1. Unnecessarily categorizing and evaluating someone according to gender or race (lady partner or black professor);
2. Evaluating people's credentials along dimensions relevant to their group's stereotype (a woman's social skills, a black person's sense of humor);
3. Selectively perceiving and interpreting a person's traits (an aggressive woman is abrasive, but an aggressive man is forceful);
4. Making extreme evaluations based on limited evidence (a mere acquaintance claims that a candidate is "universally disliked" when that is patently untrue).
When Does Sex Stereotyping Occur?
Sex stereotyping most frequently arises in the workplace under the following circumstances:
1. When the target is an isolated, one-of-akind, or few-of-a-kind individual in an otherwise homogeneous environment. The person's distinguishing characteristic is more likely to be a salient factor in decision making in such a situation.
2. When members of a previously excluded group move into jobs that are not traditional for their group. The lack of fit between the person's category and the occupation heightens the tendency to evaluate him or her in terms of group membership rather than individual performance.
3. When information and criteria are ambiguous. Stereotypes provide structure and meaning and are most likely to shape subjective perceptions when the data themselves are open to multiple interpretations.
Professional occupations such as attorney, doctor, accountant, and college professor are areas particularly prone to sex stereotyping. Historically, these occupations have been male-only preserves. Employment decisions, from hiring to promotions, generally involve a variety of objective and subjective factors; decisions are often made by the group the candidate would be joining. Under these circumstances, subjective judgments of interpersonal skills and collegiality are quite vulnerable to sex stereotyping. "Both the evidence and the standards for judging are a matter of interpretation, all too easily influenced by the structure of well-developed expectancies--thus a woman's criticisms of a policy are seen as picky or caustic while a man's are seen as detailed and incisive" (Wallach 1990).
Relational Barriers
Women and minorities experience limited access to or are denied access to informal communication networks.
Mentor-protege relations suffer due to the personwnating to be with someone they can relate to.
Tokenism - High visible representatives of gender and ethnic minority.
Most org models portray them as logical and rational. But this is far from the truth since many decisions and plans are made through emotion rather than logic . Bounded emotionality is looking at emotional life as a central focus or organizational research and to consider ways in which paying attention to emotion might lead to new ways of understanding the work place.
Emotion as Part of the Job Many exchanges are affective, in medicine and airline industries. Emotional labor - the customer is always right, cruise ship and resort employees.
Most research considers front line employees are expected to display certain feelings in order to satisfy role expectations.
Emotions are controlled through some type of corporate response training.
As you can imagine, emotions are not always genuine.
Some professionals require true empathic emotions germane to the context - hospice
Emotion as Part of Workplace Relationships
Everyone feels something in the workplace Workplace bullying
Potential for intense emotion in the workplace:
public versus private tensions
gossip
conflicting allegiances
moral polarization
Emotion Rules and Emotional Intelligence
Rules may be unstated, but there's a social agreement in most org contexts.
Some people may be better at understadning and managing emotional content.
Natural - organic may be a better term, as orgs change with the cultural and environmental ebb and flo of the universe
Planned - Problems and other external influences suggest that the current way of doing things needs to change.
So, which describes Sara Palin's announcement?
Reactions to Org Change In a classical system one would just go with the flo so to speak, org members were told what to do, and they'd do it - the company man.
Today, reactions on all levels are important and critical to the success of the org, that is, if the org values the synergy of all its suborgs and subcultures.
The Impacts:
Management - Senior management hasthe most impact on change depending on how they react.
Ownership - who and how many take ownership of the change.
Resistance - is futile. Remember the Borg? Sometimes when the ownership concept is applied to lower employees they can be in a position to thwart the change.
Uncertainty - When there's little known about the change, there is more uncertainty. Corporate buyouts, DSC's executive level change.
Research supports that org members would rather hear the bad news than no news.
Communication in the Change Process A no-brainer, this is the most important step in creating meaning about change. It's believed that employees should be involved in the process by providing relevant information.
Withhold and Uphold is the belief that management withholds as much info as possible, and when directly asked, they lie and uphold the party line that nothing is changing.
Underscore and Explore - management is focused on the issues related to the change and allows the employees the creative freedom to explore various possibilities.
Employees are usually trying to deal with concerns about performance, organizational norms, and uncertainty.
To cope, employees may research and discuss what the change will be like, exploring alternatives to the change, persuading others to either support or not support the change and formally requesting the change not happen.
Leadership Models Trait Leadership - follows the tenet that leaders are born, not made. Certain trait that make for a good leader, like intelligence, determination, confidence, integrity, and sociability are inherent. Orgs that advocate this approach often use personality tests to select people with the right characteristics.
Contingency Theory - The fit of the leadership style to the dynamic characterisitcs of the org.
Transactional Leadership - An exchange between levels.
Transformation Leadership through Communication - create a relationship between leader and followers where followers reach their own leadership potential transforming all involved.
Central to this is the idea of exemplification where leaders who want to install a sence of work ethic do so by doing it themselves.
Communication is vital to the transformative leader. In crisis saying the right hting and saying it quickly can be very important.
Successful leaders know their direction and understand impacts of context.
Conflict can be both destructive and constructive.
By definition: The interaction of interdependent people who perceive opposition of goals, aims, and values and who see the other party as potentially interfering with the realization of those goals.
Incompatible goals - most central to org conflict and can stem from a variety of reasons.
Interdependent - Incompatibility is not an issue until interdependent behaviors become a problem.
Interaction - conflict involves the expression of incompatibility, not just the existence of it, and this is done through communication.
Levels of Organizational Conflict
Interpersonal - among members
Intergroup - among departments or teams
Interorganizational - among orgs
Phases of Org Conflict
Latent Conflict - conditions are ripe due to interdependence and incompatibility.
Perceived Conflict - when one or more parties believes that incompatibility and interdependence exist.
Felt Conflict - both parties begin to formulate strategies about how to deal with conflict and outcomes that would or would not be acceptable.
