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.
1
For extended answer see Essay 1, Section 1 and Essay 2, Section 1 and Appendix 1.
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?
Corporate culture can be “created”, however, often the most effective systems
of corporate culture require an “organic” feel, so as to combat dramaturgical
behaviour and an acknowledgement of the irony of corporate culture, where
management provides an artificial means to satisfy deep desires. Corporate
cultures can be created as follows:

Redesigning pay systems to reflect quality or customer care issues.

Introduction of uniforms/ company specific work wear.

Changes to corporate headquarters/ environments �Selection
procedures for aptitude/ attitude.

Decentralizing organizational structures/ profit centres.

Customer care training programs.

And combining this with the symbolic, visionary, and irrational
manifestations culture manifestations of culture
NB: the last option, the “symbolic” is often the most important, with legends,
etc. motivating (for free). E.g. Ferrari workers.
7. Broadly, why does Guest critique Peters and Waterman’s book?
Guest, primarily, debates the validity of P & W’s methodology.

Are top 100 companies better than highly growing companies?

Arte these characteristics limited to the top (they did feature in the
random control)

Is this subject to the post-hoc fallacy?
8. What is the evidence regarding organizations successfully managing
corporate culture?
Dominant management theory in a market, therefore cheap/productive? Allows
for the internalization of motivation through volunteerism.
9. What are the dangers of strong cultures?
There are several dangers of strong cultures; increased proclivity towards
dramaturgical behaviour, the dangers of being Agentic, greater personal risks of
losing job, decreased creativity due to standardized action and, finally,
increasing difficulty in change.
Lecture 6: Managing the Body
1. How have management historically related to the concept of the employee’s
body?
Originally (… Operation of the Mill) the employee was seen only as a “body”, to
be controlled and used as “hands” of the organization. However, not all labour
is so deconstructed.
Historically, management has been deeply ambivalent about the facets of the
employees body which were difficult (or outside the law) to manage. Thus,
management tries to manage the body through denial, containment or
commoditization.
2. What are some of the bodily practices that managers and other leaders of
organizations have tried to manage?
There are lots of examples, most can be linked with subversions; i.e. smoking,
eating, chewing gum, bathroom breaks, drugs, etc.
3. What is bureaucracy and what is McDonaldisation?
Bureaucracy is the disembodiment, stratification and deconstruction of the
labour process: “the exclusion from the conduct of official business of all love, all
hatred, all elements of purely personal sentiment – in general, everything which
is irrational and resists calculation”.
McDonaldisation is the replacement of all human judgment in the production
process with mechanized techniques. Instead of natural dialogue at the cash
register, all is scripted. Instead of discretion in soft drink pouring, a strictly
limited amount is poured.
4. What does it mean to talk of management as a “disembodied” practice?
Management/the organization taking the form of a disembodied non-existent
highest power, the basis of “the Agentic state”. Instead of morality being passed
on to a manager, a physical person, it is translated to “the management” as a
disembodied representation of the corporation as a separate legal entity.
“Management” also represents the organizational hierarchy as a structure.
5. What is expected of management in relation to their bodies?
Managers are expected to look like managers: suits, well groomed hair, strong
face, concealed emotions (for requisite companies); hip, suave (for others).
