Experience Work in a Post-Colonial Organization - Essay Example

ESSAY: MANAGEMENT] Introduction Management psychology is the exploration on the effects that different psychological processes impart on employees in their place of work. These psychological processes normally influence personal change and development (Lee, 1999, p, 586). It explores employee behaviours and individual aspects, based on the difference in cultural backgrounds and experience so as to come up with a precise meaning on how employees react in relation to organisational life. Management psychology pertains to systems thinking to identify the forces that influence behaviour and working in an organisation. Organisational differences arise from the type of employees that such organisation have. Different organisations have a different set of employees, and different people find themselves in different moods each day, which affects their personality and behaviour at work (Pounds, 2008, p, 85). Aspects such as management of attrition and workplace stress are critical, and interpretive approaches need to be used by management to explore individual employee’s behaviours. In his article, Srinivas (2013) sheds light on an employee’s experience of working in a ‘postcolonial’ organisation. From the article, the author highlights the statement; Tandon informed another employee that he had begun to get tea on a tray and had a towel with his name in the manager’s toilet. He had no contract, no privileges or prerequisites beyond the tea and the towel” (1971, p. 30). It is further indicated that such comparisons were needed, since social isolation made status assessments difficult (Srinivas, 2013: 1662). This essay explains the influence that different workplace aspects have on the well being and identity and the psychology of people, within the context of post colonialism, based on text quoted from Srinivas’ article. The essay also explains the relevance of such interpretive approaches in field of management and examines a similar study case. Post-Colonialism as an Example of Interpretive Approach The statement, Tandon informed another employee that he had begun to get tea on a tray and had a towel with his name in the manager’s toilet. He had no contract, no privileges or prerequisites beyond the tea and the towel”, is an excellent quotation that highlights post-colonialism as an example of interpretive approaches within management psychology. First, this statement enables people to understand better the power and dominance in workplaces, including post colonial periods. This is because Tandon is sharing experience as a manager during the post-colonial period, most probably compared to his experiences during the colonial period. Based on Srinivas’ article, when Tandon was hired as one of the managers by the Lever Brothers Company, he could not be served tea, just like other managers because he was Indian and not British. In contrast, after independence of India, Tandon had begun to get tea on a tray and had a towel with his name in the manager’s toilet. This means that he had been recognised as somebody with as much importance as the British managers who run the company during the colonial period. He was now recognised as a sahib; his status had changed, in light of the country’s independence. Secondly, the aforementioned statement or quotation from Srinivas’ article represents an example which highlights post-colonialism as an example of interpretive approaches within management psychology because Tandon shares his experience with another employee. Employees share experiences with others so as to make comparisons and various interpretations. For instance, by comparing the situation during the colonial period with the situation observed after the colonial period, employees make interpretations which influence employees through management psychology. In addition, the quotation that Tandon had no contract, no privileges or prerequisites beyond the tea and the towel implies Tandon did not receive preferential treatment, compared to other employees, hence influencing management psychology within the company. The Tandon Case It is imperative to explore briefly Tandon’s story in the Lever Brothers Company so as to understand the aspect of post-colonialism as an interpretive approach within management psychology. Tandon was hired by the Lever Brothers Company in 1937 as a manager, during one of the company’s advertising campaigns (Srinivas, 2013, p, 9). Being an Indian and given that the company was British owned, Tandon was not given a proper office, but he was allocated a desk in the space for the Indian clerks. During this period, in one of the days, managers were served with tea, but Tandon was not because tea was meant to be served to sahibs only. The orderly must have been a European and since Tandon was Indian, to the orderly, Tandon was not one of the managers, though he was one. He was actually the first one hired by company. As time went by, Tandon’s career progressed in Lever Brothers and he became the company’s first Indian Chief Executive officer. This happened when the company, Lever Brothers changed its name to Hindustan Lever Limited, and its first Chief Executive was appointed (Srinivas, 2013, p, 9). Tandon was a manager whose identity was regarded as a subordinate