Manifest Conflict - The strategies and goals are worked through
Conflict Aftermath - short and long term aftermat exist.
Managing Organization Conflict Conflict Styles:
Descriptive W/W
Avoidance L/L
Accommodating L/W
Competition W/L
Collaboration W
Classifying conflict, though, has it's drawbacks:
It downplays the fact that people can change their tactics when in conflict with others.
This s just a two-dimensional model that excludes outside factors
It doesn't address nonverbal and non-rational communication that occurs in escalated conflict.
By looking at the person only, the org setting gets ignored.
New Directions in Conflict Management Conflict message style is now factoring into the study of conflict management in terms of perception and style. Politeness and formality impacts the process.
Bargaining and Negotiation
Bargaining is often a formal activity where disputants settle conflicts about scarce resources or policy disagreements.
Often involves individuals who serve as representatives for the parties in the dispute.
Often used to settle intergroup or inter organizational conflicts.
Distributive bargaining - Deals with limited resources that must be divided, the outcome is win/lose and since everyone is in it for themselves, the communication is withheld or deceptive. Integrative bargaining - Both sides are trying to maximize gains, both parties win.
Third Party Conflict Resolution Sometimes a difficult conflict can't be settled between two parties, requiring someone else to be brought in to mediate or arbitrate the proceedings. In orgs this is usually the manager.
Managerial Conflict Resolution - the conflict resolution style depends on the nature of the conflict and how much control the manager has over the proceedings. Sometimes it's best to bring in an objective outside party.
Mediator - helps facilitate the conflict but has no decision power. They can initiate recommendations, clarify misunderstandings, set agendas for resolutions, and regulate the tone of the exchange.
Arbitrator - makes decisions that ae binding based on the proposals and arguments of the parties involved.
Factors Influencing the Process: Personal - gender, personality, character, play a big part in how we deal with conflict. Relational - roles and relationships also impact resolution;
Power - where one falls on the hierarchy will dictate what type of style one will use, one is more competitive with those down, but more accommodating with those higher.
Co-orientation - how much parties see the conflict the same way
Cultural - whether we're dealing with others in our own culture or others outside out culture, people have very different ways in how they deal with conflict.
Models of the Decision Making Process The most critical activity in the organization can take minutes or years.
Rational Models - Normative v. Exploratory Methods Exploratory methods begin from the present, and see where events and trends might take us; normative methods begin from the future, asking what trends and events would take us there.
Alternatives to Rational Models - March and Simon's approach:
Satisficing is a strategy that attempts to meet criteria for adequacy, rather than to identify an optimal solution. A satisficing strategy may often be (near) optimal if the costs of the decision-making process itself, such as the cost of obtaining complete information, are considered in the outcome calculus.
Bounded Reality is a concept based on the fact that rationality of individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite amount of time they have to make decisions.
Intuitive Process - Sometimes decision makers have to come to an immediate conclusion and use gut instincts, without being aware of it, to guide their choices.
Analogical - managers make decisions based on what worked in the past.
Garbage Can - problems, solutions, participants and choices are all dumped together in an independent fashion.
Small-Group Decision Making Fisher believes that groups go through a series of phases in an attempt to reach a decision:
Orientation - members become familiar with each other and the problem (what can you bring to the table)
Conflict - possible solutions to the problem are presented and debated.
Emergence - the group arrives at some kind of consensus.
Reinforcement - the decision is supported.
Decision making, though , is rarely linear and involves a number of paths. Remember the hazardous materials?
Ineffective Small-Group Decision Making Janis' Group Think - A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive group when members striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to realistically appraise alternate course of action.
Illusion of Invulnerability
Direct Pressure
Illusion of Unanimity
Self-Censorship
The Pepcon Disaster
Participation in Decision Making Job Satisfaction
The Participative Process: The Affective Model - Higher order needs are satisfied (self-esteem and actualization). Te Cognitive Model - Improves flow of information through the org.
Overall, people like to be included in the decision making process and seeing their input valued and implemented.
Familiarize yourself with the developing situation in Iran. It's crucial to have an understanding of the impetus of the protests, the questionable election results. This link is a good place to start along with the associated links on the right of the web page.
Once you have a general understanding, review the approaches we've discussed in class and in the text that deal with organizational analysis, including the Human Relations Movement, and the Systems, Cultural and Critical Approaches.
In a discussion format, apply what you understand from these theories to an analysis of the events in Iran; the protests, the mobilization of the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian State's handling of the civil unrest and the involvement of the religious clerics, namely the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Please make these specific applications:
In terms of the hierarchy of needs in a social context, how would Maslow describe the protest of the election results? What does a victory for Ahmadinejad mean for the people in terms of these needs?
The Systems approach holds that an organization is a complex organism that must interact with its environment in order to survive. What do you think is inherent to preserving Iran's progress?
The mean age of Iranian citizens is 33 years. It's been thirty years (a generation) since the country's previous revolution in which we've seen an evolution and western influence of beliefs, attitudes and values. As the supreme leader of Iran appeals to his religious followers, what's at stake for Iran's young population, particularly its women? (Cultural approach)
In terms of power in the Critical approach, how does the existing Iranian Government control its constituent's perception of reality?
In addition to using your text, notes, and this website, I'm encouraging you to discuss this with your classmates. Use the class time Thursday to meet and talk this through.
Then after careful consideration of opinions and standpoints, along with your research, write your responses to the four items above. Email your assessment responses to me no later than midnight, Monday, June 29 using my imnost62@mac.com address. Label your email "OrgComm Assessment 1" in the subject line.
Assimilation - Those ongoing behavioral processes by which individuals join, become integrated into and exit organizations.
This is a dual process whereby there is a socialization process where members are adapted through formal and informal means, and an individuation process, whereby a person changes some aspect of the organization to better suit their needs.
Two Models of Organizational Socialization (The When of Socialization)
I. Phases of Socialization - A process that may have many ups and downs and sometimes may not follow any pattern at all.
A. Anticipatory Socialization - the process that occurs before one ever enters into an organization. Three ways:
Learning about work - what it means to work
Learning about a particular occupation - ideas about what people do for a living.