6. What ways are management now starting to intervene into the body of the
employee?
The four mentioned are: employee health programs, management of sleep,
management of smoking and management of drink and drug use. All have the
point of being “double edged”, replacing inefficiency with lack of control and
intervening in unbilled time.
Lecture 7: Managing Communication
1. What is “polyphony”?
Literally, many voices/tones at once. In terms of management, it is the opposite
of unitarism, whereby, instead of a singular “voice”, “direction” and opinion in
the workplace, there are many.
2. What is “parrhesia”?
Parrhesia is literally the term in rhetoric which means to speak the truth.
However, it implies not only freedom of speech, but the obligation to speak the
truth for the common good, even at personal risk. i.e. religious figures (Jesus),
political figures (Gandhi) and whistleblowers in the workplace.
3. What is “rhetoric”?
Creating/voicing an argument with the view to convince people.
4. What is the difference between parrhesia and rhetoric?
Rhetoric and parrhesia differ on several points:
Rhetoric
Aim:
To convince
Wielded by: Those with the upper hand
Flaws:
Can cause dramaturgical behaviour
Parrhesia
To Reveal
Those seeking leverage?
Can create Agentic followers
5. What forms of managerial or organizational communication can be
described as rhetorical?
All forms of managerial communication seek to convince, select information to
be communicated, etc. and can therefore be classed as rhetorical.
6. What employee practices can be described as examples of parrhesia?
Any employee communication practice that subverts the hierarchy of the
organization; e.g. whistle blowing, going over you’re manager’s head, etc.
Lecture 8: Managing Change and Innovation
1. How have work organizations changed according to popular management
writing?
There are many examples, all theoretically sound, not all practically helpful:
flattening hierarchies, post-bureaucracy, delayering, upskilling, etc.
2. How is change linked with anxiety?
Change has unknown results, anxiety comes from the unknown, therefore,
change leads to anxiety.
3. How is change linked with newness?
Change, by definition, changes things, and is therefore a cause and a response to
newness.
4. How is change linked with consumption?
Change is linked with anxiety, anxiety is linked with consumption (to relieve that
anxiety), consumption produces change, etc.
5. What are “management gurus” and what is the “management advice
industry?
Management gurus are those who, through success in an industry or academia,
are thought to be at the forefront of management knowledge. They often work
within the management advice industry. The management advice industry does
two things: firstly, they provide a local for the cycle described in Q8.4; secondly,
they allow managers another dimension in which to “look up and look around”,
see reading 4.
6. What role do they play in promoting anxiety, consumption, amnesia and
change in organizations?
These agents say that their method is panaceaic, creating angst based on the
inferiority of current systems. They promote this new method to advisors, who
“purchase” into the system, consuming this method. When the next one comes,
the call it an advance, and the managers choose to ignore their previous change
so as to not reflect personal failing.
Lecture 9: Managing Resistance
1. What is unitarism in management thought?
The theory of unitarism states that all within an organization is uniform, a single
opinion, perspective, view for the future, etc.
2. What are the main assumptions of management texts regarding employee
resistance?
Essentially, that it cannot be effective, is an employee (rather than an
organizational) failing and has to be controlled (or eradicated) rather than
harnessed.
3. What might be limiting with these ways of understanding resistance?
This understanding has several flaws:

