1. The Structure(s) of Work

2. The Ideal Type

3. The Ideal Type
• A heuristic device
• A conceptually pure but realistically
impossible construct
• Meant as a contrast to real-world
scenarios
• ‘Ideal type’ bureaucracy / rationality not
about efficiency ~ Weber

4. <Bureaucratic
Dysfunctions>

5. Organisations in THEORY are:
• Efficiently functioning systems
• Collectivities united by pursuit of common
goal
• Objective and systematically created
group(s) of people with clearly defined
and mutually compatible roles and
interests, working together to achieve a
consensual vision

6. but in PRACTICE?

11. Exercise #1
Revealing the unofficial / informal
side of organisation

12. Organisational Contradictions

13. Formal Rationality vs.
Material Rationality

14. The Jobsworth Problem

16. Culture

17. “Rites”
and “Rituals”

18. Legend /
Myth

19. Consulting Firm
• Jargon – ‘dingdongdingdong’
• Artifacts -
• Rituals – coffee-making, writing first proposal, first client
presentation, first oversease project, etc.
• Myths – who’s sleeping with who?
• Sagas – how Petronas project was won…
• Heroes – Kevin Hew (top Principal graduated from
Canada)
• Norms – the “friendly firm”
• Good / bad actions – winning project, pissed off partner’s
secretary
• Rewards and punishments – overseas trip, assigned to
department X, ‘scribal’ duty, unassigned, ‘training’

20. Banking Software Company
• Jargon – source-code
• Artifacts – boarding pass
• Rituals –
• Myths – intellect of Goh Peng Ooi
• Sagas –
• Heroes – country managers and project
managers
• Norms – late nights
• Good / bad actions – staying late, never
questioning project managers,
• Rewards and punishments – bonuses, cold
storaged

21. Private International School
• Jargon – sugar daddy,
• Artifacts – gifts for dignataries, new cars,
• Rituals – 6 hour meetings on Friday(!)
• Myths – events involving boss,
• Sagas – surviving lawsuit
• Heroes – anyone performing above norm
• Norms – no one questions leaders, talk about
vision in public,
• Good / bad actions – protocol for GOH,
• Rewards and punishments – cold storage,
overseas conferences

22. Cayce’s job?

23. Micropolitics

26. If true power does NOT
reside in ‘bureaucracy’
and formal rationality,
then in where does it lie?

27. Do you have
a gift to share?
Can you resolve
scenarios for which
no manual was
written?
Have you silenced
the lizard brain?

28. <The Post-
Bureaucratic
Organisation?>

29. Outsourcing

30. Independent Teams

31. Virtual

32. Marketization

33. Marketization of the Firm
• Teams have their own P&Ls’, revenue
targets and even acquire businesses i.e.
they’re a “business within a business”
• Teams can reject the offerings of other
departments
• Teams encouraged to compete with
each other (for business) in the
department
• Teams seek outside sources of revenue