The situation of the travelling trades man in the medieval; city is similar in many aspects to the modern day worker as depicted by Morgan. The workers and the citizen are both in a position to fulfill their roles effectively but they never achieve the highest echelons of their spheres. The y must work harder and harder in trying to achieve positions of more respect in case of Mumford’s citizen, and more earnings in the case of Morgan’s worker. The city and the organization, in the structure they are built in, are meant to stifle growth of the workers in case of the organization and the citizen in case of the city. The city does not offer avenues for social development anymore and the organization has embraced competition and operates on principles’ of highest efficiency and lowest costs thus deprives the worker in them their right to fair remuneration for their effort.
The need for organization to incorporate many segments such as marketing and production to achieve the objective of making profit is inherent in Morgan’s model of the organization while this is mirrored in Mumford’s city where the medieval family was functional as a single unity in the city’s unity. The medieval town cooperation and social life was spread by the communal gathering places where news and information was exchanged, despite the many families living in the city, there was a unity of purpose in the medieval city. The need for the modern organization to keep order and predictability is mirrored in Mumford’s city where the town relied on the on the locally developed codes of conduct and acceptable behavior to keep its members in check. Morgan’s organization on the other hand applies specifically drawn code of ethic to control its operations towards achieving more profits.
Response to friend one
The organization described by Morgan is depicted as an organic object with the ability to grow and adapt to circumstances affecting it. This view is similar with Mumford’s view on the city depicting it as progressively growing through the ages, from the medieval through baroque period and into the modern city that we know today. The city restricts the expression of individuals as it continues growing this is supported by the view by Mumford on the nature of the city. The city of Rome, for instance did not promote the individual development of the whole person while the modern city has transformed the city dwellers into virtual machines only working and rushing to make ends meet without realizing their inner being and happiness. The organization is a prison in this sense too as Morgan explains it. The organization acts as a prison to the worker in the sense that worker has to remain in the industry for the rest of his life in order to survive.
Response to friend two
The medieval town might have some similarities with the ‘well oiled machine’ organization described by Morgan owing to the efficiency and smoothness achieved by both. The similarities however are discounted by the major factor of the causes for their efficiency. The medieval family functioned effectively due to the intimacy the family unit enjoyed and the good relations and understanding the members enjoyed because of living together and engaging in similar activities of life. The organization on the other hand achieves efficiency in the sense of the machine through its sheer need to succeed and make profits thus there can be no adequate parallels drawn between the two as one is totally social and human oriented while the other one is a functional unit set up to achieve certain goals, profit in this case.
Response to friend 3
Machines are represented as an agent for human substitution in both Mumford and Morgan’s books. The old man sees the use of machines to irrigate as contributing to the loss of the human soul in the organization. For the human soul to be represented in the work they engage in, their handiwork has to be expressly observed in the work they produce. The use of machines in organizations seeks to establish the most effective and productive production means. This is paralleled in Mumford’s city, as the city progresses, the human relationships between people in the city are lost by the increased involvement of people into individualism and individual endeavor at the expense of the common good. The city becomes dehumanized by loss of amicable human interaction between the city dwellers and just like machines, the city works towards economic progression rather than fostering the relationships of the humans it hosts