The organization is not able to grow through resistance

The root of the resistance is not addressed, and is thus more persuasive

It further stratifies the organization

It refuses to allow for low level unilateral communication and can lead to
parrhesic external communication
4. How can resistance be understood differently?
Resistance can also be seen as a means of communication, a potential for
development and a steam valve mechanism for the workers.
5. What does it mean to understand resistance as productive, as potentially
positive, and as created by power?
This is the positive way of engaging with resistance, benefitting from it and
reading the information communicated by the act.
Lecture 10: Managing Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR)
1. What are the origins of Business Ethics and CSR?
After the general deregulation of Thatcher/Reagan, there were many industrial
mishaps. Organizations were threatened with re-regulation. Instead, to ease
popular and governmental angst, the companies said that they will regulate
themselves with a “triple bottom line” i.e. CSR approach, whereby they
regulated themselves and promoted internalized health, safety and ethical
regulation.
2. What is Business Ethics?
The internalized system of moral regulation reflecting society’s bounds of
acceptable business practice.
3. How is it managed within the organization?
There are many ways to manage business ethics within an organization:

Manage image: the corporate goals changing to reflect the new
ethical/moral stance

Internal training programs

Legally enforceable industry wide ethical codes

Internal ethical suggestions
4. What are codes of conduct and what are the critiques of such codes?
Codes of conduct are non-legal voluntary codes of recommended action within
an organization. The critique of such codes are derived from the fact that most
codes are created as a way to mitigate liability (an employee cannot sue the
employer for doing something wrong if it is written in the code of conduct that it
cannot be done), and as an excuse to get rid of employees, only enforced when
politically viable.
5. What is CSR?
CSR is corporate social responsibility, the practices and policies voluntarily
undertaken by business as a response to the questioning of its ethics and effects
on wider stakeholders.
6. What are the critiques of both Business Ethics and CSR?
The primary critique of Business Ethics and CSR is the fact that: 1) organizations
are doing these to appease the public and 2) that the public wants to believe,
therefore, in essence, they are both rather shallow constructions.
7. Is management and organization unethical?
There is no correct answer here, since it is both ethical and unethical. Though,
interestingly, since ethics are the aggregate of society’s ethics, and corporations
are literally the same (striving for the maximum acceptable profit for its
shareholder), it is impossible for a corporation to be unethical.
Lecture 11: Managing Organizational Design
1. What is organizational design?
Organizational design is the rational structure, hierarchy and processes of a
company.
2. What are the range of contingencies that can influence structural decisions?
There are many, but the most common are: size, environment, technology and
the nature of the workforce. I would also contend that industry-wide stability is
a contingency, as a more relaxed organizational design is more appropriate for a
more unstable industry.
3. Why might no decisions we, or others, make be regarded as objective or
perfectly rational?
All decisions are based on the knowledge of the decision maker. All decision
makers are influenced by societal norms, ethical codes, assumptions and
emotions in decision making and cannot therefore be regarded as perfectly
rational.
4. What is bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy?
For bureaucracy see q6.3.
Post-bureaucracy is a move towards a more fluid, natural “soft” approach at
management which seeks not to deskill, but to up skill, delayer, remove red tape
etc. for increased efficiency i.e. the brazil company
5. What is Taylorism?
The scientific micromanagement of all production processes.
6. What is Cooke’s broad argument regarding slavery and management?
Management started no in the industrial revolution, but earlier, in colonialism
and slavery.
Lecture 12: Managing Globalisation
1. What are the main benefits of globalization for business?
Cheaper production costs (labour and other inputs) and larger markets.
2. What are the benefits and costs of globalization for other groups and people?
The benefits for consumers are cheaper products. For developing nations,
increased investment inflow. For people in developing nations, jobs. The
disadvantage is the labour mobility making the jobs dependant on lower
working conditions, limiting the nation’s potential for growth.
3. What are economic processing zones?
Economic processing zones are areas within a country, set up by the
government, where economic conditions and rules are different. Security and
infrastructure might be provided, minimum wages, working conditions and
maximum hours might be waived. These are created to promote investment
with lower legislative costs and shared infrastructure/labour pool training costs.
4. What is work like within these zones?
Not ideal, since minimum working conditions are waived.
5. Why is there likely to be a large source of cheap and relatively disposable
employees for a long time to come?
The mobility of labour demand does not allow a country to develop past the
sweatshop stage, and thus labour is discontinuously employed, guaranteeing
long run cheap and disposable labour.
6. What has been the function and effect of the IMF and the World Bank in
providing a more business friendly global environment?
A developing country in financial crisis appeals to the IMF and the World Bank
