Teaching OT… impossible?

So a colleague tells me that no one knows how to teach Organization Theory [OT]. He tells me about seeing a presentation by an author of an OT textbook in which the author claims that she/he won’t teach OT anymore.

GRRRRRRREEEEEEEATTTT….

This is one of the classes I am teaching next semester.

Before I read his message, I had just spent two hours in vain trying to find reviews of Mary Jo Hatch’s Organization Theory; Modern, Symbolic, and Post-Modern Perspectives and Gareth Jones’ Organization Theory, Design ,and Change. No luck.

Three ideas I am kicking around now include
1) Groups of students will select a rich, ethnographic or narrative book-length account of a particular organization. I looked for works with lots of detail and engaging stories and little analysis. This way they can deeply engage with this story, almost treat it as a source of qualitative data, and test drive some OT perspectives.
2) Use cases and case preparation to foster in-class discussion.
3) Maintain a “scrapbook” of organizational theory ideas and links based on news and current events. I was initially imagining an actual scrapbook, but am toying with the idea of a blog. Students could be required to post regularly and comment on each other’s.

More later…