Organisation Theory—A Personal Review
| Pages | 44-52 |
| Date | 01 January 1964 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009579 |
| Published date | 01 January 1964 |
| Author | F.J. WILLETT |
| Subject Matter | Education |
44 THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME II, NUMBER 1 MAY, 1964
Organisation Theory—A Personal Review1
F.
J. WILLETT
(Based on a paper presented to the Seminar on Administrative Studies in the
Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, August,
1963.)
There is a rapidly growing interest in organisation theory,
rather than in organisation per se. There have been several
groups of theoretical formulations in the field: the classic axioms
of the "principles of management process" approach to organisa-
tional problems; the decision theorists with their allies in the
mathematical school; and two or more rather heterogeneous
groups of social behaviourists that centre respectively on Human
Relations and on the industrial sociologists. In fact, it is doubtful
whether human organisations are comprehensible in the whole
in terms of the analytical apparatus that we have at our dis-
posal. This suggests that no "general theory" of organisation is
likely to prove adequate, but it docs not deny that partial
models are of value for analysis and prediction. The most re-
warding such theories appear to be those which, like those of
Brown and Paterson, centre on the sociological concept of "role".
Over the last decade debate on organisation has been clouded
by virulence and by the dust of counter-marching scholastics. This
ferment is one indication of the tremendous development in the
subject in recent years. As Mason Haire points out in the intro-
duction to a recent symposium on modern organisation theory,2
ten years ago a paper such as this would have discussed organ-
isation rather than organisation theory and its content would
have been concerned almost wholly with specific problems of
industrial organisation, the classic problems of line and
staff,
of
span of control and of the functions of the executive, and it is
probable that we should have had an economist to talk of the
theory and location of the firm to add an element of breadth
and culture to our discussion.
My task in surveying the field of organisation theory today
is quite different. My interests still centre on the business or
industrial organisation but there have been important concept-
ual developments which bear on the problems of organisation
in a wider context. Many elements of the behavioural sciences,
PROFESSOR F.J. WILLETT, Sidney Myer Professor of Commerce and Busi-
ness Administration at the University of Melbourne, has held several positions
in Great Britain, including that of Director of Research in Industrial Manage-
ment in the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University. He is a
Master of Arts in Social Anthropology of Cambridge University, and a Master
of Business Administration of the University of Melbourne. Professor Willett has
published several journal articles on industrial sociology and on small group
behaviour, especially in the learning situation.
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