Learning about a particular organization - learning through research where you might be working.
B.Encounter - where the employee encounters point of entry, or life on the job. These comprise orientation programs, informal/formal mentoring, and the employee seeking out information on their own.
C.Metamorphosis - where the outsider (new employee) has become an insider and made that transition into acceptance.
II. Content Socialization - what must be learned in order to adapt to the organizational context.
A.Role related information - one must learn info, skills, procedures, protocols and rules one must grasp in order to perform the job.
B. Organization culture - One must learn the issues in the culture. This is done through observation of behavior and artifacts to draw inferences about the values and assumptions. The org's stories (lore) tell more about the place than anything else.
Communication Process During Assimilation
I. The Employment Interview Perhaps the most important step in the anticipatory socializing process.
A. As a recruiting and screening tool - the most important function of the interview is the recruiting and screening of potential employees.
Most interviews gather information in structured ways.
Research suggests that interviewers often cue applicant about appropriate response through he use of directed or leading questions.
Lots of variability marks the content of interview questions among different employers and industries. Some may focus on the college classes you took while anlther on hypotheitical situations, but all report that fluency of speech, composure and hte ability to express ideas are very important.
B. As an information-gathering tool - provides a glimpse into the future employee depending on the types of questions asked and the behavior of the recruiter.
C. As a tool for socialization - serves to ease newcomer's adaptation to the organization should they be offered a position. This means that some interviews might actually produce issues that will arise in that position, giving the applicant a true view of what the job will take.
II. Newcomer Information-Seeking Tactics There is a proactive role that newcomers play: they're seen as more than passive recipients of training programs and handouts. Instead, they activiley seek information that will help them adapt to their new roles and stewardship, along with the norms and values of the org.
III. Role Development Processes Ways pepople act to define and develop thier roles. This role is developed by an org member through social exhange with their leader, or the Leader-Member exchange, the LMX theory:
Role-taking Phase - the leader requests a variety of activities from the member and observes performance and evaluates the member's abilities.
Role-making Phase - the leader gives the member a job and is allowed autonomy to do the job to thebest of their ability and work wth other members.
Role-routinization Phase - the point at which the role of the member and exepected behaviors are understood by both the member and the leader: in the circle, or out of the circle.
IV. Organizational Exit Interview Not as much study here as the job interview. Also applies to intracompany transfer. This influences not only those who leave but those who remain.
Critical Approaches in OrgComm adopt a radical frame of reference by considering orgs as sites of domination and that theorists can emancipate people from the dominating forces, taking an active role in creating change.
One heralded agent for change is Karl Marx.
Marx was a German intellect who thought that there was an inherent imbalance between owners and workers in a capitalist society, and that eventually the workers would revolt.
Critical theorists believe that certain societal structures and processes lead to fundamental imbalances of power.
These imbalances lead to alienation and oppression for certain social classes and groups.
The role of the theorist is to explore and uncover these imbalances and bring them to the attention of the oppressed.
The Pervasiveness of Power 1. Power is the most important term to critical theorists, and it is related to constructs of control and domination.
In the radical approach, theorists are concerned with the deep structure that produces and reproduces relationships in org structure - patterns.
2. How capitalists owners have control - Modes and Means of Production
Substructure - economic and production base
Modes of production - economic conditions that underlie production
Imbalances therein create conflict between workers and owners, leading to alienation.
3. Control of Organization Discourse - Organizational reality is socially constructed through communication interactions, a context for domination. Org narratives can be looked at as they potentially legitimize dominate forms of org reality and lead to ways to react to things making a script of the meaning of the organization - dogma.
4. Ideology - Ideology defined in this context is the assumptions about reality that influence perceptions of situations and events.
This is more than a set of beliefs and attitudes, it structures thought and controls interpretations of reality. This tells us what exists, what is good, what is possible.
Ideology also deals with assumptions that are rarely questioned or scrutinized.
5. Hegemony - Defined in this context is a process in which a dominant group leada another group to accept subordination as the norm.
The subjugated group often becomes complicit in the control (power) process.
6. Emancipation - the liberation from restrictive traditions, ideologies, assumptions, power relations, identities that inhibit or distort opportunities for autonomy, clarification of needs and wants and greater satisfaction.
The critical theorist here is like a psychoanalyst, they break down resistance to reveal social structures and processes that have lead to hegemony.
Two Critical Approaches in Communication
I. The Theory of Concertive Control - Power relationships can be transformed in an era of team-based and alternative forms of orgs.
Three broad strategies for exerting control:
Simple control - direct and authoritarian exertion of control in the workplace.
Technological control - exerted through technology like in assembly lines or computer programs. (Bristol compressors and WordPerfect layoffs.)
Bureaucratic control - based on the power of structure and the rational/legal rules.
Identification - The feeling of oneness or belonging to where a person identifies their self in terms of the group in which they're a member.
Discipline - Communication interactions develop a system of rewards and punishments that conform or deviate from the values identified as important by the work group. The Discipline is meted out by the work group.
II. Feminist Theories of OrgComm - Gender permeates organizational life and many bureaucracies are patriarchal. It would appear that traditional characteristics of logic, aggressiveness and competitiveness prevail.
The Framing of Sexual Harassment
Women tend to "story" sexual harassment in ways that normalize it and supress further discussion of it as an oppressive influence in the workplace.
Discourse at Women-owned Businesses
Talked the talk of cooperation and flexibility but did not walk the walk.
The org was marked by emotion and conflict and dismissed as just the way women are.
Many women played into the sexual stereotypes of women.
Women felt empowered to work with other women who could empathize.
Disciplined Bodies
How women use or don't use their bodies in the work place, how they see themselves physically and what it means emotionally.
