Aston Group

Under the name Aston group ( eng. Aston Group) were a group of researchers in the UK known organization that conducted research 1961-1970 under the direction of Derek S. Pugh. The official name was Industrial Administration Research Unit of the Birmingham College of Advanced Technology ( the university was renamed in 1966 in Aston University). The Aston Group, a pioneer in the field of statistical analysis of organizations and how they work. In contrast to previous analyzes, aimed only to binary variables, such as " presence " and " absence " of a particular characteristic, the researchers extended the spectrum to continuous results, and thus achieved a more nuanced insight into her research object.

The American psychologist and organizational theorist William Starbuck assessed the research of the Aston group in a study in 1981 as "one of the most important cluster of organizational research in the last 20 years " (ie on 1961-1981 ). The assessment is shared by Royston Greenwood in the introduction to an interview with Derek S. Pugh to his retirement.

The members of the Aston group came from various disciplines such as psychology, economics, political science and sociology. Royston Greenwood are the researchers in the group in three generations. Pugh and Hickson call the same name but in a different order.

Research

In the summary of the work Derek Pugh describes the research of the Aston group. Thus, there is no formulated Aston - theory to organizations. The theories and findings are incorporated into the work of the various generations of researchers. So dealt:

Malcolm Warner claims that in the Aston gurus writings a potentially brilliant empirical theory of organizations connected ( There is a Potentially brilliant empirical theory of Organizations to be written by the Aston gurus ) Such a theory, however, was not published.

A typical result from the early phase of the work is the following matrix that represents an early analysis means for the degree of bureaucratization. In a study of 46 companies near Birmingham, the Aston group concluded

• That larger organizations tend to specialize even higher, standardized and formalized are ( structuring of activities).
• That with increasing size of the centralization of decisions decreases ( concentration of power ).

The two empirical results confirm the expectation, but offer no explanation for this result. On the basis of these two dimensions, the researchers found that organizations with increasing structuring and concentration of power tend to be more bureaucratic.

On the basis of measurable parameters - the number of written rules of conduct - and a structural view of power concentration can thus be relatively easy to determine the bureaucratization level of an organization.

In an extension and building upon the work of Max Weber, who recognized a single bureaucracy, the Aston group formulated a taxonomy of different types of bureaucracy with different characteristics and features. The basis for this are three factors: the concentration of power, structured nature and task monitoring. From this they formulate such different types, such as personnel bureaucracy, implicitly structured bureaucracy, Early - full bureaucracy, full of bureaucracy and others.

The researchers posit a single causal chain, in which management factors and the concentration of authority in an organization reduce the variances of the roles and thereby reduce the motivated by interpersonal interaction innovation and flexibility. The factors are interconnected and influence each other. As a result, bureaucracies reduce innovation.

Criticism

The performance of the Aston group were and are together with other determinative of the field of organizational research, according to Robert Chia. Basically, a positivist stand Punk is taken to be collected and evaluated at the observations. This position is not in itself the observable entities, such as organizations, societies, environment, etc. a " materiality " that can not be justified. However, if the materiality is not testable, then statements about these entities are questionable. How can for example be determined whether an organization will still be the same if a different person she passes? This should not be about claims that an organization composed of the members there, but only that logical statements about organizations are only useful if fundamental laws of thought can be maintained, for example, the law of identity. The approach of the Aston Group therefore promotes a school of thought of the static, structured and discrete states of the processes in place more or less indefinite, which produce these conditions.

Publications

Aston programs

• Derek S. Pugh and David J. Hickson (1976 ) Organizational Structure in Its Context: The Aston Programme I, Gower Publishing
• Derek S. Pugh and CR Hinings (Eds., 1976), Organizational Structure - Extensions and Replications: The Aston Programme II, Gower Publishing
• Derek S. Pugh and RL Payne, RL ( Eds., 1977), Organizational Behaviour in Its Context: The Aston Programme III, Gower Publishing
• David J. Hickson and Charles J. McMillan (Eds., 1981), Organization and Nation: The Aston Programme IV, Gower Publishing

Additional publications by the Aston program

• John Child ( 1972) Organizational Structures, Environment and Performance: the Role of Strategic Choice, Sociology 6 (1972 ), 2-22
• Derek S. Pugh (1973 ) The Measurement of Organization Structures: Does Context Determine form, Organizational Dynamics ( Spring 1973) 0.19 to 34; ? reprinted in DS Pugh (ed.), Organization Theory, Penguin, 1997
• Lex Donaldson (1986 ) Size and Bureaucracy in East and West: A Preliminary Meta Analysis, in Stewart R. Clegg, DC Dunphy and SG Redding, The Enterprise and Management in East Asia, University of Hong Kong, 1986
• David J. Hickson C. Robert Hinings, CA Lee, RE Schneck and JM Pennings, A Strategic Contingencies Theory of Intraorganizational Power, Administrative Science Quarterly, 16 /2 ( 1971), 216-29
• C. Robert Hinings, David J. Hickson, JM Pennings and RC Schneck, Structural Conditions of Intraorganizational Power, Administrative Science Quarterly, 1911 (1974), 22-44
• Lex Donaldson (1985 ) In Defence of Organization Theory, Cambridge University Press
• David J. Hickson, RJ Butler, D. Cray, GR Mallory and David C. Wilson ( 1986) Top Decisions, Blackwell and Jossey -Bass
• Lex Donaldson (1995 ) American Anti- Management Theories of Organization, Cambridge University Press

Swell

• Industrial and organizational psychology
• Organization Theory