The Social Psychology of Organizing
Second Edition
Karl E. Weick


卡尔·伊曼纽尔·韦克
Karl Emmanuel Weick
This book is about organizational appreciation. To understand organizing is to appreciate events such as these:
本书探讨的是对组织的感悟与领会(Organizational appreciation)。要理解"组织化"(Organizing),就必须学会去体悟和鉴赏诸如此类的事件:
📌 学习笔记
在这里,Weick 使用 Appreciation(通常译为欣赏、鉴赏、感悟)具有深层的学术含义:
非工具性理解:他不仅是让你去"分析"组织,而是像欣赏艺术品或聆听交响乐一样,去感受组织中那些微妙的、动态的、有时甚至是荒诞的互动。
承认复杂性:Appreciation 意味着你需要具备一种敏锐度,去洞察人们是如何在混乱中硬生生"拼凑"出秩序的。
致敬Geoffrey Vickers:Vickers 正是提出了"Appreciative System"(领会系统)这一概念的人。他认为管理者不只是在做决定,而是在不断通过感悟来重构他们眼中的现实。
注意 Weick 使用的是 Organizing 这个动名词,而不是 Organization,代表这将是一个动态的过程视角。
A professor, named Alex Bavelas, often plays golf with other professors. "Once, he took the foursome down to the golf course, and they were going to draw straws for partners. He said, 'Lets do this after the game'" (Brand 1975, p. 47)
有一位名叫亚历克斯·巴维拉斯(Alex Bavelas)的教授,经常和其他教授一起打高尔夫球。"有一次,他带着另外三个人来到球场,大家正准备抽签决定谁和谁组队。他却提议说:咱们打完球再来抽签吧。"(布兰德 1975,第 47 页)
📌 学习笔记
这个案例完美体现了 Weick 理论中的"回顾式意义建构"(Retrospective Sensemaking):
因果倒置:按照常规逻辑(即 Hunt 的组织定义),我们应该先有组织结构(分好组),再进行活动(打球)。但巴维拉斯建议先行动,事后再定义结构。
行动先于意图:Weick 认为组织化往往是"先做了再说"。打完球后,我们可以根据谁打得好、谁更有默契来"抽签"(或者说重新解释分组),从而让结果显得更有意义。
组织的流动性:这个例子挑战了"组织必须有预设目标和结构"的传统观念。它暗示了在很多时候,组织化其实是我们在事后为已经发生的行为寻找理由和逻辑的过程。
这个故事让人想起了 Weick 那句名言:"我还没看到我说了什么,我怎么知道我怎么想的?"(How can I know what I think until I see what I say?)
"The story goes the three umpires disagreed about the task of calling balls and strikes. The first one said, 'I calls them as they is.' The second one said, 'I calls them as I sees them.' The third and cleverest umpire said, 'They ain't nothin' till I calls them'" (Simons 1876, p. 29)
"故事是这样讲的:三位裁判在如何判定'坏球'与'好球'的任务上产生了分歧。第一位裁判说:'它们是什么,我就怎么判。'第二位裁判说:'我看到它们是什么,就怎么判。'第三位也是最聪明的那位裁判则说:'在我判定之前,它们什么都不是。'"(西蒙斯 1876,第 29 页)
📌 学习笔记
这个寓言生动地展示了人类感知现实的三种境界,也对应了 Weick 对组织化(Organizing)的深刻见解:
第一位裁判:客观主义(Objectivism)
他认为现实是客观存在的,不以人的意志为转移。这对应了传统的管理观:认为组织有绝对的客观规律。
第二位裁判:解释学/主观主义(Subjectivism)
他承认了感知的局限性——现实经过了"我"的观察。这对应了"共识验证",即我们看到的现实是经过过滤的。
第三位裁判:建构主义(Constructivism)——Weick 的核心观点
这是最深刻的一层。Weick 认为,在组织中,"判定"这个动作本身创造了现实。
例子:一个项目是"成功"还是"失败"?在领导下定论(Calls them)之前,它只是一堆混乱的数据。只有当组织通过权力或共识给它贴上标签时,它才在组织现实中真正"存在"。
Weick 借这个故事告诉我们:组织成员并不是在"发现"一个预先存在的环境,而是在通过自己的语言、判定和行动"发明"和"构建"环境。
就像那个在高尔夫球赛后才抽签的教授,或者那个在大雾中强行判定进球的裁判——直到你给混乱的现实定性,现实才具有意义。
"A police officer with a special ability to resolving sticky situations in unusual ways, often involving a disarming use of humor, was in the process of issuing a citation for a minor traffic violation when a hostile crowd began to gather around him. By the time he had given the offender his ticket, the mood of the crowd was ugly and the sergeant was not certain he would be able to get back to the relative safety of his patrol car. It then occurred to him to announce in a loud voice: 'You have just witnessed the issuance of a traffic ticket by a member of your Oakland Police Department.' And while the bystanders were busy trying to fathom the deeper meaning of this all too obvious communique, he got into his cruiser and drove off" (Watzlawick, Weakland, and Fitch 1974, pp. 108–9)
