Case Study Report
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L4-RadicalStructuralism.pptxOrganisational Analysis Radical Structuralism
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Lecture Aims
Introduce radical structuralism and show how it manifests in organisational analysis
Illustrate the effects of radical structuralism
Discuss the advantages and limitations of radical structuralism
Next steps
RMIT University
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RMIT University
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FILMS:
Blue Collar (1978), about union corruption and dividing workers against each other
Billy Elliot (2000), set during the 1984-85 miners’ strike; moving picket line scene
Dirty Pretty Things (2002), about immigrant workers, legal and illegal
The Measure of a Man (2015), French film about a middle aged man who loses his factory job, finds another, where he is required to spy on his co-workers.
Norma Rae (1979), about unionizing efforts in a textile factory
North Country (2005) about a class action against sexual harassment in a mining company
Salt of the Earth (1954), about a New Mexico miners’ strike – really controversial at the time, ahead of its time (during the cold war) because of its awareness of racial and gender equity issues.
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RMIT University
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What are organisations? Systems of order? Or systems of exploitation and oppression?
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What is your purpose, or intention?
You have come here to learn about management.
This entails confronting the unsavoury aspects of organisations, and understanding the concepts of power, control, conflict, and exploitation. These aspects of management and organisations are not anomalous. They are part of economic life and must be understood if they are to be addressed.
You have come here to learn about management.
This entails confronting the unsavoury aspects of organisations, and understanding the concepts of power, control, conflict, and exploitation. These aspects of management and organisations are not anomalous. They are part of economic life and must be understood if they are to be addressed.
Radical structuralism – a “conflict and radical change” paradigm – allows you to see, examine, and understand these aspects of organisational life
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But how can we understand power, control, social division, and conflict?
Critical theory, the foundations of radical structuralism
Critical Theory allows us to analyse the roots of dissent, conflict, and coalition.
Critical theory enables managers to understand both sides of an argument.
Critical theory enables managers to understand that antagonism stems from deep-seated and profoundly different assumptions and world-views.
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The intellectual foundations of critical theory and radical structuralism may be found in the work of Karl Marx.
Marx provided a critique of the political economy and the status quo. Concerned with social division, inequality, and conflict within the political economy.
Earlier work dealt with alienation (estrangement from our work and what we produce); later work focused more on the political economy and the antagonistic arrangements within, which Marx theorized would lead to crisis and therefore radical change.
Radical structuralism “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
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Radical structuralism
Organisations are analysed as capitalist class relations (i.e. owner and labourer).
Organisations are portrayed in terms of:
Capitalist mode of production characterised by exploitation and alienation of the workers by the owners of the means of production.
Calls for worker emancipation, and for the establishment of a more democratic and egalitarian organisation.
A critical organisational discourse emerges:
In the US:
C. Wright Mills (1956) The Power Elite
A. Gouldner (1954) Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy
A. Gouldner (1955) Wildcat Strike
In the UK:
R. Dahrendorf (1959) Class and Class Conflict in an Industrial Society
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Organisations are portrayed as systems of oppression, rather than as systems of order.
Stories emerge of social divisions, power, exploitation, inequality and conflict within organisations.
Social classes in organisations are made visible.
Worker emancipation requires the establishment of a more democratic and egalitarian form of organisation.
Radical structuralism
Systems of production?
Systems of oppression?
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Organisations are portrayed as systems of oppression, rather than as systems of order.
Stories emerge of social divisions, power, exploitation, inequality and conflict within organisations.
Social classes in organisations are made visible.
Worker emancipation requires the establishment of a more democratic and egalitarian form of organisation.
Radical structuralism
Systems of production?
Systems of oppression?
Irreconcilable ideologies
“An idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you.” Morris Berman, historian
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Why should contemporary managers care?
Radical structuralism
“Capitalist organisations alienate and exploit workers” (Burawoy, 1979).
Critical theorists have shifted the image of management and the theoretical agenda “from saviour to problem” (Crowther & Green, 2004: 119).
Emergence of pejorative language in the description of organisations and management practices. A call for action. A threat to organisations’ legitimacy, and therefore their survival.
Organisations are embedded in a broader, political context. Pretending otherwise is “naïve realism” (Hirschheim & Klein, 1989).
And……
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The justification for radical structuralism
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If organisations do not recognise and address problems, they will be exposed in ways that threaten the viability of the organisation.
Social media has redistributed power, to an extent. But social structure is difficult to change.
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Let’s revisit functionalism, in light of the preceding…
Organisational ‘truths’ are only partially represented by functionalist tools and thinking, such as process models.
A ‘rational ideal’ that is guided only by a quest for efficiency is lacking in humanity, and is a fallacy, anyway.
The job of analysts is to unmask organisational ‘truths’ and facilitate the establishment of more democratic and egalitarian organisations, and the emancipation of workers.
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Organisations are portrayed as systems of oppression, rather than as systems of order.
Stories emerge of social divisions, power, exploitation, inequality and conflict within organisations.
Social classes in organisations are made visible.
Worker emancipation requires the establishment of a more democratic and egalitarian form of organisation.
Systems of production?
Systems of oppression?
Irreconcilable ideologies
“An idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you.” Morris Berman, historian
How do analysts unmask organisational truths?