for emergency relief funds. They provide them in exchange for promises that
they will be spent on imports (tied aid), or with the condition of economic
reform (enforcing euro/us style economic ideals installed), even if this might not
be in the best interest of the host country. One might argue that this is because
of the 1 dollar 1 vote contribution policy and the US’s large donations and,
therefore voting rights within these organizations.
Readings
Reading 1: “The ugly face” (Morgan, 2006)2
Key point: that an organization’s relationship with employees and the rest of the
world is relatively one sided, can be described as dominative, and, perhaps,
dangerous.
1. What, according to Morgan, are Weber, Michels and Marx’s different
understandings of the roots of organizational domination?
Weber speculated that there are two methods of domination. The first, Direct
domination, occurred through coercion with direct force or threat of force. The
second, Indirect domination, is when a manager imposes rule whilst those
subordinate believe he is allowed to do so. This comes in the form of
charismatic domination, whereby people follow the leader because of individual
charisma; traditional domination, whereby people follow the hierarchy as it is
already established (either via fiscal relationship, in the feudal case, or social
relationship, in the patriarchal case); and rational-legal domination, whereby
people rationalize away their right to individuity.
Michels introduced the “iron law of oligarchy”, whereby the leadership of an
organization will always fall to a small group, despite intentions. This is created
by the stratification of the organization and the downwards stickiness of rank.
Finally, Marx stipulated that organizations dominate through rationalization with
the view to generate surplus capital. Furthermore, he stated that workers are
subservient to this because the organization provides them a means to social
climbing.
2. Morgan suggests that the domination and exploitation of disadvantaged
groups is an enduring feature of modern organizations. Explain this
argument.
Those that are at a disadvantage are less picky, price takers, per se. As such,
they are more willing to be dominated in organizations. They do what “nobody
else wants to”.
3. To what extent can the appalling working conditions and exploitation that
Karl Marx wrote about in Das Kapital be compare with the more recent
health and safety abuses in industrial workplaces outlined by Morgan?
They are comparable in their own contexts.
2
For more details see extended notes, this is a Summary!
4. Why might getting a white-collar or managerial position not be good for your
health?
Increased stress and a disturbing proclivity towards being murdered.
5. What, according to Morgan, are the potential problems with the size and
power of multi-national corporations?
They are becoming bigger than nations. They are not constitutionally bound and
will therefore sacrifice rights for profits. They are overpowering the nations in
which they operate.
6. Having read Morgan, do you think that organizations are instruments of
domination? Whatever your answers here, make it with reference to some of
the examples that Morgan gives.
I do not think that organizations are instruments of domination, but, rather, that
domination is a tool used by organizations, sometimes outside of ethical
standards, to achieve their goals.
Reading 2: “The power of organization of the organization of power?”
(Knights & Roberts, 1982)
Key point: that “power” is held not by an individual or by a position, but, rather, in
the relationships between people within a group.
1. What, according to the authors, is the “power of organization” (i.e. why do
we choose to organize)? And, why is this power seldom fully realized in
modern organizations?
As Knights and Roberts succinctly surmise, the “power of organization” lies in
the fact that an organization is greater than the sum of its parts (essentially,
economies of scale, scope and increasing marginal returns to scale).
2. For each company (A, B, C and D) described;
a) Outline the forms of control evidenced by the company.
b) Outline employee’s responses to these forms of control
c) Explain why, for Knights and Roberts, each organization has failed to fully
realize the “power” or potential of organizations.
A
Form of Control
Coercion, surveillance
Employee Resistance
Mental distancing, leaving
the company
B
Counter coercion
Union counter coercion,
skiving
C
Bureaucratic
Administration, close
supervision
Dramaturgical behaviour,
looking for the short-term
“hard-sell”
D Bureaucracy with a
Dramaturgical behaviour,
Why has it failed?
Abuse of power, power as
derived from status, “spiral of
control and mistrust”
Escalating measures of
coercion, no equilibrium of
power reached
Abusing trust, development of
authoritative power relations,
employees with short term
perspectives.
Constant pressure on staff to
smile
losing faith after being told
they had “management
potential”
prove themselves
3. Returning to Company D for a moment. This company can perhaps be
regarded as closest to much of the current thinking about organizational
“best practice”. What was it about the forms of control operating in this
organization that Knights and Roberts still saw as not ideal?
Whilst Company D did see that power is in relationships, these relationships
were manipulative and unbalanced, with “carrot dangling” abusing trust, and, as
a result, many workers losing faith in the organization.
4. In their conclusion, Knights and Roberts write that “the ‘company’ or the
‘organization’ almost seemed to take on the form of an alien entity which had a
life of its own, was driven by mysterious forces, and which constrained and
restricted individuals in it”. What do you think they mean by this? Try to think
of other examples of this happening in your or other’s relationships with a
