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Summary Organizing & Organizations
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Handy for the profession core themes of organizational sciences.
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Organizing and Organizations - summaryChapter 2 Entering and Leaving
Our initial experiences set some of the psychological and physical boundaries to the place we call work.
Culture are the norms and values of the community we are entering.
It has become rare that organizations nowadays have permanent employees, signed up for a lifetime career. Entering and
leaving can often be a fairly anonymous affair due to the (quick) flow of coming and going of employees.
Employees may feel unsettled by this shifting patterns and will think 'I'm on my way' rather than having feelings of belonging
and commitment.
Retrenchment and downsizing can be seen as a cause for the coming and going flow.
Organization tries to attract newcomers by showing their corporate values and care for environment and contribution to a
community development by glossy vacancies and company websites. Candidates and organizations are content with collude
the myth of the exemplary organization, as the candidate as it will represent an image they want to hold themselves too.
Impression management = how do we come over to others, and how do we want to look in their eyes.
Dramaturgy = extremely managing the impressions we give off to other and adjusting them to particular contexts. For
dramaturgists appearances are everything and rehearsals are vital.
Selection process
Questionable arena of selection = a selection process with sequence of interviews, psychological tests, group discussions and
exercises. Candidates will be judged against a set of agreed criteria of competence. Many studies showed the reliability and
predictability due to the fact that the candidates' actual work behaviour will be tested rather than only received the (desired)
impression of the candidate, which can be faked. Moreover, both parties can feel like a thorough and fair job is done.
-> The (preciseness) procedure of the selection shows how the organization appears to care of their staff and how
professional it is in their procedures.
Political skills within the organization = anticipating and analysing the political ramifications (vertakkingen) of their own and
others' actions, and to be able to steer a pathway between different people's interests and concerns. Organizational politics
are for example forming alliances, doing deals and anticipating.
Political interests can make that employers have a favoured candidate are can make they don't give a candidate a fair hearing
or decision; employers are looking for similar people already in place. Members will feel warmer towards people who share
for example an educational background.
Organizational culture = sharing a common vision and purpose within the organization. This will bond members into highly
cohesive and effective teams. A strong organization culture can therefore be a recipe for corporate success. However
research has shown that a strong culture have been found to work well in stable social en economical times. If they need to
respond to rapid economic/social changes they are often slow and ponderous (lomp/moeizaam).
Sub-cultures = the special understandings, bondings, shared backgrounds and beliefs of particular groups within an
organization. These cultures exist beneath the overall organizations culture.
Rite of passage (toegangsritueel) = unwritten socialization procedures of organizational life
Ways by member to initiate (inwijden) en socialize new members into the actual
working customs of the organization. This is often done by humiliating the new
members (marginal status), after a time of humiliating the newcomer has been
bonded to the organization and achieved the new status.
The rite of passage seems to be a necessary 'second selection process' as this
emotional bonding is needed for group cohesion and is the core of a sub-culture.
Leaving
The leaving ritual marks an end to the person's organizational membership and disenfranchisement (rechteloosheid)
Organization appears courtesy and charm to bring people to their organization and appear acrimony and disarray when
members leave the company. Organizations presents a glossy image to the outside world, but once inside an organization,
you often get a different picture, especially when you leave the company.
, Organizing and Organizations - summary
Chapter 4 Motives and Motivating
Motivation:
1. Mysterious, absolute, inner force
2. Subtle social process of accepted justifications for present, future or past acts.
Motives are useful props to meaning and action, but they are also the products of different discourses (discussies).
Motives are patterned by our work identities, group norms and social backgrounds.
Social construction = trying and making sense of our own and others' feelings, decisions or action by slotting them into one or
more social -motivational categories. We draw a kind of explanation that has social currency or worth in our social circles.
Where the power balance is heavily skewed, the motive attributed by the more powerful person often prevails.
Motivation approaches:
- Theory X = authoritarian repressive style: workers requiring direction, rewards, and punishment. Workers dislike
responsibility and want to be led.
- Theory Y = liberating and developmental style: working towards organizational goals, receptive to managerial initiatives and
able to take personal responsibility for their action.
All our motives start with internal needs that impel our behaviour; Hierarchy of needs by Maslow.
Maslow model is developed in an era when work under capitalism was feared to be dehumanizing and alienating. The model
was developed for a particular sub-culture; white adult middle-class Americans.
Alienating = a condition of humanity under capitalism which comprises four emotional states: powerlessness,
meaninglessness, isolation and self-estrangement. (Increase of automated process production, increase of alienation)
There is a big influence of culture on how and when we express, address or account for these and other needs.
We learn to need new products because of the desires and fantasies they create for us (marketing).
Perception of unfairness is a different motive for people to use on the work floor. In competitive societies, people are always
making comparisons with others, consciously and unconsciously.
Equity theory = we set our aspirations and goals in relation to what we see others do or have, and we compare the rewards
we get with what others get. A common basis for deciding what feels equitable.
Organizations start empowerment project to increase the motivation of the employee, by offering more autonomy,
recognition and satisfaction in their jobs. However, this can be received as trivial (onbelangrijk) or even oppressive
(benauwend). The empowerment can lead to less freedom to improve on their own way and having extra responsibilities
(what the manager once had) without commensurate pay. Next to this cost-cutting exercise, managers can use it as a way of
offloading their obligations. Empowerment can lead to different perceptions and it is therefore debatable if empowerment
leads to motivation. Job enrichment can be similarly viewed.
Only if the employees are content to see themselves as recipients of initiatives as empowerment/job enrichment and the
rewards are indeed rewarding them, they might respond positively.
Chapter 5 Rules are Rules
Favours, bribes and backhanders can all be part and parcel of doing business, embedded in the norms of some organizations.
Organizational rules are rational in as much as they are seen to be a means of enhancing the achievement of organizational
ends. However, formal technical rules underpin the single-minded pursuit of efficiency that characterizes the official position
of many organizations.
Organizations seek to control everything through precise prescriptions and procedures.
Adhorcracy = applied to organizations which treat each case on it individual merits, and have a few general rules and
procedures to guide behaviour. Such organizations must rely on training, trust and strong shared values to ensure
coordination and control. The organizations appeal to individuals with artistic or anarchic temperaments.
Bureaucratic blindness: puur de regels volgens maar niet zelf meer logisch nadenken.
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