The Critical Management Theory - Coursework Example

Table of Contents Introduction 2 Importance of Critical Management Theory in Postmodern Organisation 3 Different Approaches in Critical Management Theory 5 Marxist Theory 6 Labour Process Theory 7 Application of Critical Management Theory in Postmodern Organisation 8 Conclusion 9 Reference 10 Introduction Since last five decades, scholars and critics have been trying to develop multiple innovative and modernized approaches for managing an organisation. The tasks relating to management of an organisation have become more complex comparing to traditional organisational concept. Many critics have defined this modern period as ‘Post-Modern’, because there have been significant changes in the human activities and their thought processes. Today managements develop their common goal as per the present requirements of society, environment and community. The increasing concern for corporate social responsibility and community development is one of major evidences in this respect. The Critical Management Theory (CMT) is a reasonable and effective theoretical approach for managing the postmodern organisations. These theories include a wide range of views and ideas that criticize the traditional management theories. CMT attempts to explore, recognise and relate the similar attributes of management basics and critical theories. Critical managements studies deals with the different areas of management theories. More specifically, it is the academic field for critical management theories. Sudhanshu Katyal has explained that “Critical Management Studies (CMS) challenges and offers alternatives to received wisdom about ‘management’” and it “is differentiated from mainstream research by (i) its unorthodox treatment of established topics (e.g. motivation, strategy) and/or (ii) its attention to marginalised issues (e.g. post-colonialism, environmentalism)” (Katyal, 2009, p.7-8). This paper will attempt to present an explanation and discussion on CMT and its application in managing postmodern organisation. The discussions will try to focus on multiple perspectives of critical management theories. At first, the importance of critical management theories in postmodern organisations will be discussed. This section will clarify term ‘postmodern organisation’ by pointing out its major characteristics. The next section will present different approaches of CMT. This section will try to evaluate critical theories. The third section will aim to demonstrate the application of critical management theories in postmodern organisation. Finally, based on the overall analyses and discussions, the findings will be summarised in conclusion. Importance of Critical Management Theory in Postmodern Organisation CMT is an important area of organisation management. The society and human thought processes are not static and it tends to changes with time. Therefore, the organisational behaviour of mangers and organisation culture also vary as per time periods. Such changes lead to increase the requirement new theories and new management approaches. CMT is very useful in this respect. This paper is trying to focus in CMT and its application in postmodern organisation. However, before proceeding towards the main objective of this paper, it is necessary to understand the postmodern organisation and its various aspects. The postmodern organisation is an emerging concept which differs from the modern organisational ideas and views. The managerial behaviour of postmodern organisation is more flexible and more capable in countering the organisational affairs. However, the tasks in postmodern organisation have become more complex and difficult comparing to modern organisations. There are five major aspects in an organisation i.e. planning, organising, influencing, leading and controlling. These aspects in postmodern organisation are shelf-managed and self-controlled by the coordination of cross-functional teams. For example, in the planning process, the leaders in postmodern organisation focus on long term growth and flexible operation. They consider employees as valuable investments and try to develop growth oriented and customers focused organisational culture. According to Clegg, postmodern organisation is more organic and its discards the “bureaucratic design of modernity” (Watson, 1996, p.350). In order to understand these concepts, the critical management studies are very useful. Postmodern organisations do not follow the principals of traditional organisation rather it is dominated by postmodernist theory and rationalism. Such organisation can also be categorized as outcome of constant changing behaviour of society and organisation culture. Many critics have identified the postmodern organisations as a hybrid of modern and postmodern culture. According to them, the practises and values in postmodern organisations is a modification of modern management theory which is more flexible and relevant for managerial tasks. However, an organisation is likely to face different types of issues and challenges and postmodernism concept offers different responses against such issues. In order to explain the importance of critical management theories in postmodern organisations, Styhre explained that as per various management theories like evolutionary theory, contingency theory an institutional