These instructions outline the steps you should undertake in conducting your organizational analysis. Before you embark on this project, read this document and think about the analytical process, so you can plan accordingly. This is a time-consuming assignment. Be sure to get started early and give yourself plenty of time for completion. I hope that you will find it intriguing and worthwhile as a learning tool. Each of the response papers have been leading up to this analysis paper. This is your chance to become a communication consultant and apply the ideas you have learned this semester.
Project Instructions The steps for conducting your organizational analysis are outlined below:
1. Identify an organization in which you will conduct your analysis. I assume you will want to look at your own organization being that you are already there and can do it while you are at work, but you are free to investigate another organization if you would like to do so.
2. Be careful and disclose information. Yes, this is your analysis, but in order to do a true study, you will need to talk to others about their experiences. Just be aware that some information shared with you is for research purposes and should not be shared with others. Also, be honest about your assignment.
3. Brainstorm central questions about the organization you want to discover. Some of these questions might include (but are not limited to): a) what is the management philosophy most apparent in the organization (classical, human relations, human resources, situational, etc.)? b) what Deal and Kennedy organizational culture does this organization seem to have? how else can we describe this organization’s culture? c) how does systems theory relate to this organization? d) how does mentoring work at this organization? e) what nonverbals do we notice? body language? environment? clothing? f) how are meetings handled here? how could they be improved? g) how is conflict handled--formally and informally? h) what informal and formal networks are in place? i) how diverse is the organization? (race, ethnic backgrounds, sex, religion, sexual orientation, etc.) does the organization have any diversity initiatives or policies?
4. Collect a variety of appropriate data. In order to learn in depth about the organization, you will need to obtain data using a variety of methods:
a) One-on-one, in-person interviews Be prepared with your list of question before the interview. You may ask follow-up questions as you feel the need. Ask all different types of questions: open-ended, yes-no, rate on a scale, etc. Be sure to start each interview by going over the above document with each interviewee. Start interviews with simple questions and lead up to more personal ones. Set up your interviews very early as they may need to cancel and re-schedule several times. Be flexible-- remember THEY are doing YOU the favor of their time. Take no more than 30 minutes of their time--unless they keep you there talking longer. Be on time or early to your interviews.
b) Questionnaires and surveys Surveys make it possible to get responses from a larger number of people quickly and provide quantitative data. Questionnaires can use open-ended questions or closed-ended (providing respondent with fixed list of choices) or a mix of both. Try to get a response rate of at least 50%. Do NOT do more than one survey at your organization. Ensure that all responses will be confidential. Include a brief statement of purpose at the beginning. You may need to send the survey more than once to those who are not responding.
c) Direct observation Hang out in the lobby or cafeteria (with permission) and see what you can observe. Ask to “shadow” someone for half a day. Attend a social function of the organization. Attend an orientation day for new employees or a speech given by a leader. Observe how people have decorated their offices or cubicles. Ask to sit in and observe a meeting.
d) Archival data This includes the following: organizational charts; financial performance records and annual reports; statistics on employee turnover or absenteeism; human resources materials; memos and emails; rules, policies and procedures in employee handbooks; mission statements, charters and ethical codes; employee newsletters; advertising brochures or materials; newspapers articles or any press about the organization.
e) Personal experience. Your personal reactions can provide important information on the climate of the organization. Does it feel tense, relaxed, cheerful, depressed, guarded, open, optimistic or in crisis? Do the people in the organization return your phone calls and emails? What might this tell you? Is it easy or difficult to get organizational members to participate in this project? Are they disclosing or vague and guarded in their responses in interviews and surveys? Why do you think so?
5. Analyze your data with respect to the questions you brainstormed and outlined. As an individual, look at your data and answer those questions.
6. Your project analysis report might include the following sections:
a) Introduction: This should clearly set up your study, the organization and the organization of the paper. b) Description of your methodologies How did you do your study? c) Analysis (answers to your questions) might include tables and charts here too d) Recommendations (how could the organization improve--specifically its communication) e) Your personal feelings about the organization f) What you learned from doing this project g) Appendix that includes all raw data
7. The final product should be a 5-7 page paper. The paper needs to be typed, double spaced, 12 font, and well written.
Ethical Issues You will be entering a real organization where many people have jobs, careers, products and ideas at stake. You may be probing issues that are politically sensitive. It is essential that you honor any promises of confidentiality throughout your data collection and analysis. You may find that most candid and provocative quotes are the ones that bring your final report alive. However, these are also comments that could get some people into serious trouble, costing them promotions or even their jobs.
You must promise each person you interview that you will not reveal anything they tell you to anyone else in the organization. You should assure them that the only person to see the final report will be your team members and your instructor. You may offer to not use their names in the final report, but to only identify them by their title or department. If they prefer this, you should honor it.
Be careful of some well-meaning manager asking, “So, what did my marketing people say about the new initiative?” Even though you may be eager to provide feedback to this person, who might be very nice and helpful, be careful not to let an offhand remark slip. You will need to be very discreet about what people tell you. Simply respond, “I am not free to discuss my interviews with anyone else within the organization.”
If the organization shares information with you, but tells you not to duplicate or share it, please honor this agreement. The information can help inform your overall impressions without you having to disclose the specific details (even to me). If you have any uncertainty about which corporate data was meant to be confidential, check back with your company contact person who gave you the material or information.
I trust that none of you will deliberately violate the standards of confidentiality. I also strongly caution you against doing so accidentally. Please be very mindful how you transport and store your data (notes, quotes, tape recordings, etc.) was well as where you discuss the data with your group.
Careful not confuse organizational culture with corporate culture.
OrgCulture describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values (personal and cultural values) of an organization.
CorpCulture is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions and meanings that make a company unique.
The Views:
Deal & Kennedy's Strong Cultures
Values - beliefs and vision that members hold for the organization
Heros - people who come to exemplify the organization's values
Rite and rituals - the ceremonies through which an org celebrates its values
Cultural network - the communication system through which cultural values are instituted and reinforced.
Peters and Waterman's Excellent Cultures Ways to identify aspects of org culture that were prevalent in high performing companies deemed excellent by employees and experts.