有一位警官拥有一种特殊能力,擅长以不同寻常的方式解决棘手局面,且往往能巧妙地运用幽默感让人卸下防备。一次,他正在为一起轻微的交通违章开具传票,周围却开始聚集起一群充满敌意的民众。等到他把罚单交给违章者时,人群的情绪已经变得极其恶劣,这位警官甚至不敢确定自己是否还能安全回到巡逻车上。就在这时,他灵机一动,大声宣布道:"各位,你们刚刚亲眼目睹了奥克兰警察局的一名警员完成了一次交通罚单的开具程序。"趁着围观群众还在忙于琢磨这段再明显不过的通告背后到底有什么深意时,他已钻进巡逻车扬长而去。(瓦茨拉维克、威克兰德及菲奇,1974,第 108–109 页)
📌 学习笔记
这个案例与"三位裁判"和"高尔夫球抽签"有着紧密的理论联系:
干扰"歧义性"的解释过程:通常情况下,人群对"警察开罚单"的解读是"压迫"或"敌对行动"。警官大声宣布那个显而易见的事实,实际上是在强行插入一个新的"语法"。群众的大脑在"愤怒"和"迷惑"之间卡住了——他们试图寻找那句话的"深层意义",而这种认知负荷(Cognitive Load)瞬间中断了他们的攻击性行为。
创造一种新的"现实":正如第三位裁判说"判了才算数",这位警官通过宣告,将一个紧张的对抗冲突瞬间重新定义(Reframe)为一次公开的程序演示。
行动的节奏:组织化(Organizing)需要时间。警官利用了人们"赋予意义"(Sensemaking)所需的时间差,在共识达成之前就完成了撤离。
这个案例摘自瓦茨拉维克的经典著作《变革》(Change),Weick 借此说明:组织化的核心技能之一,就是能够打破旧的解释框架,并迅速建立一个新的框架。
In 1938 the Ford Motor Car Co. tried to reach a new group of customers by introducing a car that was smaller thantheir V8 in size and power. After several years of development they produced a car (dubbed 92A) that was narrower, shorter, and 600 pounds lighter than the regular Ford. However. The small motor cost only $3 less to manufacture and the entire car could be built for only $36 less than the big car. By mid-April the project was abandoned, signifying that the company would not expand the range of its models downward( Nevins and Hill 1963, p. 118)
"1938 年,福特汽车公司试图通过推出一款比其 V8 系列尺寸更小、动力更弱的车型来吸引新的客户群。经过几年的研发,他们生产出了一款(代号为 92A)比常规福特车更窄、更短且轻了 600 磅的汽车。然而,这款小型发动机的制造成本仅降低了 3 美元,整车成本也仅比大车便宜 36 美元。到了 4 月中旬,该项目被放弃,这标志着公司将不会向低端市场扩展其车型系列。"(内文斯和希尔 1963,第 118 页)
📌 学习笔记
引用这个案例是为了探讨组织的选择与保留(Selection and Retention)机制:
行动先于理解:福特公司并不是先算好了账才决定"不向低端扩张",而是先投入了几年的研发(Action),在制造出样车并面对"仅省下 36 美元"这个残酷事实后,才通过"放弃项目"这一决定,回溯性地(Retrospectively)为公司划定了战略边界。
定义的权力:正如第三位裁判说"判了才算数",这 36 美元的差价在组织内部被"判定"为失败。这个判定不仅结束了一个车型,更在所有员工心中建立了一个共识:"福特不做低端小车"。这种共识验证(Consensual Validation)构成了福特公司当时的"组织现实"。
减少歧义性:"公司要不要做小车?"原本是一个充满歧义的问题。通过这次失败的尝试,歧义被消除了。
—— 未完待续 ——
CONDUCTORS AND CONTROL
指挥家与控制
原文:A glimpse of misplaced beliefs about control is found in the tragically charming anecdote about the enthusiastic conductor. The problem of coordinating 180 musicians is immense, but the idea that a mere baton "would help achieve greater musical control" seems pathetically heroic. Under these circumstances, again it is the pattern of alliances, causal loops, and norms that exist between people that accomplish or defeat efforts at control. Mutual influence between pairs of people is at the root of most control observed in much larger aggregations. While the conductor may presume that he and the baton produce an ordered performance, in actuality they probably are minor contributors to the outcome. Of more importance are the bonds and mutually supportive relationships that have been built up among small subsets of the musicians. It is these interpersonal bonds that hold the organization together and that become activated in response to the conductor, whether he stabs himself in the process or not.