during the colonial period because he underwent subordination during this time. However, Tandon continued applying his skills and expertise while working for the company. He understood that it is possible for one to be a subaltern in one place and elite in another. Moreover, most of the supervisors who worked under Tandon were Indian elites, but of low class in the British class ladder. The British were exploitative in India and they gave trade monopolies to themselves and the Indians could not be able to trade without the help of the colonisers (Fischer-Tiné & Mann, 2004, p, 9). The British claimed to have an ideology of civilizing the Indians, but they exploited them instead. Tandon became a Chief Executive who believed in skill and expertise and not nationality or loyalty. Therefore, he hired employees and managers, based on their skills and expertise unlike the British ideology which allowed hiring of managers on the basis of nationality and loyalty. This led to remarkable steps in the success of Lever Brothers in India, which had become Hindustan Lever Limited. Tandon’s identity was shaped by his perseverance and persistence. He did not allow preferential treatment to bar him from progressing. In addition he quotes that he no contract, no privileges or prerequisites beyond the tea and the towel. This means that unlike the British managers who had several privileges and preferential treatment during the colonial period, Tandon had none of those apart from the tea and towel, an aspect on management psychology that might have touched employees of the company. The Indian religion, class or caste values were weakened by the colonial experience and in a greater extent by the post colonial desire to imitate the West, in an effort to become modern. Therefore, identity changed. This led to attrition between defensive Indian psyche and Western culture, which could not rely on Western science psychological principles because these were not sensitive to the psycho-cultural characteristics of India (Srinivas, 2013, p, 17). After the British rule’s demise in India, companies started seeking Indian identity. Indian companies started hiring, based on managerial talent and not nationality or loyalty According to Wassler (2013, p, 5), post-colonialism leads to interaction of various cultures, giving voice to the less influential actors such as formerly colonised countries. In this case, there was an interaction between the Indian culture and British culture, which gave rise to the recognition of native Indians as skilled and experienced people who could hold managerial positions and deserved respect. The tea, which Tandon received in a tray and the towel with his name in the manager’s toilet, compared with the time when he could not be served with tea while he was still a manager symbolise how a change in psychological aspects leads to a change in actions. Gender Exclusion Case Another example of exclusion is evident in political affairs and management within community settings. Traditionally, men could not share their social status. Instead, they enjoyed overall privileged social status whereby they ruled both women and men, rather than ruling only male groups where they were likely to be powerless and ineffectual (Yeatman, 1984, p, 49). Despite this, women of dominant race, ethnic and class status had a privilege of making gender inequality their concern. Such women had to be white, western and middle class (Yeatman, 1984, p, 49). Such women had to perceive themselves, first as women and think of themselves as capable of glossing over their class, ratio and status identifications (Yeatman, 1984, p, 49). Initially, women women’s status in society relegated them to low-wage service jobs that replicate traditional gender roles at home (OBrien, 2008, p, 45). However, as time moved, many white, middle-class women entered the world of work, where they worked outside their homes (Wildman, 1996, p, 26). A vision of women to work everywhere has since been promoted, and women have proved to be efficient. Relevance of Interpretive Approaches in Management Psychology Interpretive approaches are relevant in the field of management psychology because of various reasons. First, studying aspects other than behaviour and attitudes is vital for organisational managerial purposes. For instance, it is imperative to study aspects such as the working environment context and psychology so as to understand factors and activities which may influence employee behaviour. Therefore, human psychology is used in management as a understanding of personal attributes and interpretations (Gay, Evans, & Redman, 2004, p, 322). Secondly, Meanings are created and negotiated, based on interpretive approaches. The current society is permissive and may not be less oppressive than the period of the organisation man who was regarded as an obsessive servant of the bureaucratic organisation. For instance, a name cannot be described by the features that characterise the object denoted by that name (Žižek, 1991, p, 103). A name can be a master signifier. This means a signifier that does not denote some positive property of the object. Instead, it is established by means of its own act on diction, which creates a new inter subjective relation between the speaker and the hearer (Žižek, 