The Debilitating Effect of Hierarchical Structures on Those With and Without Power Then and Now - Essay Example

The Debilitating Effect of Hierarchical Structures on Those With and Without Power Then and Now: A Close Reading of“The Use of Force,” “Those Winter Sundays,” and “My Papa’s Waltz” Hierarchy is one of the most essential features of social relations and is predominant in different groups or organization. In various forms, hierarchy gives rise to leaders or a handful of principal individuals in a group, which naturally occurs from interactions. Magee and Galinsky (3) discuss the definition and behavior of a hierarchical structure: Resources are unequally distributed across individuals and groups, and positions and roles are granted different amounts of sources of power, which are conferred upon the individuals who occupy them. Like both human and non-human primate societies more generally, most, if not all, organizations have a stratified structure, a pyramid shape with fewer people at the top than at the bottom. Even when one considers the heterogeneity of organizational forms and organizational practices and cultures that are intended to dodge or suppress hierarchy, what is most noticeable is that hierarchy relentlessly rises up against these pressures. Most importantly, hierarchy is a naturally-forming phenomenon that is always present in various forms across all societies in the world. It inescapably develops between and within groups even when some organizations reduce the effect of its structure by adopting alternative models of shaping an organization (Leavitt 42). Social hierarchy in organizations is defined as “an implicit or explicit rank order of individuals or groups with respect to a valued social dimension” (Magee and Galinsky 5). This structure may or may not be implied to the members of the group and the rank of one or more individuals are inferior to at least one member of the organization. The higher rank acquires more of the valued dimension while members in the lower rank possess less. Social hierarchy is divided into formal and informal structures; the former includes the development of official job titles, reporting arrangements and organizational charts, while the latter involves the unplanned and rapid improvement of informal tier disparity within groups which is often influenced by gender, class, race and ethnicity (Mayer, et al. 930). Hierarchies create power and control to individuals of the higher rank that hold greater ability, skills and motivation to complete certain tasks within a group. In formal hierarchy, the differentiated structure is constant but passive since changing the assembly of ranks is difficult and borderline unreasonable. On the other hand, the organizational structure in informal hierarchy is weak and conditional because the hierarchical differentiation is only done on short interaction based on stereotype-based expectations (Magee and Galinsky 7). Over the years, hierarchical structures faded and developed a debilitating effect to those members of groups and organizations that possess power and to those who lack one. This gradual weakening of hierarchy will be discussed by exploring the literary pieces, “The Use of Force” by William Carlos William, “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden, and “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. William Carlos William’s famous short story, “The Use of Force” presents the application of physical superiority of a person with power to others who have none. In the story, a doctor is shown to diagnose a sick child whom they suspect of having the deadly disease diphtheria. The doctor needed to get a throat culture in the mouth of the child in order to examine the cause of the illness correctly, however the stubbornness of the child and the passive authority of the parents made the process harder to execute. The doctor appeared to be compassionate at first, addressing an open mind to the expressed fear of the child in being examined, and at the reluctance of the parents to accommodate a stranger like him into their home. But as the child becomes more obstinate and whiny regardless of the coaxing pleas of the parents and reasoning of the doctor, combined with the building impatience of the doctor to the lenient parents, the doctor decided to use force in subduing the child and conduct the needed examination (Williams). In the story, the doctor and the parents illustrate the individuals with power in different hierarchical groups, while the child represents the one without power. The doctor is superior in a medical hierarchy, where medical practitioners are given the authority or the power to diagnose and treat people with diseases. The sick people, or the child in the story, are those individuals without any medical knowledge or capacity and are regarded as powerless or subject to follow whatever advice the doctor tells them to do. Conversely, the parents are superior to the daughter in a family hierarchical structure, where the former create and execute rules to make the family stable and functioning, while the latter is obligated to follow the guidance of the superiors. Initially, the doctor did not consider exercising his authority to placate the child to the examination since he thought that the presence of the parents is enough to make the child to follow their commands. Yet the parents appeared to be soft to the their daughter, every so often dropping comments that the doctor find as absurd and only hamper the his efforts to make the child understand the necessity of the examination. The weakness and lack of ability of the parents to control their daughter fueled the frustration of the doctor, making the latter to assert his power over the patient by forcing a spoon to her mouth to open it and catch a glimpse on the infected throat. The situation in the story encompassed the incapacitating effect of the hierarchical or ranked organization to the parents, as exemplified by their ineptitude and softness in dealing with the attitude of their daughter. Although the suspected diphtheria infection is life threatening and both parents are aware of its seriousness, they still had a hard time in affirming their superiority over the child in the anxiety of physically hurting her. In addition, the doctor initially chose not to declare his power over the patient in respect to the implied superiority of the parents to the child. Still, the exasperating situation has made the doctor to act irrationally and forcefully impose his authority as caused by anger instead of professional sense of