Critical and Postmodern Organizational Theory - Essay Example

of Critical and Post Modern Organizational Theory How would critical and post-modern ideas change the way a manager behaved in their work environments? Introduction Critical theory and Post modernism theories are not just specific theories but they are rational and intellectual movements. These two theories are been applied in various organizations and have provided extreme benefits to managers, management, and organizations in different perspectives. Critical theory was originated by Max Horkheimer and was derived from Noe-marxism and feminist theory while Post modern theory derived from post- structuralism and deconstructionism. According to German philosophers and social theorists, critical theory has been clearly distinguished from other traditional theories, because the former has specific practical purpose. They state that Critical Theory strives hard to liberate and enslave human beings through transformation of various conditions and circumstances. This theory also aids in descriptive and normative base in social inquiry where it seeks to reduce command and power, and increase freedom in all respective manners. Critical theories have gone through different historical phases and have passed several generations (Fellunga, 2002). Critical theory has set its aims, methods, theories, and explanations in both natural and social sciences and thus this theory is extended to ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of history. Furthermore, critical theorists argue that enterprises do not have a practical approach in instrumental sense, but rather they have a keen interest in the moral sense. They do not strive to achieve some independent goal but instead they seek human liberation in coercion, repression, and domination. While the formulation of materialism stated, that critical theory has all the rights to function within the boundaries of division of labor. But within this scenario, philosophy normative stance has the right to condemn the ethics, principles and embodiment of reason (Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, 2005). On the other hand, post modern theory or post modernism has been derived after modernism but both these terms have a wide distinction among each other. Modernism is concerned with identity, unity, authority, and certainty while post modernism reflects difference, separation, textuality, and skepticism. Post modernism originated from architecture and covered two main theories; deconstruction and post structuralism. This theory is used not only in art-related fields but it also assists in marketing & business, law and culture fields. Basically post modernism are those group of critics who are inspired by the postmodern culture in which they live and they rethink those concepts that are under enlightment humanism and modernists. The key concepts are subjectivity, temporality, progress, and rule of law. Critical & Modern Theories Changing Manager’s Behavior Critical Theories and Post Modern Theories both have assisted managers and management in changing their working behavior. Some of the theories we are going to discuss under this are Critical Management Studies (CMS), Organization Cultural Theory, Stakeholders Theory, Critical Theory of Globalization, Critical Theory and Management and Labor Process Theory. They are also wide variety of other theories as well that elaborate the changes in manager’s behavior but we are going to focus in respect to these theories only. Critical theories have advanced themselves to different fields and subjects. Further they play a major role in social sciences, especially physiology and other disciplines but the changes they encountered within the organization structure have landmark contribution. Critical Management Studies Critical management studies (CMS) was initially responsible in the development and expansion of business schools and for providing academic training to graduate schools of sociology, history, philosophy and psychology. Critical theory is ranked as the most prominent and influential within the development of critical management studies. There are other theories as well, such as; labor process theory, post structuralism and critical realism but critical theory holds a distinctive philosophical characteristic that makes it a benchmark as compared to others (Scherer, 2008). Further Critical management studies play an important role in organizations & businesses by training the managers, understanding work organizations, building strong industrial relations and is helping in providing employment opportunities for individuals (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). Previously mangers in an organization did not believe in work teams, thus due to this they lacked behind in not only their profits and revenues but they could not effectively utilize their resources. Thus the result they generated was not as much as they could have if they applied these tools in their businesses. Often mangers are enriched with leadership qualities but it is not necessary that they are perfect because with the passage of time every thong needs a revolution, thus mangers strongly need training. Also there have been technological advancements every single day due to this; mangers not only need to understand these advancements but to remain competitive in this global world they need to undergo training sessions. Organizations are also expanding day by day thus when critical management studies elaborated the subject of work organizations then the managers greatly benefited from them and they had to change their behavior patterns as well. With the expansion of industries and organizations, the hierarchy, structure of the organization and span of control also changed. This lead to change in the mangers behavior as now four main management principles interrupted, i.e. planning leading, controlling & organizing. Further, this change also changed the power and authority and responsibility or work and thus the concept of delegation occurred; i.e. now mangers transferred their responsibilities and tasks to their younger