Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Contents
Module 1: Introductory topics .................................................................................. 1
Overview......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Thinking about organisations and management....................................................... 3
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3
1.1.1 Why do we need to manage? ................................................................................ 3
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 5
1.2 Managerial work ....................................................................................................... 5
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5
1.2.1 The nature of managerial work .............................................................................. 5
1.3 Founding views of management............................................................................. 10
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 10
1.3.1 Scientific management ........................................................................................ 10
1.3.2 Administrative management ................................................................................ 11
1.3.3 The human relations movement .......................................................................... 13
1.3.4 Bureaucracy......................................................................................................... 13
1.3.5 Systems theory .................................................................................................... 13
1.3.6 Other approaches ................................................................................................ 14
Module 2: Groups, teams and leadership ............................................................. 18
Overview....................................................................................................................... 18
2.1 The nature of groups and teams............................................................................. 20
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 20
2.1.1 Definitions of groups: two caveats ....................................................................... 20
2.1.2 Functions of formal and informal groups ............................................................. 21
2.1.3 Other arguments concerning the formation of informal groups ........................... 22
2.1.4 Characteristics of groups ..................................................................................... 22
2.2 Team roles.............................................................................................................. 26
2.2.1 Creating an effective team................................................................................... 27
Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 29
2.3 Leadership .............................................................................................................. 30
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 30
2.3.1 Core definitional elements ................................................................................... 31
First Published: Semester 2, 1997. This edition: Session 2 2005 Author: Mary Barrett. Edited and updated by Shaun
Saunders.
Published by the Graduate Studies Program, Faculty of Business, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC,
Qld, 4558
Copyright, University of the Sunshine Coast
Copyright protects this publication. Except for purposes permitted by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth) reproduction by
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We acknowledge, with thanks, those people who contributed of their time and knowledge to the development of this
course.
ii
Topics
Topics covered in this Module are:
1.1 Thinking about organisations and management
1.2 Managerial work
1.3 Founding views of management
Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this Module you should have:
• an appreciation of some of the diverse ways of interpreting organisations and how
being able to think about organisations in different ways contributes to
understanding the task of management
• an understanding of a diversity of approaches to thinking about managerial work
• an understanding of some of the formal founding theories of management, their
strengths and limitations, and their enduring contributions to modern views of
management
• some experience at applying some of these perspectives on organisations and
managerial work to examine your own approach to management, the workings of
your organisation and some case studies.
Learning resources
Reading 1.1
Daudelin, M.E. 2001, ‘Learning from Experience Through Reflection’, in The
Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice
Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 3, pp. 67-73).
Introduction
This topic introduces you to management issues within organisations. It looks at the
need for management and discusses this in the context of the complex and dynamic
nature of organisations.
In learning about the organisations and management we will examine the following
issues:
Defining management
In the light of what and why we manage, it makes sense to define management as:
the activity whereby we obtain, allocate and use human efforts and physical
resources to get something done.
Conclusion
It is clear from what has preceded that organisations are complex; they resist
explanation via a single tool or mechanism. We need multiple views to come to grips
with them. Organisations are changing entities existing within a variety of contexts that
are themselves often unstable. It is probably clear by now why studying an organisation
chart feels not much more informative than studying a faded photograph if you are
trying to capture an understanding of the organisation as a 'moving target'. Even using
more complex perspective such as the ones offered in this Module will have different
results according to the purposes and perspective of the person applying it.
Introduction
This topic examines the issue of work from a variety of points of view. It looks at the
motivations for work, attitudes to work and theoretical viewpoints on the nature of work.
Managerial work examines the roles and performance issues related to management.
Managerial roles
For a long time, partly as a result of Fayol's work (which we will describe later in this
Module), it was thought that the best description of managerial work lay in classifying it
according to a series of roles: planning, organising, leading, and controlling. This
descriptive system remains popular today.
However, such a view of the calm and orderly approach to managerial work seemed to
be seriously questioned when Rosemary Stewart wrote up the results of a study of
what managers really do. From her observations of 100 managers she found that over
a four-week period each of them had, on average, only nine periods of half-an hour
without interruption, which is less than one every other day. This does not leave much
time for systematic planning, organising, leading and controlling.
Following this initial work, Mintzberg (1975) produced a classic paper in which he tried
to dispel some of the myths and folklore about what a manager really does. See
Robbins (textbook) for a summary of Mintzberg's findings. Mintzberg, as a result of his
study, identified ten roles for a manager. These were grouped into Interpersonal roles,
Informational Roles and Decisional roles, as follows:
Interpersonal roles
• figurehead
• leader
• liaison.
Informational roles
• monitor
• disseminator
• spokesperson
• decisional roles
• entrepreneur
• disturbance handler
• resource allocator
• negotiator.
The balance of these roles in a particular managerial job may vary, but basically all
managers will need at least some skills in each of the roles.
Reading 1.2
Mintzberg, H. 2001, ‘The Manager’s Job’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader, eds
J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey. (See Chapter 2, pp. 34-49).
But Kotter also goes somewhat further, presenting these job demands as part of an
overall three-part process: that is agenda setting, network building and executing
(getting networks to implement agendas).
Agenda setting centres on developing a set of loosely connected goals and plans,
sometimes resulting in formal documents, sometimes remaining as ideas in the
manager's head. The managers develop these agendas based on their own knowledge
of the business and organisations involved, plus information gathered primarily from
discussions with people.
Network building involves the developing of a network of cooperative relationships
with people who could make an important contribution to the successful implementation
of the agenda. Thus managers develop relationships with superiors, subordinates,
peers and various other individuals and groups, both inside and outside the
organisation. The more dependent the managers are on a particular group or
individual, the more they try to develop the relationship. As managing generally
involves getting things done through people, it is not surprising that these managers
put a lot of effort into developing support among key people for the set agenda.
Network building involves encouraging the various network members to identify with
the managers' agendas as well as fostering a sense of cooperation and commitment
among them. It involves developing, maintaining and shaping an informal network of
relationships.
Execution involves the mobilisation of support from the network for the implementation
of the agenda. Often this is done – paradoxically – by 'standing back': giving those with
the capacity to accomplish a task successfully the authority to do just that and not
directly intervening. Sometimes direct intervention occurs to ask, demand, cajole,
threaten, praise or reward. Some actions involve the use of the manager's formal
power; others are based on informal persuasion.
Kotter's view reinforces the political emphasis of Luthans et al’s view of management.
Taken together, these studies and similar work describe the real world of managing.
Perhaps it comes as a relief to find that the frenetic reality of your job is at least being
acknowledged in research. But it is disquieting, for example, to discover that the
formula for success in management is not the same as the formula for effectiveness,
and that management is by its nature a highly political activity. In all, the research
confirms that management is a demanding and complex activity, and that chaos,
drama, power plays, bargaining, negotiating and demanding schedules 'go with the
territory'.
By now, you can perhaps add a number of new fads to the list. Consider for example
the popularity of Total Quality Management or TQM (late 80s to early 90s) and the
current predilection for various forms of corporate re-engineering. This is not to argue
that such 'recipes' have no value, but rather that any single precept in management is
unlikely to be capable on its own of solving complex problems.
In all, the readings indicate the complexity of managerial activities, including some
things various management jobs have in common as well as differences between
them, say as managers move further up the hierarchy (Mintzberg), or according to the
functional areas of the organisation they occupy. It may be useful at this point to
summarise what these studies tell us as a whole about managerial activities.
The pace of work is hectic, often fragmented and unrelenting. Particularly as managers
reach the top levels of major organisations, workloads become considerable (50 hours
and more per week for even relatively junior managers). Breaks become less frequent,
and there are continual demands for information. Despite the intention to plan and
reflect on future strategy, the manager's day tends to be subsumed in 'fire-fighting'
unexpected problems.
The content of managerial work is varied and fragmented. All the studies show that
managers typically engaged in a large number of activities covering ten or more
different types depending on whose model is being used to classify them. Such
activities tend to be disjointed, with little connection between them, because so many
are initiated by others. There always seem to be more problems than one person can
handle, and this increases the further up one goes in an organisation. Problems
present themselves 'out of the blue' and in random order. There is little time for careful
analysis, and so managers are inclined to ignore the 'fuzzy' and difficult to diagnose
areas, concentrating on areas they know best, and resorting to styles of approach born
out of habit and personal preference rather than considered analysis. They find it
difficult to think beyond their immediate domain of responsibility, or to define solutions
that involve more than their usual resources.
Interactions often involve peers and outsiders. The contributions of Luthans, Kotter,
Kanter and others show that successful managers tend to be those who can
communicate across functions, divisions and with people outside the organisation. So
networking at times surpasses even the higher level conceptual skills as managers
develop skills and sensitivity to mobilise their workforce.
The high need for lateral and external contacts is explained by managers' needs for
information to reduce levels of uncertainty. If the story of the 1990s and the early part
of the new century is the need for organisations to manage change, then the need to
reduce uncertainty increases correspondingly. As Kanter notes, the successful
entrepreneurial manager builds coalitions of supporters, starting with their peers and,
over time, adding superiors.
Interactions typically involve oral communication. Across studies, managers are
reported as using a variety of methods to obtain information. These include written
messages, phone messages, scheduled and unscheduled meetings and observational
tours. Byrne extends these terms to include idea scavengers and management by
walking around. Estimates put the amount of time managers spend in oral
communication as varying between one quarter and three-quarters. Managers need to
pay attention to gossip and rumours: they represent up-to-date information whether or
not their content is factually based. Even joking and small talk are necessary for
maintaining personal networks.
Decision processes are disorderly and political. Managers seldom make major
decisions immediately, but rather take a series of small steps towards the larger
decision. Organisational decision processes are highly political, and decisions can drag
on for months due to delays, political in-fighting and compromises. The political
phenomena associated with decision-making will be dealt with more formally in the
Module 'Organisational culture and power and politics', and also in the Module 'Control
and decision making'.
Most planning is informal and adaptive. The descriptive studies on which this part of
the Module has been based show that while some planning does occur, it tends to be
informal and implicit. Kotter's work identifies how managers define agendas that
consist of loosely connected goals. Kotter found that the achievement of agenda items
is a gradual, continuous process, in which managers use a range of influence
techniques to shape opinion and mobilise support. Contrary to conventional models of
strategic management, which portray management as an essentially top-down process,
it appears that the objectives and strategies adopted by many firms emerge from more
bottom-up processes.
Reading 1.3
Teal, T. 2001, ‘The Human Side of Management’, in The Organizational Behavior
Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 2, pp. 49-57).
Introduction
This topic examines several key models of management theory. These are standard
theories you are required to be familiar with, but you are also encouraged to critique
and evaluate them.
In this topic we will examine the following issues:
• scientific management
• administrative management
• the human relations movement
• bureaucracy
• systems theory
• other approaches.
The focus was on increasing productivity through the work of individual employees.
Lilian and Frank Gilbreth and Henry Gantt are also closely linked with scientific
management. The Gilbreths tried to improve the performance of workers by identifying
the most efficient set of motions for any task that would at the same time reduce worker
fatigue. Their study of bricklayers in action and the techniques devised to triple their
daily output is a well-known example of their work. A legacy of Gantt's work still used
today is the Gantt Chart, a means of charting production scheduling.
The major advantages of scientific management were increased efficiency and
productivity in manufacturing. Scientific analysis of the workplace including task
breakdown and selection and training of workers also had a significant impact on
managerial practice. We recognise in these practices the forerunners of today's job
descriptions and duty statements. The linking of higher performance with greater
rewards and the focus on cooperation between management and workers are also
features of the modern workplace.
In essence, however, the scientific approach considered workers as extensions of their
equipment or 'human machines’. Moreover, many of the assumptions about human
motivation were simplistic, such as the view that individuals were only motivated to
behave in self-interested ways that would accommodate their economic and physical
needs. Issues such as personal recognition, status and achievement played no part.
The scientific approach assumed that workers must be rigidly controlled by
management as, otherwise, they would be unreliable and uninterested in their work.
The approach to leadership was, accordingly, an authoritarian one. The emphasis was
on the internal functioning of the organisation rather than its capacity to respond to the
external environment.
1 Planning: Deciding on the ways in which the organisation will meet its goals.
2 Organising: Allocating human and physical resources to carry out organisational
plans.
3 Leading: Directing employees to carry out required tasks.
4 Controlling: Monitoring how organisational plans are being carried out and taking
corrective action when needed.
Fayol also described fourteen principles of management, which are briefly described as
follows:
1 Divisions of labour: Tasks and responsibilities are specialised to achieve
maximum efficiency.
2 Authority and responsibility: Orders are supported by formal and personal
authority and with the associated power to apply rewards or penalties.
3 Discipline: Respect for organisational rules is accompanied by penalties for
breaking them.
4 Unity of command: Each employee should have only one direct supervisor.
5 Unity of direction: There should be only one manager and one plan for
operations of the same type.
6 Subordination: of individual interest to the organisation interest. Organisational
interests and goals take precedence.
7 Remuneration: Appropriate and fair reward for effort provides incentive.
8 Centralisation: A balance between centralisation of authority and responsibility in
a manager and delegation to employees should be maintained.
9 The hierarchy or scalar chain: The line of authority and communication should
run from top to bottom, although managers need to communicate laterally with
their peers.
10 Order: All resources should be correctly positioned to support the organisation's
direction and goals.
11 Equity: Friendliness among employees and managers and fair discipline increase
commitment.
12 Stability of staff: A lower turnover rate of employees and long-term commitment
are necessary for an efficient organisation.
13 Initiative: Employees should be encouraged to conceive new ideas and carry out
plans without fear of failure.
14 Esprit de corps: High morale and team spirit are organisational assets.
No doubt you will see applications of many if not all of these principles in your
organisation today, whether as stated or in some variant form. The need to see their
value but to adapt them for each organisation's needs may almost appear self-evident.
This was not always the case, however. While it was Fayol's intention that the
principles be applied flexibly, at first they tended to be taken as rigid prescriptions
without regard to environmental, technological, personnel or other factors. Today the
need to apply a 'customised' view of them is better recognised and the fact that
organisations still so frequently use Fayol's precepts – or some version of them – is
evidence of their fundamental value.
1.3.4 Bureaucracy
The German sociologist, Max Weber, contended that the structure of an organisation
had much to do with its level of efficiency, and that a clearly structured organisation
with well-defined roles and responsibilities – a bureaucracy – provided at least a
theoretically ideal organisational form. Some features of Weber's ideal bureaucracy
include:
• there is a division of labour where each position is well defined and appropriate
authority is delegated
• standardisation and control are achieved by using formal rules and standards
• positions are in a hierarchy of authority
• selection and promotion depend on competence and qualifications
• rewards and penalties are applied according to standardised procedures
• loyalty to the organisation results in long-term job security.
Weber's bureaucracy was designed to enable large organisations to carry out a wide
range of activities in an orderly and efficient manner. It focuses on positions rather than
on the people occupying them, implying that the structure of organisations should –
and could – remain relatively stable over the longer term. While many organisations
retain features of Weber's bureaucracy, it is generally accepted that its desirable
features are most easily achieved in routine and predictable environments. Other more
flexible and responsible organisational structures are required in situations of rapid or
unpredictable change.
Activities
Note: The following activities are optional. They are designed to help you develop your
understanding of the various topics in this Course.
Managerial work
Which of Mintzberg’s five roles are the most important in your current job
(or in the job of the manager(s) you are observing)? How do you think the
Chief Executive spends his or her time? If that is different from your job –
Activity 1.2 in terms of the balance between Mintzberg's roles – is that desirable? Why
Analyse your job or why not?
in terms of
Mintzberg's
managerial roles
Think about your current job. What are the prescribed and discretionary
work elements of your job? You might like to use a pie chart to describe
the relative balance of these components. Is this balance appropriate in
Activity 1.3 relation to the time you are spending on each component? (You might
Analyse the also want to consider here the targets you need to meet to achieve
prescribed and promotion or a satisfactory performance rating in your job.)
discretionary
components of
your job.
