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Organizational Spr2006 Sess16

Critical Theories (continued)

• Well Known Critical Theories
  • Marxism
    • assumes that industrial power relationships are immutable reexpressions of existing class relationships
    • the question: is division of power between capital and resource unfair, or simply unavoidable
  • Feminist Theory
    • Women have a distinct perspective that has value to organizations
    • Organizational dialogue can be transformed by women's voices
    • Traditional organizational values and women's values
      • Fluid boundaries between personal and work
      • Relational aspects of work
      • Balanced lifestyles
      • Nurturing approaches to coworkers
      • Networks of relationships outside the organization
      • Leadership as web, not hierarchy
      • Service orientation to clients
      • Work as means of developing personal identity
    • All of these perspectives are encapsulated in organizational theories we have already looked at
    • Four dialectics
      • Male and female values
      • Male-dominated cultures
      • High-context cultures
      • Woman as meaning
  • Pro-People vs Pro-Profits (Deetz)
    • Multiple Stakeholder Model
    • Are any stakeholders really power free in organizations?
    • I prefer to think of stakeholders as interdependent and contending
      • Interdependent because the success of any depends on the success of all
      • Contending because their definitions of success and value differ
    • That doesn't mean that each isn't important
      • But some would say that at least one, the owner(s), is more important
        • Elaine Sternberg
      • And others would put everyone but the owner in power
• Critical theories are often presented as revolutionary reworkings of what is
  • their practical effect is to point out problems
  • they most often work out to be negotiating positions
  • with effects that are evolutionary

• Another variant on cultural theory
  • Often seen as an attempt to avoid encompassing definitions or truths
  • A focus on nonlinear, counter-rational, and network models
• Assumptions
  • self-concept: identity is not found in rules and traditions
  • morality and ethics: morals are found in discourse rather than culture
  • art and culture: parallelism overwhelms progression
  • globalization: mass culture is driving out local culture
• Primary methods
  • Deconstruction
    • taking apart meanings
    • interpreting signs and surfaces
  • Challenging status quo methods and systems
    • a critical turn
    • often focuses on giving power to teams
    • and minimizing rules
    • thus giving power to individuals
      • "Rule #1. Use your good judgment in all situations.
      • There are no other rules
      • Please feel free to ask (management) any question at any time.
    • In other words. There is only one rule, but when in doubt, your manager knows the other rules.
  • Giving presentation precedence over reality
    • Examples:
      • IPO's
      • Organization as Information and Communication
        • Automobile as byproduct
        • Equality and shared responsibility

When things go seriously wrong

• Challenger
  • "Where someone is straining to do something, look for evidence of the tragic mechanism." (Burke)
  • Organizational Forgetting
    • Reversal of the burden of proof
    • Less Resource translates to
      • less penetration
      • less ability to act on automatic responsibility
        • which is no longer correctly understood
    • Monday notes without margin notes
      • An effect of a shift to e-mail?
  • Normalization of deviance
    • Social expectations trump logic
  • Semantic-information distance
    • Changing hats
      • Engineers focus on safety and reliability
      • Managers worry about costs and schedules
• A systemic problem?
  • Or could one individual have changed the path