Concepts of Identity and Organisations - Essay Example

? Essay on the Concepts of Identity and Organisations: An Assessment of the Structures and Systems that Define Organisations in the Contemporary Society Introduction An organisation takes input from the external environment and processes it to outputs (Cole, 2003). Organisations come together to combine factors of production to produce goods for members of the society to purchase (Cole, 2003). This means that such entities exist for various purposes. There various sociological trends and concepts that could be used to view the genesis and significance of organisations in the world. These theories attempt to provide a justification for the theorisation of organisations and businesses as we have today. They provide a basis for describing and analysing the structures and foundations of organisations in the world and how humanity evolved from an unstructured world to a system whereby the concept of work takes the centre-stage and organisations are at the forefront of societies. This paper examines four important concepts related to organisations: identity, power, inequality and insecurity. The paper would answer the research question: what is the value of the four concepts of organisation and identity provides for the conceptualisation and understanding of management practices and systems in organisations. In attaining this end, the following objectives would be examined: 1. An assessment of organisational behaviour and conceptualisation of organisations. 2. An examination of the concept of organisational identity and internal structures. 3. An evaluation of the position of power and inequality in organisations. 4. The conceptualisation of the distribution of power, insecurity and corporate justice. Portions of this paper would involve the writer's personal experiences as an importer. The writer has been involved in the importation of products from China into the UK. The writer makes his profits from the cost variations and differences in prices between China and the UK. This profit provides him with a source of livelihood and the potential of recreating this income generation opportunity in the form of an organisation is examined at various points in the essay. Organisational Behaviour & Conceptualisation of Organisations Knights and Morgen (1993) argue that consumptions marks the modern society. This is because in the world today, there is the free economy where people work and the are free to do whatever they want. Things are fixed by the concepts of demand and supply. Hence, there is the need for people to come together to define the system through which they can work and provide the best results and optimise resources. Consumerism is in vogue because people are not restricted and governments do not continue to wield the control that they had before the Second World War (Knights and Morgen, 1993). In most nations around the world, there is the freedom to run commercial entities and get things to happen. This has led to a trend where organisations run the affairs of individuals and groups in different parts of the world. Consumption tends to influence the way people come together to do things. Consumption is crucial in the world today and demand and supply define how things must be done and how resources should be allocated. This laissez-faire system has encouraged the creation of groupings for effective work and the attainment of results. Consumption trends provide the roadmap for people to put factors of production together to attain results. This has provided the impetus for the creation of businesses and organisations in different parts of the world. The the trends in consumerism has provided the impetus for corporate entities to come together and grow as they pursue their economic ends through the provision of goods and services for consumers to use to satisfy their needs and aspirations. Drawing into my personal experience, I can identify that the importation industry revolves greatly around consumerism. In my sector of operations, most companies involved in the industry provide goods and services for British consumers. These consumers have various desires for products like mobile phones, consumer electronics and other appliances. These products are often sold at very high prices in the UK. In spite of these gross price hikes, consumers continue to buy and change their products in the UK at a regular basis. As a trader, I notice that organisations in this sector continue to build their fortunes from the fact that consumers continue to demand products even when they are at high prices. Generally, in China, prices are far lower. However, in the UK, the high prices do not discourage demand. So organisations in this field continue to import into the UK markets and they continue to make more and more money and profits. Consumerism has led to the creation of businesses in respond to demand. Thus, if people have the desire to get variety in their offerings on television, shareholders come together, pool their resources and build cable and satellite businesses. This offers several different channels from different parts of the world and people get the chance to order their systems through a convenient way of getting services from such a company. When this company grows and it sees more opportunity in real estate, it could invest its profits into the buying and selling of houses to meet the needs of consumers. Thus, consumerism and demand for products and services have laid the foundation for the creation of organisations and keeping them running. Once organisations are running, they make changes to suit the demands of consumers. This leads to various ways of adjusting to meet demand and expectations of people in the general public. Knights and Morgan define this as flexible specialisation (1993). Flexible specialisation refers to the ways and means through which organisations prepare to change and modify their ways and systems to meet changes in the economic environment. Flexible specialisation allows businesses to adjust their strategies in order to take up the opportunities in the external environment and reduce threats that they face. In summary, organisations in the modern world are motivated by the trends and systems that shape today's demand and supply. In my sector of operation, which is international trade, the demand continues to increase and the