The work of Luthans et al, as we noted, has the advantage that it identifies
differences between successful and effective managers. Analysing your
organisation (or through discussions with people who work in another
Activity 1.7 organisation), build up a profile of cases of people who fit the 'successful'
Does your and the 'effective' categories identified by Luthans et al. Check within the
organisation organisation to see what it is doing to reward these types of managers, in
reflect the particular if these reward systems are in line with Luthans et al’s
distinction suggestions. Perhaps, on the contrary, they provide evidence to challenge
between his suggestions.
'successful' and
'effective'
managers?
Topics
Topics covered in this Module are:
2.1 The nature of groups and teams
2.2 Team roles
2.3 Leadership.
Learning outcomes
After successfully completing this Module, you should have:
• an understanding of the stages involved in forming a group, as well as some of the
controversy surrounding this topic
• an understanding of the nature of groups, both formal and informal, and what
distinguishes groups from teams
• an understanding of the kinds of needs groups fulfil, and the mechanisms by which
they do it
• gained some experience at analysing a number of the groups and teams you are
involved in, and working out how their functioning can be improved
• an understanding of the theories surrounding the nature of leadership and what
they have in common
• gained some experience at analysing leadership situations and improving your
own capacities as leader.
Learning resources
Asch, SE 1951, 'Effects of group pressure upon the modifications and distortion of
judgement', in Groups, leadership and men H. Guetzkow ed., pp. 177–190,
Carnegie Press, New York.
Belbin, RM 1981, Management teams: why they succeed of fail, Heinemann, London.
Bramel, D & Friend, R 1987, 'The work group and its vicissitudes in social and
industrial psychology', Journal of Applied Behavioural Sciences, vol. 23, pp. 233–
253.
Dalton, M 1959, Men who manage. Wiley, New York.
Dunphy, D 1981, Organisational change by choice, McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
Fox, A 1985, Man mismanagement, Hutchinson, London..
Grzyb, GJ 1981, 'Decollectivization and recollectivization in the workplace: the impact
of technology on informal work groups and work culture', Economic and Industrial
Democracy, vol. 2, pp. 455–482.
Kanter, RM 1983, The change masters, Unwin, Boston.
Katz, FE 1973, 'Integrative and adaptive uses of autonomy: worker autonomy in
factories', in People and organisations G Salaman & K Thompson eds, Longman,
London, pp. 190–204.
Leana, CR 1985, 'A partial test of Janis's groupthink model: effects of group
cohesiveness and leader behaviour on defective decision making', in Journal of
Management, vol. 11, pp. 5–17.
Morgan, G 1986, Images of organisation. Sage, Beverly Hills CA.
Perrin, S & Spencer C 1981, 'Independence or conformity in the Asch experiments as a
reflection of cultural and situational factors', British Journal of Social Psychology,
vol. 20, pp. 205–209.
Schein, EH 1980, Organisational psychology, 3rd edn, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs
NJ.
Sinclair, A 1989, The tyranny of the team, working paper no. 4, Graduate School of
Management, University of Melbourne.
Trahair, RCS 1985, 'The workers' judgement and informal organization', in Australian
organisational behaviour: readings, 2nd edn, eds WM Ainsworth & QF Willis,
Macmillan, Melbourne, pp. 60–74.
Introduction
One of the notable consequences of the human relations movement discussed in
'Introductory topics', was the greater – and more positive – attention given to groups in
management and organisation theory. To Mayo, McGregor and even Weber, groups
were a fact of life, central to psychological well-being because they reflect a basic
human need for social bonds. Researchers such as Likert continued the human
relations tradition in arguing that the primary task of management was to ensure that
groups functioned in ways which supported rather than undermined management
objectives. This contrasted with the Scientific Management view of groups which was
that they undermined productivity by determining that individual efficiency fell to the
level of the least efficient worker in the group.
Traditionally, and despite the prominence given nowadays to teamwork, managers
have generally been ambivalent towards groups. Managers are aware of the
importance of interdependent cooperative action, and even of the synergies – another
term for enhanced outputs – which can be generated, but they are also wary of the
influence that groups can have over their members (Bramel & Friend, 1987). In the first
part of this Module, we will examine a range of aspects of the significance of groups
and teams for an understanding of their behaviour and effects in organisations. Then,
in the second part of the Module, we will consider the even more vexed question of the
nature of leadership.
It will be clear from an early point that, perhaps even more than in some other Modules,
the material considered under 'Groups and teams' necessarily overlaps with issues
considered elsewhere. For example, some of the roles that individuals assume within
teams overlap with our consideration of management roles in 'Introductory topics'. This
is because managerial work usually involves coordinating participants on complex
tasks that are best carried out interdependently – more simply: 'getting things done
through other people'. As a further example, the function of socialisation and
establishment of 'norms' that we will see to be one of the functions of groups, is also
closely linked to the issue of organisational culture. Group assessment and reward
issues will be dealt with further under Human Resource Management topics in 'Human
Resource Management and Conflict Negotiation'.
aware as you read that disparities among various authors' implied or overt definitions
are likely.
Textbook
The textbook provides classic and fairly standard material on groups. The base being
used is essentially social psychology – a discipline that is both theoretically and
methodologically strong. Thus the textbook defines groups, as well as different types of
groups, and discusses the effects of various external and internal (structural) influences
on the group. In a welcome development, the textbook also provides a counterbalance
to the ideas of group formation, which are frequently presented in an uncritical way.
The section on the punctuated equilibrium model of group development (see Robbins'
textbook) provides a more realistic model for the less smooth and predictable path that
groups traverse to achieve their goals. Essentially, the textbook's definitions of groups
have a central notion of belonging, and also frequently a sense of common purpose, so
that – to invoke the classic contrast – groups are differentiated from a mere collection
of individuals waiting for a bus.
Despite this, it is important to note that, in practice, the term 'group' tends to be applied
to a range of situations where the existence of a sense of belonging or of collective
identity must be speculation at best. For example, some production processes are
organised around collectivities that have been formed by management as the basic unit
for production. Such collectivities may be labelled groups before, and in the absence
of, any evidence of the existence of the group characteristics the textbook describes.
So the study of groups in organisations is likely to be the study of:
• the collectivities that conform to the definition of 'group’, and
• collectivities to which the label 'group' has been applied.
Political/economic reasons
Trahair (1985), Grzyb (1981) and Fox (1985) have analysed work situations where
informal groups seem to be aimed at increasing worker control over their work, forming
bonds which enhance acts of solidarity (as in industrial action) or defending and
advancing job interests. Accordingly, such groups often serve a 'counter-organisational
function’, as the basis for an alternative system of power and influence which can act to
subvert the formal goals of the organisation. Managers, in turn, may attempt to prevent
such groups forming through their arrangements of the workplace layout or by rotating
the leaders of such groups.
Structural explanations
Katz (1973), Dalton (1959) both also dispute the social needs interpretation, arguing
that informal groups develop because formal structure is never absolute in terms of its
determination of the actions of workers. That is, informal groups may fill in the gaps in
formal practices in a way that supports the general intentions of management, rather
than being a form of resistance to them. Dalton argues that informal groups contribute
to organisational effectiveness.
(Janis 1988). The phenomenon of groupthink, for example, which arises from a
combination of the effects of norms, the pressure to conform, and group cohesiveness,
has received a great deal of attention. In considering these four dimensions, we will
consider not only the problems that arise from one or more of these characteristics of
groups, but the ways in which they help groups to endure.
Roles
Our earlier discussion of the differentiation of roles in management can be extended to
a consideration of different roles within the group. Group activity requires both task-
focussed and maintenance-focussed actions. The former directly address what is
needed to carry out the work task of the group; the latter attends to the maintenance of
interpersonal relations and cohesion within the group. Dunphy (1981) has provided a
summary of these task and maintenance roles, plus those often seen as disruptive:
Role function
A TASK
Initiator: Most active in setting objectives and initiating action
Expert: Has and provides specialist advice
Evaluator: Assesses progress; analyses problems
Implementer: Focuses on implementation details, timing and methods
Procedural technician: Emphasises the importance of rules and procedures and
precedent
B MAINTENANCE
Exemplar: Spokesperson/liaison/negotiation for the group
Encourager: Praises; supports; empathises
Confronter: Brings conflicts out into the open
Harmoniser: Mediates; conciliates
Tension reliever: Reduces formality; introduces humour
C DISRUPTIVE
Dominator: Seeks to dominate discussion and to impose own views/objectives
Absentee: Withdrawn, uninvolved
Aggressor: Attacks others; ridicules, hostile, sarcastic
Smotherer: Compulsively nice; stifles attention to conflict
Recognition-seeker: Boastful; highlights own achievement
Confessor: Reveals personal fears, failings; uses group as a therapy session
Source: Adapted from Dunphy (1981)
Norms
As Robbins points out, all groups have norms, that is expectations of appropriate
behaviour for group members. But only those norms which ensure the group's survival,
increase the predictability of group members' behaviours, avoid potential
embarrassment, and express the central values of the group, tend to be regularly
enforced.
Conformity
Conformity is an issue closely linked to the issue of norms. Read carefully the account
in the textbook of the Zimbardo experiment carried out at Stanford University. There is
a further experiment you may have heard of: the Asch study in 1951 that also
demonstrated the impact of conformity pressures on group members. It is notable that
these pressures to conformity existed despite the fact that these 'groups' were hardly
groups at all in the strict sense of the word. That is, they were a collection of individuals
thrown together for the purpose of the experiment, who would have had no opportunity
to establish normative ties. The significance of this is that it would be reasonable to
assume that such tendencies to conformity would be even greater in many established
groups.
However, Perrin and Spencer (1981) question the universality of Asch's results. In their
replication of Asch's study almost thirty years later using British students, they found an
almost total lack of compliance to the unanimous majority. The difference, they argued,
could have been due to the fact that Asch's study took place during and in the
conformist culture of 1950s America. They comment:
Asch's subjects expressed their fear of 'sticking out like a sore thumb',
'being felt sorry for', 'being thought that they had something wrong with
them'. The present students, in contrast, felt that to conform to a group
majority they believed to be erroneous would make them look 'weak',
'ridiculous' and 'stupid'.
It might still be argued that, given the British students feared appearing in an
unfavourable light to others, some norms of conformity were still operating. (I have
always wondered whether students 30 years or so later hadn't gradually got wind of the
point of the experiment!) Nevertheless, it is important to note that the pressures
towards conformity are likely within well-established groups, and even those that are
less than well established.
Cohesiveness
The textbook lists a number of contributors to group cohesiveness, and also discusses
the consequences of group cohesiveness. As a general rule, it can be concluded that
greater cohesiveness leads to:
• increased quantity and quality of communication between members
• greater influence by the group over individual members' behaviour
• a higher level of job satisfaction of group members
• improved or reduced performance depending on whether the group norm is for
high or low performance.
Groupthink
Groupthink, or the tendency to suppress critical thinking as a result of the concern to
retain group unity, is one of the possible deleterious consequences of working in
groups.
See also:
http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/FIS/Courses/LIS2149/Groupthink.html
Website
http://www.abacon.com/commstudies/groups/groupthink.html
http://www.groupthinkfilm.com/
Janis (1971) sets out a number of symptoms of groupthink, which are summarised in
the textbook as follows:
• 'rationalising away' any resistance to the group's assumptions
• pressures to conform applied to doubters
• silence on the part of those who are doubters
• an illusion of unanimity.
To these we might add:
• the illusion of invulnerability, which leads the group to dismiss potential dangers
and take great risks; a belief in the inherent morality of the group's position
• the stereotyping of enemy leaders, for example, as too evil, corrupt or primitive to
be a threat
• mindguards: some members of the group sometimes act as mindguards, keeping
adverse information from reaching members and the leader in particular.
Effects of Groupthink
As a result of Groupthink the group limits its discussion to a rather limited range of
alternatives, with little time given to identifying non-obvious gains, or to seeking
solutions to costs that could change the relative merit of alternatives. The advice of
experts – even within the same organisation – who might have more accurate and
useful data, is ignored or not even sought. The group fails to reconsider the decision if
unanticipated risks or problems are brought to their attention. Group members show
interest in information that supports their decision, and ignore those that do not. Little
time is spent considering how the decision could be sabotaged in the course of being
implemented, which means, in turn, that there is no contingency plan for such an event.
Explanation of Groupthink
Janis says that Groupthink is best understood as 'a mutual effort among the group
members to maintain self-esteem and emotional equanimity by providing social support
to each other, especially at times when they share responsibility for making vital
decisions' (1971, p 43). He argues that the prime condition for Groupthink is group
cohesiveness and that it is reinforced where the group is insulated and where the
leader is promoting his or her preferred solution. He later qualifies this by noting that it
is particularly so where cohesiveness is due to the desire of individuals to be members
of a particularly prestigious or socially pleasant group, rather than because they want to
be part of an effective and competent task-focussed group. Leana (1985) goes further,
arguing that the leadership factor (mentioned above) is the prime determinant rather
than cohesiveness.
Preventing Groupthink
Janis (1988) lists the following means of preventing groupthink:
• the leader of a policy-forming or decision-making group should assign the role of
critical evaluator to each member and encourage expression of objections and
doubts
• leaders should begin by adopting an impartial stance instead of stating
preferences at the beginning
• several groups should work on the same matter, including some from outside the
organisation
• each member should discuss the group's views with colleagues in their own unit of
the organisation
• the group should invite one or more outside experts to each meeting and
encourage them to challenge the group's views
• whenever a meeting is held at which policy alternatives are discussed, at least one
member should be assigned the role of devil's advocate
• whenever the issue involves relations with a rival organisation the group should
allocate plenty of time to a study of all warning signals from the rival
• the group should from time to time split into two or more subgroups which meet
separately, then come back together to identify and resolve any differences.
5 Company Worker: the practical organiser who turns decisions and strategies into
defined and manageable tasks that people can actually get on with. This person is
concerned with what is feasible and logical.
6 Resource Investigator: the member of the team who goes outside the group and
brings information, ideas and developments back to it.
7 Team Worker: the person who monitors and attends to the emotional needs of
individuals within the team, and working to produce harmony especially in times of
stress and pressure. If someone produces an idea, the instinct of the Team Worker
is to build on it rather than demolish it.
8 Finisher: the person who worries about details and what might go wrong. The
Finisher maintains a permanent sense of urgency, and keeps the team to its
predetermined deadlines and standards.
In Belbin's formulation, it is clear that people may occupy more than one role within a
team. In any team of fewer than eight or nine people this would have to be so. All the
functions are necessary, but people's different personalities mean that they will find
some functions easier to fulfil than others. For example, Belbin classifies the functions
as follows:
• Chairperson, Plant, Resource Investigator and Shaper: 'outward-looking' functions
• Company Worker, Monitor-Evaluator, Team Worker and Finisher: 'inward-looking'
functions.
Note that Belbin later added a ninth team role, that of the Expert who has specialist
knowledge or expertise (e.g., Information Technology).
Reading 2.1
Wageman, R. 2001, ‘Critical Success Factors for Creating Superb Self-Managing
Teams’, in The Oganizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M.
Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 9, pp. 231-
242).
Teambuilding
Of course, managers tend not to simply leave the task of making groups effective –
creating teams – simply to the inherent characteristics of the group. The process by
which active interventions are made in order to improve the functioning of a group is
known as team building. Problems that team building processes aim to eliminate
include poor productivity, low morale, lack of coordination, complacency,
Reading 2.2
Rogers, C.R. & Farson, R.E. 2001, ‘The Meaning of Active Listening’, in The
Organizational Behavior Reader, eds. J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice
Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 7, pp. 185-189).
Do we overvalue teams?
Dunphy (1981) provides considerable detail on the nuts and bolts of the techniques
associated with team strategies in his book Organisational Change by Choice. This
book is one of the most widely used and cited, both in academic and practitioner
circles, and is deservedly regarded as a management classic. Nevertheless, like many
other similar texts, it is based on a rather uncritical concept of the group as a team, that
is, as a collectivity fundamentally driven by common interest, but which periodically
suffers from dysfunctional practices. The concept of 'team' is a highly evaluative one,
associated as it is with the idea of cooperation and a common goal. That is, it brings
with it considerable ideological baggage.
