| Course | EDO 810 Organizational Theory |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 1 |
| Paper type | Doctoral theory essay |
| Length | About 1,139 words, 7 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Doctor of Education |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for EDO 810 Module 1
Four Ways to Look at One Dispatch Floor: What Organization Theory Is For and Where a Doctoral Leader Should Stand
Student Name
Doctor of Education Program, Aspen University
EDO 810: Organizational Theory
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Four Ways to Look at One Dispatch Floor: What Organization Theory Is For and Where a Doctoral Leader Should Stand
At 2:10 on a winter morning, a telecommunicator at the Tri-County Emergency Communications Authority takes a call about a house fire, follows a scripted sequence of questions, dispatches a fire engine from one county and a sheriff's deputy from another, and logs every step. The authority was formed in 2019 when three 911 centers, run by a county sheriff, a city police department and a fire district, merged into one agency of 140 telecommunicators and supervisors under a board of the three founding agencies. Five years later, turnover is high, the founding agencies still argue over priorities, and the board wants to know why the merger has not delivered what was promised. The authority and its people are invented for this essay. The essay uses the setting to ask a prior question: what organization theory is for, and how a doctoral leader should use its many perspectives.
What a Theory of Organizations Does
A theory of organizations offers an account of why organizations take the forms they do, how they relate to their environments and how the people within them act together. A good theory does three things for a leader. It directs attention to some features of a situation and away from others. It proposes causes, so that a leader can predict what will follow from an action. And it supplies a vocabulary in which disagreements can be named rather than felt. The cost is that every theory hides what it does not attend to, which is why the field's many theories matter.
A Map of Perspectives
One influential map of the field (Astley & Van de Ven, 1983) proposed that the major schools of organization theory could be arranged along two dimensions. The first is the level of analysis: some theories study single organizations, others whole populations or communities of organizations. The second is the assumption about human action: some theories treat behavior as largely determined by structure and environment, while others give managers and members real room to choose. Crossing the two produces four views. The system-structural view sees single organizations shaped by the requirements of their tasks and environments. The strategic choice view sees single organizations shaped by the decisions of their leaders. The natural selection view sees populations of organizations shaped by environmental forces that favor some forms over others. The collective action view sees networks of organizations shaping their shared environment through negotiation and agreement. Astley and Van de Ven argued that the views were not rivals to be ranked but partial accounts, and that the field's main debates arise where they meet.
One Floor, Four Questions
The table shows why a single perspective would mislead the board. A purely structural reading would treat turnover as a matter of workload and staffing ratios. A strategic choice reading would blame or credit the first director. A natural selection reading would treat the merger as inevitable and its troubles as transitional. Only the collective action view notices that the authority's most important decisions are made in bargaining among three agencies that once ran their own centers and have not stopped thinking of the telecommunicators as theirs.
| View | Level and assumption | Question it asks about the authority |
|---|---|---|
| System-structural | Single organization, determined | Why do protocols, shift patterns and supervision ratios look nearly the same on every console and in every 911 center? |
| Strategic choice | Single organization, chosen | What did the first director decide about merging the three cultures, and could different choices have reduced turnover? |
| Natural selection | Population, determined | Why have most small 911 centers in the state closed or merged in the past fifteen years? |
| Collective action | Network, chosen | How do the sheriff, the police chief and the fire chief negotiate the rules all three must live with? |
Is the Field Too Fragmented?
Pfeffer (1993) argued that organization studies had a low level of paradigm development, meaning weak agreement on theories, methods and important questions. He contended that fields with stronger consensus, such as economics, gained more resources, more influence over policy and faster progress, and that organization studies paid a price for tolerating so many competing approaches. He urged scholars to build consensus around a smaller set of questions and methods.
The argument has force for a doctoral leader. If every theory can explain the authority's turnover in its own terms, the board may conclude that theory explains nothing. Yet the critique can be turned around. The four questions in the table are not redundant explanations of one fact; they point to different causes that may all be operating. A field with one paradigm would have offered the board one question, and probably the wrong one.
What Research Is For
Davis (2015) raised a different concern. In an editorial essay, he argued that organizational research had become oriented toward publication in elite journals and toward findings judged interesting by other scholars, rather than toward questions that matter to the people who work in and depend on organizations. He asked researchers to consider whom their work serves and to judge it partly by its usefulness in a world where organizations themselves were changing rapidly.
Davis's question sharpens the debate. For the 911 authority, the people who depend on it are callers in a crisis and the responders sent to help them. A theory is worth a leader's attention to the extent that it helps the authority answer calls faster, dispatch the right help and keep skilled people in their seats. That standard does not settle which theory is correct, but it does settle which questions come first.
The Writer's Stance
I take a position of disciplined pluralism. Organization theory's many perspectives are defensible, against Pfeffer's worry, so long as each is chosen for the problem at hand and the choice is explained. Following Davis, the test of a theory in practice is whether it helps an organization serve the people who depend on it. For my own work at the authority, that means beginning with the collective action view, because the bargaining among founding agencies appears to drive many other problems, and checking its explanations against structural and human relations accounts in later modules. It also means treating measurement seriously, since a theory that cannot be tested against call-handling and retention data offers a leader little.
