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Module4Creative.docx

OGL550_Module4_PowerPoliticalLens.pdf

OGL550_Module4_PsychicPrison.pdf

toolsforanalyzingpower.pdf

HBR_PowerandPoliticsinOrganizationalLife.pdf

Module4Creative.docx

Mod 4 Creative FUN Activity (I hope -- just roll with it!)

· Due Sunday by 11:59pm

· Submitting a file upload

FIRST: YES! You ARE CREATIVE ENOUGH for THIS activity. I promise you: Artistic talent is NOT needed.

Since the PESTLE activity could take A LOT OF TIME to complete, I wanted to make THIS activity a bit more whimsical --- while still basing it on our videos and readings. So let's do a FUN AND INTERPRETIVE one-page activity like so:

--- Watch AT LEAST TWO MORE of the videos on the "Mod 4 Learning Materials" page ( NOT including the "Plato's Allegory of the Cave" videos which you need to watch already). --- Read TWO OF THE ARTICLES ( not the textbook chapters) provided on the "Mod 4 Learning Materials" page.

HOW TO PROCEED: On a blank sheet of paper (or a blank page on a computer screen, if you prefer to work digitally --- but WITHOUT any A.I. "help" of course --- CREATE a ONE-PAGE, ILLUSTRATION-HEAVY reaction to what you have viewed and read --- with SKETCHES OF AT LEAST TWO CONCEPTS PER VIDEO and ARTICLE:

1. At the top of the page, briefly note source info (authors, titles, names of the videos, etc.) --- enough to clearly identify the videos and readings from our Mod 4 Learning Materials page. Then start drawing!

2. You may either draw FOUR LINES to divide the page into four sections (one for each video and reading); you could then insert TWO sketches / stick figure drawings into each quadrant. OR you may combine aspects of some videos/readings into your drawings, as long as you end up with at least eight (8) distinct sketches/drawings.

For example, your page might be divided up like so, with two stick figures (and a few important notes) in each of the four quadrants:

3. These SHOULD NOT BE "GOOD" illustrations but just sketches. I mean that "STICK FIGURES" and SIMPLE SYMBOLS are fine.

4. It's vital to do this with your own hand / your own trackpad (and NO A.I.) because I may pick some of the "best" or "wildest" of these to show off to the rest of the class (and if someone uses A.I. or an "auto-drawing program" it will just be embarrassing to everyone, plus all the plagiarism stuff...yuck).

5. Add some brief notes in your own handwriting or typed, explaining your sketches in some detail, i.e., explaining the context in the materials.

6. Upload the page here (in this Canvas assignment).

Resources

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guE154B6P8Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k185ZhNz9nw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AozJ4AkgAMw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7oO08AwLpc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o&list=PLr3XIBco3u_O3RZGLeWaFPyZ6WhL8v86D

OGL550_Module4_PowerPoliticalLens.pdf

OGL 550

Organizations as Political Systems Morgan Ch. 6

Types of Political Systems • Autocracy--Power is held by individual or small group

• Bureaucracy--Power exercised through use of rules and the written word

• Technocracy--Rule exercised through use of knowledge

• Codetermination--Form of rule where opposing parties combine in the joint management of mutual interests

• Representative democracy--Rule exercised through the election of officers mandated to act on behalf of the electorate

• Direct democracy--System where everyone has an equal right to rule and is involved in all decision making

Organizations, Control, & Power “We rely on a company to pay our wages. But does this mean it has the right control all our beliefs and feelings? It certainly has no right to reduce us to robots who must obey every command!”

• An organization’s politics manifest in the conflicts and power plays and interpersonal relationships that guide the flow of organizational activity.

• Politics occur on an ongoing basis, often in a way that is invisible to all but those directly involved.

• Power: can be viewed as a resource, as a social relationship (e.g., dependency), or as influence/persuasion/coercion.

Interests, Conflict, & Power Interests: Examples of three different types: • Task Interests--connected with the work one has to perform • Career Interests--independent of the job being performed • Extramural Interests--Act towards the relation to both job and career

Conflict: Where interests collide • Conflict may be personal or interpersonal, e.g., self, teams, rival groups • Built into organizations through roles • Attitudes, stereotypes, scarcity of resources

Power: Medium through which conflicts of interest are resolved. Sources of power: • Formal Authority • Control of Scarce Resources • Use of organizational structure, rules and regulations • Control of decision powers, knowledge and information, boundaries, and/or technology

Relationship between Management and Workers Unitary • Organization is perceived as integrated, harmonious whole: e.g., “one happy family”, where

management and other members of the staff all share a common purpose. • Emphasis on mutual cooperation. • May use paternalistic approach that demands loyalty of all employees, being predominantly

managerial in its emphasis and application

Pluralist • Organization is perceived as being composed of powerful and divergent sub-groups, each

with its own loyalties and set of objectives and leaders. • Two predominant sub-groups in the pluralistic perspective are management and trade

unions.

