Books and Movies Documenting Complex Organizations?

October 1, 2008 10:11 AM

I like to learn about how complex organizations and projects are run behind-the-scenes -- to see how decisions get made, how responsibilities are divided, what tools and technologies are used, how knowledge is documented and new workers trained. Recommend books, articles, films that do a good job documenting / explaining how a complex organization functions.

For example: Large construction projects, professional sports teams, offices of government -- these organizations employ a lot of people with specialized expertise, they have to process and synthesize a great deal of information, and they must constantly make decisions while considering logistics, cost, personnel, etc. I want to read (or see) how they do it.

I'm a little hard pressed to cite complete examples of what I'm looking for (this kinda of stuff seems to show up as background bits within articles and books) -- but from my childhood, maybe the David Macaulay books like Cathedral and Pyramid that show in detail how large architectural projects are executed; or the Tracy Kidder books Soul of A New Machine and House; or the PBS documentary Carrier, if it were less character-driven. I've found that a lot of work like this focuses on individuals and narrative (to generate and sustain interest and create a 'plot'), but I'm less interested in the view of an organization through the lens of an individual within.

posted by alb to society & culture (8 comments total)

It's TV, not a book or movie, but The West Wing did a good job of showing a complex organization at work -- at least as good a job as you'll see in pop culture.
posted by PlusDistance at 11:04 AM on October 1, 2008

I don't know whether this is what you're looking for, because they certainly have an information-science lens, but there are a number of books on how information is handled in organizations; in the course of examining this topic you wind up looking at resource allocation, human factors, etc. Shoshanna Zuboff's In the Age of the Smart Machine is one, although many of the specifics are really outdated. Joann Yate's Control Through Communication is another.

Economics and Management are also disciplines that will have something to say about this, although I don't have specific articles or resources in mind.

Some keywords/areas you might want to try are large organizations; strategy; organizational behavior. It looks like there's also a small field of study called Critical Management Studies; I only know about this from Wikipedia just now, but it sounds kind of interesting and relevant.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 5:24 PM on October 1, 2008

One of the problems is, they are kind of not.

"The Wire" a whole, show how the best-laid plans...
posted by Lesser Shrew at 8:46 PM on October 1, 2008

"Sing Faster: The Stagehand's Ring Cycle" is a fantastic documentary that chronicles a production of the entire Ring Cycle at the San Fransisco Opera from a back stage point of view. It's amazing... and sounds exactly like what you're looking for. I hope you enjoy it!
posted by Thin Lizzy at 9:50 PM on October 1, 2008

Thanks for the suggestions!

chesty, I think books on organizational behavior might fit the bill, especially if they were heavy on case study rather than theory -- I'll see what I can find. (and I'm amenable to an info science lens -- I'm a librarian...)

Thin Lizzy, "Sing Faster" looks great - I'll see if I can find it.
posted by alb at 7:35 AM on October 2, 2008

A lot of the things you describe fall under the umbrella of operations management/management science. Here's a useful link.
posted by lunchbox at 9:42 AM on October 2, 2008

I did a little more digging around -- the PBS series Inside is exactly what I'm after. They have episodes documenting behind-the-scenes at an airport, a football (soccer) championship, a stage production, a manned space launch, and an organ transplant operation.

I also remembered at least one other book I've read in this vein: The Puzzle Palace , on the workings of the National Security Agency.
posted by alb at 10:48 AM on October 3, 2008

And more resources on Kevin Kelly's "True Films" site: The "people at work / inside view" category recommends some appropriate movies, such as Unzipped, about running a fashion show, and Startup.com, about an internet start-up and its "meltdown".
posted by alb at 10:46 AM on October 7, 2008