industry continues to thrive because of the unrelenting demand in the British market. The modern trend of consumerism explains why businesses and entities tend to spend more of their resources trying to improve their earnings through the provision of services to consumers who can afford to buy them. Organisations adapt to meet the changes in the external environment this leads to the changes in their mission and vision and this eventually influences their strategies and allows them to position themselves for the best results. Identity & Structures in Organisations Other thinkers identify that individuality is important and central in the operation of people and in defining the personality of a person or group (Fromm, 1991). From goes further to say that “freedom characterises the human existence... changes according to man's awareness and conception of himself as an independent and separate entity” (Fromm, 1991: 3). The position of Fromm indicates that we all want unique identifications. People want to be separate from other groups and define their own existence. We all work to create an enabling environment for ourselves. Independence is an inherent feature of human beings and we all aspire to meet that end. Individuality characterises our self strengths and it allows the human being to define his or her control of the natural environment (Fromm, 1991). The creation of individuality sometimes causes people to seek to create livelihoods and situations that can enable them to pursue their vision of gaining control over the natural environment and the community within which they live in. The need for the creation of an enabling environment where individual views and visions could be realize led to the creation of communities which also led to the formation of groups to attain results and visions that people had. This could be seen to be one of the reasons why organisations continue to exist. Individuals want to come together to create the kind of environment that they desire to attain their vision and results as and how they want it. This creates the motivation for forming groups and organisations to protect visions and attain ends that people aspire to attain. From my personal experience, I can say that I started trading in products between the UK and China because I felt there was the demand for such products and I thought I could benefit from it. As I continued to do this, I got more partners and more associates to conduct the business with. This increased and improved from time to time because there were more parties who were interested in joining. In the larger sense, most individuals and organisations start the way I started. And as their businesses grew, they decided to incorporate the business and grow it to greater levels and heights. This led to the inevitable formation of organisations which was the best way to organise business interests for optimal results. The organisation is a medium through which human beings express their personality and uniqueness. They are able to create a system where their visions and aspirations can be discharged. Also, the organisation tends to create a culture and a system that reflects the individuals who come together to form them. Organisations create a collective representation of the persons who make up such an entity. This creates the unique and distinct organisational culture that encompasses the group and organsiation that a person works for. It is the outward reflection of the actual uniqueness and distinctiveness of the people who make up the organisation. As individuals continue to maintain organisations, there are changes in the organisation that affects the organisation as a whole. Typically, these changes would cause the organisation and its members to make adjustments which goes to reflect the trends and the realities. This provides the basis for strategic planning and strategic management. This is a collective change to the society to enable the business to survive and thrive through different conditions and eras. Fromm goes on to say that the Renaissance and Reformation in Europe had an influence on institutions and the way of doing business (1993). This means that widespread changes and reforms in a given society has far reaching influences on groups, businesses and other entities that causes them to change to also thrive into the society. Motivation and Leadership Motivation and leadership are often proven in scientific terms (Sievers, 1989). Motivation refers to the drive and the force that keep people interested in attaining a specific end. Motivation and leadership are often seen in the individual terms. Theorists like Maslow and the like view motivation in terms of the individual but in areas like self-actualization and the attainment of higher results, the motivation of a person is linked to the results that the group attains. Organisations provide an avenue for the attainment of synergistic results and affairs. The concept of motivation provides the impetus for the creation of instinct drive and the linkage of individual results with group results. Motivation is about providing support for the group and enhance the need for dependencies. As an individual, my motivation to do business helped me to start operating my trading entity which linked me up to the UK and China. However, such a vision and motivation is highly limited. From my personal experiences, I have come to believe that no man is an island. And it is not possible for a single individual to attain the topmost results in any venture. So in order to get the best results, an individual needs to link up with other persons and also register an impersonal entity that would be separate from the person. This gives room for the creation of a good business system and structure and the attainment of best results and services. Thus, it can be said from my personal experiences that organisations provide the opportunity for the creation of impersonal systems through which an individual or a group of individuals can cooperate, pool their resources and get the best collective results from their efforts. Power Distribution & Corporate Justice Knights and Willmotts identify that power is seen in different ways and facades (1985). Naturally when different people come together to attain a given end, there is bound to be the need for the investigation of power dynamics and systems. Power is seen from different