Common themes emphasized the value of people and downplayed bureaucracy.
Moved analysis away from strictly rational models of organizing.
Think about this...
It's naive to believe there is a single culture that is responsible for organizational success.
These prescriptive approaches treat cultures as a thing that an org has, and by doing this we de-emphasize the complex process that an org created and sustained.
Org scholars now seek to describe and understand the unique ways in which org culture is developed and maintained - my preferred approach.
Alternative Approaches to Culture - Instead of seeing culture as a managing influence, study is turning to the emerging values, practices, narratives and artifacts that make up the org.
Org Cultures are Complicated - belief systems, lore, communication rules, and watercooler chatter are just a few ways to get a sense of culture.
Org Cultures are Emergent - created through social interaction of org members.
Performance, communication processes that allow for culture creation on an interactional, contextual, episodic, and improvisational level.
Org Cultures are not Unitary - many subcultures can exist in harmony, conflict indifference to others.
Org Cultures are Ambiguous
Schein's Model of OrgCulture - Edgar Schein was a management scholar and consultant interested in the role of leaders in the development and maintenance of org culture.
Schein's definition of culture - A social group, an org or other collective that i based on:
Group phenomenon - it can't just be one person as the culture depends on communication in order to perform.
Basic pattern of assumptions - beliefs that make up the culture are relatively enduring and hard to change.
Emerging and developing - they are learned and invented as a group meets internal and external challenges.
Socializing - developing an understanding of the assumptions and values that make up that org's culture.
Schein's Model Organizational culture consists of some aspects that are relatively more visible, as well as aspects that may lie below one’s conscious awareness. Organizational culture can be thought of as consisting of three interrelated levels.
At the deepest level, below our awareness lie basic assumptionsassumptionsTaken for granted beliefs about human nature and reality.. These assumptions are taken for granted, and they reflect beliefs about human nature and reality.
At the second level, valuesvaluesShared principles, standards, and goals. exist. Values are shared principles, standards, and goals.
Finally, at the surface we have artifactsartifactsThe visible and tangible elements of culture., or visible, tangible aspects of organizational culture. For example, in an organization one of the basic assumptions employees and managers share might be that happy employees benefit their organizations. This assumption could translate into values such as social equality, high quality relationships, and having fun. The artifacts reflecting such values might be an executive “open door” policy, an office layout that includes open spaces and gathering areas equipped with pool tables, and frequent company picnics in the work place.
For example, Alcoa designed their Headquarters to reflect the values of making people more visible, accessible and to promote collaboration. In other words, understanding the organization’s culture may start from observing its artifacts: the physical environment, employee interactions, company policies, reward systems, and other observable characteristics.
When you are interviewing for a position, observing the physical environment, how people dress, where they relax, and how they talk to others is definitely a good start to understanding the company’s culture. However, simply looking at these tangible aspects is unlikely to give a full picture of the organization. An important chunk of what makes up culture exists below one’s degree of awareness. The values and, deeper, the assumptions that shape the organization’s culture can be uncovered by observing how employees interact and the choices they make, as well as by inquiring about their beliefs and perceptions regarding what is right and appropriate behavior.
Points:
OrgCulture is reflected in a complicated et of assumptions, values, behaviors and artifacts.
OrgCultures change over time as groups adapt to environmental contingencies or issues.
OrgCulture is usually composed of subcultures existing in varying degrees of harmony or competition.
OrgCultures are created and maintained through the communication interactions of members.
Qualitative study - Ethnography The writing of culture sees it as a text to be read, and the ethnographer will try to become immersed and then create an understanding of that culture and wrote about what they experienced (sound familiar?). They try to create the cultural tale:
Realist - a documentary where everything is objective and factual.
Confessional - the ethnographer talks about their experience with the orgCulture.
Impressionist - a narrative in which the info about the culture is slipped in the story that could stand on its own merits.
Systems is the keyword here, stemming from the metaphor that a system is a complex organism that must interact with its environment in order to survive. So, organizations are organic.
General Systems Theory is the book on the concept of systems, written by Ludwig Van Bertalanfy. He believed that studying systems was just as appropriate for sociology as it was for biology.
Systems Components - A system is a breakdown of parts or components. In an organization, this would mean the people and departments that make up the company. So, to further the metaphor...
Hierarchical Orderings are arranged in highly complex ways that involve subsystems and supersystems. We look at how these smaller systems make up larger ones.
Interdependence implies that the functioning of one component or department of a system relies on the others in the system.
Permeability allows information and materials to flow in ad out of the organization.
Systems Processes - Input-throughput-output. The systems takes on material, changes that material and then releases it in a different form.
Exchange Process means there must be an change between the system and the environment. This process requires an exchange with the environment outside the system.
Feedback happens as a result in controlling the process. Corrective serves to keep a system on a steady course, and growth serves to transform the systems for better output.
System Properties
Holism, or nonsummativity - the system is more than the sum of its parts.
Equifinality - the system can reach the outcome via different conditions and by a variety of paths.
Negative Entropy - entropy is when a closed system runs down. An open system has the ability to sustain itself and grow. This is due to the flow of information that keeps the system dynamic in exchanging information to change.
Requisite Variety - Since a system is also a part of the environment, it must be responsive to the same complexity internally as externally. This allows the organization to keep up with market trends and adapt as needed.
Three Systems Theories Cybernetic Systems Theory - Derived from the Greek word for a boat steersman, cybernetics is a process that deals with how the physical , natural and organizational systems are steered toward reaching the systems goals. (Don't let the latent definition of "cyber" fool you.)
System goal is the target for a particular aspect of the systems operation.
Mechanisms are a variety of ways that can be used to reach the system goal.
Feedback is the information that indicates whether or not the goal is being reached.
Karl Weick's Theory of Organizing - Organizations exist in an environment. The goal is to reduce uncertainty. Enactment happens where different members of the organization create different meanings resulting in creating a different information environment. Equivocality is the level of unpredictability present in the information environment - ambiguity. Assembly rules (or recipes) guide sense-making in the organization. Retention saves these rules and cycles for future use.
