Stanford University

Organizational Analysis

Taught in English

Some content may not be translated

178,597 already enrolled

Course

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals

Daniel A. McFarland

Instructor: Daniel A. McFarland

4.6

(1,444 reviews)

Beginner level
No prior experience required
25 hours to complete
3 weeks at 8 hours a week
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

11 quizzes

See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills

Placeholder
Placeholder

Earn a career certificate

Add this credential to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV

Share it on social media and in your performance review

Placeholder

There are 11 modules in this course

What's included

11 videos1 quiz

In this module, we will present a general introduction and discussion to decision-making in organizations. We will relate various rational system views of organizations that tend to focus on administrative units, or leaders of organizations.

What's included

11 videos1 quiz

This module will give a more elaborate depiction of that model, and focus on its core process of exchange and coalition formation. Within organizations, you will frequently confront coalitions of interests, and you will come to realize that collective action and organizational reforms are impossible if you do not build and manage a coalition to get things done. Therefore, we turn now to Coalition theory. To relate this theory, throughout this chapter we will draw heavily on the writings by James G March (1962, 1994: chapter 4) and Kevin Hula (1999) concerning coalition formation.

What's included

11 videos1 quiz

This module introduces you to the basic features of decision making in organized anarchies, or what some call a “garbage can theory’ of organizations. What do we mean that the decision process resembled an organized anarchy? Well, for example, some of them have a hard time coming up with their group’s platform and identity. Also, some of the group’s proposed solutions changed over the course of bargaining – some initially proposed universal vouchers only to promote targeted vouchers in the end. Almost all of the groups thought in terms of an identity and what that entailed. And they also thought about other’s identities and interests when trying to manipulate the situation in their favor.

What's included

8 videos1 quiz

In this module, we will describe the theory of organizational learning and what it entails. In the most general terms, the organizational learning perspective concerns adaptation and learning from experience. But how does an organization learn? Organizations learn by encoding inferences from history into organizational structures (so best practices into rules, routines, and roles), people, technologies (curricula), and culture (norms, beliefs) that guide behavior. That is, organizations reflect on what works well or not, and then encode that knowledge into its organizational elements (participants, technology/tasks, social structure) so it can remember.

What's included

12 videos1 quiz

In this module, we will cover organizational culture. We will look carefully at Gideon Kunda’s book, Engineering Culture, to put into question the organizational culture ideal. Within an organizational culture, actors make sense of their existence according to identities and norms, and these are often constructs afforded by the organization they are in. Think of the culture at firms like Apple or Facebook – all have an identity and norms surrounding their performance of it. As such, the motive in an organizational culture is the expression and fulfillment of an identity – a strong intrinsic motivator! An organizational culture entails normative (valued) and cognitive (implicit) aspects of organizational social structures. These are deep structural facets that guide interaction.

What's included

11 videos1 quiz

The theory we will discuss in this chapter is Resource Dependence Theory, and it views an organization in terms of its resource dependencies with other firms in the environment.

What's included

11 videos1 quiz

In this module, we will describe how organization’s researchers look at social networks within organizations. In addition, we will describe how some theorists contend there is a network form of organization that is distinct from hierarchical organizations and markets. So we will relate two perspectives: a purely analytic one that describes networks within organizations, and a theoretical one concerning a prescribed form of inter- organizational association that can result in better outputs.

What's included

13 videos1 quiz

In this module, we will continue our discussion of organizations as open-systems whose survival depends on their relation with the environment. In particular, we will discuss one of the prevailing organizational theories stemming from sociology, called “neoinstitutional theory.” In oversimplified terms, one can think of neoinstitutional theory as arguing that an organization’s survival de- pends on its fit with the cultural environment. That is, a firm’s success depends on whether it adopts structures that are deemed rational and legitimate in the external environment; that the firm mirrors environmental beliefs about what a legitimate organization of that type should look like. Neoinstitutional theory has always been one of the harder theories for students to fully grasp, so we have organized the chapter to be a little repetitive. We will discuss many of the core concepts twice and relate them in different ways so you get a better sense for what this theory conveys.

What's included

11 videos1 quiz

In this module, we conclude our study of organizations as open systems whose survival and success depends on their reaction to the environment. We introduce a 10th and final theory called “Population Ecology”. There is a long history of work that applies biological and natural selection metaphors to organizations (Scott 2003:117; Davis and Powell 1992:342-354), let alone to the study of society.

What's included

12 videos1 quiz

Final exam for the course.

What's included

1 quiz

Instructor

Instructor ratings
4.6 (361 ratings)
Daniel A. McFarland
Stanford University
1 Course178,597 learners

Offered by

Recommended if you're interested in Leadership and Management

Why people choose Coursera for their career

Felipe M.
Learner since 2018
"To be able to take courses at my own pace and rhythm has been an amazing experience. I can learn whenever it fits my schedule and mood."
Jennifer J.
Learner since 2020
"I directly applied the concepts and skills I learned from my courses to an exciting new project at work."
Larry W.
Learner since 2021
"When I need courses on topics that my university doesn't offer, Coursera is one of the best places to go."
Chaitanya A.
"Learning isn't just about being better at your job: it's so much more than that. Coursera allows me to learn without limits."

Learner reviews

Showing 3 of 1444

4.6

1,444 reviews

  • 5 stars

    73.04%

  • 4 stars

    19.76%

  • 3 stars

    3.87%

  • 2 stars

    1.24%

  • 1 star

    2.07%

AL
5

Reviewed on Sep 2, 2019

AI
5

Reviewed on Jun 22, 2018

JV
5

Reviewed on Aug 17, 2017

New to Leadership and Management? Start here.

Placeholder

Open new doors with Coursera Plus

Unlimited access to 7,000+ world-class courses, hands-on projects, and job-ready certificate programs - all included in your subscription

Advance your career with an online degree

Earn a degree from world-class universities - 100% online

Join over 3,400 global companies that choose Coursera for Business

Upskill your employees to excel in the digital economy

Frequently asked questions