Morgan (1986) notes that its usage by managers may reflect their preference about
how their groups operate, but may not be a particularly accurate characterisation of
relations between the individuals concerned. In fact, by invoking the image of a team, a
manager may be trying to bring about a unity of purpose that is currently lacking. As
Kanter (1983) points out: 'Declaring people a "team" does not necessarily make them
one'.
Forming a team does not in itself mean that various differences in perspective and
interest, which already exist, will disappear. In the article just cited, Kanter argues that
'the myth of team' is a counterproductive one. This myth holds that differences among
members do not exist (because they are now a team). This can lead to the
delegitimisation of differences, a head-in-the-sand disinclination to confront the reality
of the situation.
The remaining readings for this part of the Module are especially useful in expanding
upon the special uses of groups and teams. They cover autonomous and
semiautonomous work groups, the importance of cultural factors in the use of teams,
and in the analysis of more participatory styles of management, with Japanese
management practices as a primary example. Observations of how Japan uses the
group are reported in the discussion of corporate social responsibility in U.S. and
Japanese organisations (Wokutch) and in descriptions of the strategic use of quality
circles in this country (McGraw and Dunford). Together these articles provide a good
interpretation of Japanese management practices, and the difficulties in developing and
running quality circles. The message is that Japanese management methods need to
be adapted carefully when applied in other places, since they can be very much at
variance with established social norms in western countries.
Reading 2.3
Lipnack, J. & Stamps, J. 2001, ‘Virtual Teams: The New Yay to Work’, in The
Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice
Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 9, pp. 242-249).
Conclusion
The topics covered in the textbook and the readings, highlight a major difficulty in
examining the topic of the group – the wide range of applications where group issues
affect the behaviour and decision-making of managers, and yet the difficulty of making
hard and fast rules about this. If anything, the next topic, Leadership, reinforces this
finding.
2.3 Leadership
Introduction
As the textbook points out, leadership is one of the most researched topics in the
management literature, yet it is also probably one of the most frustrating in terms of
identifiable practical and reliable applications for managers. Yet we have no difficulty in
finding stories about great military, political, religious and social leaders, and it seems
reasonable to assume that there are obvious lessons from their stories. Why did
Gandhi, Mohammed, Julius Caesar and Churchill become great leaders and why, in
many cases, did they later lose their followers' support? How did some undistinguished
people, like Adolf Hitler rise to positions of power? Some of the broad areas in which
researchers have worked in an effort to answer these questions have been:
• personality traits
• abilities
• behaviours
• sources and uses of power
• features of the situation.
Textbook
Reading 2.4
Goleman, D. 2001, ‘What Makes a Leader?’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader,
eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey. (See Chapter 13, pp. 371-381).
The textbook provides a comprehensive treatment of the various theories that have
emerged about leadership. Not surprisingly, theories of leadership now constitute a
vast area of the applied social sciences literature.
The first difficulty in examining this literature is providing a satisfactory definition of
leadership. As the textbook points out, there are almost as many definitions as
researchers in the area, and different theorists provide various interpretations of
leadership and leadership effectiveness. There are also debates about the similarities
and differences between leadership and management. Typically both terms are used
interchangeably, but many argue quite persuasively for different definitions for both
concepts.
We will also examine the following issues:
• core definition and elements
• changes in emphasis in leadership approaches
• points of convergence across leadership theories.
Leader-subordinate relations
Effective leaders establish cooperative relationships with their staff. They achieve high
levels of mutual trust and loyalty. Leaders especially provide an important source of
influence over the effort and commitment of staff. Favourable leader-subordinate
relations are more likely for leaders who are friendly, open and helpful to their staffs
needs, and take actions to advance the careers of this group. Also, several traits and
skills are more predictive of being an effective leader. These skills include tact,
empathy for others and good listening and counselling skills. Many of these are the
human resource management skills we will review in Module 3.
Managerial decision-making
A fourth area of convergence is that of managerial decision-making. Successful
decision-making assists leaders in gaining and retaining power. Managers, however,
seldom make important decisions as discrete actions at a point in time. Rather – as we
saw in 'Introductory topics' – managerial decision-making tends to be confused,
disorderly, emotional rather than rational, and covers domains from high levels of
strategic importance to the highly trivial. Contingency theories of leadership reveal that
leaders are judged more highly if they use participative processes in their decision-
making. Managers with the traits of being proactive, and having an orientation towards
efficiency and decisiveness are more likely to take the initiative about decisions and to
take moderate levels of risks. Managers with a high regard for others are more likely to
encourage staff participation, and they seem less concerned about protecting their own
power base. For more on this topic, see related readings and other material on
decision-making in 'Control and decision-making'.
Reading 2.5
Manz, C.C. & Sims, H.P. Jr. 2001, ‘SuperLeadership: Beyond the Myth of Heroic
Leadership’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, &
I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 13, pp.
383-397).
Activities
Note: The following activities are optional. They are designed to help you develop your
understanding of the various topics in this Module.
Think of at least three separate groups to which you belong. Include some
at work and some elsewhere. For each group, consider which – if any – of
your social needs you feel it fulfils. Does the group simultaneously fulfil
Activity 2.1 any official need? In the light of the preceding discussion, consider the
Analyse your reasons for any overlap (or lack of overlap) in each case.
groups – Part 1
Consider the same groups as in the first activity. Do you find any support
for either or both of the political/economic and structural explanations in
terms of the reasons you belong to these groups? On the basis of your
Activity 2.2 experience, which of the three basic sets of explanations – social,
Analyse your political/economic or structural – seems to you have the most value? Or
groups – Part 2. do you see some value in several of the explanations?
Consider a workgroup of which you are a member or which you know well
through interacting with it in some other way. The group should be one
which works together on a reasonably regular basis, or did so in the past.
Activity 2.3 Analyse its functioning in terms of the task, maintenance and disruptive
Analyse the functions that Dunphy (1981) sets out above. Are there some overlaps in
functions of your terms of the functions some people fulfil? Compare this analysis of group
work group. functions to the managerial roles outlined by Mintzberg in 'Introductory
topics'. Again, are there some functions which overlap, including the
disruptive ones?
Talk to the members of a work group you are familiar with – either one to
which you belong or another one. From these interviews, identify the
norms and roles that apply, the functions of the group and the issues that
Activity 2.5 influence the effectiveness of the group, whether positively or otherwise.
Analyse your
work group's
norms.
Considering the issues of groupthink and the main symptoms given in the
textbook and in the preceding discussion, identify some examples of
groupthink in your workplace and in Australian public life. Identify specific
Activity 2.6 examples from political and organisational leaders, and then discuss ways
Identify in which groupthink could have been averted.
instances of
Groupthink.
Leadership
The art of empowering the people who report to you involves several
specific management practices. Using Conger's (1991) list, analyse
examples of the use of at least three of these strategies in an organisation
Activity 2.7 you know as a member or have learned about by talking to others or
Does empower- through your general reading. Were the strategies successful? Why or
ment work? why not?
• Organise effectively?
• Think about the managers you have observed who, n your opinion,
have failed miserably as managers. What qualities does this group of
managers have in common? What behaviours did they fail to
demonstrate?
• Based upon your analysis, identify a list of skills that are necessary for
effective leadership and decision-making abilities. Once your have
completed your list, review the list to determine which skills you have
already demonstrated effectively, and those that require improvement.
Develop an action plan to improve your leadership and decision-
making abilities.
Topics
Topics covered in this Module are:
3.1 Motivation
3.2 Persuasion
Learning outcomes
After successfully completing this Module you should be able to:
• explain various theories of motivation: the differences between them and the
strengths and weaknesses of each
• describe an entirely different way of thinking about the meaning of work, the
orientations to work approach, and its relationship to other schools of thought
about what managers need to do to get the best out of their workforce
• explain the ways specific motivation theories have informed a number of human
resource management practices, such as performance appraisal and
compensation
• identify other contemporary HRM issues, and theories supporting them
• understand the fundamental principles of persuasion and influence and how they
can be used in the modern workplace.
• gain some experience in the practice of persuasion.
Learning resources
Adler, JS 1965, ‘Injustice in social exchange’, in Advances in experimental social
psychology, vol. 2, ed. L Berkowitz, Academic Press, New York.
Adler, NJ 1997, International dimensions of organizational behavior, 3rd ed.
Southwestern, Cincinnati, OH.
Alderfer, CP 1972, Existence, relatedness and growth, Free Press, New York.
Aungles, SB & Parker, AR 1989, Work, organisation and change, Allen & Unwin,
Sydney.
Carrell, MR & Dittrich, JE 1978, 'Equity theory: the recent literature, methodological
considerations and new directions’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 3, pp.
202–210.
Dufty, NF & Fells, RE 1989, Dynamics of industrial relations in Australia, McGraw-Hill,
Sydney.
Fox, A 1973, Industrial relations: a social critique of pluralist ideology’, in Man and
organisation, ed. J Child, pp. 185–233. Halstead Press, New York.
Goldthorpe, JH, Lockwood, D, Bechofer, F & Platt, J 1968, The affluent worker:
industrial attitudes and behaviour, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Handy, Charles B 1985, Understanding organisations, Penguin, Harmondsworth.
Herzberg, F 1968, Work and the nature of man, Crosby Lockwood Staples, London.
Herzberg, F, Mausner, B, & Snyderman, BB 1959, The motivation to work, John Wiley
and Sons, New York.
Hofstede, G 1980a, Culture's consequences: international differences in work-related
values, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
Hofstede, G 1980b, 'Motivation, leadership and organisations: do American theories
apply abroad?' Organisational Dynamics, vol. 9, pp. 42–63.
Lambert, Field Sales Performance Appraisal. (see page 73 )
Landy, F & Becker, WS 1987, 'Motivation theory reconsidered’, in Research in
organisational behaviour, vol. 9 eds LL Cummings & BM Staw, JAI Press,
Greenwich CT, pp. 1–38.
Lee, JA. 1980, The gold and the garbage in management theories and prescriptions,
Ohio University Press, Athens OH.
Locke, EA 1980, ‘Towards a theory of task motivation and incentives’, Organisational
Behaviour and Human Performance, vol. 3, pp. 157–189.
Locke, EA & Latham, GP 1984, Goal setting: a motivational technique that works,
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
McClelland, DC 1961, The achieving society, Van Nostrand, Princeton.
McClelland, DC 1975, Power: the inner experience, Irvington, New York.
McClelland, DC & Burnham, DH 1976, 'Power is the great motivator’, Harvard Business
Review, vol. 54, pp. 100–110.
Macken, D 1989, 'The workers' revolution on the top floor’, in Sydney Morning Herald
Good Weekend, 6 May.
Maslow, AH 1987, Motivation and personality, 3rd edn (1st edn, 1954), Harper and
Row, New York.
Miller, Katherine & Monge, Peter R 1986, 'Participation, satisfaction and productivity: a
meta-analytic review', Academy of Management Journal, vol. 29, no 4, pp. 727–753.
Miner, JB 1980, Theories of organisational behaviour, Dryden Press, Hinsdale IL.
Morgan, G 1986, Images of organisation, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA.
Napier, 'Motivation, incentives and salesforce performance'
Pfeffer, J 1982, Organisation and organisational theory, Pitman, Boston.
Pondy, LR 1967, 'Organisational conflict: concepts and models’, Administrative
Science Quarterly, vol. 12, pp. 296–320.
Postman, N 1986. Amusing ourselves to death. London: Heinemann.
Pratkanis, A & Aronson, E 2000. Age Of Propaganda, Freeman, New York.
Schein, E 1978, Career dynamics, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA.
Schuler, Randall S & Jackson, Susan E 1987, 'Linking competitive strategies with
human resource management practices', Academy of Management Executive, vol.
1, no 3, pp. 207–219.
Spillane, R 1980, Attitudes of business executives and union leaders to industrial
relations: twenty-three years later’, Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 22, pp. 317–
325.
Thomas, K 1976, 'Conflict and conflict management’, in Handbook of industrial and
organisational psychology, ed. MD Dunce, Rand McNally, Chicago, pp. 889–935.
Vecchio, RP 1988, Organisational behaviour, Dryden Press, Chicago.
Watson, TJ 1980, Sociology, work and industry, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Watson, TJ 1986, Management organisation and employment strategy, Routledge and
Kegan Paul, London.
3.1 Motivation
In this topic we will examine the following issues:
• theories of motivation
• Theory X and Theory Y
• process theories
• orientation to work approaches
• applications of motivation theories to human resource management
• other HRM issues.
Introduction
In 'Introductory topics' in the context of the Human Relations' movement, we touched
on some early approaches to motivation, especially the ideas of Maslow (the 'hierarchy
of needs') and McGregor (Theory X and Theory Y). In the first section of this Module
we will return to ideas about motivation, particularly as they relate to some specific
aspects of human resource management: job design, management by objectives
(MBO) and compensation (pay) management. The reason for linking these issues is
that beliefs about what motivates people directly influence a variety of management
practices, so an understanding of both the theories and the specific practices is
enhanced by dealing with the two together. Subsequently, we will deal with some other
issues in the area of HRM, particularly career development issues, personnel selection
and performance appraisal.
Don't feel that this is the end of possible explorations within the field of HRM! This is a
vast area which is changing rapidly, especially with new legislation such as anti-
discrimination legislation and changes to dismissal laws. This Module introduces you to
the topic with particular reference to motivation theory, but you may well want to take a
number of issues further.
Textbook
Content theories
Motivation theories are generally divided into two types:
• those that focus on the idea that people have a core set of basic needs which
provide the motive force for their actions (content theories), and
• those that focus on the cognitive processes which explain how people make
decisions as to how to act.
The two theories that you have met briefly in 'Introductory topics', Maslow's hierarchy of
needs and McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y, belong to the first type. You may want
to return to 'Introductory topics' to refresh your memory of the basic ideas in these two
theories.
We said in 'Introductory topics' that there had been some important qualifications to this
theory and these are outlined in the textbook. It is important to note that Maslow
himself was the author of these qualifications, which basically amount to saying that the
theory has been misunderstood as indicating a simple rather than a complex
relationship between needs and behaviour. Specifically, Maslow (1987) pointed out
that:
• needs may exist but not necessarily be acted on
• any given behaviour may be determined by several or all of the basic needs; and
• there are many determinants of behaviour other than needs and desires, such as
habit and conditioning.
In fact, 'most members of our society who are normal are partially satisfied in all their
basic needs and partially unsatisfied in all their basic needs at the same time' (Maslow,
1987, pp. 27–28).
Despite this, as the textbook notes, Maslow's theory with its intuitive logic has achieved
great popularity among managers – even if its proposals have not been borne out by
hard research. This is also despite the fact that Maslow's was a general theory of
motivation with no specific attention given to motivation within work organisations.
However Maslow came to believe that management practices provided practical
application of his ideas. He believed that people operated at their optimal level when
organisations developed practices that recognised the multidimensional nature of
human motivation and that such practices would mutually benefit workers and
management. In brief, organisational effectiveness and individual satisfaction would
both gain from the application of practices based on this theory.
Additional reading
For those who would like to explore further the criticisms of Maslow's theory, find and
read one or more of the following authors and their comments on Maslow:
Aungles, SB and Parker, AR 1989, Work, organisations and change, Allen and Unwin,
Sydney.
Miner, JB 1980, Theories of organisation behaviour, Dryden Press, Hisdale IL.
Watson, TJ 1986, Sociology, work and history, academy of management executive,
Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
about the behavioural assumptions they make in their work is in itself a useful thing,
even if it has led to simplistic Theory X–Theory Y assumptions.
ERG theory
Clayton Alderfer (1972) provides a revision of Maslow's needs-based theory of
motivation in which the basic needs are reduced to three: existence, relatedness and
growth, hence ERG. These needs are arranged in a hierarchy as in the Maslow model
but the relationship between the levels is more complex. Rather than there being a
one-way progression up the hierarchy as needs are satisfied, Alderfer argues that if an
individual is not able to satisfy needs at a particular level this frustration leads to
regression. That is, a return to a focus on further satisfying needs at a lower level (the
frustration-regression effect). There is regression from a more abstract (and therefore
uncertain and ambiguous) higher level to a more concrete lower level; from a more to a
less cognitively demanding task. This provides a rationale for the frustration-regression
effect (Landy and Becker, 1987). However, as Landy and Becker note, ERG theory has
not received much more empirical support than Maslow's original foundation.
