Customer Reviews

The Social Psychology of Organizing (Topics in Social Psychology Series)

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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?

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.

Weick book is based on a few simple principles: organising is a kind or reiterated, continuous, evolutionary process of interaction. All kind of simple theories on processes are true, most of all the process of calling something "true". Its is true because it has been called so. Our goal: reduce equivocality, equivocality introduced by (external) changes. The book contains examples, case studies, facts, theories and cartoons on the way we organize organizations. It has even picture you may finish yourself! Somebody stole my edition years ago - or thought i had agreed on a long lease contract -, and that book was loaded with annotation, dirty and used. Need i say more?

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.

Very simple. The Social Psychology of Organizing has been the most important book in my professional life. Adding the "-ing" to organize chages everything.

This is one of the rare books on organizations and management that does not age. Its insights are as sharp and useful now as when I read the book in graduate school 30 years ago. Filled with superb insights about people, their motivations, and why they organize. Highly recommended.

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.

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