Managing People and Organisations

Managing People and Organisations

Semester 1, 2009 Subject ID: 21129

Contents

Lecture Revision 2

Lecture 1: Why study management and organization? 2

Lecture 2: Managing Power and Politics 3

Lecture 3: Managing Individuals and Groups 5

Lecture 4: Managing Leadership 6

Lecture 5: Managing Culture 7

Lecture 6: Managing the Body 9

Lecture 7: Managing Communication 10

Lecture 8: Managing Change and Innovation 11

Lecture 9: Managing Resistance 12

Lecture 10: Managing Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) 13

Lecture 11: Managing Organizational Design 14

Lecture 12: Managing Globalisation 15

Readings 16

Reading 1: “The ugly face” (Morgan, 2006) 16

Reading 2: “The power of organization of the organization of power?” (Knights & Roberts, 1982) 17

Reading 3: “Can culture be managed? Working with “raw” material: the case of the English slaughter-men” (Akroyd & Crowdy, 1990) 18

Reading 4: “Looking up and looking around” (Jackall, 1988) 19

Reading 5: “You asked for it: Christmas at the bosses expense” (Rosen, 1988) 20

Reading 6: “The devil in high heels: drugs, symbolism and Kate Moss” (Acevedo, Warren, & Wray-Bliss, 2009) 21

Reading 7: “The branding of learning” (Klein, 2001) 22

Reading 8: “Explaining the succession of management fads” (Huczynski, 1993) 23

Reading 9: “The Prisoner” (McIlvanney, 1989) 24

Reading 10: “The moral character of management practice” (Roberts, 1984) 25

Reading 11: “The Corporation’s rise to dominance” (Bakan, 2004) 25

Bibliography 27

Lecture Revision

Lecture 1: Why study management and organization?

1.  Why did Karl Marx call capital “vampire like”?

Direct quote: “dead labour which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks” – Marx.

i.e. capital (management, shareholders, etc.) derive their income/sustenance from the productivity of others rather than their own, “sucking” productivity “vampire-like” from the proletariat.

2.  What is Zombie labour?

Ed gives examples of a few deskilled jobs. One can conclude that Zombie labour is a result of the deconstruction of the production process leading to the deskilling of labour, whereby the labour follows (in a Taylorist ideal) a perfectly scripted routine. This could be said to alienate the worker, with the job only fulfilling banal needs.

3.  What is Alienation?

Defn: “separation resulting from hostility”. In addition, alienation can be seen as Brecht’s “verfrumdungseffekt” (estrangement) or Freud’s “unheimlich” (uncanny, or, literally, “unhomeliness”).

In this course, it is the product of the banal satisfaction derived from deskilled labour. When higher needs are not met, the worker becomes morally disengaged, and then, finally, resistant, to authority, the organization and deskilled labour processes.

“How alien it really is very evident from the fact that when there is no physical or other compulsion, labour is avoided like the plague” – Marx

“Life begins for him [the worker] where this activity [work] ceases, at table, in the public house, in bed. The twelve hours’ labour, on the other hand, has no meaning for him … but as earnings, which bring him to the table, to the public house, into bed” – Marx

4.  What does it mean to study management and organization critically?

Critical analysis serves to find the flaws in (in this case) management systems in order to improve said systems. Furthermore, in requiring constant analysis, it serves to constantly improve management techniques, rather than taking current techniques and architectures for granted.

5.  How does critical analysis differ from negativity and cynicism?

Critical analysis is aimed at informing the manager and improving management systems. Negativity and cynicism seeks to undermine (rather than improve) management structures in analysis.

Lecture 2: Managing Power and Politics

1.  What can films and popular culture tell us about organization management?

Most films/pop-culture regarding management is derived from the subversion of social orthodoxy, whereby the worker (proletariat) rises up against a dominative management (capital).

e.g. “The Matrix”, “American Beauty”, “Bee Movie”, “Fight Club” etc.

The stories in which the management is dominant/overpowers the proletariat are seen as cautionary tales.

e.g. “Saw”, “The Trial” etc.

2.  What is domination?

Defn: The imbalance of power in hierarchical organizations, leading to coercive power-bases.