1991, p, 103). An excellent example is when a person calls another his or her master. This confers a certain symbolic mandate to the hearer that is not contained in the set of the positive properties of the hearer. Instead this symbolic mandate results from the force of the speaker’s performance of his or her utterance and this creates a new symbolic reality that of a master-discipline relationship between the speaker and the hearer, within which each of the parties involved assumes a certain commitment (Žižek, 1991, p, 103). This is an important aspect that is relevant in management psychology because it helps managers understand how to use various terminologies within the management context. Third, interpretive approaches are relevant in the field of management psychology because social actors give different meanings on what they and others do. In addition, interaction leads to interpretation of various activities. For instance, confusion and emotional anxiety which are associated with organising personal and social life in accordance with the rational ideas is caused by the society and the organisation. Most people find it hard to work towards changing authoritarian and hierarchical relations. Instead, they adopt passively, clinging to a status or identity that they know they do not belong to so as to maintain the status quo (Alvesson & Willmott, 2011, p, 112). Also, Individual psychology cannot disregard the relations of an individual with others because individual and group dynamics are somehow inseparable. Since in an individual’s mental status, others must be involved as subordinates, opponents or seniors, and then individual psychology extends to social psychology (Gabriel, 1999, p, 244). Therefore, managers ought to understand these aspects, which are imperative in the field of psychology management. All psychology is social. Therefore, the “i”, which is ego centric, is replaced by “I”, which includes social ties (Žižek, 1989, p, 110). Individual behaviour is shaped by society through socialisation. Also, Conscious visualisations influence impression management because it involves interaction between organisational workers (Raghuram, 2013, p, 1491). Consequently, individuals find ways of managing multiple social reality identities. Therefore, such interpretive approaches are relevant in management psychology because they influence employee reactions and behaviour, especially after they interact and share ideas and interpretation on various events and activities. Therefore, understanding interpretive approaches enables management to understand issues such as cynicism, which influences power, subjectivity and resistance within an organisation (Fleming & Spicer, 2003, p, 157). Interpretive approaches are also relevant in the field of management psychology because they enable managers to identify the identity of various workers during certain regimes in an organisation. Capitalism subordinates workers in their workplaces (Silva, 2008, p, iv). Workers who are regarded as subordinate tend to have aspiration efforts so as to change their identity. Therefore, if such workers are motivated by use of management psychology techniques, organisational performance is likely to be improved. Interpretive approaches lead to the appreciation of the identity of a manager during a colonial work setting and his or her associated aspiration of professional identity and forms of subordination in organisational work. For instance, Tandon became the first Chief executive Officer of Lever Brothers in India, a multinational company and a public and respected figure, through aspiration efforts after he underwent subordination treatment in the same company during the colonial period. After, his identity was shaped, Tandon had no privileges other than the tea and the towel, which placed him still under subaltern, a powerless position, but his performance was remarkable. Conclusion It has been established from the case of Tandon that a forced integration between those privileged by the colonial period and the colonised leads to the notion of ‘workers’ notion among those who perceive to be superior because it renders them powerless (Sennett & Cobb, 1993, p, 17). This is because, after independence, the power and status of the British workers in India declined. Also, the aspect of mastery where some senior employees or people of a certain class are regarded as masters leads to maintain a certain form of identity regulation which leads to social inequality. It is important to note that workers who move up the ladder struggle to adjust and adapt to the new roles. Every leader is most vulnerable during his or her first few months in the new role, despite his or her level (Wietzel, 2009, p, 3). Those who fail to act positively have a tedious struggle for the rest of their time in that role. For instance, a foreman is a master and a victim of double because of the pressure he or she feels from above as a manager and that he experiences from below as a worker (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p, 213). At times, those in higher positions according to hierarchy are favoured by the rules of engagement (Riach, 2007, p, 79). 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The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso Press. Read More