Conclusion
Organization theory gives leaders ways of seeing that no single view can supply. Astley and Van de Ven's map shows how the views differ and why each asks a useful question about the same organization. Pfeffer warns that pluralism has costs, and Davis asks whom theory serves. For a merged 911 authority, those debates translate into a working rule: choose the theory that fits the problem, say why, and judge it by what it does for callers and responders.
References
Astley, W. G., & Van de Ven, A. H. (1983). Central perspectives and debates in organization theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(2), 245-273. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392620
Davis, G. F. (2015). Editorial essay: What is organizational research for? Administrative Science Quarterly, 60(2), 179-188. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839215585725
Pfeffer, J. (1993). Barriers to the advance of organizational science: Paradigm development as a dependent variable. Academy of Management Review, 18(4), 599-620. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1993.9402210152
EDO 810 Module 1 instructions, in plain terms
The first module of EDO 810 introduces the study of organizations, and the paper often asks doctoral students to explain what organization theory does and how its major perspectives differ, using a real or described organization. Your Aspen classroom's Module 1 prompt governs; the 911 authority here is invented. Explain what a theory of organizations is and what it is for. Present a recognized map of perspectives and the assumptions that separate them. Engage at least one scholarly debate about the field itself. Apply the perspectives to an organization you know. State your own position and its implications for your doctoral work, citing peer-reviewed scholarship in APA 7 form.
How this EDO 810 Module 1 example is built
The setting is an authority of 140 telecommunicators and supervisors serving three counties, created by merging centers once run by a sheriff's office, a city police department and a county fire district. Astley and Van de Ven's Administrative Science Quarterly article supplies four views: system-structural, strategic choice, natural selection and collective action. A table asks one question about the authority in each view, from why call-taking protocols look the same on every console to why the three founding agencies still bargain over priorities. Pfeffer's Academy of Management Review article frames the risk of a fragmented field, and Davis's Administrative Science Quarterly essay frames the question of whom research should serve. The writer concludes that pluralism is defensible if each theory is chosen for the problem at hand and tested against what the organization's public needs.
Where the marks sit in the EDO 810 Module 1 rubric
Doctoral essays in this course are judged on critical engagement with scholarship, not on summary. This example presents Astley and Van de Ven's framework and then puts it to work, showing that each view asks a different and useful question about the same 911 floor. It treats Pfeffer and Davis as a genuine debate about the field rather than as background, and takes a side with reasons. The application is specific enough to show the writer understands the organization as well as the theories. The closing stance links theory choice to the practical purpose of the authority, which prepares for the diagnosis and effectiveness papers later in the course.
EDO 810 Module 1 help from the desk
First doctoral theory papers often list theories in historical order with a paragraph each and stop there. Use a framework that explains why the theories differ, such as their level of analysis and their view of choice. Another weakness is relying on textbooks; cite the original or review articles. Apply the perspectives to a real setting in enough detail that a reader could disagree with your reading. Engage a debate about the field rather than presenting theory as settled. Finally, state your own stance and what it means for how you will use theory as a leader and researcher, because the course will ask you to choose among theories repeatedly.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More EDO 810 and Doctor of Education sample papers
- EDO 810 Module 2: Classical and Bureaucratic Theory
- EDO 810 Module 3: Human Relations and Behavioral Perspectives
- EDO 810 Module 4: Systems and Contingency Theory
- EDO 810 Module 5: Institutional Theory
- EDO 810 Module 6: Power, Politics and Networks
- EDO 810 Module 7: Organizational Effectiveness
- EDO 810 Module 8: Applying Theory to a Leadership Context
- EDN 810 Module 1: Organizational Structure in Health Care Systems
- EDO 820 Module 3: Power and Moral Disengagement
- EDN 812 Module 8: Managed Care Contract Review
- EDN 820 Module 7: Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycles
EDO 810 Module 1 questions, answered
What does EDO 810 Module 1 usually ask for?
Aspen's EDO 810 begins with the study of organizations, so a doctoral essay on what organization theory is for and how its perspectives differ, applied to a real setting, is typical. Your Module 1 prompt has the details.
What are the four views of organization theory?
Astley and Van de Ven's system-structural, strategic choice, natural selection and collective action views, sorted by level of analysis and by determinism versus choice.
Is organization theory too fragmented?
Pfeffer argued that weak consensus hurt the field's influence; others defend pluralism as a strength when theories are matched to problems.
Where can I find a free EDO 810 Module 1 sample paper?
This page offers it free: a doctoral essay on the purpose and perspectives of organization theory, applied to an invented merged 911 authority.
What level of writing does EDO 810 expect?
Doctoral writing that critiques theories, uses peer-reviewed scholarship and applies theory carefully to a real setting, with the writer's own position stated.