ORGS 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Fiduciary, Bounded Rationality, Subculture

• School: York University
• Department: Organization Studies
• Course: ORGS 2010
• Professor: Frank Miller

Document Summary

Emphasizes inherent limitations of managerial authority/influence and rejects claims that strictly structural, rational or interest factors best describe human behaviour. Need to focus on values, languages, beliefs, social normal and mental frameworks. Meanings guide individual behaviour; symbols are vehicles for meaning: corporate logo or marketing slogan can stand for particular identification, essential to decode what certain symbols mean to specific groups of people. Denotative: direct, instrumental uses of a symbol; annual reports stands for the performance of a given firm. Interpreting symbols big mac: some feel that it"s a quintessential american meal and desirable hamburger, for others it"s a cause of obesity, big mac in jerusalem is not the same cultural object as compared to in boston. Symbolism is central to any concern for communication in organizations; communication rests on coding framework shared by some/all organizational members. It is process by which all activities, objects, stories, goals, strategies are made sensible and desirable to given audiences.