By looking for systemic organisational behaviours that perpetuate inequality and suffering (e.g. machine paced labour?)
By unveiling inequality regimes
By looking for organisational practices that are taken-for-granted but which disadvantage and oppress workers
By analysing the narratives that business and their supporters use to defend their practices and gain more freedom from regulation (discourse analysis)
By materialising the ideology guiding business and critiquing this ideology
By studying historical practices and drawing parallels between the past and present, to show that there are “immutable nature-like laws” in operation (Hirshheim & Klein, 1989: 1207)
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Unequal systems and resistance
How do workers redress the reduction in bargaining power or inequalities?
How is freedom from oppression and exploitation attained?
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Calls for emancipation: Workers as active agents within organisational relationships
Workers’ resistance to unequal power in the workplace:
Individual action:
Verbal complaints
Go-slows
‘Cheating’
Absenteeism
Looking for other work
Sabotage
Theft
Collective action / Worker coalition:
Strikes
Go-slows
‘Sick-out’
The formation of trade unions
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Seeks to reveal false assumptions about the world and uncover the truth, which will emancipate the oppressed.
Sees resistance and activism as positive, because it is a “sign of labor becoming aware of its collective interest, which in turn is a prerequisite for social progress” (Hirschheim & Klein, 1989: 1207).
BUT….
Radical structuralism: some strengths and cautions
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Organisations are portrayed as systems of oppression, rather than as systems of order.
Stories emerge of social divisions, power, exploitation, inequality and conflict within organisations.
Social classes in organisations are made visible.
Worker emancipation requires the establishment of a more democratic and egalitarian form of organisation.
Systems of production?
Systems of oppression?
Irreconcilable ideologies
“An idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you.” Morris Berman, historian
How do we unmask organisational truths?
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Organisations are portrayed as systems of oppression, rather than as systems of order.
Stories emerge of social divisions, power, exploitation, inequality and conflict within organisations.
Social classes in organisations are made visible.
Worker emancipation requires the establishment of a more democratic and egalitarian form of organisation.
Systems of production?
Systems of oppression?
Irreconcilable ideologies
“An idea is something you have; an ideology is something that has you.” Morris Berman, historian
How do we unmask organisational truths?
Whose version of reality is true?
Radical structuralism is not neutral
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Distorted version of truth
Distorted version of truth
If we believe that the truth about economic life and organisational behaviour can be objectively established, but we can only see our own distorted version, how can our views ever be reconciled?
How can this divide be overcome?
Should it be overcome, or will this simply perpetuate unjust arrangements?
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Radical structuralism: some strengths and cautions
Ignores the problems arising from coalition (e.g. conflict between workers; manipulation and exploitation of members; elevation of leaders into different “spheres”)
Radical structuralism “has a tendency to oversimplify” – are all organisations exploitative? Are there own two broad groups in economic life? (owners & workers)
Engages in trenchant criticism, promotes resistance, and thereby is poor at facilitating understanding and cooperation
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Why should contemporary managers care?
And what might be done?
Radical structuralism
Understand why people resist; understand the power of ideological differences.
Understand your own ideological views – does your ideology “have you”? (Reflexivity).
View organisations from multiple paradigms.
Look at organising processes critically, and from the perspective of the least powerful. Walk in their shoes.
Develop organising processes in collaboration with those who must live with them.
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We explored the roots of dissent and conflict affecting organisations
Dissent and conflict stems from the material conditions of people’s lives and different world-views (ideologies)
Managers must understand the roots of conflict
Some organisational problems are intractable
Be aware of economic decision making (policy) and organising processes that give rise to exploitation and oppression
Summary
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RMIT University
Burrell & Morgan, 1979: Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis
Assumptions about our knowledge of society
Objectivism
Subjectivism
Order & regulation
Assumptions about society
Conflict & radical change
Radical structuralism
Social relativism
Neo-humanism
Functionalism
Multi-paradigmatic perception: two dimensions, four paradigms
Four radically different ways of seeing organisations
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RMIT University
Burrell & Morgan, 1979: Sociological Paradigms and Organisational Analysis
Assumptions about our knowledge of society
Objectivism
Subjectivism
Order & regulation
Assumptions about society
Conflict & radical change
Social relativism
Neo-humanism
Functionalism
Multi-paradigmatic perception: two dimensions, four paradigms
Four radically different ways of seeing organisations
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References
Dahl, R. A. (1957). The concept of power. Behavioral science, 2(3), 201-215.
Freund, J. (1969). TheSociology of Max Weber.
Giddens, A. (1985). The nation-state and violence (Vol. 2). Univ of California Press.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life.
Hamilton, P. (Ed.). (1991). Max Weber, Critical Assessments 2 (Vol. 2). Taylor & Francis.
Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2012). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press.
Dahrendorf, R. (1959). Class and class conflict in industrial society. Stanford University Press.
Durkheim, E. (2014). The division of labor in society. Simon and Schuster.
Gouldner, A. W. (1954). Patterns of industrial bureaucracy.
Guba, E. G. (Ed.). (1990). The paradigm dialog. Sage Publications.
Mills, C. W. (1999). The power elite. Oxford University Press.
Guy, G. (2011). Language, social class and status. In R. Mesthrie (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of sociolinguistics (1st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 159–185
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