Publication

Mary Jo Hatch: 'Organizations: A Very Short Introduction'

• Written by one of the leading scholars in the area of organization theory

• Demonstrates the origins of organization with examples of prehistoric humans organizing to hunt food, find shelter, and to protect and raise children, thereby forming the first organizations through families and tribes

•  Uses examples from a variety of different contexts, from prehistory and everyday life to the animal kingdom and nature as well as in business and government 

Most of us recognize that organizations are everywhere. You meet them on every street corner in the form of families and shops, study in them, work for them, buy from them, pay taxes to them. But have you given much thought to where they came from, what they are today, and what they might become in the future? How and why do they have so much influence over us, and what influences them? How do they contribute to and detract from the meaningfulness of lives, and how might we improve them so they better serve our needs and desires?

This Very Short Introductions addresses all of these questions and considers many more. Mary Jo Hatch introduces the concept of organizations by presenting definitions and ideas drawn from the a variety of subject areas including the physical sciences, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, literature, and the visual and performing arts. Drawing on examples from prehistory and everyday life, from the animal kingdom as well as from business, government, and other formal organizations, Hatch provides a lively and thought provoking introduction to the process of organization.

Readership: General readers; students of organization theory, sociology of organizations, and those who are dealing with practical organizational problems in the professional schools such as engineering, medicine, law and design.

Organizations: A Very Short Introduction

Mary Jo Hatch

978-0-19-958453-6

Paperback

24 March 2011

Oxford University Press

"a thoroughly good idea. Snappy, small format ... stylish design ... perfect to pop in your pocket for spare moments" - Lisa Jardine, The Times

"Expert, concise but far from bland, Oxford's 'Very Short Introductions' series must rank by now as a thinking reader's Wikipedia" - Boyd Tonkin, The Independent