Marxist or Radical • Looks at division of interest between capital and labor • Sees inequalities of power and economic wealth as inherent in capitalist economic system • Conflict is seen as inevitable, with trade unions a natural response of workers

Pluralist Ways to Handle Conflict Competing—to take quick, decisive action; for enforcing unpopular rules and decisions

Collaborating—for synthesizing insights of different stakeholders; fostering organizational learning

Compromising—to arrive at mutually acceptable, expedient solutions

Avoiding—to buy time, or to put energy to more productive issues

Accommodating—to satisfy others when issues are not paramount to you; to minimize loss when it’s clear you can’t win

Strengths and Limitations of Political Metaphor Strengths • Surfaces taboo subject such as people pushing for their private motives • Recognizes role and use of power at the center of organizational analysis. • Challenges the myth of organizational rationality. • Helps us understand human behavior in organizations • Recognizes the socio-political implications of organizational dynamics and the roles

that organizations play in society

Limitations • Can lead to increased politicization of the organization • Focus on conflict and control may make it harder to see positive aspects of organizing

and the potential for shared power to transform systems

OGL 550��Organizations as Political Systems��Morgan Ch. 6
Types of Political Systems
Organizations, Control, & Power
Interests, Conflict, & Power
Relationship between Management and Workers
Pluralist Ways to Handle Conflict
Strengths and Limitations of Political Metaphor

OGL550_Module4_PsychicPrison.pdf

OGL 550

Organizations as Psychic Prisons Morgan Ch. 7

Psychic Prison Metaphor “ Human beings have a knack for getting trapped in webs of their own creation.”

This metaphor looks at organization as psychological phenomena, as being created and sustained by conscious and unconscious processes.

Examines people as becoming imprisoned or confined by the images, ideas, thoughts and actions of psychological processes

Considers human condition as potentially trapped in: • Modes of Thinking • Constructions of Perceived Reality that offer imperfect and incomplete grasp of the world • People may become “imprisoned”, “confined” or “controlled” by, or within, organizations

Plato’s Cave Allegory • First exploration of Psychic Prison metaphor by Greek Philosopher Plato in his work “The Republic‟ (c. 380 BC)

• Prisoners were chained to an underground cave wall. They could not move, or view the outside world

• Interpretation of shadows comprised their entire reality

• A liberated prisoner discovered that the world beyond the shadows was richer, more complex & rewarding

• Upon return to cave, his experiences terrified fellow cave dwellers

• He could not remain & stagnate.

• They could not change or move forward • They perceived him as “dangerous”

Group Think • Described by Psychologist, Irving Janis in 1952

• Organizational, social & cultural traps that inhibit problem solving by preventing recognition of alternate avenues of thought, discussion & action

• Group illusions of invulnerability, morality & unanimity foster “assumed consensus” which inhibit expressions of doubt & engender misguided decision-making

Examples

• The Bay of Pigs Invasion (1961): President Kennedy & his advisors developed illusions of unanimity & invulnerability; doubts were inhibited & suppressed

• The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster (1986): After 55 successful missions NASA felt invincible • Fatally ignored crucial warnings about faulty equipment

Organizations and the Unconscious • Sigmund Freud argued that the unconscious is created as humans repress their inner-most desires

and private thoughts. • Sees much visible culture as preoccupation & concerns of the unconscious psyche • People become psychic prisoners through repression of their unconscious desires & thoughts • We can try to understand & interpret these phenomena across dimensions that include: • Sexuality •

Family Dynamics • Mortality • Anxiety • Artefacts (Objects & Symbols) • Shadows & Archetypes

Examples: • Neurotic traits • Establishment of formal organizations, e.g. armies, religious orders, industrial society, bureaucracies • Creation of Scientific Management innovations, ideas, planning & productivity such as: • Historical replication of Patriarchal systems: authoritarian, aggressive & chauvinistic (negative) or

brave, heroic & decisive (positive) • Matriarchal approach now seen as increasingly effective, empowering organizational trust, creativity &

co-operation

Function: To Reduce/Hide Fear & Anxiety For each psychic prison, ask yourself two questions:

1.What is the dysfunctional story/myth? 2. How does the story/myth control fear and anxiety?

Example: Organization and Repressed Sexuality When leaders and workers have strong desires to control and become

disciplined in every aspect of life. Taylor is exemplified by this Psychic Prison.

