A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Organizations by Grey - Essay Example

? A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Organizations Book Review [Pick the Christopher J. Grey’s book, “A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organizations”, is known for its unique approach when it comes to management related literature. Through this book, Grey has attempted to provide a framework which discusses the evolution of management theories in relation to the organizational theory. Through this book, Grey has criticized the fact that present managerial theories often neglected in the application of social sciences and organizational theories. Also, these contemporary theories ignore the opportunities of further evolution in management sciences and consider the application of management theories a simple task with predictable outcomes, whereas the truth is that organizations are more than just management with high degree of uncertainty and ability to digress from the standards suggested by scientific management. Christopher Grey has managed to provide a book which compiles both classic and contemporary theories related to organizational management. While writing this book, Grey has attempted to combine the management and organization theories by amalgamating their outcomes. The book stands on a rationale that organizational theories and management are no different since management is an integral part of practices taking place in an organization. The work of Grey is important on the basis that where other books and literary works have limited the application of organizational theory only to the corporations and institutions, Grey argues that organizations by means of a structure, is more comprehensive than that. He views the application of organization as a concept in overall social spectrum; even in a family structure as well (Callahan, 2009). The book itself is meant for readers who have prior knowledge of other management concepts and organizational studies. Since management of the organizations act as the gist of the book, therefore all the chapters which discuss parts of organizations also deal with the management theories (Donaldson, 2006). Through this book, Grey has asserted that where other books on organization possess a lot of knowledge covered in hundreds of pages, the contents discussed are either too generic or faulty to understand. Therefore, he presents arguments on different areas of organizational management based on the arguments presented by previous theories. Grey has mentioned time and again that organizational theory has been misunderstood or explained in a manner which illustrates the importance of job to be done however questions like who is expected to define the methods and who will perform the job, remain unanswered. Therefore, in order to illustrate this communication gap between the actual and perceived forms of organizational theory, this book discusses leadership, people management, importance of bureaucracy, fast capitalism and change management (Callahan, 2009). In order to deliver his point of view, Grey has used an assertive approach towards combining the classic and contemporary theories. The approach does seem like a mannerism to draw lacking in other’s work which appears rather unethical. However, the basic purpose in the book is to illustrate how organizations behave, evolve and relate to resources associated to them. The crux of this discussion is human resources itself (Donaldson, 2006). Through his arguments, Grey illustrates how bureaucracy is related to scientific management of the organization (Aulich, 2012). He discussed several management styles and also the implications of applying generalized theories in the problematic areas. By doing so, Grey argues that organizations have flexible nature like people and applying fixed solutions provided by management consultants only consumes time, resources and energy. He further argues that while solving a problem, managers need to show susceptibility to presence of different solutions and selection of the most suitable one by performing scientific application and selection (Skaik, 2008). Furthermore, managers are required to be ready for intended and unintended outcomes. This scientific application of management ensures that necessary power rests with the managers along with a reasonable degree of accountability (Callahan, 2009). He referred to taylorism and Fordism time and again in a theoretical manner and managed to relate them to present management theories entailing capitalist societies. Grey further followed a chronological order in his book while discussing the related management theories. In the first phase, he discussed importance of managerial control and application in the light of Weber’s work and Taylor’s model. This scientific and rather rigid application was then extended by Elton Mayo’s work which treated people as a resource having social needs. Grey criticizes the present human resource management theories by saying that most of these theories do not depict changes in the approach towards workers or human components in an organization and also fail to recognize any more opportunities for further mutation (Skaik, 2008). He also discusses that with over-evaluation of human rights and values comes the fear of freedom which has a tendency of nullifying the authority of management (Donaldson, 2006). He also relates evolution of the image of management to human relations theory. According to him, where management has legitimize itself in the society by having technical expertise and also showing humane approach to the working class, it has shown gradual adoption of human relations theory (Aulich, 2012). Through various references, he attempts to find out where management is more about control or technical supremacy (Callahan, 2009). Grey criticizes that modern theories are overly based on the concepts given by people management instead of human resource management which explains that humans are rationale, conscious and manageable resource. Application of humanity without technical questioning is acting as the gist of many present day theories which is big flaw in present management practices, itself. From human resource management, Grey moves onto organizational culture, its importance to managers and human resource itself. He used various pre-established doctrines with relation to organizational culture and explains the difference in the approaches followed in various parts of the world. He further discussed the importance of cross-cultural possibilities in the light of present day amalgamation of society and economy. This cross-cultural debate is further extended by the discussion of change management in the post-bureaucratic organizations and end of management in fast capitalism. He further discusses the possibility that present day business schools