Figure 1.1 “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants"

In your study of management and organisations, you will have met many theories and models suggested by some of the key researchers and theorists working over the last century. Like the great physicist Isaac Newton, the various researchers have built on the ideas suggested by Giants in the past. This module is designed to encourage you to look at what some of the ‘Giants’ actually said

This module has two main aims. The first involves looking more closely at particular theories and models, and assessing whether they really apply to your own work. The second involves standing back to see how the various theories and models may relate to each other

In the first two sections of the module, we look from the viewpoint of the researcher. What are the key factors that the researcher must consider? How is the researcher’s original perspective on organisations likely to influence their conclusions? How does the method of collecting data affect the conclusions? It’s only by considering questions like this that the manager can accurately assess the value and relevance of a theory or model for their own work

In the third section of the module, we’ve gathered some of the most important of the theories and models into groups. This will enable you to stand back and consider how all of them together may affect your work and your organisation

For example, you may in the past have studied one module on motivation and another on human resources. This module encourages you to reflect on how you can get a clearer picture of the theories and models in those two modules, and see how they relate to each other. You may find some unexpected links; for example, clarifying how your recruitment plans should be affected by your organisation’s structure, culture, human resource policies, leadership styles, and so on

Throughout this module, you will see references to managers and researchers. You will find the module most useful if you can use the various Involve me activities to plan the best ways of investigating a problem in your own work. As the manager, you will be carrying out your own research, hopefully collecting ideas from other researchers who have already looked at the topic. Carrying out your own research, even if this is a very small-scale investigation, is a particularly useful way of finding out more about the challenges and problems that researchers have to deal with

In summary, the first two sections of this module give you tools that you can use to assess and compare management theories. The final section groups management theories and models, and encourages you to make your own investigation into their