Critical Approaches and Alternatives to Hierarchy

The Rise of Critical Theory

• Earliest expression in Marx – exploitation of proletariat would lead to an overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat

• Ford in the 1920s established “progressive capitalism” paying workers $5 a day so he could “sell his car to the masses”

• Continued until 1970s with the development of globalization and “trickle down” economics

Globalization

• Remade and shaped the economy of every nation

• Hiring low-wage workers overseas

• Rosenberg found that although created jobs in Latin America it lead to increase in crime, new dictatorships and economic collapse/problems (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela_

• In India greater division between literate and illiterate

Supply Side Economics

• Ended Progressive Capitalism• More resources given to big

business (tax exemptions, reduced regulation and controls) with hope profits would trickle down to average individual

• Result lead to a decline in average real wages, benefits and standard of living

• Many workers need to work two jobs in order to survive

Centrality of Power

• Robert French and Bertram Raven types of Power– Reward power- rewards such

as bonus in exchange for compliance

– Coercive power – use of punishment as motivating factor such as poor assignments, relocation and demotion

– Referent power – mentors and charismatic leaders

– Expert power – permits power because of other’s expertise

– Legitimate power – high level position

Covert Structures of Power

• Covert power is hidden and insidious

• Critical theory addresses “control of employers over employees” where power is “a loose coalition of interests more than a unified front”

Power and Ideology• An ideology is a system of ideas that is

the basis for political or economic theory

– Also – often refers to basic unexamined assumptions about how things are or should be

• Foucault – ideological power is a widespread intangible network of forces that eaves itself into subtle gestures and intimate utterances. As such it does not reside in things but in “a network of relationships which are systematically connected” (Burrell_

– Ideology exists in the practices of everyday life

• Ideology is never neutral – according to Habermas

– I view things as they really are, you squint at them though a tunnel vision imposed by some extraneous system or doctrine”

Hidden Power of Culture – Native Assumptions

• Varner and Beamer – reactions to others:– Assumptions of

superiority– Ethnocentrism– Assumptions of

universality – all people are alike and overlook diversity

Manufactured Consent• Habermas – social legitimization

has a major role in holding organizations together

– Capitalist societies characterized by manufactured consent in which employees at all levels willingly adopt and enforce the legitimate power of the organization, society or system of capitalism

• Dennis Mumby – domination involves leading people to organization behavior around a rule system.

– The system, not individual managers or actors, can then be blamed but not held accountable- for actions taken in its name

• Not all consent is negative – e.g. Grameen bank in Bangladesh – Papa, Auwal and Singhal

Hidden Power of Myths, Metaphors and Stories

• Stories at organizational level – organization narratives, metaphors and stories are important sources of power and ideology

• Critical theory understands why organizational practices maintaining strong control are considered legitimate and not resisted– What is a real job? What is

a career?

Hidden Power of Organizational Communication: Politics

• Dennis Mumby – three ways to improve organizational communications research– Connect the political to the

poetic – engagement with subjects

– Conduct more participatory research – breakdown bifurcation between researchers and those studied

– Conduct more critically oriented research – pay attention to structures of power and domination

Hidden Power of Society: Hegemony

• Antonio Gramsci – hegemony as the hidden power of society.– It encompasses the power

of rules, standard operating procedures and routines

– From this is how things should be done to this is how things are done

Feminist Theory• Rosebeth Moss Kanter – study of

tokenism• Need for change in organizational

dialogue• Narratives by and about women

value– Fluid boundaries between

personal life and work life– Relational aspects of work– A balanced lifestyle– A nurturing approach to co-

workers– A network of relationships within

and outside the organization– Leadership as a web, not a

hierarchy– A service orientation to clients– Work as a means of developing

personal identity

Judi Marshall – Four Differences on Power and Interpretation

• Male and female values – men more associated with agency, women with communion and relationships

• Male-dominated cultures – male forms are the norm to which members are forced to adapt

• Male-dominated organizations as high-context cultures – women do not share in men’s contexts

• Women as communication – being a woman is information

Women as Information (point four)

• Tension about status – male dominated culture read female managers as secretaries, women challenge people to innovate and remodel old routines

• Public employment versus the private home

• Man made language – terms associated with women are devalued (compassion, emotion and empathy)

• Gender-differentiated discourse – women speak less often, evaluation on male model

• Exclusion from men’s informal networks and communication

• Different patterns of thinking and valuing – women are more relational, contextual and personal

Work-Hate Narratives

• Work-hate narratives as a form of hegemony

• Being forced to deal with continuous organizational change

• Two stages of work-hate– Narrator’s shock and

surprise on learning of organizational change combined with a loss of identity

– Narrator is more accepting of new circumstances but expresses self-blame

Power, Negotiation and Conflict• Classical view

– Conflict as a breakdown in communication between managers and employees whose problem was an interruption in organizational efficient

– Conflict seen as warfare – optimal outcome was to trounce opponent

– Power was the exercise of control and any giving in perceived as weakness

• Human Relations View– Conflict as symptomatic of

underlying interpersonal communication problems

– Conflict is evidence of poor working relationships between labor and management, and diplomacy should be used to resolve it

Pro People or Profits• Stanley Deetz – defend individual

freedom from corporate domination

– Corporate control – hidden and people believe that they have freedom of choice that is evasive

• Corporate colonization of the life-world

– Will lead to breakdown of families, schools and other social institutions

• Deetz – Multiple Stakeholder Model

– Stakeholder groups include not only consumers, workers, investors, and suppliers but also host communities, general society and the worldwide ecological community

Alternatives to Hierarchy

Chapter 7

Three Approaches

• Networks, Narratives and Performance have in Common:– Emphasize need for fluidity

and adaptability of organizational structures

– Seek to maximize participation through decentralized decision making

– Renegotiation of power relationships

– Minimizing constraints and maximizing individual and organizational possibility

– Drawing from systems and postmodern thinking – there is no single path or way

Networks• Poole – six qualities of new

organizational forms:• Use IT to integrate across

organizational functions• Use flexible, modular organizational

structures that can be reconfigured as new projects arise

• Use IT to coordinate geographically dispersed units and members

• Favor team based work organization emphasizing autonomy and self-management

• Employ flat hierarchies and reliance on horizontal coordination

• Use intra and inter-organizational markets to mediate transactions such as assignment of personnel and forming interrogational networks

Narrative

• Where networks can ignore content in favor of information, narrative focus on meaning

• In contrast to rigid hierarchical models organizational narratives promote integration by encouraging adherence to a common story

• Narrative discourse is a mode of persuasion to create and maintain a culture of obedience, to invent a credible history and exert covert control

• Sense making - Weick

Performance

• Organizations’ sole existence comes from when they are being made and remade through interaction

• Takes the narrative approach and brings it to its feet placing the speaking body front and center

• Organizational performances (rituals, etc) including scripts

• Involves a balancing between scripted performance and improvisation