Organizations and Unusual Routines
A Systems Analysis of Dysfunctional Feedback Processes
$46.99 (C)
- Authors:
- Ronald E. Rice, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Stephen D. Cooper, Marshall University
- Date Published: August 2015
- availability: Available
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781107683143
$
46.99
(C)
Paperback
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Everyone working in organizations will, from time to time, experience frustrations and problems when trying to accomplish tasks that are a required part of their role. In such cases it is normal for people to find ways of completing their work in such a way that they can get around, or just simply avoid, the procedure or system that has caused the problem. This is an unusual routine – a recurrent interaction pattern in which someone encounters a problem when trying to accomplish normal activities by following standard organizational procedures and then becomes enmeshed in wasteful and even harmful subroutines while trying to resolve the initial problem. Using a wide range of case studies and interdisciplinary research, this book gives researchers and practitioners invaluable information on the nature of this pervasive organizational phenomenon and shows how they can be dealt with in order to improve organizational performance.
Read more- Introduces and explains the concept of unusual routines, a very common but not well described or analyzed phenomenon
- Broad interdisciplinary approach with extensive references and related examples from a wide range of disciplines
- Provides detailed examples of the concept and experience of unusual routines through a number of case studies, including customer service episodes and six ICT implementations
Reviews & endorsements
“Rice and Cooper’s book brings together the personal experience of organizational routines that leave us frustrated and puzzled with how such practices could possibly happen in the first place. The authors couple these experiences (some personal, some from case studies) with a range of theoretical ideas that helps us make sense of them. This book serves as a door opener for coding and understanding exasperating and common bureaucratic problems.”
–Larry Browning, Professor of Organizational Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, and Adjunct Professor of Business at the Bodø Graduate School of Business, Bodø, NorwaySee more reviews“This is a must-read for anyone studying organizations! Unusual routines, systemic unintended consequences, and the need for organizations to engage in paradoxical practices are everywhere. Rice and Cooper show how one finds these phenomena in technology implementation, customer service, and a range of daily organizational practices. Yet they have been largely ignored by researchers – in large part because of a lack of vocabulary. This book fills this important gap with colorful case examples, theory, and conceptualizations. It will be an important classic.”
–Ann Majchrzak, Professor of Information Systems, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California“Meet the enemies of organizational effectiveness and acquire the weapons for their destruction. Rice and Cooper methodically analyze the dysfunctional routines that sap the usefulness from organizational procedures and information systems. The absence of contextual understanding, perverse feedback loops, conflicting goals, and destructive panopticon effects are all part and parcel of the deep systems analysis of the case studies presented within the overarching theoretical framework in this book. You will learn how to avoid them. Rice and Cooper will lead you to wisdom in structuring organizational processes.”
–Vladimir Zwass, Gregory Olsen Endowed Chair and University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and MIS, Fairleigh Dickinson UniversityCustomer reviews
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×Product details
- Date Published: August 2015
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9781107683143
- length: 400 pages
- dimensions: 229 x 152 x 21 mm
- weight: 0.53kg
- contains: 4 b/w illus. 15 tables
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Crazy systems, Kafka circuits and unusual routines
2. Causes, symptoms, and subroutines of unusual routines in six computer information/communication systems
3. Getting personal - unusual routines at the customer service interface
4. A multi-theoretical foundation for understanding unusual routines
5. A detailed case study of unusual routines
6. Summary and discussion of the case study results
7. Individual and organizational challenges to feedback
8. A multi-level and cross-disciplinary summary of concepts related to unusual routines
9. Recommendations for resolving and mitigating unusual routines and related phenomena
10. summary and a tentative integrated model of unusual routines
References
Index.
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