Hedrick Scalcon

Application Paper

By now we know that Morgantown has a serious problem with poverty

and homelessness. Organizations such as The Salvation Army and The
Morgantown Task Force do a great job in addressing the challenges on
homelessness. During my time at the salvation army, I had developed a
model of work motivation, Douglas McGregor calls this Theory X and Theory
Y. In my opinion Theory X is not a good approach to work because the worker
lacks motivation. While I was at the salvation army I was motivated because I
knew my service would benefit someone else, it was a good feeling. Theory X
states: The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will
avoid it if he can (McGregor), if you dont like to work, you are not doing any
favors to that organization. Because of this most people must be coerced,
controlled, directed, threatened of organizational objectives (McGregor). If
you are motivated to work, you do not need someone of higher authority
telling you what to do. Although, there will be a time when you will be told
what to do. The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to
avoid responsibly, has relatively little ambition, and wants security above all
(McGregor). I believe you as a worker should take initiative with any work-
related assignment, this is how I was raised. This theory does not apply to
the salvation army as much as theory y because it is a non-profit
organization with not many employees but many volunteers. However, while
I was there I noticed that students from the thrift store were being directed
to the soup kitchen due to the fact that there was little to no work that
management had for them. The salvation army being a non-profit
organization, I think there is no excuse for the management to send students
who signed up to volunteer to a different department, there is always
something that needs to be done within a charitable organization.

I believe Theory Y to be more applied to the salvation army. McGregor

states that the assumptions of Theory Y are, External control and the threat
of punishment are not the only means for bringing about effort toward
organizational objectives. Man will exercise self-direction and self-control in
the service of objectives to which he is committed. The important word here
is committed, the reason I say this is because once you are committed to a
certain organization, you want to meet the organizations needs/objectives.
The salvation armys objectives are to provide those who are experiencing
homelessness/poverty with services that allow them to feel humanized. With
your service, you are helping the community and making yourself a better
person. Another assumption to theory y is, the capacity to exercise a
relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity and creativity in the solution
of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly, distributed in the
population (McGregor). The salvation army does have a high degree of
creativity and imagination in the solution of its problems. A perfect example
of this would be the angel tree service that is annually held. It is a creative
way to get the community involved and support a family that is struggling
during the holidays. When you pick up an Angel Tree tag, you and The
Salvation Army brighten Christmas for a child in need (Salvation Army). This
tradition was founded in 1979 in Virginia and has now expanded throughout
the country. I do think there should be more creative services like this
throughout the year. Another assumption of theory y that applies to the
salvation army is, the average human being learns under proper conditions
not only to accept but to seek responsibility (McGregor). When I signed up
to volunteer at the salvation army I knew my service was going to benefit the
community. I took that responsibility, and with that I made it my job to put in
as much effort as possible. There are a few other assumptions that McGregor
describes but I feel those were most relatable to the salvation army. Theory x
and theory y are quite different and not saying one is better than the other
but volunteer work should act as a motivator because you are taking your
time to be of value to an organization/community and to better yourself.
Theory y situates work as providing the possibility for human growth and
the realization of higher needs of esteem and self-actualization (Mumby).
The German political scientist, Elisabeth Noelle- Neumann contributes
to the famous model called the Spiral of Silence. This model states that
people are less likely to express their opinions if they are the minority
(Communication Studies). Within our community, people that are
experiencing homelessness may feel like they are the minority and might not
express their opinions. If people who are homeless dont act up and try to
express their opinion we might never know how to alleviate the issue. Our
involvement with the homeless community most definitely helps those
people express their opinions because we would make them feel humanized
and engaged. Homeless people might fear they will be isolated by the
majority and suffer social rejection. The Monongalia County itself can be
viewed as an organization because it is comprised of the people living here
with the goal of bringing desired improvement to the social wellbeing of
individuals, groups and neighborhoods. One way to define organization is to
identify its common elements. An organization is composed of people,
without people and their interaction, an organization could not exist.
Interaction in organizations is purposeful because people interact with
organizations with a goal in mind (Keyton, 2011).
The Morgantown City Council and the Monongalia County Commission
approved the creation of a Task Force on homelessness for the purpose of
developing a community wide plan to reduce homelessness. The main goal is
to reduce the number of people entering the system of homeless service
and increase the number of people exiting the system (Task Force). With
this organization, we see the human relations school coming to play. The
human relations school- as its name suggests addressed workplace control
by paying attention to the attitudes, feelings, and relational concerns
workers brought to their work. For the first time, managers were actually
interested in what workers were thinking and feeling (Mumby). The
Morgantown task force is a community wide plan seeking to accomplish one
goal. This system provides a common agenda. If people are working together
in a community, everyone has to come together and share ideas and figure
something out. Its not about going to work and being told what to do by
management. Instead, everyone comes to understand that there is a
problem and there needs to be a solution, everyones ideas are noted. All
participating agencies have a shared vision for change, including a common
understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through
agreed upon actions (Task Force). Essentially it is like a focus group, people
are coming together to share ideas on how they can reduce homelessness in
their community. Everyone wants to help and make a difference. This is what
management wants to see. Involving organizations around the area to the
task force creates a communicative strategy to enhance public awareness.
The issue of homelessness doesnt just impact one person; it affects the
quality of life for all in the community. This organization also shows the
concept of holism. Holism involves the principle that when elements in a
system function interdependently, the result is different from the sum of the
parts. In human organizational processes, collective interdependent activity
functions holistically to enable decision making and creativity that would not
be possible with aggregated individuals working independently (Mumby,
Bertalanffy). There are many agencies working together with the task force
such as, social security administration, Health Right, valley HealthCare,
family and children services, veterans administration, department of human
services, etc. All these agencies benefit one another. The task force would
also be an example of an open system. Mumby describes it as, an
organization takes in money, people, information, and raw materials, and
through various organizational processes transforms these into products for
consumption or services to a community, most organizations are open
systems to say the least. With that being said, every organization has a has a
specific goal they are trying to achieve, we may not be aware of the strategy
or methods used but we do know there is a communicational theory
involved.

Citations
Mumby, K.D. (2013). Organizational Communication: A Critical
Approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Morgantown/ Monongalia Task Force on Homelessness: Community

Wide Plan To Reduce Homelessness. Retrieved from:
http://www.morgantownwv.gov/wp-content/uploads/PLAN-TO-REDUCE-
HOMELESSNESS.pdf
 The Salvation Army. Retrieved from:
https://www.salvationarmycarolinas.org/programs/programs-that-
help/seasonal-assistance/angel-tree

Dininni, Jeanne. (2017, Feburary). Human Relations Management

Theory. Retrieved from: https://www.business.com/articles/human-relations-
management-theory/

Communications Study. Retrieved from:

http://www.communicationstudies.com/communication-theories

Keyton, J. (2011). Communication & organizational change: A key to

understanding work experiences (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE