Analysis of Contemporary Media Reporting on the World of Work
Cyrusxx
Topic12LectureNotesPart2.pptxWork in a Global Society
Week 12 Management and the Future of Work
The Questions We Looked at in Week 1
Does management practice have any relationship to the type of society we have become?
Why is it important for management students to gain an appreciation of worker experiences?
How has business contributed to global instability?
Can workers, business and community prosper in this turbulent world order?
RMIT University
Slide 2
What Have We Seen?
Death of democratic capitalism
Fragmentation of the firm
Outsourcing/offshoring/franchising
Deindustrialisation
Fragmentation of employment
Unease over technological change
Seeming widespread exploitation
Enhanced managerial control
CSR/labour standards
RMIT University
Slide 3
3
How should Business School’s Respond?
Contrasting views:
Destroy the Business School (Parker)
Reform the Business School (Admati)
RMIT University
Slide 4
The Business School Needs to Be Bulldozed – Martin Parker
Business Schools a dangerous institution
Influential but regarded as intellectually fraudulent, fostering a culture of short-termism and greed
RMIT University
Slide 5
5
The Business School Needs to Be Bulldozed – Martin Parker
Assumes that some people need to be managed and that others have to manage them
It teaches market managerialism and acts as an apologist for immoral business practices and sells ideology as if it were a science
RMIT University
Slide 6
6
The Business School Needs to Be Bulldozed – Martin Parker
‘Virtues of capitalist market managerialism are told and sold as if there are no other ways of seeing the world’
Message is capitalism is inevitable and that the techniques for running it are a form of science
Concludes that this combination of ideology and technocracy make the business school such an effective and dangerous institution
RMIT University
Slide 7
Message is that there is a science of management that can be learned and make organisations work better in capitalist society
7
But has this always been the case?
Barnard (1938: xi) The Functions of the Executive
Though I early found out how to behave effectively in organisations, not until much later relegated economic theory and economic interests to a secondary though indispensable place, did I begin to understand organisations or human behaviour in them’
RMIT University
Slide 8
8
In Some Ways, Yes
The Chicago School and Friedman
‘Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society than the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility to make as much money as possible for their shareholders as possible’
RMIT University
Slide 9
9
Human Resource Management as an Example
Applies theories of rational egoism to the management of people in organisations
Human beings akin to technological or financial resources
HR uninterested in what it is like to be a human being
The part of the organisation most likely to deal with organised resistance to managerial strategies
RMIT University
Slide 10
10
Common Assumptions in Business Schools
Market managerial forms of social order are desirable
Human behaviour seen through lens of rational egotism
Parker concludes that business ethics and CSR taught in Business Schools are a form of window dressing.
What is needed is to radically reimagine the Business School and social and economic relations
RMIT University
Slide 11
11
Parker’s Solution?
Parker argues students need to critically evaluate their ethical and political prejudices and understand ‘management’ as a historically and spatially specific form of organisation
RMIT University
Slide 12
12
The Crises of Democratic Capitalism
Collapse of the settlement between capital and labour
Attacks on trade unions
Rising inequality caused by cuts in public spending and deunionisation
Privatised Keynesianism’ ie replacement of public with private debt
Financial sector makes huge profits
Democratic crisis – ‘the markets’ dictate what states can and can’t do for their citizens
Voters see they no effective choice - Economic power has become political power
13
Parker’s Solution?
We need to think critically and pay attention to the global division of labour, what it is like to work on the minimum wage, inequality, the environment and the unaccountable powers of the corporation
RMIT University
Slide 14
An Alternative?
Conceptualise the company not merely as a vehicle for extracting shareholder value but as a social organisation where most people spend the greater part of their working lives and management has a duty to make it and environment in which people at all levels can develop their capabilities
Ask ourselves what forms of leadership and organisation are less likely to produce the inequality and damage which capitalism routinely produces
RMIT University
Slide 15
15
Don’t Destroy But Reform the Business School
“Business schools, especially in the U.S., have placed themselves at the center of the market capitalism system, teaching management and valuation techniques that determine key outcomes for the global economy. If we want to help restore trust in capitalism, we must think beyond the private sector and recognize the role of governments in making a capitalistic system work” Admati, 2019).
RMIT University
Slide 16
Don’t Destroy But Reform the Business School
“It’s time for business schools to do more – to think beyond the private sector, to acknowledge the role of government, and to emphasize the importance of good governance everywhere. As many are already rethinking the doctrine of shareholder primacy and advocating that corporations care for a broader set of stakeholders, it is also important to remember that protecting citizens is precisely what governments are supposed to do” (Admati, 2019).
RMIT University
Slide 17
What Can Business Schools Do?
Promote big-picture thinking about the broad and long-term impact of business practices.
Emphasize the importance of good governance mechanisms and actively discourage irresponsible use of power.
Set expectations for leaders to support democratic institutions and the democratic process.
Promote engagement with areas such as law, policy, and media.
Create opportunities to engage across social and economic groups.
Encourage civic engagement (Admati, 2019)
RMIT University
Slide 18
Detonate or Renovate?
RMIT University
Slide 19
Business Schools
Training Tomorrow’s Managers
The Future of Work
References
Parker, M and Pearson, G (2013) ‘What Should Business Schools Teach Managers?’, Business and Society Review, 118(1): 1-22.
Parker, M (2018) Why we should bulldoze the business school’, The Guardian , 27 April
Admati, A. (2019) ‘How Business Schools Can Help Restore Trust in Capitalism’ Harvard Business Review September 03
RMIT University
Slide 20