New Science Systems Theory No all systems in nature and society are like those described by physicists. These systems may not be linear or striving toward equilibrium. Really?
Methods for Studying Organizational Systems A. Network Analysis - Analyzing the map pf people, social groups, and what it all means.
1. Properties of Networks:
Network content - data and info that flows within it
Network mode - the medium used to maintain the network
Density - how connected or unconnected the members are
Level of analysis - Analysis of the organization itself or the relationships it has outside the organization.
2. Properties of Network Links - How things are connected
Strength - amount of content, durability and connectivity
Symmetry - the equality of the networking individuals
Multiplexity - diversity of content that travels the network
3. Network Roles - The ways in which people are connected to ech other.
B. Modeling Techniques - This allows researchers to assess complex relationships among variables. This is a statistical technique to try and model behavior and events within the organization.
C. Case Analysis - A rich understanding of organizational systems by looking at certain issues through observation, interviews, questionnaires, and archives. This can explain how and why an organization develops and behaves the way it does. This is also your term project.
Dr. Rensis Likert has examined different types of organizations and leadership styles, and asserts that to achieve maximum profitability, good labor relations and high productivity, every organization must make optimum use of their human assets.
The form of the organization which will make greatest use of the human capacity, Likert contends, is highly effective work groups linked together in an overlapping pattern by other similarly effective groups.
Organizations at present have widely varying types of management style and Likert has identified four main systems:
Management Styles
The exploitive - authoritative system, where decisions are imposed on subordinates, where motivation is characterized by threats, where high levels of management have great responsibilities but lower levels have virtually none, where there is very little communication and no joint teamwork.
The benevolent - authoritative system, where leadership is by a condescending form of master-servant trust, where motivation is mainly by rewards, where managerial personnel feel responsibility but lower levels do not, where there is little communication and relatively little teamwork.
The consultative system, where leadership is by superiors who have substantial but not complete trust in their subordinates, where motivation is by rewards and some involvement, where a high proportion of personnel, especially those at the higher levels feel responsibility for achieving organization goals, where there is some communication (both vertical and horizontal) and a moderate amount of teamwork.
The participative - group system, which is the optimum solution, where leadership is by superiors who have; complete confidence in their subordinates, where motivation is by economic rewards based on goals which have been set in participation, where personnel at all levels feel real responsibility for the organizational goals, where there is much communication, and a substantial amount of cooperative teamwork.
This fourth system is the one which is the ideal for the profit oriented and human-concerned organization, and Likert says (The Human Organization, Mcgraw Hill, 1967) that all organizations should adopt this system.
To convert an organization, four main features of effective management must be put into practice:
The motivation to work must be fostered by modern principles and techniques, and not by the old system of rewards and threats.
Employees must be seen as people who have their own needs, desires and values and their self-worth must be maintained or enhanced.
An organization of tightly knit and highly effective work groups must be built up which are committed to achieving the objectives of the organization.
Supportive relationships must exist within each work group. These are characterized not by actual support, but by mutual respect.
The work groups which form the nuclei of the participative group system, are characterized by the group dynamics:
Members are skilled in leadership and membership roles for easy interaction.
The group has existed long enough to have developed a well established relaxed working relationship.
The members of the group are loyal to it and to each other since they have a high degree of mutual trust.
The norms, values and goals of the group are an expression of the values and needs of its members.
The members perform a "linking-pin" function and try to keep the goals of the different groups to which they belong in harmony with each other.
Work defines self - intrinsicBonus pay - extrinsic
Affiliation
Relational affiliation with coworkers
Safety
Non-threatening working conditions
Physiological
Making a living
McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y
Theory X Assumptions
The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.
Because of their dislike for work, most people must be controlled and threatened before they will work hard enough.
The average human prefers to be directed, dislikes responsibility, is unambiguous, and desires security above everything.
These assumptions lie behind most organizational principles today, and give rise both to "tough" management with punishments and tight controls, and "soft" management which aims at harmony at work.
Both these are "wrong" because man needs more than financial rewards at work, he also needs some deeper higher order motivation - the opportunity to fulfill himself.
Theory X managers do not give their staff this opportunity so that the employees behave in the expected fashion.
Theory Y Assumptions
The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest.
Control and punishment are not the only ways to make people work, man will direct himself if he is committed to the aims of the organization.
If a job is satisfying, then the result will be commitment to the organization.
The average man learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but to seek responsibility.
Imagination, creativity, and ingenuity can be used to solve work problems by a large number of employees.
Under the conditions of modern industrial life, the intellectual potentialities of the average man are only partially utilized.
Frederick Herzberg - Hygiene & Motivation
Frederick Herzberg contributed to human relations and motivation two theories of motivation:
Hygiene Theory
Motivation
Herzbergs' first component in his approach to motivation theory involves what are known as the hygiene factors and includes the work and organizational environment. These hygiene factors include:
The organization
Its policies and its administration
The kind of supervision (leadership and management, including perceptions) which people receive while on the job
These factors do not lead to higher levels of motivation but without them there is dissatisfaction.
The second component in Herzbergs' motivation theory involves what people actually do on the job and should be engineered into the jobs employees do in order to develop intrinsic motivation with the workforce. The motivators are
Achievement
Recognition
Growth / advancement
Interest in the job
These factors result from internal instincts in employees, yielding motivation rather than movement.
Both these approaches (hygiene and motivation) must be done simultaneously. Treat people as best you can so they have a minimum of dissatisfaction. Use people so they get achievement, recognition for achievement, interest, and responsibility and they can grow and advance in their work.
Therefore, the hygiene and motivation factors can be listed as follows:
Hygiene
Company policies and administration
Supervision
Working conditions and interpersonal relations
Salary, status and security
Motivators
Achievement
Recognition for achievement
Interest in the task
Responsibility for enlarged task
Growth and advancement to higher level tasks
Effects on Individuals of Working Environment
It will provide at least sufficient for his basic needs and often much more. For example, 50 years ago in the United Kingdom, food and shelter were a person's basic needs. Today, most families will consider that the basic needs also include a car, television, overseas holiday, etc.
