Topic Two Organisation Theory: Multiple Perspectives.

Topic Two

Organisation Theory: Multiple Perspectives

Organisation Theory:Multiple Perspectives

• Organisational Studies

–Multidisciplinary

• What is the purpose of organisation studies/organisation theory?

• Knowledge and knowledge generation

• Contemporary theoretical approaches

–Modern (e.g. General Systems)

–Critical Theory

–Symbolic interpretive (e.g. Social Constructionism)

–Postmodern (e.g. Deconstruction)

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Organisational Studies

Multidisciplinary field of study

–Sociology

–Anthropology

–Social and Industrial Psychology

–Political Science

–Engineering

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What is the purpose of organisation studies?

• To generate knowledge about organisations.

• To identify ways to apply this knowledge to improve and/or transform organisations in some way.

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How do we generate knowledge?

• Theory construction

• Collection and analysis of data

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The Process of Generating Knowledge

Knowledge generation consists of a number of interrelated steps with a certain direction of determinism:

Three levels:

Metatheoretical (the foundation of all theories):

A: Ontology: our assumptions about reality. What is ‘real’?

B: Epistemology: How do we gain knowledge of the world? What counts as knowledge? How do we know this is the ‘real’ nature of reality?

Theoretical: set of ideas intended to explain facts, events, and the nature of reality.

Methodological: Devices used to uncover data or ‘reality’.

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The Process of Generating Knowledge

• The metatheoretical, theoretical and methodological levels are organically interrelated.

• Different metatheoretical assumptions ‘determine’ the criteria of scientific explanation (theory), choice of methodology, procedure for theory construction and what one considers to be data.

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Multiple Perspectives

• Ways of seeing the world. They provide broad frameworks to guide our thinking and research.

• A convenient means of categorising similar ideas, traditions and ways of thinking.

• Each incorporates a toolbox of inter-related concepts for making systematic sense of organisations.

*There is no one ‘correct’ perspective to use.

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Multiple perspectives

Modernism

• Ontology: objectivism-there is an objective reality independent of our knowledge of it.

• Epistemology: positivism—truth is ‘discovered’ through conceptualisation/theorisation and ‘testing’ our logic against the reality found in the objective world.

–Organisations are ‘real’ entities that lend themselves to our senses.

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Modernism

Theory:

Goal is to discover the ‘truths’ that govern organisations.

–‘Truths’ are seen as accurate accounts of organisational properties (e.g. causal powers and laws) and the events with which ‘we’ (i.e. management) must deal when ‘we act.

–Through ‘truth’ ‘we’ avoid being distracted by speculation, hunches and lies of ‘others’.

–‘Truths’ possess instrumental value (practical utility).

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Modernism

• By knowing the ‘truth’ ‘we’ can intelligently formulate and accomplish our goals.

• The instrumental value of ‘truths’ for management is in assisting them to establish control over an organisation, predict outcomes and learn about one’s powers and vulnerabilities.

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Modernism

Method: Based upon statistical methods (hypothesis testing) to discover the correspondence between the hypothesis (i.e. our conceptualisation of reality) and the empirical world.

– Deductive approach: ‘test’ theory against ‘empirical reality’

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ModernismGeneral Systems Theory

• Influenced by Emile Durkheim’s Structural Functionalism. – Concerned with social integration (i.e., what binds

individuals and groups together?)

• A system is constructed of mutually and organically interrelated specialised parts called subsystems.

• The goal is to understand the ‘laws’ governing these systems and how each subsystem performs a particular activity and ‘functions’ to help reproduce the larger system.

• An organisation is seen as a system comprised of four sub-systems (technology, social structure, culture and physical structure) located within a supersystem (i.e. global environment) of which it is a part.

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Systems Theory

Application:

• To create an innovative organisation a systemic organisational environment for discovery and innovation is required:

– A particular social organisation of innovation

– Interaction between departments, teams and ‘cultures’

– Expenditure on research and development

– Rewards and incentives for taking risks

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Critical Theory

Challenging Modernist Thought

• 1940s and 1950s Modernism dominated Organisational Studies

• By the 1960s Modernism was being challenged on several fronts

– Empirically—as peace and stability gave way to increasing social unrest (e.g. Strikes).

– Intellectually—the rise of a more ‘critical’ approach to understanding organisational life.

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Critical Theory

The emergence of a ‘critical’ organisational studies:

In the US: – C.Wright Mills (1956) The Power Elite– Alvin Gouldner (1954) Patterns of Industrial

Bureaucracy– (1955) Wildcat Strike

In the UK:– Ralph Dahrendorf (1959) Class and Class Conflict In

An Industrial Society

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Critical Theory

Major influence Karl Marx (1818-1882)

• Concerned with social divisions, power, inequality and conflict within organisations and broader society.

• Studied organisations through an analysis of capitalist class relations (i.e. owner and labourer).

• Capitalist mode of production characterised by exploitation and alienation of the proletariat (workers) by the bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production).

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Critical Theory• A concern with modernist claims about the

possibilities of reason and knowledge.

• Concern with Ideology—how distorted accounts of reality attempt to conceal and legitimate unequal power/material relations (Marx’s ‘False consciousness’).

• Unmasking the ‘roots’ of domination

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Critical TheoryMetatheoretical:

• Ontology: there is an objective reality independent of our knowledge of it. It is driven by natural laws.