theory, organisations are highly dependent on interaction with their surroundings i.e. society and environment. When these surroundings become complex and unpredictable, the organisational processes are affected heavily. Hence, the traditional or modern management theories are able to meet these changing requirements in postmodern organisations (Ilipinar, Montana and Spender, 2008). For better understandings of postmodern organisation, the characteristics of management in such organisation should be identified. Boje and Dennehy have identified five major features of postmodern organisation. Firstly, the postmodern organisation strives to encourage constant research for developing relationship between management theories and socio-cultural theories. This helps the managers to understand the natural bonding of organisation with its surroundings. Secondly, it tries to emphasize on social and cultural knowledge which is supposed to be very productive for organisational growth. Thirdly, the postmodern views and ideas help the activist to play a crucial role during the crisis of prevailing capitalistic society. Fourthly, postmodern organisation is broader concept that does not only deal with management aspects but it also includes other aspects like psychology, history, sociology etc. Finally, “a deeper understanding of postmodernism enables the development of theories of the management of social and organizational change” which is necessary to counter multiple organisational challenges and issues (Ilipinar, Montana and Spender, 2008). Different Approaches in Critical Management Theory The CMT offers different approaches in managing an organisation. Many scholars and critics have developed multiple approaches as per their own views and understandings. However among the various approaches of critical management theories, the ‘Marxist Theory’ and ‘Labour Process Theory’ are the most popular and worth mentioning. Therefore these two theories have discussed figuring out their core concepts. Marxist Theory Marxist theory holds a very important place in critical management studies as it provides primary essentials for developing various labour practises theories. The Marxist theory is very helpful in understanding the key concepts of tasks that lie within a society. Many advocates of Marx theory belief that it is offers better platforms in postmodern organisation dynamics as it appears to be more crucial than common human psychology. Social structure in terms of the Marxist Theory has been determined as per general relationship of product and its various aspects like property right and control over industrious resources. On the other hand, the relationship of product features in Capitalist Society has been derived from the core nature and characteristics of commodity (Adler, Forbes and Willmott, 2006). According to Braverman, “Marxists argue that organizational structures are not rational systems for performing work in the most efficient manner; rather, they are power systems designed to maximize control and profits. Work is divided and subdivided not to improve efficiency but to "deskill" workers, to displace discretion from workers to managers, and to create artificial divisions among the work force” (Babson College Faculty, n.d.). Therefore, hierarchy does not arise from rational coordination as it is very crucial mechanism for controlling by “accumulating capital through the appropriation of surplus value” (Babson College Faculty, n.d.). The supporters of Marxist theory consider organisations as an integral part of giant economy and these organisations are influenced by structure of government and economy. Primarily, it stresses on studying an organisation from different historical perspective. However, this theory is also criticizes for emphasising on historical perspective by neglecting prevailing change in environment and society. Labour Process Theory Labour Process Theory (LPT) is one of the major critical areas in critical management studies and CMT. Braverman (1974) first mentioned about this theory in ‘Labour and Monopoly Capital that “carries forward Marx’s analysis of labour under capitalism by focusing on control over work”, and hence, this theory is also considered as late Marxist Theory (Korczynski and Edwards, 2006, p.442). Therefore, as per the fundamentals of Marxist Theory, LPT explains that the labour process cannot be regulated only by market mechanism. Due to incomplete employments, the capitalist should take initiatives to control labour process. Earlier, this theory argued that in order to reduce cost and control labours, capitalist’s tendency was to deskill and degrade the organisation by reducing skill necessity, fragmenting labours’ job, and by substituting labours’ independence with existing management system. . However, the prevailing LPT is the result of extensive research over a period of time. As per the existing concept in LPT, there are also other ways for controlling labours and reducing cost like intensification of work, polarizing skills and motivation. This theory helps the management and labours to understand the relation between society and organisation or workplace. Society is a very complex structure and workplace is a small and important part of it (Adler, Forbes and Willmott, 2006). Application of Critical Management Theory in Postmodern Organisation Various approaches