参考译文:在那个关于热血指挥家的既悲剧又具有某种魅力的轶事中,我们可以一瞥人们对’控制’所抱持的错位信念。协调180名音乐家的任务确实艰巨,但认为区区一根指挥棒‘就能有助于实现更好的音乐控制’,这种想法显得既可悲又带有英雄主义色彩。在这种情况下,真正成就或挫败控制努力的,依然是人与人之间存在的联盟模式、因果环路以及规范。两人之间相互施加的影响,才是我们在更庞大的集体中观察到的绝大多数控制行为的根源。虽然指挥家可能自以为他和指挥棒创造了一场有序的演出,但实际上,他们对结果的贡献可能微乎其微。更为重要的,是音乐家们那些小群体内部建立起来的纽带和互助关系。正是这些际关系纽带将组织凝聚在一起,并对指挥家的信号做出反应——无论他在指挥过程中是否刺伤了自己。

图片由AI生成
📌 学习笔记
QUARTERBACKS AND INTERCHANGEABILITY
四分卫与互换性
原文:The quarterback-conductor episode illustrates some possible consequences that occur when activity becomes overrationalized, overmanaged, overorganized. A recurrent theme in this book is that managers often get in the way of activities that have their own self-regulation, form, and self-correction tendencies.
参考译文:四分卫与指挥家的片段,揭示了当活动被‘过度理性化’、‘过度管理’以及‘过度组织化’时可能产生的后果。本书贯穿始终的一个主题是:管理者常常会干扰那些本身就具有自我调节、特定形态以及自我纠偏倾向的活动。
📌 学习笔记
原文:These natural control circuits frequently are disrupted by managerial meddling. Management intervenes in the mistaken belief that single individuals do the controlling and that control is not implicit in causal circuits and interpersonal influence processes. Failure to acknowledge these sources of control, coupled with interventions that actively disrupt them, are the occasions for much mismanagement in organizations.
参考译文:这些自然的控制回路经常因管理层的瞎指挥而遭到破坏。管理层之所以介入,是误以为控制是由某些独立的个体实施的,而没有意识到控制其实蕴含在因果回路和人际影响的过程之中。未能察觉这些控制的源头,再加上那些主动破坏这些回路的干预行为,往往成了组织中许多管理失误的导火索。

图片由AI生成
📌 学习笔记
原文:Although the theme is introduced with tongue-in-cheek by Anderson(1974),the issue of interchangeability of persons and positions is also a crucial one within organizations, and we shall refer to it frequently. If making hand motions at people really is the core of conducting, and if this is the only crucial activity involved in conducting, then it is true that aged quarterbacks might be substitutable for conductors ... Sonny Jurgenson conducts Bruckner.
参考译文:尽管安德森(1974)是以一种戏谑的方式引入了这个主题,但人员与职位的‘互换性’问题在组织内部确实至关重要,我们此后也会频繁提及。如果对着人做手势确实是指挥的核心,且如果这是指挥中唯一关键的活动,那么高龄四分卫确实可以替代指挥家……比如让桑尼·尤根森去指挥布鲁克纳的交响乐。
📌 学习笔记
—— 未完待续 ——
如果你刚好想找本新书,不妨点进橱窗逛逛。
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