Reading 3.1
McClelland, D.C. 2001, ‘The Urge to Achieve’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader,
eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey. (See Chapter 4, pp. 94-96).
David McClelland's approach to motivation is based on the view that people have three
needs: for achievement, for affiliation and for power (McClelland et al., 1953,
McClelland, 1961, 1975). The need for achievement (nAch) is indicated by such things
as liking to set goals and having responsibility for reaching them, liking problem-solving
and getting feedback on performance. The need for affiliation (nAff) is the need to have
close, friendly relations with other people and is associated with an ability to empathise
with opposing views, a preparedness to consult and discuss, and a preference for
consultative practices. The need for power (nPow) is the need to influence. This may
be self-serving, with personal gain the driving force, or it may be based on seeking to
improve the performance of staff and, with it, management objectives for the
organisation.
McClelland was especially interested in the connection between these needs and
management performance. He argued that high-performing managers rated highly on
achievement needs, although without at least a moderate level of affiliation needs,
such individuals would sometimes fail to attend to the interpersonal aspects of
managing. A reasonably high need for power was also deemed to be important for
managers (McClelland and Boyatzis, 1967), although it is power of the social – not
person – nature which has been found to correlated with successful management
(McClelland and Burnham, 1976). High nAff without a reasonable level of nAch and
nPow is not likely to produce a successful manager, for example, because the desire to
be liked may override the necessity for important decisions to be made.
McClelland considers all people to have these needs, at least at a minor level, but
individuals vary greatly in how developed such needs are above this level. McClelland
sees the degree of development of these motives as dependent on influences felt
during childhood socialisation. He also believes that the achievement motive could and
A critique of Herzberg
The textbook gives a comprehensive list of the criticisms of Herzberg's research. The
criticisms tend to be of two kinds: that Herzberg's research was methodologically
flawed, and that there is a lack of supporting evidence from other studies. As with
Maslow and McGregor, the value in Herzberg's approach has not been in the specific
details of the theory per se – because of the substantial problems listed, but because it
has been what Watson (1986) refers to as a 'sensitiser' bringing to managers' attention
the motivational prospects of intrinsic job factors.
Goal setting
The goal setting approach to motivation focuses on the role of goals in determining
behaviour. In this approach the motivation process involves the conscious intentions of
an individual – that, his or her goals – being the critical intervening variable between an
incentive and actual performance (Locke and Latham, 1984).
Key assumptions within the goal-setting approach are:
• specific goals motivate more than general ones such as the exhortation to 'do your
best’
• difficult but attainable goals motivate more than easily attained ones
• participation in the setting of a goals is likely to lead to a higher level of motivation
than goals issued as directive, but primarily due to its effect on increasing the
chances of a goal being accepted as a target for action
Equity theory
J Stacy Adam's equity theory is based on the belief that employees' behaviour is
influenced by their perception of the degree of equity in the outcomes (for example,
salary, position) they receive for the input (for example, effort, experience) they make.
Equity is assessed in a continuing process of comparison with the inputs and outputs of
someone they see as in an equivalent position. Workers who believe that their
outcome-to-input ratio is either higher or lower than those with whom they compare will
have resulting feelings of inequity that lead them to take action to remove the inequity.
Those who feel deprived may ask for higher pay (increased output), reducing the effort
they put into their work (decreased input), revising downward their assessment of the
difficulty of their job, or changing the person they use as their point of comparison.
Alternatively, they may focus on the others, hoping to bring about a reduction in their
pay, or an increase in their effort or a reassessment of the difficulty of that job. If the
other's job is newly perceived as more demanding the inequity may disappear. If none
of these solve the problem, or are simply not tried, the perceived inequity may be
resolved by internal transfer or resignation. Adams argues that parallel reactions also
exist for those whose assessment of equity leads them to believe that they are
relatively privileged. According to the theory, the privileged will also seek to restore
equity.
A detailed view of the evidence on the validity of equity theory found that there was
support in laboratory tests but that studies in actual organisations provided little clear
evidence of such validity (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978).
Expectancy theory
Expectancy theory, as the term implies, draws on the notion that, in addition to the
preferences and desires that someone has (which might be addressed through one or
more need theories of motivation), they have a certain level of expectation of achieving
that outcome, given other factors. The theory thus combines the strength of individual
needs with the level of expectation.
Accordingly, the motivational effect varies according to the strength of each of the
following three factors:
• a certain outcome to be desired and available (valance)
• a belief that specific behaviours will lead to that outcome (instrumentality)
• a belief that one has the ability to complete the required behaviours successfully
(expectancy).
As an example, a middle level marketing manager, Jim, may be told by his boss, Mary,
that part of his job will now involve accessing computer records held elsewhere in the
organisation. In addition, using some new computer packages, he will be required to
devise and draw up new information about the company's marketing performance.
Mary promises that if Jim is able to carry out the additional tasks successfully, she will
strongly recommend him for a promotion and a performance bonus at the end of the
year.
According to expectancy theory, the degree to which this proposition influences Jim's
motivation is dependent on how Jim judges all of the following:
• how much he wants the promotion and bonus
• the extent to which he believes that he will actually be recommended for the
promotion and bonus, and whether the recommendation will in fact result in the
promised rewards.
• (NB: You may wish to consider this latter point in relation to views of leadership
that argue that leaders with 'clout' tend to be better respected and more successful
within their organisations.) See the 'Groups, teams and leadership' Module.
• the extent to which he believes he can learn the new packages and produce
reports of the required standard.
(The textbook's discussion of self-efficacy is relevant here.)
In addition to the interaction of these factors, the situation may be complicated by
efforts on Mary's part to influence the various judgements. For example by providing
information on why Jim ought to be interested in the promotion, reassurances about
her capacity to provide it, and her views on how confident Jim ought to be about
reaching the goal.
The textbook discusses attempts to validate expectancy theory, and outlines some
ways in which experimental design has been improved and how these, in turn, have
lent support for the theory.
A more complex integrative model of expectancy theory is presented in the textbook;
see the diagram and the accompanying discussion.
Reading 3.2
Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z. 2001, ‘Recognize Contributions: Linking Rewards with
Performance’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb,
& I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 4, pp.
104-118).
Reading 3.3
Kerr, S. 2001, ‘On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B’, in The Organizational
Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 18, pp. 508-515).
some notion of 'balance' between effort (input) and the offered wage (output). Factors
that change the wage-effort bargain or ratio will induce changed behaviour as the
worker tries to re-establish the old ratio or establish a new one. Thus changes in job
design (see later in this Module), even if they are accompanied by extra pay and more
enriched jobs may well radically disturb the wage-effort relationship. The fact that many
job-redesign exercises are often associated with increased payments for some workers
at least means that there are two possible explanations for a subsequent increase in
output – the satisfaction derived from the new job, or the desire to earn the new pay
rate.
Compensation management
Goal-setting theory has been the basis for major management systems such as
Management by Objectives (MBO). MBO, or systematic approaches to judging the
extent to which employees have met their performance objectives, has, in turn, been
the basis of many compensation schemes. Equity theory has been the basis for
compensation management systems such as the Hay scheme – a points-based system
for evaluating the worth of particular jobs. The textbook in the latter part of Chapter 7
provides a comprehensive overview of the application of these and other motivation
theories to compensation management.
Cultural diversity
An important theme in contemporary HRM is that managers must be concerned with an
increasingly culturally diverse workforce.
Reading 3.4
Hofstede, G. 2001, ‘Cultural Constraints in Management Theories’, in The
Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice
Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 12, pp. 345-356).
The question managers need to face, is how to capitalise on the benefits of cultural
diversity while minimising their potential costs. Adler (1997) argues that the diversity
represented in multicultural work groups gives them both the potential for higher
productivity than homogeneous groups and a greater chance of productivity losses.
Disadvantages of diversity
The disadvantages of group diversity include:
Lack of cohesion, leading to mistrust, miscommunication and stress: This can
cause inability to validate ideas and people, agree when agreement is needed, gain
consensus on decision. Groups can become less efficient, effective and productive.
Diversity is most valuable when the need for agreement (cohesion) remains low
relative to the need for invention (creativity). This has implications for the effect of
diversity at different stages of group activity. Thus, at the stage of group and trust
formation, and also at the stage of decision-making and implementation, diversity
makes the process more difficult since these processes are facilitated by recognition
and creation of similarity. However, at the stage of creating ideas, which relies on the
creative use of different, diversity makes the process easier.
bonds at the level of professional similarity, and allow cultural differences to emerge as
a resource rather than a threat. The second stage involves a focus on setting
objectives collecting and analysing information and developing alternative courses of
action. Diversity is an advantage at this stage. The third stage involves deciding what
to do and how to do it. Reaching agreement is usually easier for homogeneous groups.
Adler's general guidelines for managing culturally diverse groups include the following:
• select group members of a similar level of ability to enhance communication, but
with a diversity to enhance creativity
• give attention to cultural differences but avoid stereotyping
• help the group to agree to a superordinate goal, one that transcends the individual
differences
• avoid cultural dominance. Power should be distributed according to each
member's ability to contribute to the task
• mutual respect by group members should be encouraged. This can be done by
selecting members of equal ability and minimising early judgements based on
cultural stereotypes.
Career development
Career planning is generally regarded as being a deliberate process for:
• becoming aware of self, opportunities, constraints, choices and consequences
• identifying career related goals
• programming of work, education and related developmental experiences.
Textbook
Looking to the next promotion or job is an important skill, but we also have to consider
long-term-goals or constructing a career path. The choice of the term 'careers' rather
than 'jobs' suggests an orientation towards a connected, motivated and developing
series of work stages rather than an unrelated series of activities and events. It may
also imply that reaching a long-term-goal may mean spending some time in a job that
is not particularly congruent with our work preferences, but necessary if we want to
take a broader, long term perspective.
Career anchors
A tool long used in helping people get a grip on the longer-term career development is
the concept of 'career anchors', as used by Schein, among other researchers. Schein
defines five career anchors that, through a process of ability testing in different jobs,
tasks and positions, should become apparent by mid-career. These are:
Technical/ functional competence: the actual technical or functional content of the
work. The self-image of people in this group is tied up with their feeling of competence
in the particular area they are in. As a result, they are not especially interested in
management per se, but rather, without disregarding promotions and pay increases
entirely, generally tend to seek increasingly challenging work in their technical area as
a primary measure of success.
Managerial competence: Unlike members of the previous group, people whose
anchor is managerial competence do seek management as a specific goal. Specific
technical or functional jobs are seen only as necessary interim stages on the way to the
higher, general management areas. Such people measure their success by
promotions, rank and income, all of which indicate 'amount of responsibility’.
Security and stability: People anchored in security tend to do what is required of
them by their employers in order to maintain job security, a decent income and a stable
future. By implication, such people will, more than others accept an organisational
definition of their careers and will trust the organisation to do the right thing by them.
Within this orientation there are two types. For some people the source of stability and
security rests primarily with being stable members in a given organisation. For them,
security is more geographically based and involves a feeling of settling down,
stabilising the family and integrating themselves into the community.
Creativity: People anchored in creativity need to build or create something that is
entirely their own product. Achievement or self-extension, creating something that
bears one's name, a company of one's own, a personal fortune that is a measure of
one's accomplishments seems to be the key to such people. This is essentially an
entrepreneurial profile, and the qualities needed – management – that is, to be
analytically, interpersonally and emotionally competent in order to exercise high levels
of responsibility are quite different from the creativity requirements of entrepreneurship.
Autonomy and Independence: Those with this career anchor seek work situations in
which they will be maximally free from organisational constraints to pursue their
professional or technical/functional competence. What distinguishes this group from the
others is that its members' need for autonomy is higher their needs in other areas.
Autonomy is the anchor because that is what they would not give up if forced to
choose.
This group can be distinguished from the technical/functional competence group in
particular in that the autonomy group members experience little conflict about missed
opportunities for promotion, and have little sense of failure or guilt about not aspiring
higher.
On the surface it is not too easy to differentiate the autonomy and creativity groups,
because the entrepreneurs also enjoy autonomy and freedom as they become
successful. But as one listens to the entrepreneurs, it is clear that they are much more
preoccupied with building something whereas the primary need of the autonomy
seekers is to be on their own, setting their own pace, schedules, lifestyles and work
habits.
(Source: Abridged from Schein, E 1978,Career dynamics, Addison Wesley, Reading, MA, pp. 124–172.)
3.2 Persuasion
Introduction
Persuasion relates directly to the management of meaning in organizations: i.e., “why
we are all here, what we do and how we do it”. This can also be described as the
process of articulating and reinforcing a clear sense of purpose for organisational
participants. Managers not only deal with material resources, but also manipulate the
symbolic aspects of organizations, which in turn effects:
• how information is disseminated; decision making and the way in which problems
are framed;
• networking, politicking & influencing;
• motivating employees & shaping org. culture & gaining commitment from followers.
In this topic we will examine the following issues:
• what is persuasion?
• why learn about it?
• fundamental principles of persuasion
• four strategies of influence
There is no specific chapter in the textbook covering this topic. Use the
following notes as a guide to study. For more detailed information on this
topic, students might consult the main source for the following notes:
Textbook Pratkanis, A & Aronson, E 2000. Age Of Propaganda, Freeman, New
York.
advent of email, how much information do you receive, and how much attention do you
give to it? And what about paper mail?
As a result of this, a burden is placed on both the communicator and the recipient of a
message intended to persuade:
• the communicator must design a message that will not only be appealing but
attract special notice in this cluttered environment, and
• the recipient is so inundated by messages that it is difficult to devote the cognitive
processing energy to make full sense of the important issues each day
To gain some perspective of that last point, let’s go back to the modern world at large
for some examples…
• The average news story lasts only forty-five seconds, then, the next is presented
(or an advertisement). A typical political advertisement runs for 30 seconds or less.
Hence, time is not allowed for consideration, debate, or emotional attachment to
any particular ‘news frame’. There is no context, and no intellectual confrontation.
Each item is a discrete event, separated in terms of context & emotional
attachment from the next. Epistemologically, without context, there can be no
contradiction. Similarly, magazine advertisements often consist of little more than a
picture and a phrase. Therefore, these discrete items cannot have ‘implications’,
as the frame of reference moves every forty five seconds on to a ‘new’ story.
Credibility (is divorced from the rigours of debate and intellectual assessment of
discourse, and) is placed in the hands of the appearance (and public acceptance)
of the presenter.
Robert MacNeil (cited by Postman, 1986, 105): had the following to say about the aims
and objectives of news presentation on television:
“… keep everything brief, not to strain the attention of anyone but instead to
provide constant stimulation through variety, novelty, action, and
movement. You are required ... to pay attention to no concept, no
character, and no problem for more than a few seconds at a time” and,
importantly, “complexity must be avoided” and that “nuances are
dispensable ... that visual stimulation is a substitute for thought, and that
verbal precision is an anachronism”.
Postman (1986) describes televised news as “a world of fragments”, but it is not limited
to that – it could be quite reasonably argued that the same descriptor applies to the
modern world in general: internet, email, handyteller adds, billboards, radio, etc.
But, while the mass media (and the organizations we work and manage in) might not
be able to tell you specifically what to think, they do strive to tell you what to think about
and how to do it.
For example, the combined/cumulative effects of car advertising on television will
suggest what factors are important to consider when making decisions about transport.
Product attributes that regularly appear in such advertisements such as prestige,
luxury, or sportiness, are likely to be very different to other factors that might influence
your choice of transportation, such the impact on the environment from private
vehicles, or whether you’ll get to work or enjoy the scenery on the way to your
destination.
But, in the situation where the consumer views more adds for a specific product – or
receive greater exposure to a political message – then they are more likely to switch to
that product or party.