duty. Meanwhile, the child, as deemed powerless in the hierarchical structure of both medical and family, has risen to carry out a strong control over the situation by not conceding to commands until the adults subdued her. “Those Winter Sundays” is a poem of Robert Hayden demonstrating a memory of a childhood relationship of a son with his father. On a winter Sunday, the father woke up early to put fire and make the house warm for his family. Tired from the week’s work, the father still had the time to polish his son’s shoes but no one ever thanked him to these little affirmations of love. The author described the hard work that his father underwent in order to provide for the family, quoting, “with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made” (Hayden), and yet he was indifferent to his father, ignoring the affection that he is being showed. As the author looks back, he realized about these act of kindness and warmth that he took for granted and regretted that he was not able to give the love back to his father when he had the opportunity to do so. A traditional hierarchical structure of family shows the father as a superior figure and the son as an inferior. Usually, the father is the leader and most powerful person in the family, the head of the group who leads and executes every decision made within the unit. The children are supposed to follow their fathers strictly, should abide the rules given to them and accept whatever decision inferred to them. However, the characters of the poem illustrated the mere lack of authority that defines the difference of the social ranks of the father and his son. The father, instead of striking as an authoritative figure to the family by resting after a week of hard labor and making other members of the family to deal with the fire, appears to be affectionate and yearning of recognition that he still felt a need to take care of the family. Then again, the son exuded no interest and concern to appreciate his father’s efforts. It seems like it was the son who commands the father to treat him special and offer him the gentleness that comes with love. The last literary piece to discern is the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke. The story depicts an abusive relationship between a father and his child. The father was pronounced as a drunkard who physically mistreated his child, as the author used strong words such as “hung on like death”, “held my wrist”, “battered on a knuckle”, “ear scraped a buckle”, “beat” and “clinging” to describe the situation (Roethke). The word “waltzed” was used to illustrate not dancing but hitting the child, as the statement the father “waltzed” the child off to bed, literary meant that the father beat the child until he fell asleep. The mother in the poem gave the impression of impassiveness, where she did not do anything to make the father stop from abusing the child in front of her. Such a state demonstrates the misplacement of power of the father and the loss of authority of the mother as the superior members of the family structure. Being the head of the family, the father has over exerted his capacity to control his members by mistreating a powerless child. On the other hand, the mother failed to exhibit any action that will prove her rank in the family unit. As one of the superior members of the family hierarchy, the mother has the same authority as the father, and is supposed to champion the right of the child by protecting him from the abuses of her husband. Social power is defined by Van Dijk (19) as “a property of the relationship between groups, classes, or other social formations, or between persons as social member.” This form of relationship is established through interaction, where a certain group exercises social control over another group which results to the limitation of the action and social freedom of the latter. Social power also denotes an indirect mental control to the members if the group that is accomplished through encouragement or persuasion that result from fear of sanctions from the leader if the inferior member will not submit from the leader’s orders. In addition, Brass and Burkhardt (441) studied the relationship between potential organizational power and the use of power through behavioral tactics as perceived in a structural position. They stated: Results indicate the structural position, measured as an individual network centrality and level in the organizational hierarchy, and behavior - use of assertiveness, ingratiation, exchange, upward appeal, rationality, and coalition formation — relate independently and significantly to other’s perceptions of the individual’s power. In addition, structure partially mediated the relationship between behavior and power, and the behavioral strategies partially mediated the structure-power relationship. Significant interaction effects were observed in the study, sealing the effect of power to other members of the organization. The basis for the power of the superior member comes from the “resources that socially enable the exercise of power, or the application of sanctions in case of noncompliance.” (Van Dijk 20). The said resources include unevenly distributed qualities or personal effects such as authority, rank, position, knowledge, wealth, expertise or membership in a dominant group. Hence, power that is built of socially relevant resources makes it a form of social control. Moreover, social control is restricted by the scope of power of power agents. This means that power agents may be prevailing in only one domain like the economy, politics or other social institutions. For example, the three stories closely presented above embodied the social domain of the family. The scope of action of the superior members was limited to their children and their actions. While the powerful members are given special responsibilities in their application of control, the dominated groups or members has a tendency to engage in various forms of resistance (Van Dijk 21). For instance, the inferior members may enact counter power under specific socioeconomic, cultural or historical conditions, which may lead to the decrease on the power of the leaders, for which the parents featured in “The Use of Force” demonstrated. The functions and dysfunctions in hierarchical structures are critical in defining the level of leadership, status and power among members of the organization. According to Anderson and Brown (4), problems arise in working in groups because of the unavoidable disagreement of members regarding goals and approaches to pursue them. The issue can be resolved by the group by making collective decisions in a peaceful and efficient manner; motivating members to behave unselfishly and contribute to the organization’s success, even when personal investment and sacrifice are required for such behavior; and coordinating individual behavior to achieve collective success, such as maintaining communication amid members and allocating tasks and responsibilities. In the three stories discussed above, the functions of hierarchy were clearly handled either loosely or extremely. As Anderson and Brown (5) stated in their study, Hierarchies help groups solve the problem of collective decision-making by giving disproportionate control to one or few members. Group leaders are given control over decisions and allowed to direct others’ actions, whereas lower ranked individuals are expected to defer to others and keep their opinions to themselves. This concentration of control at the top helps groups make decisions more efficiently and avoid conflict over control. The failure of the parents to emanate authority over their daughter in “The Use of Force”, the obliviousness of the son to his father’s attempts of reaching out in “Those Winter Sundays” and the indifference of the mother and the foul behavior of the father in “My Papa’s Waltz” enunciate a weak decision-making of the group leaders. Furthermore, hierarchies are expected to provide social, psychological and material incentives to motivate individual members of the group. Members of high rank are given greater autonomy, power, respect, social support and material resources. As Anderson and Brown (5) stressed, “Individuals perceived as making important contributions are granted higher rank, whereas those believed to be making fewer contributions, or even to be undermining a group’s success, are assigned lower rank”. A study conducted by Tiedens (71) supported this claim, noting that a higher rank is given by members to those who show more sacrifices for the group, while a lower rank is provided for individuals who are alleged to be self-centered or damaging to the group. This may be the reason behind the lack of authority of the mother shows in “My Papa’s Waltz”. Since the father is assumed to work and provide food for the family while the mother stays at home to oversee the children, the mother’s valued contributions to the family were undermined in the group’s success; therefore she was allotted a lower rank. Unintentional dysfunctional consequences of social hierarchy are also observed in organizations. As the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” illustrates, the functions of the superior, or the father in the story, have been misused to the extreme by using his power to both physically and emotionally inflict pain to his son. The effect of this particular dysfunction on the role of the person in power tends to weigh down on the functions of the other members of the family. Such situation results to chaos or the loss of social order and coordination within the group which will eventually lead to the collapse of the organization (Tiedens, Unzueta and Young 409). On the other hand, the father in the “On Winter Sundays” and the parents in “The Use of Force” have all exemplified the weak execution of the functions of the superior as leaders of command in the family. For instance, the father in “On Winter Sundays” has faintly stressed his authority over his children by making them feel that they were within the same level by doing chores that the children can do by themselves. Even so, the father did not seek for any appreciation for the things that he offered the family, nor ask his children for anything in return. Similarly, the parents in “The Use of Force” showed less, if not lack of, power in resolving a critical situation where reason and sweet-talking would not fix. The dysfunction of the role of these parents may have been harmful to the health and well-being of their stubborn daughter if not for the intervention of the determined doctor. Leavitt (112) explained that hierarchy produces conditions of submission that may institutionalize unethical thinking and exploitation to the members of the group. When social order and social coordination are not properly established in a hierarchical structure, the needs of individuals for stability and organization leads to ineffective coordination of activity. Though hierarchy is essential in establishing order, stability and structure, the efficient application of functions of the members will determine the success of the group. Nevertheless, the exploitation and misapplication of power in the roles of individual members deteriorates the strength of the organization. The debilitating effects of hierarchical structure to those with and without power then and now are perceived when the dysfunctions of hierarchy within the members of the structure are evident. Proper use of power, status and rank must be executed especially to the superior members or leaders where the scope of obligation and authority is great. In the literary pieces discussed above, the dysfunctions on the roles of the parents to their children as the persons of authority showed the importance of maintaining their power justly. Although the softness and passivity of the powerful individuals may not always inflict inordinate danger to the inferior members, the irrational and excessive consumption of power might result to confusion, chaos and collapse of the organization. Besides, the debilitating effects of hierarchy to powerless members are significantly impacted by decisions and level of control that the powerful members impose on them. Works Cited Anderson, Cameron and Courtney E. Brown. “The Functions and Dysfunctions of Hierarchy”. Research in Organizational Behavior. 27 (2010): 1-35. n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. Brass, Daniel J. and Marlene E. Burkhardt. “Potential Power and Power Use: An Investigation of Structure and Behavior”. Academy of Management Journal. 36.3 (1993): 441-470. n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. Leavitt, H. J. Top down: Why Hierarchies are Here to Stay and How to Manage Them More Effectively. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. 2005. Print. Magee, J. C. “Seeing Power in Action: The Roles of Deliberation, Implementation, and Action in Inferences of Power”. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 45 (2009): 1–14. Print. Magee, Joe C. and Adam D. Gainsky. “Social Hierarchy: The Self-Reinforcing Nature of Power and Status”. 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