subordinates. Labor related programs have also found a new pace with the development of critical management studies. The mangers who acquired the knowledge and understanding of CMS greatly benefited from as it. CMS fills the gap between the mangers or any subordinates incompetence in experience in workplace and their claims of mainstream managerialism (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). With the emergence of labor related programs the labors and the working class gained more rights. These programs not only helped the mangers in gaining better results and higher turnover from its workforce but the management also faced issues. With the emergence of this program unions and strikes emerged and thus the managers faced oppositions. In one context it was beneficial that mangers could not violate the labor and the rights of labor were given to them. But on the other hand the organization and management faced trouble as not only their reputation decreased but they also faced a low profits and revenues. Now the mangers have to be more careful in dealing with its labor force and thus their behaviors once again changed. CMS has helped different mangers from different fields; such as marketing Manger, Accounting and Finance Manager, Human Resource Manager, International Business Manger, Operational Research Manger etc. Critical Management Studies do not focus on any group or function but instead it focuses on management. It concentrates management as a persistent organization that is well-established within the boundaries of capitalistic economic formation (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). CMS has three core elements, de-Naturalization, Non-Performative or Anti-Performativity, and Reflexivity. All these three elements play a major role in changing the behavior of managers. “Denaturalization refers to oppositional politics” (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). According to the naturalized theory every thing happens the way it is, no alternative is given and things are taken for granted. From the management perspective if someone has to be in charge, he knows more and has more knowledge about everything and similarly he deserves more money. Also the person who is in charge of a task has to undergo more responsibility because labor is scarce. But CMS denaturalization’s concept opposes the above statements. Thus according to CMS, one particular individual or entrepreneur holds eccentric ideology (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). Generally it was viewed that the person in charge gets to do the entire task and thus it was him who receives all the profits but CMS changed the whole concept. This not only benefited the normal labor force but it also affected the mangers as well. The top management also applied this scenario on the middle level managers. Even though their attitude changed but it got beneficial for the organization because de to this new people were introduced in the organization and their competencies were seen. Thus the manager should try to give everyone a chance and this theory highlights the importance of group and diversification of task. The second element of CMS; anti performativity believes in maximizing the output from a specific input but within this context social relations should not be treated as exclusive instrumental. This element strongly opposes all kinds of moderate, minor, broader and deeper ethical and political issues. Generally in ‘performative’, either democracy in working life is ignored or life chances within the organization are less. Thus these shortcomings are strongly opposed by CMS because this theory highly encourages employee involvement and consultation (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). Thus this perspective as well guides mangers to be a democratic leader and suggests that they should involve employees within the organizations decisions or plans Finally the last element of critical management studies is reflexivity, which is defines as “the capacity to recognize all accounts of an organization and management as mediated by the particular traditions of their authors” (Alvesson, Bridgman & Willmott, 2009). This theory helps in building encouragement in those mangers whose reflexivity is weak. They build this encouragement through acknowledging and appreciating them, this would lead to a positive change in mangers behavior. Motivation, training and leading are the most important characteristics within the managers. Managers are not only inclined to motivate their workers but also provide them assistance where they lacked. Thus this theory gave workers an incentive to increase their efficiency level and remove their incompetence. The manger had to investigate properly before taking any action against the worker. Thus the managers and the management became more effective because it is real costly for an organization to recruit the labor then as compared to assist a worker and help him in his inadequacies. This would not only increase motivation and loyalty from the worker but also build a feeling of care and bounding towards the organization. Post Structuralism Post Structuralism is one of the post modern theories but it is known as a movement in philosophy that commenced in 1960’s. This movement did not only gain popularity in the field of philosophy but in various other subjects as well, such as literature, politics, art, culture criticism, history and sociology (Jones, n.d.). This movement holds a lot of controversies because it consists of a critical study of the most prominent thinkers, i.e. Derrida, Deleuze, Lyotard, Faucault and Kristeva. According to post Structuralists knowledge cannot cross its boundaries. This does not mean that it is marked, or it cannot pass through its defined boundary. But instead this reflects the security and stability within an environment. Thus it can be stated that post structuralism center is not much reliable than as compared to its defined boundaries. Further, when an observed structure changes, the knowledge also changes, because post structuralism encourages change when an observed structure