THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

School of Social Service Administration

Social Administration Seminar:

Organizational Theory and Change

SSA 467 (01) Susan Lambert

Winter, 2009 Office: E12
Thursdays, Phone: (773) 702-1143, (773) 779-0157
5:30-8:20 E-mail: [email protected]

"Our society is an organizational society. We are born in organizations, educated by

organizations, and most of us spend much of our lives working for organizations. We spend
much of our leisure time paying, playing, and praying in organizations. Most of us will die in an
organization, and when the time comes for burial, the largest organization of all -- the state --
must grant official permission."

Amitai Etzioni
Modern Organizations (1964, p.1)

Course Objectives

A major goal of this course is to help you acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to apply
organizational theories to your field placement experiences, and more generally, to empirical
problems in our "organizational society." Through the application of diverse and often
conflicting perspectives, the course is designed to help you cultivate an enhanced understanding
of how organizational structures and processes affect service delivery. The course tackles both
practical issues with and theoretical understandings of the complex factors that shape
organizational and worker effectiveness, service delivery patterns, worker motivation, and
resource procurement and allocation. The course gives special attention to organizational
experiences often dismissed as workplace “politics.” Work force diversity issues are addressed
throughout the course by considering the extent to which human service organizations
accommodate variations in the needs and experiences of workers as well as clients.

In meeting these goals, the course is designed to address several objectives of the Social
Administration Concentration These include: 1) appreciating the ethical, political, and historical
roots of contemporary controversies in management practice, and also the usefulness of
independent critical thinking and analysis; 2) developing advanced knowledge of the conceptual
and professional foundations, and the analytic and technical skills related to, the management
and design of human service organizations; 3) developing skills to intervene in organizational
processes in ways that advance social and economic justice, 4) analyzing and forging links
between policy making and service delivery in human service organizations, and 5) building
skills necessary to assume leadership positions in the field of social work.

All required readings are available on-line or included in the course pack available in the
production room.

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Assignments

Reading Logs (15% of final grade)

The reading logs ask you to apply specific concepts presented in the readings to your
experiences in field placement. The week before a log is due, I will pass out a guideline that
identifies the specific questions you need to address in the log (see Schedule of Assignments).
The logs should be about one single-spaced, typed page. You will receive a check or check-plus
as a grade on these assignments. You will not receive credit for logs turned in late. You are
required to do a total of four (out of six) logs over the course of the quarter.

Mid-term Exam (30% of final grade) Due: February 12th

The mid-term exam will be a take-home essay exam, about five-typed pages in length. It will
require you to demonstrate an understanding of some of the theoretical concepts and analytic
methods covered in class by applying them to your field placement.

Critical Discussion Participation (15% of final grade)

Once during the quarter, you will be a member of a team of students responsible for leading
discussion on a particular topic. These topics and their related readings are listed on the
syllabus. You will be asked to sign up for one of these sessions at the second class session.

Organizational Assessment Project (40% of final grade) Due: March 12th

The final paper for this course requires you to assess a particular problem facing the organization
where you do your field placement. You can focus your assessment on any of the topics covered
in this course. You may work independently or in teams of four or fewer students. For your
assessment, briefly describe a particular dilemma your organization faces and then analyze the
dilemma according to a particular framework (or two) presented in this course. In your final
section, recommend potential directions the organization could take to address this
dilemma/challenge. Depth versus breadth is preferred so limit your analysis to the application of
one or two frameworks from the course.

The paper should not exceed ten typed pages. A one-page proposal of what you (or your group)
propose to do is due around February 19th. Students are to email proposals to me at
[email protected]

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Schedule of Written Assignments

January 22nd Log 1: Institutional Theory

January 29th Log 2: Goal Adaptation

February 5th Log 3: Organizational Structure

February 12th MIDTERM DUE

February 19th Log 4: Job Design

February 26th Log 5: Participatory Management

March 5th Log 6: Culture

March 12th Final Paper Due

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Social Administration Seminar Lambert
Winter, 2009

TOPICS AND REQUIRED READING

WEEK 1
Thursday, January 8th

Introduction to Course
The Special Characteristics of HSOs

Yeheskel Hasenfeld, Human Service Organizations, Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice-Hall, 1983, Chapter 1: The Ubiquity of Human Service Organizations.

Task Environment Analysis: Power-dependence relationships

Yeheskel Hasenfeld, Human Service Organizations, Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice-Hall, 1983, Chapter 3: Organization-Environment Relations.

WEEK 2

Thursday, January 15th

NO CLASS

I am out of town at the SSWR annual conference.

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 WEEK 3

Thursday, January 22nd

How the Environment Exerts Its Influence: Institutional Theory

W. Richard Scott, "Introduction: From Technology to Environment," in Meyer and Scott

(eds.), Organizational Environments: Ritual and Rationality, Beverly Hills: Sage.

John Meyer and Brian Rowan. "Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as

Myth and Ceremony," in Meyer and Scott (eds.), Organizational Environments: Ritual
and Rationality, Beverly Hills: Sage, pp. 21-44.

Yeheskel Hasenfeld.
Organizational Forms as Moral Practices: The Cast of Welfare Departments
Soc.Serv.Rev. 74(3):329, 2000
ISSN 00377961
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=3551990

Townsend, Stephanie M. and Rebecca Campbell. (2007). “Homogeneity in Community

Based Rape Prevention Programs.” Journal of Community Psychology, 35(3): 367-382.

Joseph Helfgot.
Professional Reform Organizations and the Symbolic Representation of the Poor
Am.Sociol.Rev. 39(4):475-491, 1974
ISSN 00031224
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-
1224%28197408%2939%3A4%3C475%3APROATS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G

Organizational Network Analysis

Joel A. C. Baum and Christine Oliver.

Institutional embeddedness and the dynamics of organizational populations
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-
1224%28199208%2957%3A4%3C540%3AIEATDO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N
Subjects: 06.06.00--ORGANIZATIONAL_PERSPECTIVES--Ecological_Theories

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 Jeffrey Pfeffer and Anthony Leong.
Resource Allocations in United Funds: Examination of Power and Dependence
Social Forces 55(3):775-790, 1977
ISSN 00377732
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=5291235

WEEK 4

Thursday, January 29th

Organizational Goals: Effects on Organizational Functioning

and the Political Determinants of Goals

Arthur Bedeian and Raymond Zammuto, Organizations: Theory and Design, Orlando,
FL: Dryden Press, 1991, Chapter 2: Organizational Goals, Chapter 3:Organizational
Effectiveness.

Alexander, Jennifer. (2000). “Adaptive Strategies of Nonprofit Human Service

Organizations in an Era of Devolution and New Public Management.” Nonprofit
Management and Leadership, 10(3): 287-303.

Frumkin, Peter, and Alice Andre-Clark. (2000). “When Mission, Market, and Politics
Collide: Values and Strategy in the Nonprofit Human Services.” Nonprofit and
Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29(1): 141-163.

Cheryl Hyde, "The Ideational System of Social Movement Agencies: An Examination of

Feminist Health Centers," in Y. Hasenfeld, Human Services as Complex
Organizations, pp. 121-144.

Critical Discussion: Staying true to mission in a resource dependent world

Heimovics, Richard D., Robert D. Herman, and Jurkiewicz-Coughlin, Carole L. (1993).

“Executive Leadership and Resource Dependence in Nonprofit Organizations.” Public
Administration Review, 53(5): 419-427.

Charles Perrow.
Reality Adjustment: A Young Institution Settles for Humane Care
Soc.Probl. 14(1):69-79, 1966
ISSN 00377791
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0037-
7791%28196622%2914%3A1%3C69%3ARAAYIS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-K

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 WEEK 5

Thursday, February 5th

Organizational Structure

Richard H. Hall, Organizations: Structures, Processes and Outcomes, 4th edition,

Englewood Cliffs: New Jersey, 1987, Chapter 3: Organizational Structure: Forms and
Outcomes; Chapter 4: Organizational Structure: Explanations.

Richard Daft, Organization, Theory, and Design, 5th ed., St. Paul, MN: West Publishing,
Chapter 5: Organization Size, Life Cycle, and Decline.

Critical Discussion: Problems of Organizational Structure

Nutt, Paul C., and Robert W. Backoff. (1996). “Walking the Vision and Walking the
Talk: Transforming Public Organizations with Strategic Leadership.” Public Productivity
& Management Review, 19(4): 455-486.

Michael Sosin.
Decentralizing the Social Service System: A Reassessment
Social Service Review 64(4):617-636, 1990
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pao-
us:&rft_dat=xri:pao:article:1205-1990-064-04-000007

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 WEEK 6

Thursday, February 12th

Gender and Organizational Power

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Men and Women of the Corporation, New York: Basic Books,
1977, Chapter 7: Power.

Susan Lambert, "A Day Late and a Dollar Short: Persistent Gender Differences
Amid Changing Requirements for Organizational Advancement," Journal of
Applied Social Science, 18(1), 1994, 89-108.

Work-Life Issues

All students: Pull up the Sloan Work and Family Research Network at
http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/template.php?name=new_to_site

Read ONE entry in either the Encyclopedia or the Effective Workplace Series.

Be prepared to discuss work-life issues in the field of social work and potential steps to improve
employer practices or social policy that affect the ability of social workers to combine
work with personal responsibilities.

MIDTERM DUE

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 WEEK 7

Thursday, February 19th

Job Redesign

J.R. Hackman and Greg Oldham, Work Redesign, Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley,
1980; Chapter 4: Motivation Through the Design of Work.

Howard Karger.
Burnout as Alienation
Social Service Review 55(2):270-283, 1981
http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pao-
us:&rft_dat=xri:pao:article:1205-1981-055-02-000007

Mor Barak, Michal E., Jan A. Nissly and Amy Levin. (2001). “Antecedents to Retention
and Turnover among Child Welfare, Social Work and Other Human Services Employees:
What Can We Learn From Past Research? A Review and Metanalysis.” Social Service
Review, 75: 625- 661.

Critical Discussion: The Effects of Organizational and Job Design on Clients

Julia H. Littell and Emiko A. Tajima.

A Multilevel Model of Client Participation in Intensive Family Preservation
Services
Soc.Serv.Rev. 74(3):405, 2000
ISSN 00377961
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=3551993

Week 8

Thursday February 26th

Participatory Management

Edward E. Lawler, High-Involvement Management, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1986;

Chapter 3: Participation and Organizational Effectiveness.

Critical Discussion: Participatory Models of Management

Kathleen Iannello, Decisions Without Hierarchy: Feminist Interventions in Organization

Theory and Practice, New York: Routledge, 1992. Chapter 4: The Starting Point of
Feminist Theory; Chapter 8: Summary and Conclusions.

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 WEEK 9

Thursday, March 5th

Organizational Culture

Lee Bolman & Terrence Deal, Reframing organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership, 1991, Chapter 12: Organizational Culture and Symbols.

Thomas Peters, "Symbols, Patterns, and Settings: An Optimistic Case for Getting Things
Done," in Jay Schafrita and J. Stevent Ott. Classics of Organization Theory, 2nd edition,
Chicago, Il: Dorsey Press, 1987, pp. 402-420.

Workforce Diversity

Michalle E. Mor Barak, (2005). Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive

Workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Diversity Legislation in a Global Perspective,
pp. 17-52.

Belle Rose Ragins, John M. Cornwell and Janice S. Miller.

Heterosexism in the Workplace: Do Race And Gender Matter?
Group & Organization Management 28(1):45-74, 2003
ISSN 1059-6011
http://www.csa.com/ids70/gateway.php?mode=pdf&doi=10.1177%2F105960110225001
8&db=sageman-set-
c&s1=25b3fd4d1bd43b2c9750f9c96c2c31cf&s2=d8d9ffd66b3222215996138c91b23bc9

Gilbert, Jacqueline A. and John M Ivancevich. (2000). “Valuing Diversity: A Tale of

Two Organizations.” The Academy of Management Executive, 14(1): 93-105.

Griffith, Derek M., Erica L. Childs, Eugenia Eng, and Vanessa Jeffries. (2007). “Racism
in Organizations: The Case of a County Public Health Department.” Journal of
Community Psychology, 35(3): 287-302.
.

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 WEEK 10

Thursday, March 12th

Internal Labor Markets, Lower-wage Jobs, and Welfare Reform: Challenges for
Human Service Organizations

Lambert, S. (2008). Passing the buck: Labor flexibility practices that transfer risk onto
hourly workers. Human Relations, 61(9), 1203-1227.

Susan J. 1. Lambert and Anna 2. Haley-Lock.

The organizational stratification of opportunities for work-life balance
Community, Work & Family 7(2):179-195, 2004
ISSN 1366-8803
http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&an=13867832

Final papers due at class time.

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