range of organizations.
All members of the organization seem to defer to “the organization” or “the
management” as if they are Agentic towards them, pushing their moral
responsibility towards an alien entity. E.g. Nazi’s in Nuremburg trial, The Wave,
or, on a positive not, soccer teams and their fans/superstitions.
Reading 3: “Can culture be managed? Working with “raw” material:
the case of the English slaughter-men” (Akroyd & Crowdy, 1990)
Key point: that organic corporate culture, whilst not necessarily moral, is effective in
increasing productivity and managing work ethic.
1. Describe the nature of the job that these employees perform and the
conditions of the environment they work in.
The workers do a dirty, relatively shunned job in a dirty, primeval workplace
which leads them to be social pariahs.
2. Given the nature of this work how can you explain these employees’ high
levels of performance and commitment?
These workers bond together, as “accomplices” in immorality, stimulating
brotherhood and a deep pride in the job. An “organic” corporate culture was
formed.
3. Describe the nature of the “harassments”, “degradations”, “demonstrations”,
“wars” and “set pieces” engages in by these employees. Try to explain what
social function these acts performed for these employees.
Each of the above served to create and maintain the hierarchy in the organic
micro-organization within the plant. Furthermore, they served to discipline
those who did not work to standard and further bond the group through gross
communal immorality.
4. To what extent is their high commitment and performance a consequence of
management practices?
The reason why this corporate culture is so effective is because it is organic, not
artificial. However, it is management’s practice of grooming it (through per-unit
output pegged wages, turning a blind eye, etc.) that the organizations
productivity continues.
5. If you were the manager with direct responsibility for these employees in
this organization, what changes do you think you would have to implement?
How would you try to implement these changes to give them the best chance
of being effective?
I would foster the culture the micro-hierarchy that has evolved, only changing it
so that it is no longer based on health-code/moral standard breaking and
perverted assaults. This would be done through educating the newer workers
and placing responsibility on the older workers, not demanding, but, rather,
encouraging civility.
Reading 4: “Looking up and looking around” (Jackall, 1988)
Key point: that managers are often scared of making choices, and, instead, in an
effort to allow blame to be shifted in the future, look to follow the choices of their
peers and superiors.
1. Why, according to Jackall’s research, might managers be fearful of taking
decisions?
They are fearful of making decisions because they are fearful of the
consequences if the decisions turn out to be bad ones.
2. Explain what Jackal means by “looking up and looking around” and why,
when faced with having to make a non-routine decision, managers engage in
this practice.
Looking up and looking around refers to following the practices/teachings of
peers and superiors in decision making. In making non-routine decision making,
blame can be passed on using this technique.
3. Why do the managers that Jackall studied think of the short-term, rather
than the long-term consequences of their actions?
You can get fired for short-term losses, and can be praised for short-term gains
even in the light of long-term losses.
4. Explain what Jackall means by the term “milking the business”?
Looking for short-term gain by reducing costs at the expense of long-term
growth, allowing for “raises” and the shift of responsibility.
5. How does “short term” thinking and “milking the business” enable the
managers in Jackall’s study to advance their careers even while the
businesses they were in charge of may be negatively affected for the longer
term?
They are judged in the short term, blame is passed, the company suffers and
they go forward.
6. What might Jackall’s research tell us about the widespread assumption that
high-level corporate management is all about making rational, strategic
decisions for the long term good of the organization?
The assumption is almost correct. The decisions are made for the good of the
individual.
Reading 5: “You asked for it: Christmas at the bosses expense”
(Rosen, 1988)
Key Point: That corporate culture is somewhat effective at maintaining hierarchy and
social cohesion within an organization, although it is artificial, is known to be so, and,
thus, faces the appropriate resistance.
1. Rosen argues that the Christmas party needs to be understood as more than
just an inconsequential social event. Rather, he argues that it “blurs the
boundaries between that which is work and play, instrumental and moral,
inside and outside” and by doing so ties the individual more closely to the
organization. Explain this argument.
His argument is that the Christmas party allows the organization to transcend
the label of workplace and become an integral part of the worker’s life, whereby
this interdependence “ties the individual more closely to the organization”.
2. The management of employees, particularly highly educated employees, is
often undertaken through attempts to control not just overt behavior but
also symbolic relations and identifications with the organization. Thinking
outside the example of the Rosen article, in what other ways is
organizational member’s identification with organizations encouraged?
Many examples, casual Friday, employee training programs, employee of the
month programs, etc. However, I disagree with the assertion that behavior and
identification are being managed; if identity is managed than behavior and hard
work is internally motivated.