It may or may not provide adequate security. Again, most individuals seek a secure job, there are others including some men on oil rigs, who seek high pay for a limited period but with limited security.
It provides an individual with an identity. As a member of an organization, he carries out a specific function.
It also gives the worker comradeship, freedom from boredom, and an interest during his working life.
It also provides self-fulfillment for individual where consideration has been given to ensure that the job is creative and gives job satisfaction.
It provides the individual with status. There is a status in all jobs providing the job content is investigated to make the work more interesting.
Effects on Work Groups of Working Environment
Rensis Likert has already described how the various management styles in an organization can effect the groups in an organization.
While the working environment will affect individuals, it will undoubtedly have a greater effect on working groups, since whilst an individual may have certain needs, he will not obtain those needs if the working environment does not provide the needs of the working group.
The working group is the instrument of society through which in large measure the individual acquires his attitudes, opinions, goals and ideals, it is also one of the fundamental sources of discipline and social controls.
So, the working environment has an effect on groups as follows:
It will affect the morale of the group.
It will determine whether the group achieves the objectives set by the organization.
It will determine whether the degree of cooperation provided by the group
It will motivate the group to give of their best.
It will determine whether the human relations within an organization are good or bad.
It will also affect the relations between management and trade unions.
From http://www.kernsanalysis.com/sjsu/ise250/history.htm
Frederick Taylor - Scientific Management
Description Frederick Taylor, with his theories of Scientific Management, started the era of modern management. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Frederick Taylor was decrying the "awkward, inefficient, or ill-directed movements of men" as a national loss. He advocated a change from the old system of personnel management to a new system of scientific management. Under personnel management, a captain of industry was expected to be personally brilliant. Taylor claimed that a group of ordinary men, following a scientific method would out perform the older "personally brilliant" captains of industry.
Taylor consistently sought to overthrow management "by rule of thumb" and replace it with actual timed observations leading to "the one best" practice. Following this philosophy he also advocated the systematic training of workers in "the one best practice" rather than allowing them personal discretion in their tasks. He believed that "a spirit of hearty cooperation" would develop between workers and management and that cooperation would ensure that the workers would follow the "one best practice." Under these philosophies Taylor further believed that the workload would be evenly shared between the workers and management with management performing the science and instruction and the workers performing the labor, each group doing "the work for which it was best suited."
Taylor's strongest positive legacy was the concept of breaking a complex task down in to a number of small subtasks, and optimizing the performance of the subtasks. This positive legacy leads to the stop-watch measured time trials which in turn lead to Taylor's strongest negative legacy. Many critics, both historical and contemporary have pointed out that Taylor's theories tend to "dehumanize" the workers. To modern readers, he stands convicted by his own words:
" … in almost all of the mechanic arts, the science which underlies each act of each workman is so great and amounts to so much that the workman who is best suited to actually doing the work is incapable of fully understanding this science, without the guidance and help of those who are working with him or over him, either through lack of education or through insufficient mental capacity."
And:
"to work according to scientific laws, the management must takeover and perform much of the work which is now left to the men; almost every act of the workman should be preceded by one or more preparatory acts of the management which enable him to do his work better and quicker than he otherwise could."
Environment Taylor's work was strongly influenced by his social/historical period. His lifetime (1856-1915) was during the Industrial Revolution. The overall industrial environment of this period is well documented by the Dicken's classic Hard Times or Sinclar's The Jungle. Autocratic management was the norm. The manufacturing community had the idea of interchangeable parts for almost a century. The sciences of physics and chemistry were bringing forth new miracles on a monthly basis.
One can see Taylor turning to "science" as a solution to the inefficiencies and injustices of the period. His idea of breaking a complex task into a sequence of simple subtasks closely mirrors the interchangeable parts ideas pioneered by Eli Whitney earlier in the century. Furthermore, the concepts of training the workers and developing "a hearty cooperation" represented a significant improvement over the feudal human relations of the time.
Successes Scientific management met with significant success. Taylor's personal work included papers on the science of cutting metal, coal shovel design, worker incentive schemes and a piece rate system for shop management. Scientific management's organizational influences can be seen in the development of the fields of industrial engineering, personnel, and quality control.
From an economic standpoint, Taylorism was an extreme success. Application of his methods yielded significant improvements in productivity. Improvements such as Taylor's shovel work at Bethlehem Steel Works (reducing the workers needed to shovel from 500 to 140) were typical.
Human Relations Movement - Hawthorne Works Experiments
Description If Taylor believed that science dictated that the highest productivity was found in "the one best way" and that way could be obtained by controlled experiment, Elton Mayo's experiences in the Hawthorne Works Experiments disproved those beliefs to the same extent that Michelson's experiments in 1926 disproved the existence of "ether." (And with results as startling as Rutherford's.)
The Hawthorne Studies started in the early 1920's as an attempt to determine the effects of lighting on worker productivity. When those experiments showed no clear correlation between light level and productivity the experiments then started looking at other factors. Working with a group of women, the experimenters made a number of changes, rest breaks, no rest breaks, free meals, no free meals, more hours in the work-day / work-week, fewer hours in the work-day / work-week. Their productivity went up at each change. Finally the women were put back to their original hours and conditions, and they set a productivity record.
This strongly disproved Taylor's beliefs in three ways. First, the experimenters determined that the women had become a team and that the social dynamics of the team were a stronger force on productivity than doing things "the one best way." Second, the women would vary their work methods to avoid boredom without harming overall productivity. Finally the group was not strongly supervised by management, but instead had a great deal of freedom.
These results made it clear that the group dynamics and social makeup of an organization were an extremely important force either for or against higher productivity. This caused the call for greater participation for the workers, greater trust and openness in the working environment and a greater attention to teams and groups in the work place.