In slides: “forcing one’s will on another, subordinating an other to one’s own ends -is seen as illegitimate, as the form of power no longer in existence in organizations.”

3.  What forms can domination take?

Domination is derived triply triply:

·  from the problem of agency

·  from a lack of communication between upper management and workers

·  from the Agentic state of the workers

The problem of agency is, in its purest form, a conflict of interest whereby management seeks the greatest productivity for the least pay and the workers seek the least work for the most pay. When management ignores the other side of the problem of agency, Domination is the product. Management seeks the least costs without considering the well-being of the worker, leading to OH&S issues, workplace deaths etc.

The lack of communication between upper management and workers antagonizes the workers and leads to the stratification of society.

The Agentic state of the workers and the managers allow them to work within a dominative organization.

4.  What is authority?

Authority is the legitimate, acceptable, moral use of power. i.e. power derived from being a leader

5.  According to Bakan, what personality do organizations have?

Psychopathic: as irresponsible, manipulative, Grandiose, asocial and not empathetic, refusing to accept responsibility for actions, unremorseful and with only superficial relationships

6.  What is the Panopticon and how does it operate?

Bentham’s model prison, whereby prisoners believe they are under constant surveillance. It sought to internalize the required behaviour by making the prisoner believe surveillance constant, thus “internalizing the gaze”.

Clockwork Orange-esque idea of removing the subjectivity of the subject for “the greater good”

7.  What does work mean for modern employees?

The Panopticon is a microcosm of modern management. Whereby in previous prison models, as well as working environments, obedience was enforced, in the Panopticon, as well as modern management, the obedience is internally motivated. Thus, the goal of the manager has changed from surveillance to motivation. Jobs are now seen as tool for self-actualization rather than obstacles to self-actualization.

This is described as a move towards “soft domination”, or the replacement of Domination with Authority.

8.  What are the Milgram Experiments? What are the results of the Milgram Experiments and what are their implications?[1]

The Milgram Experiments were experiments conducted mid-century to analyse the level of obedience to authority figures. Results showed the existence of the “Agentic State” whereby the subject defers moral responsibility to the authority figure with almost absolute obedience resultant. This places huge responsibility on figures of Authority, and explains the basis of management’s authority.

9.  What does Bauman argue in relation to the Milgram Experiments?

Bauman replaces the figure of Authority with an organization in Milgram’s Agentic model, supplementing it by saying that the organizational banality of evil further detracts from direct connection with the morality of the job required. Furthermore, he suggests that this occurs because an employee replaces moral imperative with the requirement to do one’s job well.

Lecture 3: Managing Individuals and Groups

1.  Why do people work?

To satisfy different needs: base needs are satisfied by wages, social needs, transcendental needs etc. can also be satisfied by work.

“It is a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.” - Terkel

2.  What are Erich Fromm’s arguments about anxiety and modern life?

“Modern citizens as assailed with the anxiety of giving their life meaning and of constructing their own meaningful relationships” but are ill equipped to do so – Fromm

There also exists, in employment, an implicit indifference (threatening this quest for “life meaning”) whereby both the employer and the employee use each other for economic gain.

3.  How has the management of work changed – in terms of denial, acknowledgement and now shaping of employee’s existential needs?

Existential needs are acknowledged, catered for and manipulated to stimulate productivity.

4.  Why might attempts to manage employee’s existential needs have limited effects?

Three primary reasons:

·  Firstly, the notion of dramaturgical behaviour (i.e. “talking the talk but not walking the walk”), derived from the “manufactured” manner of this fulfilment, a corporation’s banal and manipulative answer to a profound question.

·  Secondly, these messages of fulfilment “conflict with other messages the employee gets about the essentially instrumental relationship between themselves and the employee”. Essentially, this is a realization that an employer’s pandering to higher needs is merely an attempt to stop the problem of agency. E.g. how can an employee be told that they are the most important thing in the organization when his peers are being sacked, when performance reviews occur, and when their pay depends on their performance.

·  Finally, there is the notion that an employee who is existentially connected to the organization is more vulnerable, in case of discontinuity, to feelings of meaninglessness.

5.  What conflicting messages does an employee get about their status in the organization?

See question 3.4 above.