3. What function do the comedy skits at the party perform both in reaffirming
but also in questioning the social order of the organization? What might this
tell us more generally about the difficulty of ensuring control in
organizations?
The skits question social order in their content. However, their content is
affirmed by the social order, and, thus, only the dissent that is deemed
acceptable is shown, an apparent irony. Furthermore, in assessing the flaws of
the organization in a comedic manner, the problems are brought forward and
lessened without bitterness. Finally, in allowing for the skits, the organization is
allowing for a steam valve mechanism allowing dissent without disobedience, in
the Milgramic frame.
Control in organization is fickle. The multi-faceted nature of this event highlights
this.
4. If organizations are managed not just by rules, procedures, authority and the
like, but by intangible things such as norms, values, and culture, does this
make organizations more or less stable, powerful and enduring in your
view?
I believe that organizational culture and control through intangible manners,
organizations are made more stable, productive and moral. However, like
globalization, it decreases the frequency but increases the severity of global
events.
Reading 6: “The devil in high heels: drugs, symbolism and Kate Moss”
(Acevedo, Warren, & Wray-Bliss, 2009)
Key Point: that managers are beginning to finely manage the body, in ironic ways
sometimes (promoting and then shunning a certain image) outside the bounds of the
workplace.
1. Morgan described organizations as instruments of organization. What,
according to Cavanaugh and Prasad, does the concept of organization more
commonly symbolize for these people?
Cavanaugh and Prasad say that organizations represent the rational ordered and
safe aspects of society.
2. Why, according to Cavanaugh and Prasad, does employee drug taking
present a particular symbolic threat?
Drug taking is illegal and represents the opposite of what organizations
represent. Thus, drug taking, even outside of work, reduces the employees
ability to be bound.
3. How might this threat also intersect with the concept of the feminine body?
The feminine historically represents temptation, as do drugs.
4. Why and how are fashion supermodels’ bodies used by organizations to
enhance their commercial activities?
This escapism to temptation in a sea of conformity is alluring, and, as such, is
effective advertising.
5. What was Kate Moss’ particular appeal as a valuable commodity for the
managers of these organizations? Why do the authors suggest that this
shows the company H&M to be hypocritical in their dismissal of Kate Moss
for her alleged drug use?
She represented both childhood innocence and sexuality. This adult sexuality
included the whole rock n roll shebang, with drugs, etc. This was the image she
was hired for. In being caught living up to this image, it also caused her
dismissal. Herein lies the irony.
6. Do you think that what employees do with their body in their leisure time
should be something that managers of commercial organizations eek to
manage?
They do seek to manage the body outside of work. This is their business if it
affects in work productivity. However, a line has been crossed.
Reading 7: “The branding of learning” (Klein, 2001)
Key Point: that marketing, in infiltrating into the school system, has crossed a line.
1. Explain what a brand is.
A Brand is an identifiable, marketable symbol of a corporation that has
anthropomorphic qualities.
2. Irrelevant
3. What are the reasons that commercial organizations would want their brand
in educational establishments? What does this branding of school and
university space communicate?
They are ideal for marketing since the subjects are pliable, will spend for a long
time (and have a proclivity for brand loyalty) and are influential. This space
communicates a sort of charity, as well as a sort of sell-out.
4. What range of arguments do commercial and educational organizations put
forward to defend this form of communication in schools and universities?
The marketing is usually passive, provides additional funds and facilities for
deprived utilities. They argue that it is no less moral than other forms of
advertisement.
5. What arguments does Klein articulate against this form of communication?
Breaks down academic objectivity, children aren’t knowledgeable enough to
take marketing with a grain of salt. The best examples were the Nike Shoe and
the TV+.
6. “The branding of education is simply good business communication”,
discuss.
Flawed because of the word “simply”. Furthermore, the negative attitude that
this marketing has created might outweigh the marketing benefits. It is my view
that passive advertising in school (such as donating Macs and getting kids to like
them, rather than making them watch ads everyday) is fine.
Reading 8: “Explaining the succession of management fads”
(Huczynski, 1993)
Key Point: That management fads are not logically chosen, but are, rather, the
product of anxiety and misinformation.
1. What does Huczynski mean by the term management fad?
A short lived, widely adopted management/organizational system.
2. Summarize the “organizational”, “competition” and “individual” explanations
for management fads. How might adopting a new “fad” help with the
management of employees, even if it is unsuccessful? What is the “panacea
conspiracy”?
Organizational faddism requires “groupthink”, whereby perception of a problem
increases with it being pointed out by a management fad, and this problem is
thought to require fixing. The competition theory of fads says that a manager is
scared of being on the trailing edge of management, and that he will adopt new
management fads out of the chance that they will be successful, since his
competition will too. The individual might see this fad as a chance to progress in
