last updated 10/2/2006
Critical
Approaches to
Organization
Premise: Power and Control is
central to organizational life. Organizations are locations of
domination.
Some Sources of Power:
(from G. Morgan.
(1986)
Images of
Organization. Sage, 159.)
-
Control of Scarce Resources
-
Use of Organization (cultural)
resources: structure, rules, norms, values, symbols
-
Control of decision-making (the hidden
face of power)
-
Control of information
-
Alliances, etc.
-
Control of technology
Control of discourse
(see 2 and 3 above) from
S. Deetz
-
Communication is constitutive, forming perceptions, never value
free, often metaphorical
-
There
are four ways control/decision-making (individual or collective, exclusive
or inclusive) is accomplished
-
Strategy:
"managerialism," - a systematic embrace of practices that assume
control is the ultimate organizational value. It depends on minimizing the
ability of any but managers to influence the organization -
often yields resistance.
-
Consent: willing
assent to managers decisions,
but often unreflected upon. It usually involves "buy-in" to the management view -
loyalty.
-
Involvement:
includes an
ability to express individual needs and views on the
organization's direction - forums exist but not necessarily influence.
-
Participation: meaningful,
democratic participation by "stakeholders" (cultural
participants) without privileging managerial or purely financial
interests.
-
Systematically Distorted Communication
blocks achievement of the Critical Approach goal of participation.(the
hidden face of power, suppression of conflict, discursive closure)
by participants' thinking their interests are something that is not
really in the participants' interests (e.g.: "Pay cuts will save all
our jobs").
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