• Epistemology: subjectivist

–‘Knowing’ the ‘truth’ is ‘tainted’ by dominant ideology and values of the those seeking ‘truth’.

–‘Nature cannot be seen as it ‘really is’ or ‘really works’ except through a value window’ (Guba, 1990: 24).

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Critical Theory

Theory

Focus: developing the intellectual ‘tools’ to ‘unmask’ the truth.

Goal: develop an appropriate political practice to address the problems.

*linking knowledge and human emancipation

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Critical Theory

Method: Qualitative

–Inductive: a process of developing theory from observation and interpretation.

–Reflexive

–Historical

–Discourse Analysis

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Critical Theory‘Truth’:

–Capitalist organisations alienate and exploit workers.

–Human emancipation requires the establishment of a more democratic and egalitarian organisation.

Observation & Questions:

–Why is it that organisational members submit to their own

‘exploitation’?

–‘Why do they work as hard as they do?’ (Burawoy, 1979).

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Critical TheoryPosition:

– Organisational members have been co-opted

– Organisational members have been misled

Focus = Dominant Ideology

‘Unless you are willing to drench yourself in your work beyond the capacity of the average man, you are just not cut out for positions at the top’ (J.C. Penney, US retailer)

‘I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but it will get you pretty near’ (Margaret Thatcher, former British PM).

‘I've always worked very, very hard, and the harder I worked, the luckier I got’ (Alan Bond, Australian businessman, convicted of fraud).

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Critical TheoryThe Practical Implications:

–A more ‘critical’ analysis of dominant organisational ideas and management practices.

‘critical theorists have shifted the image of management and the theoretical agenda ‘from saviour to problem’’ (Crowther and Green, 2004: 119).

–Raising the consciousness of organisational members:

‘If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves’ (Lane Kirkland, former US trade union leader).

–Work towards a more equal and democratic organisation.

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Multiple perspectives

Symbolic Interpretive

• Ontology: subjectivism- what is real is that which we agree is real (i.e. that which is meaningful).

• Epistemology: interpretivism: truth is relative to time and place and the individuals who are involved in constructing meaning.

–Organisations are ‘meaningful’ and are (re)constructed by their members through meaningful interaction with one another.

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Multiple perspectives

Symbolic interpretive

• Theory: The goal is to arrive at context specific and relative statements of the logic of organisational reality.

• Method: Qualitative (e.g. Ethnography)

–Inductive: a process of developing theory from observation and interpretation.

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Symbolic interpretiveSocial Constructionism:

• A social construct is an idea which may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention of a particular culture or society.

• Reality is socially constructed through an ongoing and dynamic process whereby people act on their interpretations and knowledge about a given phenomena and thereby reproduce that idea/notion/reality.

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Social ConstructionismThe Social Construction of Reality (Berger and

Luckmann,1966):

• Influenced by Max Weber (1864-1920)–Examined how ‘ideas’ and ‘values’ influence social and organisational behaviour.

• The social world is negotiated, organised and reproduced (i.e. constructed) by our interpretations of events, the action of others and the symbols around us.

• The social world is ‘objectified’ through repeating past behaviours and shared experience, understanding (i.e. meaning) and interaction.

• Intersubjectivity: an individual’s internalisation and interpretation of shared experience and meaning.

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Symbolic interpretive

Practical utility:

• Used to frame or interpret, perceptions of organisational life.

• Highlights the fluid, diverse and subjective aspects of organisational activity and decision-making.

• Makes us consider the ‘value’ ladenness of ‘facts’ that organisations rely upon.

• To bring about organisational change requires ‘rewiring’ the minds of the ‘constructors’.

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Postmodernism Metatheoretical:

• Ontology: there is not an objective reality independent of our knowledge of it. Reality is an ‘illusion’ created through language and discourse.

• Epistemology: interpretations of the ‘illusion’ are made through conceptualisation/theorisation.

–Organisations are ‘imagined’ entities whereby power and social arrangements are reinforced through language.

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PostmodernismTheory:

• Reject the distinction between ‘truth’ and ‘untruth’.

• What a person regards as ‘true’ is either a function of the person’s point of view or is determined by what the person is constrained to regard as ‘true’ by various complex social and organisational pressures.

• Rejects rationality and the Enlightenment vision that human freedom and emancipation can be achieved through the application of reason and search for ultimate meaning.

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Postmodernism

• Seeks to ‘open’ up alternative interpretations (and possibilities) of organisations and events surrounding organisations.

• Built upon reflexivity: questioning the assumptions that underlie our interpretation and ‘understanding’ of organisations.

• Focuses on dominant language and discourse used to ‘explain’ organisations and how this constrains organisations.

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Postmodernism

Method: The goal is to uncover multiple interpretations of organisational ‘reality’.

–Discourse Analysis and Deconstruction.

*Deconstruction: the reading and rereading of texts using different contexts and audiences as a way to uncover multiple interpretations and meanings. A methodological device to expose our ways of thinking and acting.

Used to ‘deconstruct’ the assumptions underlying organisational forms and practices, management theory and ideologies and their implications for power within organisations.

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Postmodernism & CritiquePractical utility:

• Provides alternatives to established thinking which may be constraining, harmful & unproductive.

• Makes ‘us’ question organisational knowledge, the application of this knowledge (decision-making) and organisational outcomes.

‘knowledge serves power by shaping the boundaries of what may legitimately be thought and spoken in organisational settings’ (Taylor, 2005: 126).

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