Critical and Post-modern Ideas Change the Way a Manager Behaved in the Work Environment - Essay Example

College: How would critical and post-modern ideas change the way a manager behaved in their work environment? Critical and post modern theories propose ideas that that affect the behaviour of most organizations. A manager’s behaviour affects the way an organization works since he/she plans, organizes, leads, and controls the people and the work of the organization in such a way that the organization achieves its goals. Therefore in this essay I will be considering how critical and post-modern theories or ideas have changed the way a manager behaved in their work environment (Horrocks, 2009). Critical ideas and how they affect a manager’s behaviour Critical ideas are based on the critical theory which is presented as a general method for analysing an organization and it is accomplished by an epistematic inquiry into the organization science methodlogy. critical ideas have offered scepticism regarding the moral defensibility and the social and ecological sustainability of prevailing conceptions and forms of management in an organization. The critical ideas have focussed much on the social injustice and environmental destructiveness of the social and economic systems that managers and firms serve and reproduce hence changing the way the managers behave. In determination of how critical ideas have changed the way managers behave in an environment, I have to analyze a critical communication theory. A critical communication theory was developed to ensure that financial health and stability of a corporation while increasing the representation of the employees and their human interests. The proponents of critical ideologies explain the difference between managerial control and co-determination. They argue that strategy of managers is the overt managerial move to extend control. In this sense, employers try to put their employees in a set routine without the employees realizing it hence this restricts the employees and doesn't allow them to express their feelings or thoughts (Alvesson 1996). In this theory, it is argued that consent is the convert control without objection hence it is where the employees know about the routine and realize they are working in an environment that restricts them but does it willingly or at least for understandable reasons. On the other hand, involvement is the free expression of ideas and these ideas come from the corporation and its managers. They argue that the employees are involved only because they want to make sure their grievances are heard and managers see this as a chance for the employees to blow off some steam. However, the voice of the employees can only be heard when they go from involvement to participation hence participation is where employees have a chance to speak their minds and ideas. They argue that it is only through this that the employees can take pride in their work and have company loyalty (Horrocks, 2009). From the above, it is obvious that a manager who adopts these ideas would include the employees in the decision making of the company since he would want to avoid publicity through anti- management riots and media focus. The ideals in this theory are more socialist as opposed to capitalist hence if a manager adopts them; employees would determine much how the company works. Therefore a critical theory approach explores ways to ensure financial health of institutions while also increasing the representation of diverse human interests. From this, organizations are regarded as political as well as financial institutions. These ideas also show how communication practices often distort decision- making within institutions. These ideas have made the managers to change their behaviours in the way they carry out their managerial responsibilities. The theory has also considered the corporate colonization of everyday life through intrusive presence of big corporations, concentration in a few brands, media pre occupation with corporate health more than indices of social health and a decrease in the quality of life. This theory thus has affected the behaviour of managers in their approach to decision making in the environment. The theory lists a number of approaches that a manger can use in decision making and this affects his behaviour in the environment (Keleman 2007). First, the manager’s first approach to management is strategy. With this, the manager would value control above anything else and would try as much as possible to eliminate the employees’ voices. A manager in his behaviour fears public conflict and also thinks about money in his managerial activity. Secondly, a manager would demand loyalty of employees or their consent and this would be through workplace language, information, forms, symbols and stories. Thirdly, the manager would seek involvement of employees in decision making through suggestion boxes, consultation or corporate democracy and lastly, he can seek participation in decision making by allowing joint open decision at the workplace. It is evident that this theory is interested in proposing alternative non-capitalist forms of organizing work and life often around the notion of collective responsibility for the commons. Wider impatience with market managerial forms of organization are common in many organizations and managers using the ideas in this theory should change the way they behave in an environment. Post-modern ideas and how they affect a manager’s behaviour within an environment The post modern ideas are based on the post modern theory that provides an alternative approach to modern management of organisations and the management relationship with environment. In looking at this theory I will consider various postmodern areas that the manager needs to change his behaviour if he believes in these ideas. To start with, is the issue of postmodern information systems and how it affects management behaviour change. The postmodern information systems implementation and business information management, through the pursuit of the non-obvious, the counter-intuitive and the surprising affects the behaviour of a manager is a postmodern area that is influencing the behaviour of many managers in the organisations. The theory advocates a post-modern approach to information management in which multiple approaches to information system development by managers in an organization are encouraged and attention is paid more to the individual information needs of users than to generalize corporate information models. In their arguments the post modern organizational theorists questions the progression towards certainty and clear unambiguous reasoning. They welcome diversity, variety, multiple interpretations of phenomena and multiple strategies. To them attention is paid to the margins, the left-out and the forgotten in organizational management. Instead of seeking a centralized and uniform understanding of organizational management, localized and individual explanations are explored. The post modernist theories have therefore affected manager’s behaviour in several ways. For instance, in the post-modernist IT department, systems are developed through participative design with an emphasis on narrative. A manager would encourage multiple meanings for data to enable users develop their own personal information environments which suit the needs of their particular tasks and goals. A manager will be challenged by post modern ideas which looks at management as involing breaking down the structured hierarchy and replacing it with things like ambiguity, complexity, and diversity hence it is affecting many managers in the organizations. A manager sees post modernism ideologies as a way of innovation and hence can change the way they manage the business. The manager would change his behaviour in terms of the organizational structure and look outside the traditional hierarchical organizational structure. In terms of marketing structure, a manager would match his marketing strategies with postmodern economics (Collier, 1994). Since postmodernism rejects using