Organisational Control in University Management


Book Description

Organisational Control in University Management focuses on reform and change in large organisations. The book takes as its primary focus the example of management reform at the University of Tartu, Estonia, foregrounding the complexity of change and reform of the management structures at a HE institution.




Organizational Control


Book Description

Organization scholars have long acknowledged that control processes are integral to the way in which organizations function. While control theory research spans many decades and draws on several rich traditions, theoretical limitations have kept it from generating consistent and interpretable empirical findings and from reaching consensus concerning the nature of key relationships. This book reveals how we can overcome such problems by synthesising diverse, yet complementary, streams of control research into a theoretical framework and empirical tests that more fully describe how types of control mechanisms (e.g., the use of rules, norms, direct supervision or monitoring) aimed at particular control targets (e.g., input, behavior, output) are applied within particular types of control systems (i.e., market, clan, bureaucracy, integrative). Written by a team of distinguished scholars, this book not only sheds light on the long-neglected phenomenon of organizational control, it also provides important directions for future research.







Strategic Management (color)


Book Description

Strategic Management (2020) is a 325-page open educational resource designed as an introduction to the key topics and themes of strategic management. The open textbook is intended for a senior capstone course in an undergraduate business program and suitable for a wide range of undergraduate business students including those majoring in marketing, management, business administration, accounting, finance, real estate, business information technology, and hospitality and tourism. The text presents examples of familiar companies and personalities to illustrate the different strategies used by today's firms and how they go about implementing those strategies. It includes case studies, end of section key takeaways, exercises, and links to external videos, and an end-of-book glossary. The text is ideal for courses which focus on how organizations operate at the strategic level to be successful. Students will learn how to conduct case analyses, measure organizational performance, and conduct external and internal analyses.




Managing Organizational Culture for Effective Internal Control


Book Description

In times of economic and financial crises, the content of this book rings true. Drawing from interviews with executives, senior managers and/or auditors from renowned companies (eBay, Google, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Levi Strauss & Co., Microsoft, Novartis and many others) and theory from fields of sociology and social psychology, this research study provides an understanding of how "tone at the top" imprints on an organization and why that imprint works. More specifically, it discusses how managers' principles and practices can actively shape an open-minded culture that enhances effective internal control.




Strategic Management Control


Book Description

Strategic management control differs from traditional management control in several important respects. First, it supports both strategy formulation and strategy implementation. Second, it is to a large extent based on non-financial information. Third, it deals with both the long and short term and supports not only tactical, but also strategic and operational decision-making. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, strategic management control is designed for, and adapted to, each organisation’s unique strategies. In this context, the book emphasises the importance of dialogues. The authors argue that it is unwise to assume that decisions taken at the top of the organisation will automatically be executed and obeyed throughout the organisation. Instead, they highlight the importance of dialogue and collaboration, both between hierarchical levels within the organisation and between actors in the network. Such communication is essential to making management control processes both strategic and successful. The book follows a clear structure, from the design of strategies to the everyday evaluation and discussion of performance and results. Though primarily intended for professionals working in strategy and management control at organisations, it will also benefit students and academics interested in strategy and management control.




The Paradox of Control in Organizations


Book Description

Business leaders are expected to be 'in control' of the situation in which their businesses find themselves. But how can organizational leaders and managers control matters entirely out of their hands; such as the next action a competitor takes, or the next law a government may pass? In this book, Philip Streatfield reflects on his own experience as a manager to explore the question: who, or what is 'in control' in an organization? Adopting the perspective of complex responsive processes developed in the first two volumes of this series, the author takes self-organization and emergence as central themes in thinking about life in organizations. He focuses on the tension between spontaneously forming patterns of conversation and intentional actions arguing that the order of organizations emerges through a combination of collective interaction and individual intentions. The argument is developed by considering the day-to-day experiences of life in a large pharmaceutical organization, SmithKline Beecham. In today's organization, managers find that they have to live with the paradox of being 'in control' and 'not in control' simultaneously. It is this capacity to live with paradox, and to continue to participate creatively in spite of 'not being in control', that constitutes effective management.




Organizational Control


Book Description

"Organization scholars have long acknowledged that control processes are integral to the way in which organizations function. While control theory research spans many decades and draws on several rich traditions, theoretical limitations have kept it from generating consistent and interpretable empirical findings and from reaching consensus concerning the nature of key relationships. This book reveals how we can overcome such problems by synthesising diverse, yet complementary, streams of control research into a theoretical framework and empirical tests that more fully describe how types of control mechanisms (e.g., the use of rules, norms, direct supervision or monitoring) aimed at particular control targets (e.g., input, behavior, output) are applied within particular types of control systems (i.e., market, clan, bureaucracy, integrative). Written by a team of distinguished scholars, this book not only sheds light on the long-neglected phenomenon of organizational control, it also provides important directions for future research"--




Multi-Level Governance in Universities


Book Description

Governing universities is a multi-level as well as a highly paradoxical endeavor. The featured studies in this book examine critically the multifaceted repercussions of changing governance logics and show how contradictory demands for scholarly peer control, market responsiveness, public policy control, and democratization create governance paradoxes. While a large body of academic literature has been focusing on the external governance of universities, this book shifts the focus on organizations’ internal characteristics, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the changing governance in universities. The book follows exigent calls for getting back to the heart of organization theory when studying organizational change and turns attention to strategies, structures, and control mechanisms as distinctive but interrelated elements of organizational designs. We take a multi-level approach to explore how universities develop strategies in order to cope with changes in their institutional environment (macro level), how universities implement these strategies in their structures and processes (meso level), and how universities design mechanisms to control the behavior of their members (micro level). As universities are highly complex knowledge-based organizations, their modus operandi, i.e. governing strategies, structures, and controls, needs to be responsive to the multiplicity of demands coming from both inside and outside the organization.




Organizations


Book Description

Providing a comprehensive understanding of the functions of formal organizations and the challenges they face, this text emphasizes the importance of forces that organizations or their leaders cannot fully control as a key distinctive theme. It covers basic features of organizations such as roles, structure, reward systems, power and authority, and culture and introduces important theoretical perspectives related to these features.