When only one side of an issue is presented by the mass media (as in the car example
we just looked at – i.e., cars are the answer to your transport problem, and perhaps
also means of asserting your success in life!), those who keep track of the coverage
are far more likely to adopt that view than those who watch little television , and what
applies for cars also applies to politics as well. For eg, in 1990 when Bush decided to
send troops to the Persian gulf, his decision was supported by congress, and of those
Americans who kept good track of current news events in August of that year, 76%
supported the decision, while only 23% of those who watched very little news were
supportive. But, of those who supported the decision to send troops, they differed in
terms of how the intervention should proceed, and that was shaped by the preferences
of their parties – so, television reinforced their original party beliefs & alliances (i.e.,
conservatives favoured immediate & direct military action, while liberals favoured more
economic sanctions first).
For example, we often respond to propaganda with little thought and in a mindless
fashion because:
• any reason will do: (Langer, Blank & Chanowitz, 1978)
o In a university study, confederates would walk up to people who were busy
photocopying and ask either, “Excuse me: may I use the photocopy machine?”
o Responses fall into two general categories, either, “Yeah, why not, I’m a
helpful person” (in fact, just over half of the responses complied with the
request) or, “Is this person stupid? I was here first and I’ve got work to do”
(just under half)
o But, if a stupid reason was given, such as, “Excuse me: may I use the
photocopy machine because I have to make copies,” most people complied.
This is a non-reason – of course you need to make copies, or you wouldn’t be
asking to use the machine, but most people complied with it - even supplying
a non reason saved the subject from having to think of one…
• Advertisers also understand this – many adds either
1. trumpet trivial differences as if they were important, such as “our cigarettes are
2mm wider that usual”
2. state non-facts that appear impressive (“Bloke Cola is it”)
3. or include meaningless superlatives (“Mayer – the world’s best aspirin”; when
all aspirin are the same…)
from a credible source, some not, and some had strong arguments (based on research
etc), and some were full of personal opinions & anecdotes.
The study found that the route to persuasion was determined by the personal
relevance of the issue. For students for whom the issue was personally relevant, a
strong argument was most important. Where the issue was not seen as being relevant,
source credibility was the deciding issue. So how might we influence both groups (i.e.,
personally relevant / not relevant)? Use a strong argument and a credible source.
Summary
Due to our limited processing ability, we often use the peripheral route to simplify
complex issues. That is, we mindlessly adopt a position or accept a conclusion
because it is triggered by a simple persuasion strategy.
How can we break out of the trap?
By making a conscious effort to process messages via the central route, and not
settling for what is presented to you without questioning and examining the premises
that it is based on. Try to think what the ultimate aim of the message is and who it will
serve best, and then work backwards and pick it apart.
Fundamental principle No 2:
2. Humans have a strong tendency to rationalise our thoughts and behaviours so that
they appear reasonable to ourselves and preserve our self-esteem.
So to recap here, the strategies to reduce dissonance here can be summarised as:
1. reduce the humanity of the person involved / not really a friend, I didn’t know him
that well… and
2. maximise their responsibility Æ not such a great worker any way…
Depending on the context, the effects of these strategies can spiral Æ once you explain
away one retrenchment, the others become easier… (same applies to war
propaganda)
Remember, “when food is short, table manners change”… serve the self, in whatever
form Æ basic survival, or maintaining self-esteem.
What can you do? He’s been terminated, so you can’t change that, but you can change
the way you think about the underlying premises (see above)
Z No Excellent Excellent
further, and if framed generally enough to cover basic physical & emotional needs /
drives, that would preclude most from expending cognitive resources to analyses and
perhaps refute the statement.
If successful, pre-persuasion establishes “what everyone knows” and “what everyone
takes for granted”, even if it shouldn’t be, and should, instead, be taken as a point of
discussion. By establishing how an issue is defined and discussed, one can influence
cognitive responses and processing and obtain consent without even appearing to be
attempting to persuade us.
To sum up – define the issue in such a way that you can’t help
but win!
• Source credibility – i.e., the communicator needs to establish a favourable image
in the eyes of the target audience. So, the communicator – or persuader – needs
to appear to be likeable, or trustworthy, or possessed of whatever other attribute
that would facilitate persuasion in a particular instance.
o Remember, this especially applies when the message is not considered to be
personally relevant, as in the student example above.
• Construct and deliver a message that focuses the target’s attention and
thoughts on exactly what the communicator wants them to think about – for eg, by
distracting the targets from arguing against the proposal, or by focussing the
target’s attention on a vivid and powerful image, or by inducing the targets to
persuade themselves.
o Example, refer to our forefathers, soldiers in battle fighting to protect us and
our children from whatever …
or,
• make certain that the message is personal to the target audience… (if you want to
cast a broad net, employ the ‘Barnum Effect’, and include ‘something for
everyone’…)
o This is where is where rationalising and cognitive dissonance come in handy
also … i.e., inducing the target (us) to persuade ourselves, and this usually
requires manipulating our emotions, which is the last strategy.
• Finally, effective influence controls the emotions of a target and follows a simple
rule: “arouse an emotion and then offer the target a way of responding to that
emotion that just happens to be the desired course of action”. Hence, the target
becomes preoccupied with dealing with emotions , and complies with the request
in hope of escaping a negative emotion or maintaining a positive one.
A final example
A company delivering an ‘environmentally friendly message’…
“Protecting the environment for future generations is not a simple
problem (pre-persuasion: already excludes ‘quick’ solutions which might
come to mind, like solar power, wind etc; or that there may already be
relatively simple / logical / available solutions – which the company already
owns the patents on but would rather not use!) – it’s tempting to want to
do what seems best and just rush in without thinking (show pictures of
‘feral greenies’ being dragged away by police / chained to trees etc – use of
classical conditioning & pairing the notion of green activist with dirty,
unemployed, socially irresponsible Æ this in turn shapes the argument Æ
by excluding the traditional activist green approach), but it takes time to
find the right solutions (suggesting that tree huggers reacted without
thinking – framing the issue), solutions which help the environment and
provide jobs (emotional context, also can be linked with tree-huggers as
‘dole bludgers’, while company is actually working and being productive
and contributing to society and providing jobs at the same time – hence
emotion raised – hope - and solution offered – we will provide jobs if you
support us, which targets the message also) while we’re doing it Æ switch
to image of university graduate (expresses environmental concern - hence
likeable & trustworthy - and ambition to work for a company that shares
that, which provides source credibility) Æ we’re improving our methods
(but you don’t say how – non-reason) and providing more funding for
research into alternative energy sources than before (how much is
that??? Was any money spent before??? Non-reason)
Conclusion
Keep in mind that these influence strategies rarely work in independently. That is, each
is to some degree dependant on the successful use of the other strategies. Also, we’ve
barely touched on the psychological processes which have been researched over the
years and which are available to supplement these strategies, particularly pre-
persuasion.
Reading 3.5
Conger, J.A. 2001, ‘The Necessary Art of Persuasion’, in The Organizational Behavior
Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 16, pp. 451-461).
Activities
Note: The following activities are optional. They are designed to help you develop your
understanding of the various topics in this Course
Motivation
Consider the criticisms of Maslow's theory mentioned in the textbook. You
may wish to undertake some additional reading, listed below. When you
have completed this, comment on Watson's rather scathing conclusion
Activity 3.1 about Maslow:
Consider the
criticisms of 'The significance of Maslow's work does not lie in its scientific validity. It
Maslow's theory clearly has little. Its role has really been a propaganda device:
mentioned in the propaganda in a good and humanistic cause, but propaganda
textbook. nonetheless'.
Do you agree with this view? Why, in your view, do managers sometimes
cling to theories which, while intuitively logical, are unable to be
empirically substantiated?
What are the major factors that motivate you to work? Some mentioned
directly or indirectly in the preceding discussion of needs theories are
financial security, non-financial material rewards, prestige, recognition,
Activity 3.2 fear, self development, achievement, power and affiliation.
Find your
personal Take 10–15 minutes to order these into some priority. Speculate how this
motivating list may have looked at two other stages of your working life and suggest
factors. the reasons for these differences.
Think back through your own career and identify your own career anchor.
Can you narrow it down to one anchor, or are there several? Second,
interview your immediate supervisor (if you have one) and another close
Activity 3.5 associate, and attempt to discern their career anchors. Remember that
Identify your they may not become apparent until mid-career.
career anchor
and compare it When you have identified your own, an associate's and your immediate
with others. supervisor's career anchors, discuss how you came to your conclusions.
Finally critique Schein's (1978) scheme in terms of its practical usefulness
to managers.
As a further issue, consider the extent to which some career anchors are
being affected by changes in the general economic environment. For
example, in many fields the concept of the career ladder with a series of
Activity 3.6 steps leading with reasonable certainty to middle and higher management
Are some career levels has been under attack. Employees have been urged to think of
anchors developing a career in terms of broadening their experience rather than
disappearing? moving upward. People are commonly being advised to consider the
possibility of three or four distinct careers in the course of their working
lives. How do these issues relate to your experience and that of your
supervisor and one or more associates? Do they affect the value of the
notion of career anchors for you?
Persuasion
With the four strategies of influence as a guide, create examples of
organisational messages designed to be processed in the peripheral route
(i.e., propaganda at work!)
Activity 3.7
Propaganda at These messages can be intended to achieve any objective and directed at
work: creating any audience: for eg, shareholders at the annual general meeting; a public
the message press release; or the outline of an org. change plan; or simply a general
motivational speech or for the more general purpose of (re)shaping org.
culture.
Think of some more tactics that can be used to achieve each of the above
four strategies of influence
Activity 3.9
Tactics &
Strategies of
influence
Learning outcomes
At the end of this Module you should have:
• an understanding of the elements of culture
• a critical understanding of perspectives on culture, particularly how they inform
views about whether and how culture can be manipulated as part of a deliberate
organisational strategy
• an appreciation of national cultures and 'best practice' cultures as they relate to
your organisation and Australia generally
• gained some appreciation of the ways your own organisational culture operates,
and the degree to which this suits you both as a manager and as an individual
• an understanding of the controversies about power and politics in organisations,
particularly the extent to which they are endemic and useful to organisational
functioning
• an understanding of the sources of power
• some experience in analysing and applying sources of power at both a personal
and an organisational level.
Learning resources
Allaire, Y & Firsirotu, M 1984, 'Theories of organisational culture', Organisation Studies,
vol. 5, pp. 193–226.
Crozier, M 1964, The bureaucratic phenomenon, Tavistock, London.
Deal, TE & Kennedy, AA, 1982, Corporate cultures, Addison-Wesley, Reading MA.
Introduction
The very existence of the topic 'organisational culture' within this course is evidence of
a shift in em-phasis within management thinking. At one time, up to about the late 70s,
textbooks and management thinkers generally were focussed on the organisation
essentially only as a group of individuals who had come together for the rational reason
that their combined energies and resources would lead to certain outcomes. Since that
time, the ideas of organisational culture and organisational change have become buzz
words of a more than usually enduring kind. They have been popularised by the writing
of management gurus such as Peters and Waterman and the 'excellence movement'
generally, which aimed to mobilise organisational culture in the pursuit of organisational
success. Peters and Waterman's research suggested that successful organisations
should have a single, integrated set of values and practices that are shared by all
members of the organisation. This is a view which is now contested – or at least felt to
be an inadequate description of what actually goes on in organisations. It is no longer
even felt to be the most helpful view of culture for the best functioning of organisations.
Nevertheless, while ideas about what constitutes an appropriate culture might differ,
and even whether it is realistic to posit a single culture within an organisation,
management thinking now consistently takes account of the fact that not only do
organisations operate within a cultural/social context, they are also themselves culture-
bearing entities (Louis 1985). As a result, it is appropriate to apply the concepts
associated with cultural analysis – which originated in anthropology – to the
interpretation of behaviour in organisations. These concepts include the notions of
'meaning’, 'symbols’, 'values’, and 'beliefs’.
While this overt emphasis on culture and the use of terms from anthropology has been
relatively recent, a cultural focus has in fact been part of some of the classics of
organisational analysis. In the first part of this Module, we will examine varying views
on culture, and a change in the ways culture has been felt to be manageable.
Textbook
Reading 4.1
Schein, E.H. 2001, ‘Uncovering the Levels of Culture’, in The Organizational Behavior
Reader eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River,
New Jersey. (See Chapter 14, pp. 398-405).
In this topic we will examine the following issues:
• elements of culture
• perspectives on organisational culture
• culture and the organisational lifecycle
• culture and strategy
• cultural change
Basic assumptions
Basic assumptions are the taken-for-granted, not easily articulated interpretations of
the nature of reality. They include such items as:
• the need for hierarchy
• the trustworthiness of people
• the basis of competitive success
• the identity of the market in which an organisation operates
• the competitive nature of the market
• how conflict is to be treated
• the importance of consultation.
Values
Values are less 'deep' than the taken-for-granted subconscious phenomena of basic
assumptions. Values are seen in expressed beliefs about how and why things are
done. However, it is important to note that while they may provide an accurate picture
of what actions may be taken in a given situation that may also differ. Espoused and
actual values concerning innovation are a case in point.
Artefacts
Artefacts draw attention to culture as it is manifested in more or less observable forms
and practices which can be 'read' to give clues about the values and beliefs underlying
them. The classic cultural artefacts are those described by such terms as language,
myths, ceremonies, rituals and norms. To take an example, the jargon of an
organisation is a way of reinforcing distinctions between those inside and outside the
culture (see the table on 'McSpeak' adapted from Macken 1988, below). Changes in
language may signal changes in the relative influence of professional groups.
McSpeak
The following list notes a selection of terms used within McDonalds:
Crew tracking: knowing what the staff is doing.
Rush-verified people: staff who can cope with rush hour.
Cross-rotation: moving staff to different areas of the store.
Performance mistakes, bad attitudes.
discrepancies:
10 to 1: the hamburger griller.
Staff observation checks check up on staff.
(SOCs):
Unannounced SOCs: sneaking up on staff to check their work.
QSC: The McDonalds motto: quality, service and
cleanliness.
Unit producing people: staff involved in cooking or selling.
PIMS: Planned maintenance systems.
Premiums: give-aways such as balloons.
Corrective feed-back: kicking butts nicely.
Negative cliques: gangs of disgruntled staff.
Positive cliques: gangs of keen staff.
Confidence cushion: being nice to new staff.
Suggestive sell: suggesting products to customers.
Upsell: suggesting big servings of food if the
customer doesn't specify size.
Dumpster: big rubbish bin.
Pride chart: pasting up staff performance levels.
Hill: the top part of a burger bun.
Crown: the bottom part of a burger bun.
Travel path: walking around the store to check on staff
and store, another form of SOC.
(Source: Macken 1988, p. 34)
Artefacts may include such items as office layout, as the following example
illustrates.
Stories
Stories may reinforce some predominant value in the culture as the example of the
textbook illustrates. However they may also act to undermine an opposing culture, as
the example of 'the refrigerator' (see below) highlights.
The refrigerator
Division head John DeLorean expressed his opposition to the General
Motors' cultural emphasis on deference to authority through telling the
following story:
While preparing for a senior executive's trip to a particular city, the
Chevrolet zone people learned from Detroit that he liked to have a
refrigerator full of cold beer, sandwiches and fresh fruit in his room to eat at
night before going to bed. They booked a suite in one of the city's better
hotels, rented a refrigerator, and ordered the food and beer. However, the
door to the suite was too small to accommodate the refrigerator. The sales
people planned to rip out the door and part of the adjoining wall but the
hotel manager refused to allow this. However, permission was given for
their next proposal which involved hiring a crane and operator, putting them
on the roof of the hotel, knocking out a steel set of windows in the suite,
and lowering and shoving the refrigerator into the room through this gaping
hole.
That night the Chevrolet executive devoured the sandwiches, beer and
fruit. The next day he was off to another city – and probably another
refrigerator – while back in the city of his departure the sales people were
once again dismantling hotel windows and removing the refrigerator by
crane.
This story had its impact in that it highlighted the ridiculous extremes to
which deference to authority could be taken, thus undermining the
dominance of this cultural value.
(Source: Wright 1979 cited in Martin and Siehi 1983).)
Rituals
Rituals are routinised activities that maintain cultural beliefs and values. While 'Friday
night drinks at the pub' is a widely acknowledged ritual, there are others that are more
subtle. The appearance of having undertaken a full and unbiased assessment of all
information can lead to a ritual which produces the appearance of this having been
done, even though in fact the decision had been taken in advance.
