Complete Course Notes for Organization and Power COM/BCO Master 2023/2024
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Course
S_OAP
Institution
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
This is a complete collection of all 12 Lectures for the Organizationa and Power course that is part of the COM/BCO Master. I completed the course with an 8,5 and received a score of 17/18 in the voluntary group assignment. Additionally I have added all of the questions and answers, which are pract...
Questions & Answers Literature Week 6…………………………………………………………62
Voluntary Group Assignment………………………………………………………………………70
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Lecture 1 Notes: Forms of Control
What is Power? Capacity of A to influence the behaviour of B so that B does things they would not
otherwise do (Weber)
Forms of Control:
➔ Social Control: societal, organisational (and political) mechanisms or processes that regulate
individual and group behaviour to gain conformity and compliance to the rules of a given
organisation, society, state or social group (if we don’t behave accordingly sanctions will
follow)
➔ Hard Control (Hard Coercion): Bureaucracy, Regulations, sanctions (Scientific management;
Taylorism) More about influencing behaviour directly
➔ Soft Control (Soft Coercion): socialisation, norms, values (Hawthorne Studies not directly
influencing behaviour but steering the motivations and desires of employees into a certain
direction to achieve certain behaviour)
➔ Surveillance: New form of control
➔ Normative Control: Control is achieved by employees internalising norms, which also
manipulates their identity. Companies control the underlying thoughts, experiences and
feelings that guide their actions
Weber’s typology of authority based organisations:
➔ Traditional Forms based on social precedent, rituals, rights (external arbitrariness and
internal loyalty) (ie. mafia, family)
➔ Those based on charismatic elements, the power of the person (trait theory, domination,
narcissism) (ie. cult, multinational organisation such as Apple; Steve Jobs)
➔ Modern rational-legal systems and ‘formal rationality’ (bureaucracy)
(First two are inferior to bureaucracy, because they are not based on rationality, predefined rules and
regulations such as in bureaucracy)
Bureaucracy (Max Weber): Exercise of control on the basis of knowledge, it is about rational legal
hierarchical power (not the leader is important but the bureau). Bureaucratic officials are personally
free and appointed to the position on the basis of conduct. It is based on social justice (the rules are
the same for everyone)
➔ Bureaucracy characteristics: Formal rules and regulations, hierarchy with clear chain of
command, formal selection for jobs based on qualifications, division of labor into clearly
defined tasks, career orientation where managers are career professionals, impersonality
(uniform application of rules not based on personalities)
Max Weber & Bureaucracy (Big Picture Approach):
- Bias of Weber is that he focused only on Western society
- He was not after efficiency but to understand the forms of organizing to understand how
behaviour comes about in organizational settings and to create rationality and justice
- Unintended consequence of bureaucracy: inefficiency
- Saw a lot of favouritism or “particularism” (employees being hired or fired for a variety of
non-organizational reasons such as religion, race, sex and relational of family connections)
- Wanted organizations to look more like an extension of governments and the legal system
and be more rational
- Wants a “legal-rational” approach i.e. not traditional family-based leadership or charisma
based leadership
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- Each person’s authority should be tied to their official position (so when you leave job you
don’t keep power and authority but it goes to new person)
- Clear rules should govern performance
- Standardized rules & guidelines for hiring & firing people
- So that only the best people get hired
- Features of Bureaucracy: 1. Fixed division of labour among participants 2. Hierarchy of
Offices 3. Set of General rules that govern performance 4. Rigid separation of personal life
from work life 5. Selection of personnel is done on the basis of technical qualifications and
equal treatment of all employees 6. Participants view employment as a career; tenure
protects against unfair, arbitrary dismissal
- Examples of Bureaucracy: Military, large corporations such as Coca Cola, Colleges, branches
of government
- Pros of Bureaucracy: creates rationality and justice rather than
- Cons of Bureaucracy: 1. Some people will still try to take advantage (nepotism) 2. Red Tape
= Overemphasis on structure, policies and procedure slows or prevents needed action 3. Iron
Cage = People were trapped in calculated systems that pursued rationality at the expense of