6.  How do Jackson and Carter characterize the employee?

As a “sadomasochistic, Faustian, altruistic, child-like, automaton prostitute with feelings of inferiority”

7.  Why might management, by focusing upon employees instrumentally, actually diminish their value to the organization?

As question 3.4 states, there are negatives to managing individuals with higher needs, however, the alienation and lack of volunteerism resultant from not engaging with employees has a much higher cost.

Lecture 4: Managing Leadership

1.  What does it mean to call leadership a “powerful myth”?

The notes stipulate that the concept of leadership is deeply engrained in our societal subconscious. This is shown by repetitive references in religious stories and pop culture, which are then reflected in reality.

2.  How might leadership be argued to be part of our psyche?

From Question 4.1, one might deduce that the myth of leadership is extremely well engrained in society. Furthermore, it is, explicitly, a binding factor of modern society, with companies, nations, etc. hiring, idolizing and utilizing leadership extensively.

3.  What are the main models of leadership and what do they each focus upon?

The notes extract 7 main models:

·  Trait
defining a leader by “leadership traits”, i.e. ethnicity, age, gender, etc. the concept of “elder” and “senior”

·  Behavioural
defining leadership by the actions of the leader

·  Situational and Contingency theories
defines the qualities of a leader in the context of his situation, i.e. in different situations, different leaders/leadership styles are required

·  Transactional
whereby a leader is able to carry on the day-to-day activities of an organization (more management than leadership)

·  Transformational
whereby a leader is able to enact an envisioned change

·  Charismatic
whereby a leader is able to motivate and impassion his subjects

·  Postmodern and other approaches
whereby the leader takes on a different role, i.e. servant, coach, follower, etc.

4.  Why might leadership be dangerous?

Not explicitly discussed? My extraction is the negative effects of Milgram’s Agentic state, whereby the moral imperative is shifted.

However, it does discuss some of the dangers of “the leader”: a manager/leader is required to fit into the mould of “the leader” (masculine, daring, selfless) even when this may not be the most effective method.

5.  What is the masculine or macho way of leading?

Leading, “balls first”, high, uncalculated risks, ignoring advisors, etc.

6.  How is managing or leading liked with uncertainty and anxiety?

As discussed in question 4.4, anxiety occurs when best practice is outside of the cliché of “the leader”. Furthermore, there is the problem of accountability.

Where things are out of control, where choices are independent and fallible, there is a proclivity towards “uncertainty, insecurity and ever-present anxiety” – Jackall

Finally, the methods of reducing this strain further contradict the ideal of “leader”, and are thus unavailable.

Lecture 5: Managing Culture

1.  How are organizations places of culture?

Organizations achieve their goals in an organic manner, with negotiation etc. Furthermore, they involve people working with the same goal, and with similar skills in a majority of their own time.

2.  How did the focus on managing corporate culture arise?

Corporate culture was always an organic construct. With the rise of psychology and the knowledge of the importance of culture, sociality and transcendental needs, organizations saw culture as a way to manage this. This, in effect, created a similar condition to the Panopticon, whereby the social rules are internalized. Here, however, motivation is internalized, and then volunteered.

3.  What is corporate culture?

A construct which seeks to mimic organic cultures, appealing to non-physical needs of the employee. An attempt to bind employees to an organizational “vision”.

Corporate Culture as the attempt to harness the psychological dissection and reconstitution of modern subjects, and the anxious striving for selfhood, to the organization’s goals.

4.  What s the “promise” of corporate culture?

Two possibilities; the promise of productivity, and the promise of fulfilment for the employee (although this does occur at the cost of free-will/freedom, since opinion becomes enforced).

5.  What were Peters and Waterman’s main arguments?

Peters and Waterman wrote “in search of excellence”, important witchdoctor text, with corporate culture as a panacea to the US’ falling relative productivity to Japan. The main points are as follows:

·  That most “top” companies employed soft-management techniques

·  Effective management is based not on Taylorist scientific purism, but rather on psychologies, including behaviourism, etc.

·  The employee as the driving force of the company, even though they are irrational and driven by contradiction (wanting to belong and to stick out).

·  Management to provide the values, beliefs and meanings of work, employees given the opportunity to excel through their consumption of, and deep identification with, these values.

6.  How, according to its advocates, does management get a corporate culture?