his career, and that the benefit of success is much higher than the detriment of
failure.
Change allows managers to account for incongruencies in employee behavior, as
well as creating fear, allowing stricter, closer and more widely obeyed employee
management.
The panacea conspiracy stipulates that “this new fad will be the one to solve all
your problems”.
3. Why do managers continue to seek management fads?
The above, + the cycle described in L8.4.
4. How much do managers read a week? How are they able to scrutinize the
“solutions” presented to them?
They do not read much. They accept the solutions presented to them by
“industry leaders”.
5. How would you characterise managerial decision making?
Managers make decisions from “gut feelings”, irrationally and based on
emotion. Acknowledgement of this will allow organizations to implement
managerial decision review, which will enforce rational.
Reading 9: “The Prisoner” (McIlvanney, 1989)3
Key Point: that resistance will occur as a product of domination, and allows for nonhierarchical unilateral communication.
1. What forms of control is McQueen subject to? How is this similar to
employees?
Physical and moral controls, based on extreme dominative power. Employees
are subject to similar controls, just to a lesser extent.
2. Document the multiple ways that the prisoner resists.
The most important is the original dissent, which allows for the non hierarchical
communication, the second form of resistance being the ironic and constructed
manner of conversation with the warder.
3. What is he resisting? Is the target of his resistance constant?
He is resisting his dehumanization and his being absolutely dominated. At first
he is resisting broken promises, then this sublimates during the dialogue to
general mistreatment and, finally, moral isolation.
4. What does this do for McQueen?
It gives him access to the highest person in the hierarchy, with whom he can
discuss the object of his resistance. Furthermore, it serves as a steam valve.
5. How is his resistance understood by the governor?
As a petty and logically flawed protest against a better than usual meal.
6. How is this managed by the governor, is this effective?
He manages it by talking the topic through with McQueen, quite effectively,
although he failed to target the root cause of the dissent, only calming the
superficial trigger.
3
For more info see Essay 2
7. Who has more freedom in this story and why?
Arguably, McQueen, since he has nothing to lose and is not bound by the same
rules as the governor. This can be sublimated into a management context
whereby employers are bound by higher standards.
Reading 10: “The moral character of management practice”4
(Roberts, 1984)
Key Point: That management is a morally engaged activity, and that this morality
should not be ignored.
1. Why is management seen as a morally neutral activity?
Managers are agents of the corporation, and are not doing things based on
personal feelings but for the good of the company.
2. Why isn’t it morally neutral?
As per Nuremberg trials and Milgram experiments, just because you are doing it
on behalf of someone, it does not make you any less culpable.
3. Outline the two different management styles?
D is dominative and short-term goal based. V is more on the lines of company D
in reading 2, with an eye out for employees as peers.
4. How do they treat Rita? How does this affect her performance?
D used threats, V used encouragement. Rita worked better with V.
5. Why does Roberts argue that V’s management style is still immoral
It is friendly but patronizing, still using the “best interest of the organization” as
a shield against moral responsibility.
6. Roberts says that effective organizational control is based on morality,
though current production relationships make an implementation of this
difficult. What does this mean?
Current production methods depend on the depersonalization of management
to achieve efficiency. Roberts says that by moralizing management, efficiency is
inspired, rather than enforced.
Reading 11: “The Corporation’s rise to dominance” (Bakan, 2004)
Key Point: That Corporations are inevitably psychopathic in their singular, legislated
aim.
4
Related to Milgram.
1. What were the early suspicions about and warnings against the corporation
based upon?
The creation of fake organizations to suck in capital, as well as to earn money
from market fluctuations.
2. What is the genius of the corporation as a business form? What is the
meaning of limited liability? What are the dangers of limited liability?
The genius of corporation is its ability to harvest capital whilst maintaining
control. Limited liability means that investors are only liable for the sum of their
investment. The dangers of limited liability are moral disconnection from the
company, because of lowered stakes.
3. How and when did corporations become “legal persons” and what are the
implications of this?
In the US at the same time as the emancipation of slaves. This allowed for
limited liability as well as the company’s right to sue and be sued.
4. We have seen arguments linking the size of corporations to the possibility of
domination and abuse. How did the big companies of the early 1900’s
assuage such fears? How are such practices evidenced by today’s large
corporations?
They advertised as being “the neighborhood corporation”, emphasizing the
human link. Today’s large corporations are using advertising alongside CSR to
assuage such fears.
5. Describe the process whereby corporations become autonomous from their
host-nations.
They outgrow their home nation, expand, via globalization, and become MNC’s.
6. What are corporations designed to do? Who controls them?
Corporations look to make a profit. They are controlled by shareholders and
elected board members.
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