angles and can be applied to the concept and theory of organisation from different perspectives. Power is seen as the a universal transformational capacity (Knights and Willmotts, 1985). This means that power is seen in the individual's strength and ability to change things and provide results for the society. The transformation of resources into output can be seen as the main motivation for the creation of organisations. This is because all organisations aim at creating changes that can help people to provide solutions to their problems. Organisations provide some kind of social order in society and creates the grouping of in the society to attain significant results that would help people in the community. Power therefore regenerates into functionalism which is the system whereby organisations apportion works and create units for the structured attainment of results (Knights and Willmotts, 1985). This is borne out of the mainstream concept of the division of labour and specialisation. Through this, organisations become a collection of people for the attainment of results through structured and functional methods and systems of providing results and attaining ends. Organisation also provides the centralisation of power and authority within a group of people who control and run the organisation. This allows them to make decisions that can give the best results. Organisations are the mediums through which the results of the group can be attained by the people steering affairs and are given the mandate and power to attain results. Organisations also provide the outlet for interdependence. People from different backgrounds who join the various functional units share their efforts and this system allows the organisation to provide synergistic results and create an impact on the wider society. Thus, it can be said that the organisation is a concentration of power and the ability to transform resources. This makes the organisation a kind of power centre. However, the true power and authority in organisations remain with the people who have the right and authority to make decisions. These people play a central role and are encouraged to seek the best and most optimal results. From my personal observation, most businesses who have trade ventures that link China and the UK create organisations that allow power to be distributed fairly and evenly in their efforts to attain results. This culminates in the creation of organisations which are enhanced by economic strengths and the rightful structures for the attainment of the relevant results. The result is that the organisations end up becoming powerful and they are built around the ability and power of people who own and run these entities to come up with their views and visions. Labour Groups in Organisations Bauman identifies that labour groups are often a collection of people who wield power and cand demand changes from time to time (2001). In illustrating his point, Baumann identifies that the American Revolution and the Russian Revolutions were both inspired by the collective strengths of people who came together to make demands upon the government. The collection of people culminated in various labour movements and groups in Britain and the United States after the Second World War (Armstrong, 2011). This led to the promoting of change and the demand for better systems and services. However, after time passes, there is the need for some kind of structured control and the creation of a better method of administering justice throughout organisations and human institutions. This leads to the creation of stable environments and the creation of new systems and methods for justice. This leads to the creation and maintenance of grievances systems and structures throughout organisations and businesses. I personally know that the need for corporate justice and the provision of fair systems of work and stable methods, there is the need for fair and just systems and method of running affairs in organisations throughout the world. In the absence of this, there is bound to be chaos and the unstable conditions in businesses and corporate entities around the world. Corporate justice is served through the creation of systems where grievances are aired and different ways of hearing people's demands are heard. This provides the basis for communication systems and organisational structures which leads to the creation of stable work environments. Without this, there is always conflict as the Marxist system suggests. Conclusion The four concepts of identity, power, justice and security are strongly linked and they are important in providing an understanding of the need for organisations and the maintenance of management to provide stable work environments. Consumerism is what drives organisations. There is therefore the need for the creation of a strong identity and the imposition of a good management system to attain the best results. A good management provides the right strategy and this is the best way of attaining optimum results. Individuality fuels organisations. However, without the rightful structures and the good leadership to keep it going, organisations are bound to fail. Power must be controlled and centralised in organisations. Due to the ability of labour to create chaos, there is the need for the maintenance of a top leadership structure to regulate power and also promote justice. Without that, labour would continue to create chaos and effective work would be non-existent. Individual capabilities would not bring best results because no matter how high motivation may be, the absence of synergy would always lead to low outputs. Synergy is enhanced through organisation and good management structures and practices. References, Armstrong, M. (2011) Human Resource Management London: Kogan Page. Bauman, Z. (2001) “The Rise and Fall of Labour” The Individualised Society London: Polity Press Cole, G. A. (2003) Strategic Management: Theory and Practice Mason, OH: Cengage Fromm, E. (1991) The Fear of Freedom London: Routledge Knights, D. and Morgen, G. (1993) “Organisation Theory & Consumption in a Post-Modern Era” Organisational Study 14: 211 Knights, D. and Willmott, H. (1985) “Power and Identity in Theory and Practice” Sociological Review Oxford: Blackwell Publisher. Sievers, B. (1989) “Beyond the Surrogate of Motivation” Organisation Study Berlin: Walter de Gruyter,GmbH Read More