The Social Psychology of Organizing

by Karl E. Weick

Book Overview

Have you ever had trouble teaching the various topics of social psychology and fitting them together to form a coherent field? Dr. Stangor felt like he was presenting a laundry list of ideas, research... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201085917
• ISBN13: 9780201085914
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Probably the best business book ever written

This book is that rarest of commodities....an attempt to catch the act of serious (but also playful) thinking in mid-act. Worth many reads.

The Social Psychology of Organizing

OUtstanding service. It came before time announced and was in mint condition. Thanks,

Do something. Now decide what have you done.

Weick in his brillant book shows how different is organizational practice from what we try to believe in. He suggests a completely different from traditional approach to organizations - he claims, that in organizations people attach sense to their actions AFTER they perform them, but afterwards try to reason they 'had decided' before. Unclear as it may seem, it is pretty easy to grasp from the book. Weick also develops a notion of 'organizing' rather than 'organizations' and shows how processes are important in describing actions performed by organizational actors. The book is old, but is worth studying for researchers, scholars and even the consultants.

The best book on organizations that I have ever read

Of all the books on my shelf referring to organizational life, Weick's classic is the only one in which almost all the pages are highlighted in yellow! This book is superb. Not only does it provide provocative fodder for discussion amongst academics, it rings true with managers who have experienced organizational life in all its dimensions. It is a must-read for anyone who is a student of organizations or for anyone who wishes to succeed within them. And since organizations pervade our lives, understanding them better translates readily into making sense of the often overwhelming complexity and contradiction they create.

Understanding how organizations really work

This is one of the best books I've ever read about understanding how organizations really work. Since we spend most of our waking lives inside organizations, that's pretty useful. Weick is an academic and you'll have to work a bit to get his points, but no where near as much as the average in academia. Most of the stuff you'll find in the average business section on organizations is either wrong or a watered down version of Weick's thinking. Why not go to the source?