this rhetoric-reality unfold, but why?

    42 min

  5. TRAILER

    121: Rhetoric vs. Reality -- Mark Zbaracki (Summary of Episode)

    Coming soon! You might not have heard of Total Quality Management (TQM) but you no doubt have encountered pre-packaged performance improvement programs like it. What happens when the promises and rhetoric surrounding such a program exceed the realities of its implementation? Such is the subject of Mark Zbaracki’s “The rhetoric and reality of Total Quality Management” that explored its implementation in several different sites, finding that oftentimes the pressures to maintain organizational legitimacy overtake all other considerations.

    4 min
  6. 120: Institutional Isomorphism -- DiMaggio & Powell (Part 2)

    12/11/2024

    120: Institutional Isomorphism -- DiMaggio & Powell (Part 2)

    In Part 2 on DiMaggio & Powell’s “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizations,” we revisit the revisitation. 40 years following the article finds the world in the midst of the information age, while the article was still written in industrial times. Do the ideas still hold up, and might we consider isomorphism as more or less prevalent?

    47 min
  7. 120: Institutional Isomorphism -- DiMaggio & Powell (Part 1)

    12/03/2024

    120: Institutional Isomorphism -- DiMaggio & Powell (Part 1)

    In this episode, we discuss “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizations,” a ground breaking article by sociologists Paul DiMaggio and Walter Powell in 1983. The authors argued that the traditional views of why organizations tended to assimilate one another was not explained by the pursuit of rationality or efficiency. Rather, they did so in response to many other stimuli such as regulatory pressures, professional norms, and the need to reduce uncertainty. But why “the iron cage revisited”? The article was inspired by Weber’s use of the metaphor to describe how bureaucratization was destined to enslave humanity. That it did not (at least not to the extent anticipated) spurred the question of why else do organizations model themselves after others in their fields.

    47 min

  8. TRAILER

    120: Institutional Isomorphism -- DiMaggio & Powell (Summary of Episode)

    Coming soon! We will tackle “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizations,” a ground breaking article by sociologists Paul DiMaggio and Walter Powell in 1983. They argued that the traditional views of why organizations tended to assimilate one another was not explained by the pursuit of rationality or efficiency. Rather, they did so in response to many other stimuli such as regulatory pressures, professional norms, and the need to reduce uncertainty.

    4 min
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Trailers

Ratings & Reviews

4.6
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Talking About Organizations is a conversational podcast where we talk about one book, journal article or idea per episode and try to understand it, its purpose and its impact. By joining us as we collectively tackle classic readings on organization theory, management science, organizational behavior, industrial psychology, organizational learning, culture, climate, leadership, public administration, and so many more! Subscribe to our feed and begin Talking About Organizations as we take on great management thinkers of past and present!

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