Talking About Organizations Podcast
by Talking About Organizations
Talking About Organizations is a conversational podcast where we talk about one book, journal article or idea per episode and try to understand it, its purpose and its impact. By joining us as we collectively tackle classic readings on organization theory, management science, organizational behavior, industrial psychology, organizational learning, culture, climate, leadership, public administration, and so many more! Subscribe to our feed and begin Talking About Organizations as we take on great management thinkers of past and present!
Episodes
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E139: Disruptive Technology and the War of the Currents
We conclude our discussion of the War of the Currents using an article from Cole and Chandler on competitive impression management as it applied during the famous War of the Currents between Edison and Westinghouse. The article's aim was to uncover the strategies used between the competitors and...
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E139: Disruptive Technology and the War of the Currents (Part 2)
We continue or discussion of the War of the Currents using an article from Tushman and Anderson on the impacts of technological breakthroughs and how they increase uncertainty and complexity in organizational environments. through the study of three industries – minicomputer, cement, and…
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139: Disruptive Technology and the War of the Currents (Part 1)
This is Part 1 of our latest "movie" episode. The film we watched is from 2017 The Current War, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and distribution by 101 Studios. It dramatized the so-named War of the Currents that was a real competition between two important industrial figures – Thomas Edison and...
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139: Disruptive Technology and the War of the Currents
Coming soon! We will explore the famous War of the Currents as part of our occasional "movie" episode, this time the 2017 film "The Current War" that dramatized the dispute between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse over which form of electrical current -- AC or DC -- would become the de facto...
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138: Relational Work Perspective -- Zelizer & Bandelj (Part 2)
In Part 2, we further contrast the relational work perspective of Zelizer and Bandelj with the dominant embeddedness perspective promoted by Granovetter and other early economic sociologists a few decades ago. The embeddedness perspective remains “embedded” in the field despite the relational…
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138: Relational Work Perspective -- Zelizer & Bandelj (Part 1)
This month we examine three pieces from the relational work perspective in economic sociology, one by Viviana Zelizer and two by her former student Nina Bandelj. The relational work perspective examines how ordinary economic transactions and social relationships work together to establish meaning...
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138: Relational Work Perspective -- Zelizer & Bandelj (Summary of Episode)
Coming soon! We will examine a contemporary stream in economic sociology, the relational work perspective, championed by Viviana Zelizer and furthered by some of her students such as Nina Bandelj and others. How does this perspective compare with the more economics-driven models of before, and…
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137: Science as a Vocation -- Max Weber (Part 2)
In Part 2, we bring Max Weber’s speech about Science as a Vocation to the present day and show that many of the same themes and concerns Weber express are still relevant. Modern technologies such as artificial intelligence may have changed academia in compelling ways, but the worthiness of...
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E137: Science as a Vocation -- Max Weber (Part 1)
We return once more to Max Weber and look at one of his most important and noteworthy speeches, “Science as a Vocation.” The speech includes a number of major themes such as what is the worth of science, what are the roles of junior academics as they establish themselves as scientists, and what...
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E137: Science as a Vocation -- Max Weber (Summary of Episode)
Coming soon! We return once more to Max Weber and look at one of his most important and noteworthy speeches, “Science as a Vocation,” delivered in 1918 at Munich University. This speech may be seen as a text assigned to rising graduate students in many fields, owing to its exhortations to go…
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136: Bureaucracy (revisited) -- Max Weber (Part 4)
This is an expanded version of the supplement from the original Episode 6 on Max Weber's Bureaucracy. This release includes both the original supplement from Dmitrijs along with an extended commentary from Tom to cover contemporary views on bureaucracy since the original episode's January 2016...
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136: Bureaucracy (revisited) -- Max Weber (Part 3)
In this release, we take a retrospective look at Weber's famous work and our original episode. How has our views about bureaucracy changed over the past decade (2016-when the original Weber episode was released) or century (1918-when the speech was delivered).
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136: Bureaucracy (revisited) -- Max Weber (Part 2)
This is an edited re-release of our Episode 6, Part 2 on Max Weber's bureaucracy, originally from January 2016. Next week, we will provide an additional discussion where we bring Weber's ideas to contemporary times.
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136: Bureaucracy (revisited) -- Max Weber (Part 1)
We are revisiting an older episode, our Episode 6 on Weber’s bureaucracy. The original episode explored the work objectively, trying to understand how Weber was encouraging the use of rational rules and hierarchical systems to foster greater stability in society rather than efficiency. But it…
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136: Bureaucracy (revisited) -- Max Weber (summary of episode)
Coming soon! We will re-examine one of our earlier episodes which deserves another look. Weber’s chapter on the meaning of bureaucracy (Episode 6) remains one of the most popular episodes on the program, but given how bureaucracy has become so dimly viewed, we wanted to give it another look with...
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135: Boundary Work in Science -- Thomas Gieryn (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our episode on Gieryn’s 1983 article “Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from non-Science,” we review the main points in the context of contemporary tensions over society’s growing distrust of scientists and rejection of science. What factors may be contributing to this…
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135: Boundary Work in Science -- Thomas Gieryn (Part 1)
We continue our series of discussions on the sociology of science and cover a seminal article that is commonly found as required reading in doctoral programs -- Thomas Gieryn’s 1983 article “Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from non-Science” from the American Sociological Review. This...