Ceremonies
Ceremonies, such as retirement dinners and speeches, are formalised rituals. The
strength of the cultural constraints inherent in such rituals is clear when someone
transgresses the unspoken 'rules' about such rituals.
Integration perspective
The integration perspective treats culture as a unified phenomenon, both in the sense
that assumptions, values and artefacts are shared by all organisational members, and
in the sense that these various phenomena are consistent with each other and mutually
reinforcing. This is the perspective inherent in such definitions as 'the way we do things
around here' or 'normative glue' (Deal and Kennedy, 1982), or in short hand
descriptions of the culture such as 'innovative' or 'entrepreneurial’. The various case
studies of Wait Disney, MCI, and Time Warner in the textbook onwards are examples
of this perspective.
Integrationist portrayals of culture frequently concentrate on a leader as the source of
cultural content. It is assumed that the vision of the leader permeates the culture and
that the lack of a vision is tantamount to a message of impending organisational failure.
Little attention is given to the fact that visionary leaders have frequently been at the
helm of organisations, which do, in fact, fail.
Such a perspective leads naturally to the view that culture is relatively easily
manipulable. Sathe (1985) provides an integration-perspective six-step model of how
managers can control the character of the culture:
• pre-selection and hiring of members
• socialisation as per the textbook discussion
• removal of members who deviate
• reinforcement of desired behaviour, e.g. through rituals of integration such as
promotion or other forms of recognition or induction/orientation, or rituals of
punishment, such as disciplinary procedures or demotion
• reinforcement of values and beliefs in a similar way to the above
Differentiation perspective
The differentiation perspective focuses on culture as characterised not by harmony
and unity but by diversity and even inconsistency (Meyerson and Martin, 1987).
Attention is given to sub-cultures rather than to the organisation as a whole as the key
unit. So the different cultures in different parts of the organisation's structure, and those
parts of culture that are imported into the organisation from the outside, such as class,
gender and occupation, are important in this perspective. From the differentiation
perspective cultural diversity and hence cultural conflict are taken as normal, rather
than deviant or unusual.
From this perspective, what is called from the integrationist perspective 'The culture' of
an organisation is simply the dominant subculture. Martin and Siehi (1983) refer to
three other typologies of subculture:
Enhancing: those that manifest an extreme adherence to the core values of the
dominant sub-culture.
Orthogonal: those where there is simultaneous acceptance of both the core values of
the dominant sub-culture and of another non-conflicting set of values, such as those of
a profession.
Countercultural: those that present a direct challenge to the core values of the
dominant sub-culture.
In addition, the differentiation perspective, with its attention to those aspects of culture
that are 'not for public consumption’, focusses on the fact that espoused values and
actual practices in organisations will often be different.
The message of virtually all of these writers is that a 'strong' culture underpins the
organisation's success. Equally, a strong corporate culture has been nominated as the
primary reason for failure, as when Burck (1986) argues that the dominance of a 'can-
do' culture in NASA stifled the open assessment of risk in the space shuttle program.
For a detailed exposition of this case, see Module 2. In all of these cases, a unitarist or
integrationist perspective on culture is being taken. You may wish to refresh your
memory of these terms by referring to the 'HRM and conflict negotiation' heading
'Perspectives on conflict'.
Once the link has been made between culture and success (or failure) it is only a short
step to evaluating cultures as good or bad. Thus advice to organisations to hire people
who will fit in with its (positive) culture, or help redirect organisational culture in positive
directions, or to weed out people who do not fit the culture has become prevalent.
Quite aside from the issue of whether it is appropriate to characterise cultures in such a
simple manner, there is an important question here about the value of diversity in
organisations. In Module 3 it was argued that it was both unrealistic and counter-
productive to construe all organisational conflict as treacherous and dangerous, and
that differences in viewpoint sometimes needed to be actively cultivated. If that
standpoint is upheld it seems likely that some tension between subcultures could be
healthy in terms of organisational performance. It would mean that organisations would
be less likely to fall into the trap of freezing out alternative perspectives on their taken-
for-granted assumptions and beliefs.
Reading 4.2
Schein, E.H. 2001, ‘Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational
Learning’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, &
I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 14, pp.
405-417).
Conclusion
The perspectives on organisational and societal cultures are themselves diverse and
aimed in different directions. Each perspective has different implications for what
change would mean and how it would be achieved. Theoretically, it is often the act of
negotiation of meaning of what the culture of an organisation or society is or should be.
In other words, it is associated with changes within the organisation that affect
performance, and not the culture itself.
Introduction
Read Robbins' textbook, Chapter 13, Power and Politics.
Textbook
The textbook points out that power and politics are among the more 'difficult' and
inadmissible topics in management, and in fact all of us would be aware of the drain on
people's time and energy that comes through what we customarily call 'playing politics'
or 'power struggles’. However, this is not the only possible view of power. In other
Modules we have occasionally referred to management as 'getting things done through
other people’. In the light of this definition, it is easier to accept that power and politics –
with politics defined as the exercise of power, which is perhaps the simplest distinction
between the two – are not merely necessary evils in organisations. If management is
getting things done through people, then it is possible to think of power as the fuel
behind the action of getting things done.
This is not to deny that excessive politicking can indeed be the drain on personal and
organisational resources that we intuitively feel it to be. But it may be interesting and
instructive to examine the argument that the oppressive actions that we often label as
power are more likely to be the result of a lack of power – that is, the lack of the
supplies, information and support needed to make things happen. But to deny the
reality – and the usefulness – of power in organisations, is to rely on an unduly
mechanistic, efficiency driven model of organisations which suggests that any intrusion
of 'irrational' elements such as power or politics is an undesirable aberration.
In this topic we will examine the following issues:
interest in the topic. The following are the lists of power sources of five prominent
authors in the field:
French & Raven (1959) Paton (1984) Stephenson (1985)
Reward power Position power Power over scarce
resources
Coercive power Expert power Formal authority
Legitimate power Dependence power Information power
Referent power Control over uncertainty
Expert power Stakeholder power
Prestige power Personal power
The following discussion represents a summary of some of the more important of the
various sources of power. Note: this doesn't mean that they are necessarily the most
important for any particular person. The Activity following the discussion gives you the
opportunity to consider your personal sources of power.
Formal authority: the acknowledged right to give orders and make decisions. Note
that this has nothing to do with competence, although staff's perceptions of the boss's
competence may affect how readily the boss's requests and instructions are obeyed.
Reward power: This has both formal and informal aspects. Formal position is likely to
involve some control over rewards both in the positive sense of additional pay and in
the negative sense of coercion, withholding of promotion and termination of
employment.
Control of scarce resources: The ability to control access to any resource that others
value – including money, materials, technology, employees with required abilities,
customers – is an important source of power. Even access to the CEO – since it may
be controlled by the CEO's Executive Assistant – makes the assistant a powerful
individual, even though he or she may not be paid as much as those seeking the
access. The amount of power increases with increasing scarcity and increasing
dependence.
Control of uncertainty: Organisations are likely to face various forms of uncertainty,
including environmental uncertainty, which relates to markets and the supply of needed
resources, and operational resources, which are those within the organisation such as
a breakdown in computer systems of production machinery. The 11 strategic
contingencies(tm) approach to explaining the various parts of an organisation sees this
power as tied to a given part's capacity to cope with uncertainty on behalf of other parts
of the organisation (Hickson et al. 1971). Again, scarcity and dependency are key
factors. Power is enhanced to the extent that the coping ability both cannot be carried
out by others (substitutability) and is critical to the performance of other parts of the
organisation (centrality) (Hickson 0/8/1971). The classic example is draw from research
undertaken in France by Crozier, which considered the case of the maintenance
workers in a continuous production process, who were often in a position to stop the
production process (Crozier, 1964).
This approach has its critics, however, since it may suggest that positions of power are
determined solely by situational factors beyond the control of the parties involved. With
the maintenance workers studied by Crozier, it has been pointed out that they were
active in perpetuating their position of power by not allowing repair procedures to be
recorded in written form. That is, they took action to enhance their power situation. In
more recent times, the power of the central computing department, once greatly
enhanced by perceptions of the difficulty of programming work, has been eroded by the
greater familiarity of people generally with computers. The message is, first, that those
in power can act to perpetuate their centrality – power can define centrality, not just
vice-versa, and second, that centrality and unsubstitutability are, perceived, not merely
indisputable facts carved in stone.
Expert power: To varying degrees, organisations involve specialisation. With this
comes a degree of power relating to the expertise inherent in that specialisation. As
people move up the organisational hierarchy, however, their formal power increases,
but they normally must forgo a mastery of all the areas of expertise represented
amongst the people who report to them. (See 'Introductory topics'.) Maintaining a broad
overview conflicts with the demands and advantages of specialisation. Put another
way, the sites of expert knowledge and the sites of formal position power are likely to
differ.
It is also important to note that expert power is likely to be due to the maintenance of
the claim to legitimacy that a profession may make in specific areas. That is, the power
is due not only to the knowledge, but also to the general acceptance that only a certain
group has the right to pronounce on matters in a certain area.
Information power:. Information – about what's going on, or as an element in
decision-making – may be as important a resource as any other. Hence the ability to
control the flow of information can influence the very definition and understanding of
organisational situations and create patterns of dependency (Morgan, 1986). Thus in a
political view of decision-making the determination of the form items take in a meeting
agenda, or indeed whether they make it onto the agenda at all, is a vital and
particularly subtle form of power.
Use of organisational rules and regulations: Rules and regulations are not always
obeyed; indeed they are not always known. Nonetheless, they may be invoked in
support of, or to prevent a particular course of action. The ruled are of course most
obviously subject to this form of power, but the rulers are also often constrained by
rules, and doing what the rules require provides the rules with protection from arbitrary
action. 'Working to rule' or working strictly according to one's job description and not
doing the 'little extras' is an important source of industrial muscle. Finally, it is important
not to see rules as subject to only one interpretation. Indeed power is more accurately
described as residing in the ability to have one's interpretation of rules accepted than
simply in knowledge of rules per se.
Control of decision-making: The relationship between power and decision-making is
a multi-dimensional one. It involves, at a minimum:
• who is involved in the decision-making process.
• how issues get discussed.
• what issues get discussed.
The involvement of a person in decision-making gives the opportunity for that person to
be influential, provided the decisions have an effect.
How a decision is made is important. We have already touched on this issue, in an
oblique way. As noted in Module 1, the form of an instruction from a manager – its
penetration – has an impact on the discretionary content of the work of an employee
reporting to that person, and hence on their power. Moreover, defining an issue as a
matter of corporate image or prestige rather than short-term gain may defeat an
opponent's argument. Or couching it in terms of a particular context, for example that
the whole organisation is under threat, may undermine the arguments of others who
oppose a course of action on the grounds of its effects on their particular part of the
organisation.
Finally, the fact that a topic is off the agenda may not be evidence of genuine
consensus, but rather that a particular party is able to stifle discussion in either a real or
a metaphorical sense. So, control of what is discussed is an important source of power.
Network power: Formal or informal alliances and networks can form important power
bases for members, whether as a means to have certain actions taken, or as a source
of information. Network power can also derive from influence in some powerful non
work-related organisations, or from specific extra-organisational relations, such as
being closely connected to a company's major client.
The management and interpretation of meaning: We have discussed in the
Modules which addressed leadership and organisational culture the power that comes
from being able to define the nature of the situation that organisational members
confront. So, meaning may be able to be managed, but it may also be able to be
interpreted. Having skill in 'reading' the symbolic significance of apparently trivial issues
such as office layout, body language and so on, can gain one the reputation – and
perhaps the reality – of being a skilled organisational politician.
Gender: Morgan (1986) includes gender as a basis for power, arguing that many
organisations involved gender-related values that favour one sex, usually men.
Moreover, the difficulty is not always overcome even if women adopt the dominant,
male-oriented behaviours, since identical behaviour on the part of women is not
necessarily perceived or treated in the same way as when it emanates from men. If this
is the case, a direct implication is that women cannot necessarily overcome a power
deficit by copying male behaviour because it is the interpretation, not the behaviour
alone, which produces the outcomes.
Personal power: Thus far, we have considered power as a function primarily of the
situation, and have given little attention to the difference contributed by an individual.
Yet it is clear that, even given the same situational factors, one person will not be as
successful as another in a certain situation. Interpersonal style, the capacity to create
goodwill, and so on, as well as an individual's capacity to be a shrewd analyst of the
situation and its potential, can all play a part.
Reading 4.3
Cohen, A.R. & Bradford, D.L. 2001, ‘Influence with Authority: The Ude of Alliances,
Reciprocity, and Exchange to Accomplish Work,’ in The Organizational Behavior
Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 16, pp. 461-469).
Within a given arena, there will be players, objectives, resources, tactics and
outcomes.
• players are the parties involved in the particular issue at stake. They may be
individuals or collectivities such as departments
• objectives constitute the intentions that lie behind action
• resources refer to the power sources available to a player
• tactics are the actions taken by each player
• outcomes are the product of the particular series of actions.
Systematically listing the objectives, resources, likely tactics and outcomes for each
player in a situation can give a comprehensive view of the political strength of each.
The arena model is thus a form of power audit. It can be used either to interpret a past
situation or to predict the outcome of a currently evolving situation, or even to prescribe
what action to take in a current situation. Note that it is an analytical device rather than
necessarily an accurate description of the exact process whereby outcomes are
produced.
Conclusion
Having an understanding of the power and politics, which are inherent in any
organisation, is central to an analysis of organisational behaviour, and how to manage
it. Political models of organisations have raised the profile of power as an explanatory
concept, and gone some way towards removing the idea that the exercise of power is
always detrimental to organisational functioning.
There are a variety of power sources that include reward power, control of scarce
resources, control of uncertainty, expert power, information, use of organisational rules
and regulations, control of decision-making, network power, membership of counter-
organisations, the management and interpretation of meaning, gender and personal
power. The effect of these power sources needs to be understood in the context of
taken-for-granted understandings to understand how they operate. A number of tools
and strategies for both enhancing and challenging power add to the value of this notion
as both an analytical and a practical tool.
Activities
Note: The following activities are optional. They are designed to help you develop your
understanding of the various topics in this Course.
Organisational culture
Consider the list of basic assumptions above. What shared views does your
organisation hold about each of these? Do you have any way of checking these
assumptions or do you 'just know'?
Activity 4.1
Examine your
organisation's
culture (I)
What evidence is there in your organisation for the existence of one or more
sub-cultures?
Activity 4.2 What aspects of Schein's elements of culture did you use to help you come to
What evidence your conclusions? Would you describe the sub-culture as enhancing, orthogonal
is there in your or countercultural?
organisation for
the existence of
one or more
subcultures?
What evidence is there in your organisation for differences between its espoused
values and actual practices? If so, why have these differences appeared?
Activity 4.3 Are these differences in values associated with one or more sub-cultures?
Examine your
organisation's
culture (II)
There are several other typologies of (overall) organisational culture along the
lines of the one presented by Sonnenfeld in the textbook on p 638. Other
examples include the following from Edwards and Kleiner (1988):
Activity 4.4
Find the • the Apathetic Culture which lacks concern for both people and performance,
commonalities and is preoccupied with "playing politics" as a means of attaining rewards;
across
• the Caring Culture which reflects a parental "we will look after you"
typologies of
approach;
organisational
culture (1) • the Exacting Culture which is orientated towards performance and success,
in which, although jobs are well paid, people are considered expendable;
• and the Integrative Culture which reflects both a high concern for
performance and a great respect for people. This perspective is in terms of
the contributions they can make to the organisation, not a parental
approach.
and this one from Handy's Understanding Organisations:
• the Person Culture: exists only for the people in it without any superordinate
objective. Barristers' chambers, families and some small consultancy firms
are typical examples. A cluster is the best description of it, or perhaps a
galaxy of individual stars.