of CMT have facilitated the management tasks in postmodern organisation. The previous sections have described the nature, characteristics and activities of postmodern organisation. In order to manage the organisational tasks with critical approach, better understandings of organisation and its surroundings are very necessary. However, in postmodern organisation, the most important task is to maintain a proper relationship with its external and internal aspects and surroundings. Therefore, management must try to develop these organisation relations. James Latham has identified eight different actions for developing organisation relation. These actions are “information presentation”, “individual team consultations”, “employee perception of the organisation in terms of product and services delivery”, “human resources management” “teambuilding and teamwork”, “communication processes”, “customer focus” and “employees perceptions of directors” (Latham, 2003). The application of critical management theories in these actions is very pertinent as it is helpful in identifying various constraints and barriers to change. In case of multinational firms, the complexity of organisational structure and degree of constraints are higher than domestic organisations. The MNC have to face various management related issues like communicational gap, cultural diversity and difference in business environments. These are very critical issues for a multinational organisation, and these organisations attempt to resolve these issues by achieving social embeddedness. Managerial leadership and motivation is another major area where critical management approaches play very significant role. In the changing environments of organisation, the process of developing leadership and motivation becomes difficult. For example, earlier, the leadership theories and styles were categorized as per participative leadership, task oriented and relation oriented. However, later, it have been identified that the prime essence of leadership lies in relationship between leaders and their followers, In this respect, a critical management approaches have given a rise to multiple leadership theories based on leader-follower relations. Alvesson and Willmott have identified five major functions of CMT which are given below. 1. Development of non-objective ideas and views of organisational process and management techniques. 2. Exposure of uneven authority relation 3. Correction of discursive closure 4. Disclosure of shared interest’s partiality 5. Appreciation of communicational actions (Nicolodi, 2007, p.146) The above mentioned functional areas of CMT are applied in postmodern organisations that ultimately help to develop an effective organisational processes and management techniques. Conclusion This paper has presented an analysis and discussion on critical management theories and its application in postmodern organisation. The changing environment of business and organisation leads to increase the importance of multiple approaches of CMT. This paper has presented the explanations and discussions in three major sections. First section has explained the nature of postmodern organisation and its requirement of critical management theories for managing such organisations. The complexities in postmodern organisations necessitate the better understandings and applications of CMT. Second section has described the different approaches and theories in CMT. The Marxist theory and Labour Process Theory are the two most popular and effective in this respect. These two theories are very useful for better understandings of organisation and its surroundings. These theories define the relationship between organisation and society. The final section has shown the multiple applications of CMT in a postmodern organisation. Due to increasing complexities in postmodern organisation, the scope of CMT functional areas has become broader. Reference Adler, P. S., Forbes, L. C. and Willmott, H. November 02, 2006. Critical Management Studies: Premises, Practices, Problems, and Prospects. [Doc]. Available at: http://group.aomonline.org/cms/Resources/Requests/0-AFW_Nov27.doc. [Accessed on January 26, 2010]. Babson College Faculty. No date. Marxist Theory. [Online]. Available at: http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/encyclop/marx_theory.html. [Accessed on January 26, 2010]. Ilipinar, G., Montana, J. and Spender, J. April 2008. Design Thinking In The Postmodern Organization. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.dmi.org/dmi/html/conference/academic08/papers/Ilipinar/DMI%202008%20Con%20Design%20Thinking%20in%20Postmodern%20Organization%20Gursel%20ilipinar%20040108%20FINAL.pdf. [Accessed on January 26, 2010]. Katyal, S. 2009. Critical Management Studies: Perspectives on Information System. Global India Publications. Korczynski, M. and Edwards, P. K. 2006. Social theory at work. Oxford University Press. Latham, J. October 01, 2003. Organization Relations Development – A Critical Approach to Organizational Change. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.cric.com.au/seaanz/resources/58LathamOrganisationrelationsdevelopmentfinal.pdf. [Accessed on January 26, 2010]. Nicolodi, R. 2007. Pension Fund Engagement as a Sustainability Driver. Haupt Verlag AG. Watson, T. J. 1996. Sociology, work and industry. 3rd ed. Routledge. Read More