are focusing more on one side of managerial theories which makes it difficult for the students to understand the political dynamics within the organizations and makes them focus more on management’s objectives only (Donaldson, 2006). Through this book, Grey criticizes on present day practices of organizational management. According to him, neutral versions of HRM take away the laborious concepts of human relations theory which is mainly the result of corporate offices’ distance from the production stations. Secondly, he considers organizational culture as a method of manipulating and controlling the workforce (Donaldson, 2006). He further predicts a world which is a result of organizations’ preferences towards short-term benefits instead of long-term human consideration. He also adds that an impact of such organizational models cannot be excluded from overall society. He also criticizes the application of management as a self-evident version based on techniques only including the corporate social responsibility of the organizations in the light of one-sided moral and political considerations (Callahan, 2009). Grey further discusses the nature of change and asserts that change should be considered as a natural phenomenon in an organization. He completely discards the possibility of having any predictability in the actions of the different components of the organizations and also their related outcomes. Hence, any standard policy cannot depict required outcomes due to presence of various external variables having a direct impact on people management which is an attempt of developing people into a shape accepted by management. He also discussed the fact that modern management theories attempt to consolidate formal and informal management which takes away flexibility from the overall organizational model and makes adaptability difficult for human resource. Hence, he suggests a consolidation of scientific management with human relations theory instead of preference of one over the other (Callahan, 2009). He further extends his criticism by saying that excluding politics from overall organizational management will give at an inadequate outlook since organizational management is way more than just rationality, technique and control. Finally he states that the present day organizational theory with one-sided view holds on to the concerns of management only considering them equivalent to organizational objectives by ignoring other components of the organizations. Through this extensive criticism, Grey has managed to highlight how various theories have evolved over time and how most of the theories are projected in a manner that highlight only a single-sided view instead of comprehensive study (Aulich, 2012). Where the book has managed to shed light on the lacking in the present day organizational practices and application of management theories, it has several flaws as well. The book has related to many classic works but the chronological order followed makes it hard to understand the intermediate developments. Although it has adopted deconstructivist approach but repetition in the arguments such as application of human relations theory in all the other chapters gave an outlook of repetition and monotony (Safranski, 2010). Furthermore, it was difficult to assess why a one-sided application of management theories can be harmful where contemporary management practices are recognizing human resources importance as increasing stress has been levied on organizations morals, values and CSR. Some of the references to other schools of thought appear to remain missing such as OD specialist like R. Harrison while discussing organizational cultures. He has put himself in the central stage by stating in a rather lengthy manner how his work is different from others i.e. only because it is interesting and concise but disregards a greater degree of in-depth research which has already taken place resulting in lengthy publications (Callahan, 2009). Most of the practices in the book are based on corporations in private sectors ignoring the huge share of public organizations. Where the general arguments are rationale, the book is not an easy to understand work due to its over-conciseness. Although Grey managed to link his argument in a chronologically acceptable manner but his claim regarding failure of business schools lacks empirical evidences. Along with this book “A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Organizations”, Christopher J. Grey has written few more books related to management, organizational behaviour, learning and leadership. Over all careers profile of Chris Grey shows that he possesses exceptional command over the subject matter. Where it provides a multi-generic approach towards social sciences and psychological advancements, the book is one of the ground-breakers in its field since there are not many books with such concise yet complete view of present day practices (Debretts, 2012). Through this book, Christopher Grey has attempted to shed light on the present day practices of organizations and has related their practices to organisational theory and management sciences. The book itself is rather distinguished from other books on organizational management since it allows a reader to have a concrete view of classic and contemporary theories in a nutshell and also helps in relating these theories to present day practices. Like other books, even Grey’s work is not perfect and is subjected to many questions in relation to his application of various management concepts. However, overall it provides a reader an enlighten view of organizational theory which is easy and quick to understand. References Aulich, N 2012, Grey (2009) argues that scientific management and human relations appear to be very different but in fact both attempting to achieve the same ends: Compare and contrast these two schools of management thought highlighting similarities and differences, GRIN Verlag. Callahan, J L 2010, Review of the book A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying organizations by C. Grey. Action Learning: Research and Practice, vol. 7, no. 3: 319-321. Debretts.com , 2012, Prof Christopher Grey's Biography, Viewed 3 December 2012 from http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/g/24459/Christopher%20John+GREY.aspx Donaldson, L 2006, Book Review: Christopher Grey: A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Organizations, Vol. 27, no. 5: 753 Grey, C 2008, A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about organizations. London: Sage Publications. Safranski, SR 2010, Management Is Ethics: Critical Management Studies and Professionals in the MBA Program, Viewed 12 December 2012 < http://www.iajbs.org/resources/273.pdf> Skaik, SH 2008, Management theories: History and Practice, Viewed 12 December 2012, < http://www.cmguide.org/archives/291> Read More