individuality and individual freedom 4. Alienation
Taylorism (efficiency) (Micro Level Approach):
- Came up with Scientific Management also named Taylorism
- Wanted to apply science to work to maximise efficiency
- He viewed customized, self-styled work as a serious productivity problem
- He popularized time and motion studies which looked at how much time and how many
motions every single little task should take and then find the “one right way” to do things (he
essentially wanted employees to work like machines)
- This was further developed by Henry Ford
- Pros of Taylorism: 1. Boosts productivity by 200% to 400% 2. More work accomplished with
fewer people = more profit for companies 3. More consistent products of arguably higher
quality
- Cons of Taylorism: 1. Companies often fail to pay employees more (which is against Taylor’s
advice) 2. “Managers think, employees do” philosophy beame normal 3. Separate workers
from greater meaning of work by giving them such specialised tasks 4. Taylorism deskilled
employees and made them expendable 5. “Survival of the fittest” atmosphere takes over =
harsh atmosphere 6. Employee Burnout, dehumanization, mental anguish
Henri Fayol (Mid Level Approach/Managerial):
Span of Control: The number of people who report to one manager in a hierarchy, the more people
the wider the span of control
- Popularised Theory of Administrative Science or Classical Management
- Believed that managers needed to be trained in a much more systematic approach
since there was a considerable lack of management theory in his days
- Put together a list of Activities Managers should be good at called Management
Activities: 1. Planning: Look ahead, chart a course 2. Organization: select and
arrange people 3. Command: Oversee, lead, drive 4. Coordinate: Harmonize and
facilitate 5. Ensure Compliance
- 6 Activities of Industry: 1. Technical 2. Commercial 3. Financial 4. Security 5.
Accounting 6. Managerial
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- Day-to-day of what managers do and when they approach employees to move
everyone in the right direction called Principles of Management: 1. Division of Work
(Task specialisation to increase productivity) 2. Authority and Responsibility (The
right to give orders and exact obedience) 3. Discipline (Obedience, application,
energy of the individual and warnings, fines and suspension for enforcement) 4. Unity
of Command (An employee should receive orders from one supervisor only) 5. Unity
of Direction (One head and one plan for a group of activities having the same
direction) 6. Subordination of individual interest to the general interest 7.
Remuneration (Pay should be fair and should reward “well-directed effort”) 8.
Centralization (Establish the most effective balance between centralization and
decentralisation) 9. Scalar Chain (Must follow the chain of superiors up to
communication across) 10. Order (the right man in the right place to form an effective
social order) 11. Equity (Desire for equity and equality of treatment of employees, a
combination of kindliness and justice) 12. Stability of tenure and personnel 13. Esprit
de Corps (Seek to establish unity and harmony)
Human Relations School (Elton Mayo):
Is a critique of scientific management that advocates of power through consent rather than through
coercion (‘Power with’ vs ‘power over), they advocate for more autonomy/agency/self-actualisation
and thus reconnecting the brain and hand.
Cons: issues in work/life balance that can occur. Because of this intrinsic motivation / ownership there
is still pressure to work hard and perhaps more to be able to meet the goals, not because your
manager will punish you but you feel responsible. Issues that could arise here are burnouts.
Hawthorne Studies (Elton Mayo):
Aim: Find ways to increase worker productivity
Study: Researchers were changing the work environment by brightening or lowering lights…
Findings: People changed attitude regardless of changes in environment, which was attributed to
workers feeling watched, which makes you change your behaviour. Production increased when
groups were being watched
Follett:
Commonalities of the 3 founding Fathers:
- Hierarchy
- Division of Labour
- Standardized approach to work
- Centralization of Authority
- Separation of personal and work life
- Wanted to select the best employees
- Wanted people to be paid fairly, in theory
Post-Structuralism: Philosophical movement that emphasizes radical uncertainty of knowledge and
posits that truth is not a fixed concept but changes based on cultural, political and social positions in
the world; Essentialism = Any entity such as individuals, groups, objects, concepts have innate and
universal qualities e.g. ‘people are born gay’ ‘women are better parents because of maternal instincts’
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