Yitzhak Samuel - Böcker

Individualism and collectivism, egoism and altruism, are interwoven threads that make up the social fabric of all organizations. In consequence, political behavior is an integral part of organizational life. These two interconnected characteristics of human behavior--conformism and opportunism--account for most of the actions and interactions that take place in organizations every day.This volume examines all kinds of organizations from a political perspective, analyzing them in terms of social power and politics. It presents several theories of power and compares them as it scrutinizes the political layout of organizations. For ease of understanding, the book applies the language of political games to describe organizational politics in terms borrowed from the realm of sports, such as contesters, playgrounds, encounters, rules of the game, strategies and tactics, scores, and victories and defeats. It thoroughly analyzes the concepts of social power and social influence from various points of view.Samuel outlines the variety of political games that are played in the realm of organizations, listing nine types of games in which individual level politics, group level politics, and organizational level politics take place. While scrutinizing the political layout of organizations, he also demonstrates how major issues dealt with through processes of decision-making turn into political agendas within organizations. He addresses the issue of managerial politics, drawing upon research that shows how managers influence their subordinates, and how executives conduct power struggles and political maneuvers to defend their lucrative positions.The Political Agenda of Organizations is an enlightening analysis of the power and influence in business organizations and will be of interest to sociologists and other social scientists as well as students of management and business administration.

Individualism and collectivism, egoism and altruism, are interwoven threads that make up the social fabric of all organizations. In consequence, political behavior is an integral part of organizational life. These two interconnected characteristics of human behavior--conformism and opportunism--account for most of the actions and interactions that take place in organizations every day.This volume examines all kinds of organizations from a political perspective, analyzing them in terms of social power and politics. It presents several theories of power and compares them as it scrutinizes the political layout of organizations. For ease of understanding, the book applies the language of political games to describe organizational politics in terms borrowed from the realm of sports, such as contesters, playgrounds, encounters, rules of the game, strategies and tactics, scores, and victories and defeats. It thoroughly analyzes the concepts of social power and social influence from various points of view.Samuel outlines the variety of political games that are played in the realm of organizations, listing nine types of games in which individual level politics, group level politics, and organizational level politics take place. While scrutinizing the political layout of organizations, he also demonstrates how major issues dealt with through processes of decision-making turn into political agendas within organizations. He addresses the issue of managerial politics, drawing upon research that shows how managers influence their subordinates, and how executives conduct power struggles and political maneuvers to defend their lucrative positions.The Political Agenda of Organizations is an enlightening analysis of the power and influence in business organizations and will be of interest to sociologists and other social scientists as well as students of management and business administration.

Organizational Pathology draws an extended metaphor that the life cycle of an organization is akin to the biological life cycle. Like all living things, organizations will encounter problems that lead to decline and eventual failure. This work discusses the basic problems and life threatening diseases responsible for organizations' failure and death, including organizational politics, organizational corruption, and organizational crime. The book also contains a critical look at crises and fixations; failure and survival; and processes of disbandment and closure of dying organizations.The consideration of these issues follows a diagnostic model of failure. Yitzhak Samuel argues that if the problems that lead to failure can be predicted or diagnosed early, their severity can be assessed and possible remedies can be implemented to avoid escalating crises. At the very least, an understanding of why and how decline happens can be gained from this analysis. This book offers facts about the causes and consequences of organizational downfall and clues about diagnoses of certain symptoms of abnormal behavior, and how to identify early signs of decline or failure. In order to illustrate these abstract arguments and concepts, Samuel uses various real-life examples of events that have occurred in cross-country contexts. In this way, Organizational Pathology: Life and Death of Organizations should serve a variety of readers.Although primarily intended for students and scholars in the social and behavioral sciences who are familiar with the study and the practice of organizations, this book's informal style makes it easily accessible to a wide range of readers. Just as Samuel's previous book on organizational politics led to new lines of research and theory, this book will encourage similar studies in organizational pathology and institutional malaise.