1. The Structure(s) of Work

2. The Ideal Type

3. The Ideal Type
• A heuristic device
• A conceptually pure but realistically
impossible construct
• Meant as a contrast to real-world
scenarios
• ‘Ideal type’ bureaucracy / rationality not
about efficiency ~ Weber

4. <Bureaucratic
Dysfunctions>

5. Organisations in THEORY are:
• Efficiently functioning systems
• Collectivities united by pursuit of common
goal
• Objective and systematically created
group(s) of people with clearly defined
and mutually compatible roles and
interests, working together to achieve a
consensual vision

6. but in PRACTICE?

11. Exercise #1
Revealing the unofficial / informal
side of organisation

12. Organisational Contradictions

13. Formal Rationality vs.
Material Rationality

14. The Jobsworth Problem

16. Culture

17. “Rites”
and “Rituals”

18. Legend /
Myth

19. Consulting Firm
• Jargon – ‘dingdongdingdong’
• Artifacts -
• Rituals – coffee-making, writing first proposal, first client
presentation, first oversease project, etc.
• Myths – who’s sleeping with who?
• Sagas – how Petronas project was won…
• Heroes – Kevin Hew (top Principal graduated from
Canada)
• Norms – the “friendly firm”
• Good / bad actions – winning project, pissed off partner’s
secretary
• Rewards and punishments – overseas trip, assigned to
department X, ‘scribal’ duty, unassigned, ‘training’

20. Banking Software Company
• Jargon – source-code
• Artifacts – boarding pass
• Rituals –
• Myths – intellect of Goh Peng Ooi
• Sagas –
• Heroes – country managers and project
managers
• Norms – late nights
• Good / bad actions – staying late, never
questioning project managers,
• Rewards and punishments – bonuses, cold
storaged

21. Private International School
• Jargon – sugar daddy,
• Artifacts – gifts for dignataries, new cars,
• Rituals – 6 hour meetings on Friday(!)
• Myths – events involving boss,
• Sagas – surviving lawsuit
• Heroes – anyone performing above norm
• Norms – no one questions leaders, talk about
vision in public,
• Good / bad actions – protocol for GOH,
• Rewards and punishments – cold storage,
overseas conferences

22. Cayce’s job?

23. The difference between formal and informal
ways of working can be like…

24. Micropolitics

25. Exercise #2

26. 5 ‘Rules’ for Prevailing
in the Workplace

29. If true power does NOT
reside in ‘bureaucracy’
and formal rationality,
then in where does it lie?

30. Do you have
a gift to share?
Can you resolve
scenarios for which
no manual was
written?
Have you silenced
the lizard brain?

31. <The Post-
Bureaucratic
Organisation?>

32. Outsourcing

33. Independent Teams

34. Virtual

35. Marketization

36. Marketization of the Firm
• Teams have their own P&Ls’, revenue
targets and even acquire businesses i.e.
they’re a “business within a business”
• Teams can reject the offerings of other
departments
• Teams encouraged to compete with
each other (for business) in the
department
• Teams seek outside sources of revenue