Source: adapted from Handy (1987)
Describe your own organisation's culture at this stage of its history. What sub-
cultures, if any, have also become noticeable, and how do they interact with the
main culture? Using the argument of Edwards and Kleiner (1988) which links the
Activity 4.5 evolution of an organisation's culture to the stages of its lifecycle, describe what
Examine your organisational lifestage factors may be influencing the evolution and nature of
organisation's your organisation's culture.
culture (III).
How has the culture in an organisation of your choice been managed? Where
has the management been successful and where has it been unsuccessful?
Why?
Activity 4.6
How has the
culture in an
organisation of
your choice
been managed?
Fill out the questionnaire from Robbins called "What Kind of Organizational
Culture Fits You Best?" and score it according to the directions. Compare the
results to one of more of the culture typologies from this Module, to build up a
Activity 4.7 picture of the kind of workplace in which you would feel most comfortable. Now
Choose your compare the results to the culture of your present workplace. How well does
preferred your workplace's culture correspond to the kind of culture that best suits you? If
organisational there are discrepancies what aspects of the culture would need to be changed,
culture. and how feasible are such changes?
Consider the lists from the authors above. They are unlikely to be exhaustive,
since most things have the potential to be the source of power in some situation.
Neither do they present mutually exclusive categories. Use the five authors' lists
Activity 4.8 to assemble your own single, summarising list of sources of power. Add any
Devise your sources that you feel are inadequately covered in the lists given and comment
personal list of on why you added them. In addition, comment on any items that you have
power sources combined, and comment on the links between them.
Consider the list of power sources you compiled from the previous Activity, or
the list of power sources we have just elaborated on. Which of them figure
among your own most prominent power sources? Which do not really rate as a
Activity 4.9 source of power for you? Assuming you would like to increase your personal
What are the power in your organisation, what might you do to improve your personal power?
most important
of your personal
sources of
power?
Use the arena model to analyse a contested situation with which you are familiar
– not necessarily one in which you are or have been personally involved. Do the
outcomes correspond to the analysis the arena model would predict? Why or
Activity 4.10 why not? Remember that outcomes are not always worked out on the basis of a
Analyse the conscious decision or strategy, and that not all strategies lead to predictable
political content outcomes!
of a current or
past situation.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this Module you should have:
• an understanding of organisational structure and organisational design and be able
to explain why they are important to an organisation.
• knowledge of the four contingency factors that influence organisational design
• gained an understanding of matrix organisations, project structures, autonomous
internal units, and team-based structures and why organisations are using them.
• an understanding of the characteristics of a boundaryless organisation and this
structure's appeal, and be able to explain the concept of the learning organisation
and how it influences organisational design.
• an understanding of the rational model of decision-making and its practical limits
• an understanding of a variety of alternatives to the rational model of decision-
making, both those that present themselves as variants on the model and more
radical alternatives
• tested the applicability of the various models in your organisation
• gained an understanding of some common problems in decision-making and some
ways of remedying them.
Learning resources
Anderson PA 1983, 'Decision-making by objection and the Cuban missile crisis',
Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 28, pp. 201–222.
Bergman, R, 2000. Instructor’s resource manual, in Robbins, S, Bergman, R, Stagg, I &
Coulter, M. 2000. Management, Prentice-Hall, Australia.
Introduction
Organisations are experimenting with different approaches to organisation structure
and design. For example, Ericsson created a highly organic section within the
organisation's structure called the ‘Inside Partners Group’, consisting of internal
professionals who are available to work on assignments across the organisation. Whilst
this approach may not be suitable in all organisations, it does answer Ericsson's need
for flexibility as well as maintaining expertise in-house and an ability to share it across
the organisation. At the same time, it saves Ericsson from continually employing
external consultants or contract workers, and hence doesn’t just save employees from
retrenchment but also provides an opportunity to attract staff who prefer the variety of
working across the organisation, rather than in a single long-term role.
Once work tasks have been defined, they must be grouped together in some way
through a process called departmentalisation—the basis on which jobs are grouped
in order to accomplish organisational goals. The five major ways to departmentalise are
Functional departmentalisation (i.e., grouping jobs by functions performed), Product
departmentalisation (grouping jobs by product line), Geographical
departmentalisation ( grouping jobs on the basis of territory or geography), Process
departmentalisation (grouping jobs on the basis of product or customer flow) and
Customer departmentalisation (where jobs are grouped on the basis of common
customers.
Customer departmentalisation continues to be a highly popular approach, whilst
Cross-functional teams – which are a hybrid grouping of individuals who are experts
in various specialties (or functions) and who work together – are being used along with
traditional departmental arrangements.
The chain of command is an unbroken line of authority that extends from the upper
levels of the organisation to the lowest levels and clarifies who reports to whom.
Authority is the rights inherent in a managerial position to give orders and to expect
the orders to be obeyed. Responsibility is the obligation or expectation to perform,
and Unity of command is the classical management principle that a subordinate
should have one and only one superior to whom he or she is directly responsible.
Span of control within an organisation refers to the number of subordinates a
manager can supervise effectively and efficiently, and is important because it
determines how many levels and managers an organisation will have. The ideal
number of subordinates in a given span of control will be influenced by factors such as
the skills and abilities of the manager, the skills and abilities of the subordinates, the
nature of the job, the strength of the organisation's culture.
Centralisation refers to the degree to which decision making is concentrated in the
upper levels of the organization, while Decentralisation is the handing down of
decision-making authority to lower levels in an organisation.
Highly formalised organisations are characterised by employees with little discretion
and high levels of consistent and uniform output. These organisations have explicit job
descriptions, lots of organisational rules, and clearly defined procedures. On the other
hand, less formalised organisation, employees have a lot of freedom and can exercise
discretion in the way they do their work.
As organisations empower employees and as technology breaks down the barriers
between organisational levels, chain of command, authority, responsibility, and unity of
command are not as significant in many contemporary organisations, and this has
been mirrored by a trend towards larger spans of control with decentralised decision
making and greater employee discretion in their work.
organisation’s strategy, its size, and the degree of uncertainty in the environment in
which it must operate in. Technology is also an important factor. From a systems
perspective, every organisation uses some form of technology to transform inputs into
outputs, and hence organisational structure adapts to the direct application of
technology.
The original work on the strategy-structure relationship in organisational design came
from Alfred Chandler, who maintained that organisational structure must follow followed
organisational strategy.
Contemporary strategy-structure frameworks tend to focus on three strategy
dimensions: innovation (which depends upon the flexibility and free flow of information
of the organic organization); cost minimisation (which depends upon the efficiency,
stability, and tight controls of the mechanistic organisation); and imitation (which uses
characteristics of both the mechanistic and organic organisation).
Reading 5.1
Nadler, D, & Tushman, M. 2001, ‘The Organization Of The Future’, in The
Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice
Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 19, pp. 527-540).
5.2 Decision-making
Introduction
We tend to see decision-making as lying at the heart of management. That is, we think
of a decision-action-outcome linkage as a chain of causality that is at the heart of the
ways managers and organisations operate. Despite this, we also know from
'Introductory topics' that managers spend a good deal of time making decisions without
being aware of all the facts available. This is borne out by the textbook chapter on
perception and individual decision-making.
In the middle section or the chapter, Robbins outlines the 'rational' or 'optimising' model
of decision-making, which is usually taken as the starting point for portraying an ideal
picture of decision-making by managers. Note particularly the list of conditions that
need to be satisfied before it is even likely that the rational model would prevail. From
this, it becomes clearer why the psychological and physiological limitations associated
with bound rationality and decision biases make the rational model just that: a model.
So this part of the Module will essentially consider other, more realistic alternatives to
this model.
Also note that the discussion of decision-making in Robbins is largely bound up with
decisions taken by individuals, not by groups. At this point, you may also wish to review
Two days went by. The camel buyers continued their search through the
Sahara for the perfect camel and the necessary backups. But every camel
they looked at suffered by comparison with that first exquisite camel. The
humps would be too large or too small. The facial hair would be beige or
brown. It was always something. (It's important to know that a camel search
is no cheap date. Every minute of a production staffer's time on a location
shoot – at union wages with costly travel and hotels – is worth money, and
days of it can cost thousands of dollars.)
Finally they figured they'd been looking long enough. 'Let's see if we can
buy that first camel we looked at', the buyers agreed. So they went back to
the dealer who'd showed them that lovely specimen.
'Remember us? We'd like to buy that camel of yours that we looked at the
other day'.
The dealer shook his head. 'Sorry', he said. 'We ate it'.
(Source: Blum 1987)
'intuitive' model and the others acknowledge the impact of distinctly non-rational or
political elements in decision-making.
makers; that goals discovery means that decision-making processes can begin without
waiting for clarification of all goals, and that the risk avoidance decision is an
uncertainty reduction practice.
Once the matter for decision has been determined, the decision-making process must
be understood in terms of both the complexity of decision problems and the politicality
of decision interests.
Complexity has four components:
1. Rarity the frequency with which similar decisions occur
2. Consequentiality the consequences of the decisions as indicated by:
a) how radically a decision changes things
b) the seriousness of something going wrong as a result of the decision
c) the diffusion of the consequences in terms of the number of organisational
aspects (for example, costs, morale, market share) affected by the decision
d) how long the consequences of the decision will endure.
3. Precursiveness: the extent to which decision sets parameters within which later
decision-making is constrained.
4. Involvement: the number of parties that become involved in the process of making
a decision.
As Hickson points out, 'as the number builds up, so it becomes more and more taxing
to remember who has yet to be asked and who was asked and what they said, who
may know what, which meetings expressed what views and which committees have yet
to report, what is significant and what can be ignored (Hickson et al., 1986, p. 44).
Politicality is the degree to which influence is exerted through a decision-making
process on the outcome. The 'decision set' that is, the interest groups implicated in any
particular decision, will vary from decision to decision, but some stockholders in that
group will tend to have more frequent involvement and influence – and hence
politicality – than others. The table below shows the relative importance of various
entities in the strategic decisions analysed by the researchers.
Infrequent Involvement Frequent Involvement
Infrequent Influence Trades unions Auditors
Competitors Trade associations
Purchasing Shareholders
Maintenance Government bodies
Personnel Suppliers
Reading 5.2
Vroom, V.H. 2001, ‘Two Decades of Research on Participation: Beyond Buzz Words
and Management Fads’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland,
D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See
Chapter 15, pp. 429-436).
As Hurst points out, these steps of strategic management evolved rapidly during the
60s and 70s, and were used by companies facing logistical problems more complex
and planning horizons more distant than they had previously known. Planners such as
Ansoff and Steiner became particularly strong advocates for the creation and spread of
strategic planning units as central to management in all undertakings. Hurst not only
provides an interesting history of the development of strategic decision models, but
presents a case for its demise. The underlying problem for Hurst, is that such decision-
making formats assume that organisations are like complex mechanical clock works
operating in an environment that can be objectively determined by senior managers (or
anyone else).
Hurst then presents an alternative model, one that like the reading by Nonaka,
highlights the negotiation of meanings about the organisation's mission as part of a
non-deterministic creative management process. Hurst suggests that we need to
abandon our notions of managers as decision-makers who must rationally solve the
problems of the world. Rather we must assemble teams to handle the total process to
combine 'the two great human gifts – reason and passion'. In so saying, Hurst is
referring to more than emotion. He is invoking the need for ethical principles in
decision-making.
Reading 5.3
Klein, G. 2001, ‘How People Really Make Decisions’, in The Organizational Behavior
Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 15, pp. 436-449).
Conclusion
The latter part of Module 5 has mostly been concerned to point out how decision-
making is imperfect in a rational sense, and to point out how this might be rectified,
both by bringing the decision-making process closer to a rational model, and by
widening the definition of what is rational. The latter part of the Module also examines
ways in which more intuitive processes of decision-making operate, and how they can
be valuable additions to the process. Finally, however, it is also impossible to avoid the
realisation that decision-making is imperfect also in the sense that it has a subjective,
moral component. This issue is examined further in the course 'International Law and
Ethics for Managers' elsewhere in the MBA program.
Activities
Note: The following activities are optional. They are designed to help you develop your
understanding of the various topics in this Course.
Decision making
Cadbury claims that not making decisions may be the least ethical
principal course of action. On the other hand, Etzioni seems to argue that
putting off decisions may be the most humble act. Which do you agree
Activity 5.5 with and why?
Compare the
views of Etzioni Give some examples from your experience.
and Cadbury on
decision-
making.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this Module, you should have:
• gained some practical and theoretical experience at dealing with change from a
variety of perspectives
• analysed the phenomenon of resistance to change, both as an issue in change
management and as an ideologically laden theoretical term
• considered and worked with Organisational Development (OD), politically-based,
and contingency-oriented strategies for managing change
• understand the application of organisational behaviour to the HR process
• considered a range of issues concerned with the way changes in the world of work
relate to management.
Learning resources
Bergman, R, 2000. Instructor’s resource manual, in Robbins, S, Bergman, R, Stagg, I &
Coulter, M. 2000. Management, Prentice-Hall, Australia.
Bolman, LG & Deal, TE 1991, Reframing organisations: artistry, choice and leadership,
Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Coates, JF, Jarratt, J & Mahaffie, JB 1991, 'Future work', The Futurist, vol. 25, no. 3,
pp. 9–19.
Coyle, W 1992, Human Resource Monthly, Melbourne, February.
Davis, S 1987, Future perfect, Addison Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts.
Dunphy, DC & Stace, DA 1988, 'Transformational and coercive strategies for planned
organisational change: Beyond the OD model', Organisational Studies, vol. 9, pp.
317–334.
Dunphy, DC & Stace, DA 1990, Under new management: australian organisations in
transition, McGraw-Hill, Sydney.
French, WL & Bell, CH Jr. 1978, Organisational development behavioural science
interventions for organisation improvement, 2nd edn, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Handy, C 1989, 'The end of the world we know', Management Review, April.
Huse, EF 1982, Management, 2nd edn, West Publishing Co., St Paul.
Kanter, RM 1983, The change masters, Simon and Schuster, New York.
Kotter, JP & Schlesinger, LA 1979, 'Choosing strategies for change', Harvard Business
Review, vol. 57, pp. 106–114.
Paterson, J 1983, 'Bureaucratic reform by cultural revolution', Canberra Bulleting of
Public Administration, vol. 10, pp. 6–13.
Pettigrew, A 1985, The awakening giant continuity and change in ICI. Basil Blackwell,
Oxford,
Robbins, S, Bergman, R, Stagg, I & Coulter, M. 2000. Management, Prentice-Hall,
Australia.
Schwartz, P 1991, The art of the long view planing for the future in an uncertain world,
Doubleday, New York.
Stephenson, T 1985, Management a political activity, Macmillan, Basingstoke.
Ulrich, D & Lake, D 1991, Organisational capability: competing from the inside out,
John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Woodworth, W & Nelson, R 1979, 'Witch doctors, messianics, sorcerers and OD
consultants: parallels and paradigms', Organisational Dynamics, vol. 8, pp. 17–33.
Introduction
The management of change has been at least an underlying theme of every Module in
the course. For example, the ways in which people act and react with regard to
decision-making, or leadership or cultural phenomena, are fundamentally influenced by
comparisons between the nature of past, present and possible future practices.
Organisations by their nature are sites of change, whether incremental or revolutionary.
The first part of this Module seeks to highlight behaviour in the context of change and
to identify ways in which people seek to manage the change process. In the second
part of this Module, 'Management Issues of the Future', we set out some of the forces
which are increasingly acting on organisations from both the interior and the exterior
which heighten the need for them to change and adapt.
In this topic we will examine the following issues:
• perspectives on managing change
• the OD approach to managing change
• managing change as a political process
• contingency approaches to managing change.
Reading 6.1
Kanter, R.M. 2001, ‘Change is Everyone’s Job: Managing the Extended Enterprise in a
Globally Connected World’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S.
Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
(See Chapter 20, pp. 562-576).
Resistance to change
Overcoming resistance to change is an understandable concern of those seeking to
implement change. Indeed, one of the reasons change tends to be studied as an issue
in itself (and the early studies by Coch and French go back to 1948) is to try to find
answers to this perceived problem. While it is most common to talk of resistance to
change as a problem that managers confront, it is also a behaviour they may manifest,
as the preceding discussion makes clear.