Dysfunctional story: social order to maintained through discipline and control.

How does story control fear? Tight supervision so there are no surprises.

Defense Mechanisms • Repression: “pushing down” unwanted impulses and ideas

• Denial: refusal to acknowledge an impulse-evoking fact, feeling or memory

• Displacement: shifting impulses aroused by one person or situation to a safer target

• Fixation: rigid commitment to a particular attitude or behavior

• Projection: attribution of one’s own feelings and impulses to others

• Rationalization: creation of elaborate schemes of justification that disguise underlying motives and intentions

• Idealization: playing up the good aspects of a situation to protect oneself from the bad

• Splitting: isolating different elements of experience, often to protect the good from the bad.

Authoritarianism (e.g., Patriarchal Family) • (Re)producing organizational structure that gives dominance to males. • Culture in which white males rule the field and know best which decisions to make. • Competition, domination, and no emotions are cultural norms. • Dysfunctional story: White men are more effective leaders. • How does story control fear? Creates rigid structures and mental models the produce social control,

giving a sense of stability and security.

Patriarchal Family: prolonged dependency of the child upon the parents facilitates the kind of dependency institutionalized in the relationship between leaders and followers, and in the practice where people look to others to initiate action in response to problematic issues.

Key organizational members also often cultivate fatherly roles by acting as mentors to those in need of help and protection. The psychic prison structure of the male-dominated family tends to create a feelings of impotence, accompanied by a fear of, and dependence on, authority.

Immortality and Death • Humans are afraid of dying. Death reminds us of our limitations and lack of control. • Organizations are a way to connect with something more enduring than our physical bodies. • Dysfunctional story : We won’t die if we are attached to something more enduring than ourselves. • How does the story control fear? When people believe they will endure, they are more likely to obey

authority.

Human beings, aware of the impermanence & vulnerability of life, use Organizations (through culture) to:

• Search for meaning & permanency; • Preserve a sense of belonging & identity • Manage, organize & motivate themselves • Imagine the achievement of immortality through recorded beliefs, deeds, roles & material objects • As we invest ourselves in our work, our roles become our realities and sense of self. • Making the complex simple. We manage our world by simplifying it, because in making it simple we

feel like we have control.

Fear and Anxiety—Good and Evil Dysfunctional story: World can be divided into good versus evil. Evil wishes to destroy us and we must survive it.

To cope with anxiety:

• we may depend on leader to control or save us

• Make enemies even when there aren’t any (“othering”)

• How does the story reduce fear? It draws the worker into the good/fear dichotomy and allows leaders to do what they want without protest

Transitional Objects, Shadows, & Archetypes Organizations interpreted through Artifacts • “Transitional objects” (e. g. toys) & symbolic experiences help people cope with change. Gives

people something else to hold onto while change occurs. • Over-reliance may facilitate resistance to progress (e. g. hoarding of objects), and block creativity &

innovation in organizations • Dysfunctional story : Change is bad! • How does story control fear? If everything stays the same, we will not get harmed; the old and

unchanging will keep us safe.

Shadows & Archetypes: • View of human psyche espoused by psychiatrist Carl Jung • Archetypes (patterns & ideas) link the “collective unconscious” to individuals & perpetuate recurring

organizational themes • Shadows: repressed & rival instincts of individuals compete to influence organizational decision-

making

Strengths & Weakenesses of Psychic Prison Metaphor Strengths: • Assists understanding of Organizational change and why people resist it • Releases positive energies for transformation & integration • Surfaces links between irrational & rational, recognizes ethical dimensions • Offers holistic approach to organizational life

Weaknesses • Neglects conscious ideological factors of organizational life • Over-emphasizes cognitive processes • Potential for “Orwellian” manipulation of the unconscious mind

Conclusion • Draws from interdisciplinary theories from philosophy, organizational theory, psychiatry and

psychology, sociology, cultural Studies & other fields • Offers profound psychological insights into the nature & complexity of organizations at both the

unconscious & conscious level

OGL 550��Organizations as Psychic Prisons��Morgan Ch. 7
Psychic Prison Metaphor
Plato’s Cave Allegory
Group Think
Organizations and the Unconscious
Function: To Reduce/Hide Fear & Anxiety
Defense Mechanisms
Authoritarianism (e.g., Patriarchal Family)
Immortality and Death
Fear and Anxiety—Good and Evil
Transitional Objects, Shadows, & Archetypes
Strengths & Weakenesses of Psychic Prison Metaphor

toolsforanalyzingpower.pdf

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HBR_PowerandPoliticsinOrganizationalLife.pdf