psychological explanations of reality as a representation, a manager would not look at himself but the business culture. Therefore in this postmodern view, organizations will survive better if they share organizational realities across sub-units, export realities to the outside culture, and allow external realities to enter organizational life. In this sense, the management of an organization will form a more symbiotic relationship with the outside environment and culture and the organization’s outcomes will become inseparable from the outside community. Postmodern theory also has significance to the fields of management and business in relation to workplace democracy, ecological sustainability, and fining less violent forms of production and consumption and this affects how managers behave in an environment. The theory introduces a multi perspective approach to managers hence this would definitively affect their behaviour in an environment. The ideas in this theory also introduces new ways in which organizational are analyzed as entities within an environment, subjects of strategic action, as technologies, as social structures, as cultures and as physical structures. The ideas of postmodern theory also deals with decision-making, power, conflict, control and change within organizations. A manager would adopt these new ideas and change his behaviour within an environment to reflect these ideas. Decision making would be all inclusive if a manager adopts these ideas. Furthermore, the postmodern ideas champion the simultaneous availability of many different frames of reference and rejects methodological unity (Hatch 2006). With this a manager would learn that there is no one method of tackling a particular problem, rather there may be many approaches which are equally valid provided they work. A manager would also change his behaviour in an environment to emphasise understanding and exploration of local situations which is more important according to this theory than standardisation. This theory also questions objectivism which suggests there is a single objective reality which can be viewed separately from the observer. It challenges the attempts by the observer to claim objectivity since each actor within an organisation has his or her own interpretation of events and entities. In this sense, a manager would emphasise subjectivity. Since postmodernism places a greater emphasis on the individual, a manager would place more emphasis on the variety and local ways of doing things. And since individuals perceive the truth about the world differently, it becomes important in a postmodernist view to listen and understand individual perceptions. In light of this, there should be an emphasis on individual information needs and freedom to develop systems which meet individual information needs. Adopting these ideas, a manager would recognise the fuzzy nature of decisions and the importance of multiple views and narratives (Best 1997). He would avoid attempts to reduce decision making and processes within the organisations to logical flowcharts should be avoided. He would emphasise on providing the decision maker with a wide canvas of linked data, with structures which, while limiting the data to a manageable amount and will not force or suggest particular interpretations. Conclusion A manager adopting either of the two ideas will change his behaviour in an environment since both theories articulate various beliefs that if a manager in an organization believes in them he would change the way he handles his management roles. We can see from the above discussion that a critical theory was developed to ensure that financial health and stability of a corporation while increasing the representation of the employees and their human interests. The proponents of critical ideologies explain the difference between managerial control and co-determination. They argue that strategy of managers is the overt managerial move to extend control. In this sense, employers try to put their employees in a set routine without the employees realizing it hence this restricts the employees and doesn't allow them to express their feelings or thoughts. Therefore a critical theory approach explores ways to ensure financial health of institutions while also increasing the representation of diverse human interests. From this, organizations are regarded as political as well as financial institutions. These ideas also show how communication practices often distort decision- making within institutions. These ideas have made the managers to change their behaviours in the way they carry out their managerial responsibilities (Collier, 1994). On the other hand, postmodern theory also has significance to the fields of management and business in relation to workplace democracy, ecological sustainability, and fining less violent forms of production and consumption and this affects how managers behave in an environment. The theory introduces a multi perspective approach to managers hence this would definitively affect their behaviour in an environment. The ideas in this theory also introduces new ways in which organizational are analyzed as entities within an environment, subjects of strategic action, as technologies, as social structures, as cultures and as physical structures (Horrocks, 2009). The ideas of postmodern theory also deals with decision-making, power, conflict, control and change within organizations. A manager would adopt these new ideas and change his behaviour within an environment to reflect these ideas. In this sense, postmodern ideas champion the simultaneous availability of many different frames of reference and rejects methodological unity. With this a manager would learn that there is no one method of tackling a particular problem, rather there may be many approaches which are equally valid provided they work. A manager would also change his behaviour in an environment to emphasise understanding and exploration of local situations which is more important according to this theory than standardisation. This theory also questions objectivism which suggests there is a single objective reality which can be viewed separately from the observer. It challenges the attempts by the observer to claim objectivity since each actor within an organisation has his or her own interpretation of events and entities. In this sense, a manager would emphasise subjectivity. The two theories thus play an important role in the behaviour of a manager depending on whether he beliefs in them or not. In reality there is a relationship between these two theories in that both have put forward ideas that encourage management of organisations to include the employees in the decision making (Collier, 1994).   References Collier, A. (1994) Critical Realism: An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar's Philosophy, London: Verso, Frauley, Jon and Frank (eds), (2007) Critical Realism and the social sciences: Heterodox elaborations, Toronto: University of Toronto, Horrocks, I. (2009). ‘Applying the morphogenetic approach: outcomes and issues from a Case study of information systems development and organisational change in British local Government’. Journal of Critical Realism, 8(1), pp. 35–62. Keleman, Mihaela and Nick (2007) An introduction to critical management research, London :Sage. Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H.1996 Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction, London: Sage. Bailey, R.1995 How to Empower People at Work: A Guide to becmong a Green-Fingered Manager. Didcot, Management Books. Barker, J. 1993 "Tightening the iron cage: concertive control in self-managing teams," Administrative Science Quarterly, 38: 408-37. Bergquist, W.1993, The Postmodern Organiztaion: Mastering the Art of Irreversible Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Best, Steven and Kellner, 1997, The Postmodern Turn. NY/London: The Guilford Press. Block, P.1987 The Empowered Manager: Postitive Political Skills at Work. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. 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