Doing OD
Any given OD exercise is based on the application of one or more structured activities
(called 'interventions') and it is typically orchestrated by a 'change agent' – generally an
external consultant. The OD approach has traditionally emphasised and sought to
enhance the process of learning by the group. That is, rather than make
pronouncements as 'experts' on the solutions to problems, change agents have sought
to develop problem-awareness skills and problem-solving skills among their clients.
The change agent may undertake a preliminary diagnosis and data collection but from
there the group takes charge of both problem and data, discussing it, interpreting it,
and developing action plans for their own preferred courses of action. OD is also
intended as an ongoing interactive process (French and Bell, 1978).
Huse identifies the following assumptions within OD about the behaviour of people:
• most people want and need opportunities for growth and achievement
• when the basic needs have been satisfied, most people will respond to
opportunities for responsibility, challenge and interesting work
• organisational effectiveness and efficiency are increased when work is organised
to meet individual needs for responsibility, challenge, and interesting work
• personal growth and the accomplishment of organisational goals are better
attained by shifting the emphasis of conflict resolution from smoothing to open
confrontation
• the design of individual jobs, group tasks, and organisational structure can be
modified to more effectively satisfy the needs of the organisation, the group and
the individual
• people hold many false assumptions about individuals, groups and organisations
that could be rectified through open confrontations
• many so-called personality clashes result from problems of incorrect organisational
design (Huse, 1982, p. 256).
From this list it is possible to discern the strength of the Human Relations and unitarist
thinking within the OD approach, especially in the assumptions concerning individual
motivation, the appropriate view of conflict, and so on. Robbins reviews a number of
the specific technologies of OD, including sensitivity training, survey-feedback, process
consultation and team building. To these classic OD approaches have been added
interventions that incorporate a focus on structure, that is on the design of jobs, on the
technology used and on the structure of the organisation. These interventions include
job enrichment (expanding the range of skills in a job) (see textbook discussion) and
the greater use of teams. However the focus on process remains central, through the
emphasis on the need for a consultative participative approach.
Does OD work?
The effectiveness of OD as a strategy for managing planned change has been difficult
to assess for the following reasons:
• the wide range of interventions to which the term OD has been applied means it
is difficult to talk about a single overall OD effect
• start with a small change, get key people on side, build up their confidence, and
then push for more significant changes.
• if a number of groups become involved in the change, all claiming
organisational change expertise, it may sometimes be wisest to withdraw fro the
melee, especially if too many cooks are spoiling the broth. When the change
program is assessed as less than successful, the group that withdrew from the
exercise may have retained or even enhanced its influence.
Schein's approach, while 'grafting on' some attention to political dynamics to the key
dynamics and assumptions of OD, is a modification rather than a radical overhaul of
the approach. We move now to a consideration of organisational change as a political
process.
Bases
• ensure that you have support from above
• speak directly and often to employees as a whole. Direct communication reduces
the possibility of your message being distorted
• ensure that your personal behaviour is above reproach to avoid any incident being
used against you. Do not pretend to have knowledge you do not have
• build your prestige outside the organisation. Understand and use the media
• symbolic significance will be read into your actions; ensure that they convey the
message you intend
• be well-read and well-practised in basic organisational and interpersonal skills.
Strategy
• identify weak links in the current system that can be attacked at little cost for early
victories. If necessary attack by exploiting existing divisions
• identify individual strengths and weaknesses. Make maximum use of internal
expertise but bring in external expertise in its absence
• reform senior management first. Testing incumbents will speed up the departure of
those who must go and build up the confidence of those who measure up.
Tactics
• pace is the key tactical variable; your average pace must be such as to defeat the
adaptive processes of the old system. Vary the pace on different 'fronts' to dictate
the terms of battle
• timing should, as far as possible, conform to a planned schedule for change
• never cease scouting for recruits. Use selection and training processes to improve
desired skills
• handle industrial relations skilfully. Reliance on the old industrial system should
decline as managerial skills improve, but where the old system is involved, act with
competence and promptly in order that the old system doesn't benefit
• make the client your ally. Properly mobilised, external pressures can be used
against internal resisters.
Reading 6.2
Shepard, H.A. 2001, ‘Rules of Thumb for Change Agents’, in The Organizational
Behavior Reader eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 20, pp. 589-594).
Conclusion
Despite the shortcomings of the organisational development approach, it is still
regarded as a very attractive model for guiding change. The 'organisation as political
arena' change model, on the other hand, has the advantage that it takes into account
the complex and non-deterministic nature of organisations. The contingency
approaches do something of both, allowing for the possibility of both OD and political
approaches depending on the external circumstances of the organisation and
managers' capacity to judge them.
Jack Welch, the head of the 220,000-employee General Electric Corporation, had this
to say about succeeding in today's highly competitive global economy:
"If you're not thinking all the time about making every person more
valuable, you don't have a chance. What's the alternative? Wasted minds?
Uninvolved people? A labor force that's angry or bored? That doesn't make
sense."
To become a highly performing organisation starts with being able to recruit and select
the best applicants for various positions within the organisation. Job training and
personal and professional development are other activities that are also an important
part of managing a company’s human resources.
In this topic we will examine the following issues:
• Why HRM?
• The Human Resource Management Process
Reading 6.3
Pfeffer, J, & Veiga, J, 1999, ‘Putting People First For Organizational Success’, in The
Organizational Behavior Reader eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice
Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 17, pp. 471-484).
Correct decision = prediction that the applicant would be successful, and that applicant
later proved to be successful on the job.
Problems arise when we make errors by rejecting candidates who later perform poorly
(accept error – which can cost money in terms of wasted selection resources and
ongoing effects on org. performance), or who would have performed successfully (i.e.,
more than just the cost of selection procedure; eg, discrimination by using a biased test
– which can also cost money and damage the firms reputation).
Therefore, we want to reduce the probability of making accept errors or reject errors.
Validity describes the proven relationship that exists between a selection device and
some relevant criterion.
Reliability is the ability of a selection device to measure the same thing consistently.
Hence, for a selection test to be useful, it must be both valid and reliable.
Interviews are very popular as a selection device although there are many concerns
about their reliability and validity. Whilst carefully planned and structured interviews can
have similar predictive ability to cognitive tests, most interviews are unplanned and
unstructured, and have no validity at all.
For example, it has been suggested that most information gleamed from an interview is
forgotten within ten minutes of the termination of the interview.
A common objective of interviewing is too ascertain whether applicants have
represented themselves truthfully. I think it is a rather common tendency for applicants
to ‘over-state’ their abilities and achievements, and hence interviewers should strive to
validate the applications.
Summary of interviews
• a flawed tool: the typical (unstructured) interview favoured by so many is almost
useless in predicting employee performance.
• artificial situation - people who do best at interviews are those who have had
more practice at them, and a manager at an interview is not managing, while a
computer programmer is not computing – they’re arguably only playing the role
that they feel is expected of them.
• with this in mind, it probably is a good tool for predicting interpersonal skills.
• belief by managers that they know best – i.e., only they know what is best, and are
able to decide who will fit the job & org. best.
Background investigations can be done by verifying application data and/or
reference checks. In the case of sensitive government positions, these may also
include security checks (in Australia) by both federal Police and ASIO. The Federal
Police might perform a records check to ascertain whether an applicant has a criminal
record, while ASIO might perform more in-depth checks which could involve
interviewing relatives etc, as well as investigating records of overseas travel for both
the applicant and relatives.
Physical examinations are often used for jobs with physical requirements. In the event
of a claim for workers compensation, they also provide a baseline against which an
employee’s future medical status may be compared against.
Reference checks generally have little predictive ability of an applicant’s future job
performance, whilst assessment centres work well for mid to high level managers.
Work samples are appropriate for routine operatives, and tests of general cognitive
ability are amongst the best predictors of future performance, particularly in higher level
positions.
Orientation or induction is defined as the introduction of a new employee into his or
her job and the organisation.
The major objectives of orientation include:
1. Reduce initial anxiety and remove unrealistic expectations the employee may hold.
2. Familiarise new employees with the job, the work unit, and the organisation. The
latter often involves outlining the history of the company and its founders and
current key personnel – this also helps to establish the culture of the company (i.e.,
the written and unwritten rules about how things are done at that company)
3. Facilitate the outsider-insider transition.
stability; i.e., when pay was determined largely by seniority and job level. But since
most organisations must cope with dynamic environments, they are looking to make
pay systems more flexible and with fewer pay levels.
An example of this is broadbanding compensation in which the number of job levels
or salary grades is reduced – eg, 8 pay grades with a range of $200 month to 3 grades
of $700 month. This can allow managers more flexibility when linking compensation to
individual skills & contributions (i.e., without having to formally promote staff).
Performance appraisal is defined as the evaluation of an individual’s work
performance in order to arrive at objective personnel decisions such as merit pay
increases, feedback from org’s on how they view employee’s performance, and to
identify training and development needs.
There are seven major performance appraisal methods.
1. Written essays method is a performance appraisal technique in which an
evaluator writes out a description of an employee’s strengths; weaknesses; past
performance; and potential, and then makes suggestions for improvement.
2. Critical incidents method is a performance appraisal technique in which an
evaluator lists key behaviours that separate effective from ineffective job
performance.
3. Graphic rating scales method is a performance appraisal technique in which an
evaluator rates a set of performance factors on an incremental scale.
4. Behaviourally anchored rating scales (BARS) method is a performance
appraisal technique in which an evaluator rates employees on specific job
behaviours derived from performance dimensions.
5. Multiperson comparison method is a performance appraisal technique in which
individuals are compared to one another. There are three types of multiperson
comparisons.
a) The group order ranking groups employees into ordered classifications.
b) The individual ranking ranks employees in order from highest to lowest.
c) Paired comparisons compare each employee to every other employee and
rate him or her as superior or weaker of the pair.
6. Accomplishment of objectives, such as that done in an MBO program, can also
be used as a performance appraisal method.
7. One newer approach to performance appraisal is 360 degree feedback which is a
performance appraisal review that utilises feedback from supervisors,
subordinates, and co-workers—the full circle (360 degrees) of people with whom
the person interacts.
Reading 6.4
Kerr, S. 1995, ‘On The Folly Of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B’, in The
Organizational Behavior Reader eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice
Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 18, pp. 508-515).
Career development
A career is defined as the sequence of positions occupied by a person during his or
her lifetime. We need to look first at career development the way it was:
In the past, career development programs were typically designed by organisations to
help employees realise their career goals. However, widespread internal changes have
altered the idea of a traditional organisational career.
Now, it is the individual, not the organisation, who is responsible for his or her own
career. This has also been termed as the “new employment contract” where employees
have to make their own opportunities – but this impact on their level of trust in the
organisation they work for, because it seems very one way – i.e., it is very clear what
the employee is responsible for (results driven), but what is the org responsible for –
eg, contract versus tenure etc.
The idea of increased personal responsibility for one's career has been described as a
boundaryless career in which individuals rather than organisations assume primary
responsibility for career planning, career goal setting, education & training.
The optimum career choice is one that offers the best match between what a person
wants out of life and his or her interests, abilities, and market opportunities. The most
recent trends in career development have actually been in the reverse direction, known
as the ‘sea change’ or ‘down shifting’, where workers as young as thirty years or age
(and less) have opted for increased time for family and personal interests at the
expense of career progression and promotion.
Introduction
Perhaps wisely, considering the difficulty of making predictions about the future,
Robbins has not devoted a specific chapter to management issues of the future.
Nonetheless, the chapter on organisational change which was prescribed reading for
the first part of this Module points out some of the trends which organisations appear
likely to need to deal with as the new century approaches.
There is no shortage of theorists of the future, including for the future of management.
The following classic reading has been selected as a way of introducing to you some of
the most prevalent thinking about the ways organisations and ways of managing them
are changing as we move into the future.
Many of the most successful companies in the world, including those nominated in
Peter's work on 'excellence' in the early 1980s are fighting to survive a decade and a
half later.
Reading 6.5
Donaldson, T. & Dunfee, T.W. 2001, ‘When Ethics Travel: The Promise and Peril of
Global Business Ethics’, in The Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland,
D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See
Chapter 5, pp. 131-144).
• the glamour of independence has faded once the realities of combining family
responsibilities with paid work set in
• loneliness is increased; the incidental social discourse that occurs as a necessary
part of people's day at work disappears.
Shifting demographics
Several different but related changes are occurring in the demographic makeup of the
industrialised world:
• the 'baby boomers' are ageing. As they enter middle age and later they are poised
to become the dominant group in society
• older people are becoming a larger part of society, living longer and in better
health than previously. As a result they are wielding greater influence politically,
socially and economically
• birth rates are failing almost everywhere
• women are tending to have their babies later, especially in two-career families.
They also return to paid employment faster than their mothers and grandmothers
• migration patterns continue to add to many countries' cross-cultural workforce
• more women are emerging into senior ranks of the workforce through sheer weight
of numbers.
Implications of these developments include:
• a changing balance between the number of people receiving pensions and the
number in the paid workforce whom can support them
• older people will alter buying habits and consumer preferences
• organisations will need to develop more flexible policies on parent leave, child care
and elder care, and also for managing diversity in the workplace
• many more of the male-oriented policies in organisations will be challenged and
changed.
Environment issues
Some authors argue that environmental considerations will be the greatest single
source of influence on the way organisations do business in the 21st century. Some
companies are already converting formerly wasteful and environmentally harmful
activities into potentially profit-making ventures.
Implications of change
'downsized out' of organisations in the push to cut costs in the 80s and 90s, and
that some of those who have retired will need to be enticed back to the
organisation
• leave, such as parental leave and other leave options, not necessarily for a
specified purpose.
Reading 6.4
Cartwright, S. & Cooper, C.L. 2001, ‘The Growing Epidemic of Stress’, in The
Organizational Behavior Reader, eds J.S. Osland, D.A. Kolb, & I.M. Rubin, Prentice
Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. (See Chapter 5, pp. 169-184).
Activities
Note: The following activities are optional. They are designed to help you develop your
understanding of the various topics in this Course.
Organisational change
Consider a change that your organisation has undergone recently. Which
external factor(s) were the prime cause of the change? Into which of the
above five categories did it fall? If it is difficult to classify in terms of a
Activity 6.1 single category, also discuss the links that the change has with other
Classify a recent categories. What are the likely spin-off effects of the change?
change in your
organisation.
Consider once again the change you discussed in the previous two
activities. Did it encounter any resistance within the organisation? Was
this resistance, if any, on the part of management, employees or both?
Activity 6.3 What reasons were behind the resistance of either of these groups? How
Can external was this resistance 'framed' or 'discussed' by either management or
change be employees? From this specific incident, do you see any basis for the
managed? argument that terming reluctance to change a form of 'resistance' may be
ideologically based? Discuss.
Activity 6.7 The company have been seeking to recruit a new CEO, and the board of
Managers’ directors specifically urged that the new CEO must have the personal
perspective of qualities compatible with dealing with a turbulent environment which is
others and characteristic of their market. A previous HRM specialist (who has left on
influences on short notice and cannot be contacted) had the three short-listed
the HR process candidates for the CEO position fill in a short questionnaire which she said
was designed to measure the “candidates’ attitudes towards other
people”, claiming that this questionnaire would satisfy the board of
directors’ demands. The HR director has asked you to interpret the
candidates’ scores on this instrument. One candidate scored very low,
one very high, and another a mid-range score.
Upon looking at the questionnaires, you realise that they in fact measure
McGregor’s Theory X and Y views of human nature.
The HR manager requests that you specifically report on the relevance of
the instrument and the subsequent significance of the candidates’ scores,
and how they might influence the company culture, steps in the HR
functions, and finally, general employee values and behaviours.
What impact has the knowledge economy already had on the way you
work? What changes can you anticipate for the future?
Activity 6.9 Think of some organisations you know well. How will they change as a
Examine the result of the knowledge economy?
impact of the
knowledge
economy
Will the changes mentioned in this part of the Module affect your
organisation? List as many impacts as you can. For which of them, if any,
has your organisation made definite plans? Which are the influences for
Activity 6.11 which most urgent planning is needed?
List the external
sources of
change affecting
your
organisation.