changes. This change holds a limitation; i.e. the knowledge starts with the norm and then later considers an exception. But it marks the limitation in a very radical way and claims that “the limit is core”. One aspect of post structuralism is the power to resist and work against settled truths and oppositions. This helps in struggling against discrimination on the basis of race, background, gender or any other inequality. Further, post structuralism also safeguards against hidden, evident of any violent, aggressive or brutal values. Post Structuralist works do not reflect abstract but instead they represent actual structure that can be deconstructed, transformed and changed into something that shows segregation. But this segregation is viewed as a positive word in post structuralism. Because it cannot be only stated that it works against settled core but instead there is a confirmation for the power of the limit. This limit is seen as a never ending production of latest & original, and valuable revolution and difference. Post structuralism encourages capitalism and democracy and due to this it is radical in nature. But this radical nature is limited in an active process where situation are need to change and they are advised to move ahead but they are free from fixed norms, values and truths. It is also stated that post structuralism is political in nature. But even this does not only confine to government power within the social organizations because this theory clearly distinguishes that power is not limited to any such organizations. Thus the extension of political into the radical change is one of the biggest achievements of post structuralism. Thus it can be stated that post structuralism politics opens up different situations and structures on new possibilities that are hidden with apparent fixities (Thwaite, 2004).This it can be stated that is mangers enroll this theory in their private or public organizations and encourage capitalism and democracy then they can achieve better results. Further organizations prosper and gain a lot of advantage when they involve their employees in the activities of the business. Because it is actually the lower management who is aware of all the current issues that customers encounter because the lower management is the one that interacts with customers. Another aspect of post structuralism is their dependence on science. It is absolutely true that post structuralism thinkers rely on science and on the work of empirical science but they also seek alternatives as well. They still view that science has certain limitations and all important factors like concepts such as humans have a consistent role. They believe that ‘Human’ is always more than science and the scientific determination of human is always the product of extra-scientific presuppositions (Thwaite, 2004). This aspect of post structuralism can also be applied by managers and mangers role and behaviors can change. As mentioned above that human or labor holds an important impact on the organization’s performance. It was due to these theories that today employees are considered as an asset of the organization. No doubt machines produce efficient and affective results but a machine is useless if they are not operated through skilled labor. Further, in an organization everyday decisions are to be made, these decisions are taken by humans thus the importance of humans/ labor are very important. Thus managers should ensure that the labor’s efforts are considered and they should be served with care. Proper care should be taken in their working environment and should be provided with allowances and benefits that would motivate them to work. Thus it was because of these theories that mangers started to apply democracy and capitalism in their dealings. Critical Theories and Managers Critical theory carries significant implication for management and mangers through its self conscious critique nature and judgment. According to critical theory the mangers in an organization should emphasize on the development of their self-conscious and critical attitude then as compared to their technical aspect of their job. They should ensure that the four basic management function grouping should become dialectically interdependent, i.e. planning, organizing, leading and controlling should be mutually supportive (Boje, 2008). Thus with the emergence of critical and post modern theories not only did the organization structure change but mangers behavior also changed. Their behavior, approach, attitude all changed with these theories emergence. But these changes were not only beneficial for the mangers but organizations, workers were also benefited. References Scherer, Andreas Georg, 2008, Critical Theory and Its Contribution to Critical Management Studies, the oxford handbook of critical management studies, Alvesson, Willmott, t. Bridgman, eds., pp.29-51, oxford university press, 2009. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, 2005, Critical Theory, accessed April 5, 2010 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/ Jones, Roger, Post Structuralism, accessed April 5, 2010 from accessed April 5, 2010 from http://www.philosopher.org.uk/poststr.htm Fellunga, Dino 2002, Introduction Guide to Critical Theory, accessed April 5, 2010 from http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/ Alvesson, Mats, Bridgman, Todd & Willmott, Hugh, 2009, The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies, Oxford University Press, accessed April 5, 2010 from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=dTGObbRFab0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=managers+critical+mangement+studies&cd=3#v=snippet&q=managers&f=false Thwaite, Mark, 2004, What Is Post Structuralism? Accessed April 5, 2010 from http://www.readysteadybook.com/Article.aspx?page=whatispoststructuralism Boje, David M, 2008, Critical Theory Ethics for Business and Public Administration: Ethics in Practice, Illustrated Edition, Accessed April 5, 2010 from http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=FSIGwWT2WIYC&dq=critical+theory+management&source=gbs_navlinks_s Read More