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135: Boundary Work in Science -- Thomas Gieryn (Summary of Episode)
Coming soon! Our next episode features a 1983 article from Thomas Gieryn that discusses how the “boundary work” of scientists and others science contributes to a broader understanding of where science is separated from non-science or pseudo-science and scientists navigate the gap between their...
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134: Normal Accidents -- Charles Perrow (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our episode on Charles Perrow’s book Normal Accidents, we carry the framework forward into the 21st century to consider newer technological systems (especially in information technology) and the Y2K problem that was looming when the updated edition of the book was published in 1999.…
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134: Normal Accidents -- Charles Perrow (Part 1)
This month we are discussing Charles Perrow’s book Normal Accidents that addresses the risks associated with complex, tightly coupled high-risk technological systems. Through analyses of numerous accidents and incidents involving nuclear power plants, petrochemical plants, aerospace and maritime...
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E134: Normal Accidents -- Charles Perrow (Summary of Episode)
Coming soon! Our next episode features a 1999 book by Charles Perrow titled Normal Accidents that addresses the risks associated with complex, tightly coupled high-risk technological systems. With the Three Mile Island disaster and a host of other catastrophes, Perrow built a framework that helps...
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133: Strategic Planning & Design -- Henry Mintzberg (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our episode on five works of Henry Mintzberg, we move toward the contemporary environment and ask ourselves how much has changed since the Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning was published. After all, some of the very systems that Mintzberg criticized heavily are still very much in...
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133: Strategic Planning & Design -- Henry Mintzberg (Part 1)
This month we return to the works of Henry Mintzberg, whose book Simply Managing we covered way back in Episode 14. This time, we decided to cover a number of works covering broad themes of strategy development and organizational planning, along with critiques of extant design school works. We...
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133: Strategic Planning & Design -- Henry Mintzberg (Summary of Episode)
Coming soon! We will cover a body of work by Henry Mintzberg. His career as a consultant and management researcher spans decades and has resulted in numerous works that provide critical perspectives on dominant schools of thought in organizational design, strategic, and planning. So instead of a...
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132: AoM Special (Part 2) -- Queer Eye for Academics: Skills for Navigating Academic Life
We now release a recording of a professional development workshop (PDW) called Queer Eye For Academics: Skills For Navigating Academic Life, held at the 2025 Academy of Management annual meeting. Inspired by the popular Queer Eye television series, this PDW offered a fresh approach to…
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132: AoM Special (Part 1) -- Multimodal Impact: Translating Academic Knowledge via Contextual, Collaborative, and Collectivist Modes
This month, we are presenting recordings of two events from the Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2025. The first event was Multimodal Impact: Translating Academic Knowledge via Contextual, Collaborative, and Collectivist Modes. This symposium brings together five presenters to explore diverse...
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131: Commitment and Community -- Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our episode on Kanter’s Commitment and Community, we examine in depth her conclusions about the distinction between “retreat” and “service” communities and why the former tends to fail while the latter shows greater chances of long-term success. However, we also debate on the meaning...
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131: Commitment and Community -- Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Part 1)
This month we return to the works of Rosabeth Moss Kanter, whose works on tokenism we explored way back in Episode 17. This time, we will discuss one of her better known books Commitment and Community: Commune and Utopias in Sociological Perspective that examines the origins and life cycle of...
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131: Commitment and Community -- Rosabeth Moss Kanter (summary of episode)
Coming soon! In our next episode, we will discuss Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s famous book Commitment and Community that examines the origins and life cycle of numerous communes that sprang up in the US from the mid-19th century to the 1960s. What drove people to start or join these communes? And then,...
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130: Structure of Scientific Revolutions -- Thomas Kuhn (Part 2)
In Part 2 of the episode on Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, we bring the concepts to the present day. His essay uses examples mostly from the natural sciences, so we ponder over how well his concepts apply to the social sciences. Also, in Kuhn’s time, science was generally seen to be…
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130: Structure of Scientific Revolutions -- Thomas Kuhn (Part 1)
For our 10th anniversary episode, we selected a modern classic that greatly informs science and research across many disciplines, including organization studies. Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a book often assigned to rising graduate students as a primer for entering the...
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130: Structure of Scientific Revolutions -- Thomas Kuhn (Summary of Episode)
Coming soon! For our 10th anniversary episode, we selected a modern classic that greatly informs science and research across many disciplines, including organization studies. Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a book often assigned to rising graduate students as a primer for...
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130A: Our 10th Anniversary Episode!
10 years ago today, on October 13th, 2015, four rising scholars – Dmitrijs, Pedro, Miranda, and Ralph – launched the Talking About Organization Podcast with an episode on Frederic Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management. In this special, current-day cast members reflect on what we have...
