Observe

Over the past few decades, business schools have embraced game theorists, economists, and others who deal in abstraction, all but stopping the solving of real-world, real-time problems. This text argues for a return to the medical model in business: listen, observe, and test. These three steps are the roots of human relations and organizational behavior; managers must fully assess a business and diagnose its problems before solving them. This model helped managers, consultants, and management scholars diagnose and solve problems faced by small and large organizations for decades, and it can continue to help companies today with myriad issues-including competition, leadership, diversity, and organizational structures-by offering a framework for addressing these problems rather than abstract theories. Chapter 3 looks beyond the Hawthorne study to other successes of the human relations paradigm. The Dashman study focused on a real company facing issues that defied management theory; observation allowed executives to see what was actually going on and led to actionable knowledge. Other examples discussed include Turner and Lawrence's work on job satisfaction and Lorsch's work with companies in the plastic industry. Contingency theory explains why companies use different mechanisms for functional integration based on necessary company tasks. Compared to classical business theories, contingency theory is flexible and malleable to the point of being able to work for any organization.

• Business and society
• Business history
• Organizational development
• Business management
• Organizational behavior
• Organizational transformation