Q1.Topic: Power, Authority, Cynicism and Resistance
Introduction
The concepts of power, authority, cynicism, and resistance are common in organizations thus it is essential to comprehend their nature. This essay seeks to elaborate on these concepts.
Power and Authority
Power refers to the ability of a manager to get the managed to do something regardless of the managed people's wishes. Authority is expressed when the managed view his/her compliance as legitimate and right. Power has various contextual bases namely: resources, organizational structure, knowledge, organizational culture, information, networks and the processes of making decisions. The chains of command help in the exercising of power thus they hold the organizations to together (Contu 2008).
Managerial Control
The organization origins of power include reward power, legitimacy, and coercion whereas the personal origins of power include reference and expertise (upwards).Authority, on the other hand, is a category of power that is viewed as legitimate the managed people and the manager (Bloom 2008).
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Employee Resistance
The expressions of resistance in the overt and collective individuals include unionism, sabotage and strike. The expressions in the individualistic and covert individuals include absenteeism, parody, cynicism, irony and humor (Contu 2008).
Cynicism
Cynicism occurs when employees know that what they are doing is wrong, but still they do it. Cynicism is an irony of the enlightened false consciousness, and it is a psychological anomaly. Ironic cynicism safeguards individuals against dedication and commitment to the company that requires self-denial.The cynical workers enjoy internal disagreements without opposing the organizational power in an overt manner (Karfakis and Kokkinidis 2011).
Whistleblowing Phenomena
Whistleblowing is both an individual and political act that occurs when the whistleblower exposes her/his self to power despite the fact that he/she is free to remain silent. The bureaucratic and rigid rules that are implemented by various companies are exposed through whistleblowing. Whistleblowing exposes individualistic motives, contradictions and hidden agendas by using management rhetoric (Karfakis and Kokkinidis 2011).
Conclusion
The bases of power include personal, contextual and organizational bases. Power is distinct from authority. The main forms of employee resistance are the covert and overt forms. Cynicism refers to a psychological defect and a self-defeating type of resistance. Whistleblowers expose managerial practices and mobilize the workers to resist some managerial actions collectively.
Q2. Topic: Organizational Design
Introduction
Organizational design refers to the plan of an organization, and it shows the functioning of the organization. An organizational chart expresses the organization design, and it helps all the organizational players to comprehend their power relationships and functions. This essay discusses the concept of organizational design.
Organizations, Design and contexts
An organization structure provides the list of duties, job positions, titles, chain of command and reporting structure. Organization culture refers to the system of shared beliefs, assumptions, and values that govern the behaviors of employees in a particular organization (Allen et al. 2004).
Traditional and Contemporary designs
The major categories of organization designs include the traditional and contemporary designs. The traditional designs encompass the divisional, simple and functional structures. The contemporary designs encompass the boundaryless, learning, team, project and matrix structures.
The Google Approach
Google, Munich’s organizational design creates the “Life-Work-Worlds”. The traditional discourses and images at Google, Munich are dismantled partially thus they leave a scope of many identities that encompass the community member, consumer, player, or family (Lewis 2008).
Organizational structure and Cultures
A simple structure has little formalization, low departmentalization, centralized and wide control spans. A functional structure is made of departments according to functions. A divisional structure has separate divisions, and the autonomy of each division is limited to the control and coordination of the parent company (Allen et al. 2004).
Design and Performance
Under the team structure, an organization has well-managed groups of employees that are empowered. An organization without boundaries breaks the external boundaries by removing the internal and external boundaries. The learning organizations have capacities to promote continuous learning, change and adaptability on the employees (Lewis 2008).
The Impact of open and closed spaces
The closed open spaces promote creativity in employees because creativity needs quiet spaces for contemplation and reflection. Conversely, the open spaces discourage creativity because the employees may be disturbed by other employees and phone calls made by their colleagues (Tyler and Cohen 2010).
Conclusion
An organizational chart expresses the organization design. The organization design and structure influence the performance of activities in the organization. The open spaces discourage creativity and innovation whereas the closed spaces encourage innovation and creativity.
Q3. Topic: High-performing Teams and Talent
Introduction
A team is made up of a group of people that are committed to common goals, a common purpose and an approach that holds all the team members mutually accountable for the actions. A team is made up of more than to people, and it exists to achieve a particular purpose. This essay discusses talent and high performing teams.
Why Teams Matter
Teams matter in organizations because they join complementary experiences and skills that exceed those of individual team members. The teams come up with communication strategies that foster real-time solving of problems. Moreover, teams enhance the administrative and economic aspects of various jobs because the offer unique social dimensions (Langfred 2004).
Teams and organizational Performance
Teams are instrumental in the performance of any organization because they drive the performance of an organization by creating synergy and promoting cooperation among the employees. A team leader should be patient, and should motivate all the team members effectively (Wageman 1997).
Managing Teams
Markedly, the team leaders should unite all the team members by using common goals and taking on board the diverse views of the team members. When the teams’ resources are scarce, the team members should foster optimism to encourage the team members. When the work of a good team leader is performed, the team leaders say “we did this ourselves” (Lewis & Heckman 2006).
Recruiting and Managing Talents
The pros of hiring and managing talent include improved performance, increased innovation, and creativity, ease of managing of employees and the short learning curve. The cons of hiring and managing talents include high recruitment costs and difficulty in managing the talented employees due to their attitude (Guthridge and Komm 2008).
Talent and Organizational Structure
Most multinational companies find it hard to manage talent due to the barriers to attaining cultural diversity. Multinational companies find it difficult to facilitate mobility across various countries because they are wary that undertaking of foreign assignments may destroy their prospects in a career (Lewis & Heckman 2006).
Conclusion
Teams are very crucial in the contemporary organization because they influence the overall productivity and performance of an organization. The management of talent in most multinational organizations has proved to be difficult and challenging.
Reference List
Allen, T., Bell, A., Graham, R., Hardy, B. and Swaffer, F., 2004. Working without walls. An insight into the transforming government workplace. DEGW publication. Crown.
Bloom, P., 2008. Capitalism’s Cynical Leviathan: Cynicism, Totalitarianism, and Hobbes in Modern Capitalist Regulation.
Contu, A., 2008. Decaf resistance on misbehavior, cynicism, and desire in liberal workplaces. Management Communication Quarterly, 21(3), pp.364-379.
Guthridge, M. and Komm, A.B., 2008. Why multinationals struggle to manage talent. The McKinsey Quarterly, 4, pp.10-13.
Karfakis, N. and Kokkinidis, G., 2011. Rethinking cynicism: Parrhesiastic practices in contemporary workplaces. Culture and Organization, 17(4), pp.329-345.
Langfred, C.W., 2004. Too much of a good thing? Negative effects of high trust and individual autonomy in self-managing teams. Academy of Management Journal, 47(3), pp.385-399.
Lewis, P., 2008. Emotion work and emotion space: using a spatial perspective to explore the challenging of masculine emotion management practices. British Journal of Management, 19(s1), pp.S130-S140.
Lewis, R.E. and Heckman, R.J., 2006. Talent management: A critical review. Human resource management review, 16(2), pp.139-154.
space. Organization Studies, 31(2), pp.175-198.
Wageman, R., 1997. Critical success factors for creating superb self-managing teams. Organizational Dynamics, 26(1), pp.49-61