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129: Socialization and Training -- The Private SNAFU Series (Part 2)
In Part 2 of the episode on the Private SNAFU video series, we recount the various trials and tribulations of developing training modules for organizational use. What kinds of media and approaches would be most effective and most efficient, given the increasing breadth and complexity of workplace...
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129: Socialization and Training -- The Private SNAFU Series (Part 1)
Private SNAFU was a series of black-and-white animated shorts of three to five minutes in length recounting various misadventures of the title character as he goes to war. The purpose of the training videos was to socialize and reinforce the importance of adherence existing US Army policies and...
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129: Socialization and Training -- The Private SNAFU Series (Summary of Episode)
For this year’s movie episode, we elected to take on a video series used during World War II to help socialize US Army rules and procedures among forces either deployed or getting ready to deploy. Private SNAFU was a series of black-and-white animated shorts of three to five minutesin length...
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128: Meaningfulness of Work -- Andrew Carton (Part 2)
In Part 2, we continue exploring the case study of NASA in the 1960s. Having discussed the strategies used by President Kennedy to inspire NASA’s members to the ultimate goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade, it was then up to the members to connect their work activities…
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128: Meaningfulness of Work -- Andrew Carton (Part 1)
In this month’s episode, we examine a historical case study about how meaningfulness of work can be shaped by leaders’ actions. One frequently cited example of the solidarity felt among members of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the decade-long runup to the Apollo…
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128: Meaningfulness of Work -- Andrew Carton (summary of episode)
Coming soon! We will discuss Drew Carton’s 2018 article “’I’m not mopping the floors, I’m putting a man on the moon’: How NASA leaders enhanced the meaningfulness of work by changing the meaning of work” from Administrative Science Quarterly that delves into the reality behind the myth of the...
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127: The Problem of Embeddedness -- Mark Granovetter (Part 2)
In Part 2 of the episode on Mark Granovetter's 1985 paper, "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness," we consider the meaning of embeddedness in contemporary practical situations and the significant body of research that followed forty years later. His framework provides…
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127: The Problem of Embeddedness -- Mark Granovetter (Part 1)
In this month’s episode, we discuss Mark Granovetter's 1985 paper, Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness. Granovetter's work provided a middle ground between two overly simplistic perspectives presented respectively by economists and sociologists-- the undersocialized...
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127: The Problem of Embeddedness -- Mark Granovetter (summary of episode)
Coming soon! We will discuss Mark Granovetter's 1985 paper, "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness." He argued that economic behavior is not the product of isolated rational calculations, nor is it fully determined by social norms. Instead, individuals are embedded in…
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126: Labor and Monopoly Capital -- Harry Braverman (Part 2)
In Part 2 of the episode on Harry Braverman’s book Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the 20th Century, we consider the half-century since its publication and how things turned out rather differently from Braverman’s predictions at the end of the book. Algorithmic management,...
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126: Labor and Monopoly Capital -- Harry Braverman (Part 1)
In this month’s episode, we discuss Harry Braverman’s book Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the 20th Century. Along with his criticism of how work had been systematically deskilled over time, he was also highly critical of many of the seminal authors and schools of thought...
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126: Labor and Monopoly Capital -- Harry Braverman (Summary of Episode)
Coming soon! We will examine Harry Braverman’s 1974 book Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the 20th Century. It is considered a foundational text on labor relations and the systematic ways that work has been deskilled over time and why. How well have his arguments stood the...
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125: Institution and Action -- Steven Barley (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our episode on Barley, we conclude the discussion on the relationship that he drew among the institutionalized patterns of behavior in the hospitals, the actions that the radiologists and technologists undertook, and the subsequent changes to those patterns. How can we use these…
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125: Institution and Action -- Steven Barley (Part 1)
This month we discuss a foundational work by Steven Barley on the introduction of new technologies into established organizations. His study of the fielding of CT scanners in two hospitals showed how established organization structures and patterns of behavior influenced actions undertaken by...
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125: Institution and Action -- Steven Barley (Summary of Episode)
Steven Barley’s career has produced considerable scholarship on meaningful work and change in organizations. This month’s episode will cover one of his earliest works on the introduction of CT scanners in two hospitals that greatly altered the structures of their respective radiology departments....
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124: Postcolonial Theory -- Anshuman Prasad (Part 2)
In Part 2 of our episode on Prasad, we shift our attention to his 2003 book chapter titled “The gaze of the other: Postcolonial theory and organizational analysis” that synthesizes the foundational works of postcolonial theory and tie it to cross-cultural challenges faced by contemporary...
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124: Postcolonial Theory -- Anshuman Prasad (Part 1)
Anshuman Prasad (1954-2023) was a leading scholar and development of postcolonial theory and bringing it to the domain of management and organization studies. The theory strove to explain the significance influences and impacts that Western colonialism had on non-Western cultures and its...
About this show
Talking About Organizations is a conversational podcast where we talk about one book, journal article or idea per episode and try to understand it, its purpose and its impact. By joining us as we collectively tackle classic readings on organization theory, management science, organizational behavior, industrial psychology, organizational learning, culture, climate, leadership, public administration, and so many more! Subscribe to our feed and begin Talking About Organizations as we take on great management thinkers of past and present!
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