Environment The human relations movement that stemmed from Mayo's Hawthorne Works Experiments was borne in a time of significant change. The Newtonian science that supported "the one best way" of doing things was being strongly challenged by the "new physics" results of Michalson, Rutherford and Einstein. Suddenly, even in the realm of "hard science" uncertainty and variation had found a place. In the work place there were strong pressures for shorter hours and employee stock ownership. As the effects of the 1929 stock market crash and following depression were felt, employee unions started to form.
Successes While Taylor's impacts were the establishment of the industrial engineering, quality control and personnel departments, the human relations movement's greatest impact came in what the organization's leadership and personnel department were doing. The seemingly new concepts of "group dynamics", "teamwork" and organizational "social systems" all stem from Mayo's work in the mid-1920's.
Max Weber - Bureaucracy
Description At roughly the same time, Max Weber was attempting to do for sociology what Taylor had done for industrial operations. Weber postulated that western civilization was shifting from "wertrational" (or value oriented) thinking, affective action (action derived from emotions), and traditional action (action derived from past precedent to "zweckational" (or technocratic) thinking. He believed that civilization was changing to seek technically optimal results at the expense of emotional or humanistic content.
Viewing the growth of large-scale organizations of all types during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Weber developed a set of principles for an "ideal" bureaucracy. These principles included: fixed and official jurisdictional areas, a firmly ordered hierarchy of super and subordination, management based on written records, thorough and expert training, official activity taking priority over other activities and that management of a given organization follows stable, knowable rules. The bureaucracy was envisioned as a large machine for attaining its goals in the most efficient manner possible.
Weber did not advocate bureaucracy, indeed, his writings show a strong caution for its excesses:
"…the more fully realized, the more bureaucracy "depersonalizes" itself, i.e., the more completely it succeeds in achieving the exclusion of love, hatred, and every purely personal, especially irrational and incalculable, feeling from the execution of official tasks"
or:
"By it the performance of each individual worker is mathematically measured, each man becomes a little cog in the machine and aware of this, his one preoccupation is whether he can become a bigger cog."
Environment Weber, as an economist and social historian, saw his environment transitioning from older emotion and tradition driven values to technological ones. It is unclear if he saw the tremendous growth in government, military and industrial size and complexity as a result of the efficiencies of bureaucracy, or their growth driving those organizations to bureaucracy.
Successes While Weber was fundamentally an observer rather than a designer, it is clear that his predictions have come true. His principles of an ideal bureaucracy still ring true today and many of the evils of today's bureaucracies come from their deviating from those ideal principles. Unfortunately, Weber was also successful in predicting that bureaucracies would have extreme difficulties dealing with individual cases.
It would have been fascinating to see how Weber would have integrated Mayo's results into his theories. It is probable that he would have seen the "group dynamics" as "noise" in the system, limiting the bureaucracy's potential for both efficiency and inhumanity.
Henri Fayol - Administration
Description With two exceptions, Henri Fayol’s theories of administration dovetail nicely into the bureaucratic superstructure described by Weber. Henri Fayol focuses on the personal duties of management at a much more granular level than Weber did. While Weber laid out principles for an ideal bureaucratic organization Fayol’s work is more directed at the management layer.
Fayol believed that management had five principle roles: to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control. Forecasting and planning was the act of anticipating the future and acting accordingly. Organization was the development of the institution's resources, both material and human. Commanding was keeping the institution’s actions and processes running. Co-ordination was the alignment and harmonization of the groups’ efforts. Finally, control meant that the above activities were performed in accordance with appropriate rules and procedures.
Fayol developed fourteen principles of administration to go along with management’s five primary roles. These principles are enumerated below:
Specialization/division of labor
Authority with responsibility
Discipline
Unity of command
Unity of direction
Subordination of individual interest to the general interest
Remuneration of staff
Centralization
Scalar chain/line of authority
Order
Equity
Stability of tenure
Initiative
Esprit de corps
The final two principles, initiative and esprit de corps, show a difference between Fayol’s concept of an ideal organization and Weber’s. Weber predicted a completely impersonal organization with little human level interaction between its members. Fayol clearly believed personal effort and team dynamics were part of a "ideal" organization.
Environment Fayol was a successful mining engineer and senior executive prior to publishing his principles of "administrative science." It is not clear from the literature reviewed if Fayol’s work was precipitated or influenced by Taylor’s. From the timing, 1911 publication of Taylor’s "The Principles of Scientific Management" to Fayol’s work in 1916, it is possible. Fayol was not primarily a theorist, but rather a successful senior manager who sought to bring order to his personal experiences.
Successes Fayol’s five principle roles of management are still actively practiced today. The author has found "Plan, Organize, Command, Co-ordinate and Control" written on one than one manager’s whiteboard during his career. The concept of giving appropriate authority with responsibility is also widely commented on (if not well practiced.) Unfortunately his principles of "unity of command" and "unity of direction" are consistently violated in "matrix management" the structure of choice for many of today’s companies.
Conclusion It is clear that modern organizations are strongly influenced by the theories of Taylor, Mayo, Weber and Fayol. Their precepts have become such a strong part of modern management that it is difficult to believe that these concepts were original and new at some point in history. The modern idea that these concepts are "common sense" is strong tribute to these founders.
Reference:
Print: 75 Years of Management Ideas and Practice, David Sibbet, September/October 1997 Supplement, Harvard Business Review, Reprint number 97500
The Hunters and the Hunted, Swartz, James, 1994, Productivity Press, Portland OR
What You Can Learn from 100 Years of Management Science: A Guide to Emerging Business Practice, Stauffer, David, January 1998, Harvard Business Review, Reprint number U9801A
July 7, 8, 9 Chapter ten: Change and Leadership Process Chapter eleven: Process of Emotion in the Workplace Part C Response paper due
July 14, 15, 16 Chapter twelve: Organizational Diversity Process Chapter thirteen: Technological Process Chapter fourteen: The Changing Landscape of Organizations Part D Response paper due Exam review
