OVERVIEW Organizational Analysis: Defining the Organization Utilizing the Political Theories Lens This portion of the case study assignment will require you to apply the Political Theories lens to your organization. This enables you to make sense of the organization in a general way before turning to the specific problem within the organization which you identified in the Problem Proposal Assignment.
Discussion Thread: Using the Political Theories Lens Discuss how the following Guiding Questions—which are based on the political theories lens—help you better understand your organization. Include in your discussion thread the strengths and weaknesses of this lens for gaining that understanding. You do not have to share your views on each of the guiding questions. Guiding Questions Who has power in this organization? What type of power? (Reward, coercive, legitimate, expert, referent) Who has access to agendas, control over information, knowledge of procedures, ability to cope with uncertainty, etc.? Describe the power coalitions and alliances affecting your unit. How does your unit attempt to influence other units and create upward influence in the organization? Please note, this assignment should not be a reiteration of the answers you use in your case study, rather, for the discussion, you are being asked to discuss how answering the questions help you to better understand your organization. Explain how the questions have helped you understand your organization better. For example, when discussing your views on the structural theories lens, you might say “viewing the chain of command helped me to realize…” or “after considering the span of control, it is clear that…”