Organization Theories – Modernist and Post-Modernist Approaches
Abstract
Organizational structure determines allocation of resources, strategies and planning. The paper focuses on two theories – modernist and postmodernist theories (Aleazurra, 2016; Clegg et al 1999; Casey, 2002). The article ‘A critical analysis of media discourse on information technology: preliminary results of a proposed method for critical discourse analysis’ by Cukier et al (2009) talks of critical discourse analysis where the post modernist idea of questioning the validity of claims has been explained by analyzing a media discourse on a ICT project applied in university classrooms. The second article selected for the study is ‘The relationship between information and communication technologies adoption and management’ by Spanos et al (2002) speaks of the need to restructure the layers of management while implementing ICT into the structure.
Introduction
The paper by Cukier et al (2009) reveals that a discourse may contain distortions of communications and hence critical reading was required. The study emphasizes on critical discourse analysis (CDA). The authors extend the critical discourse approach to the public sphere instead of limiting it to micro level organizational perspectives. Habermas’ theory of communication is based on the role played by institutional stakeholders and actors like media, lobby groups and corporations. These institutions can help in molding or shaping messages selectively and purposefully (David, & Lawrence, 1978). Use of political and social power can influence agendas and frame public issues (Drucker, 1954). The paper focuses upon the way in which these organizational strategies can be applied in public scenario. The public sphere including political parties and media groups is important in maintaining a democratic society. Power of mass media is important.
The paper by Spanos et al (2002) suggests that bringing in a technological change depends a lot of management practices. For instance ICT adoption requires “an incremental process of organizational capability development and strategic impact”. The internal ambience is marked by open organization and adaptability. The adoption depends of strategic decisions of the firm which are taken by the management. The hierarchical context can maintained with help of particular roles and decision making even when they want to understand the meaning of daily routines. The organization changes need to be enacted in order to adopt or accommodate ICT. As ICT comes in, the middle level managers lose their importance in the structure as the top management can communicate the required information down to the bottom without his middle layer. So the basic hierarchy had to be reformed. ICT helps in reducing distance and improves coordination among the various layers of management. The core process in human resources and finance can be improved with ICT.
Modernist organizational theory says that a strong organizational structure is required and all the employees or members need to be in sync with the structure and follow the rules. The prime idea is to fulfill the goals of the organization. Hence this theory focuses on leader power. The firm acts as an independent entity in generating knowledge (Albrecht, 1983; Anderson, 1988). The theory is more concerned about the wellbeing of the company (Bakke, 1959). The environment of the workplace is itself an agent which can influence the outcomes of the organization by setting regulations, constraints, etc. The firm may face uncertainty regarding what its ambience or environment requires and it also depends on the different components of the environment. This interrelation or dependence can explain the structure of organizations and its action with respect to the environment (Barkdull, 1963). This is the idea of modernist theorists.
Modernists’ theory is all about organized processes and not complex ones. There needs to be clear description and allocation of work among employees. Individual work may be influenced by personal values, beliefs etc, but they apprehend that a worker’s attitude might be influenced by that of his colleague. For instance a retail store can have some particular predefined scripts for marketing. So only by setting rules the functioning can be smooth. Scopes for innovation is less (Burns, & Stalker, 1961). These theorists also argue that external agents may help a firm improve its performance when the members are getting adapted to the changes. It is believed under this theory individual abilities of the employees to adapt to the transformation may be detrimental to their performance and result in negative effectiveness. So it is about the organization as a whole (Hatch and Cunliffe, 2013).
The research by Spanos et al (2002) also revealed that employees in such a set up followed strictly the rules and structure even while explain their jobs and functions. This is unlike the case of postmodernist approach where every action needs to have relevance to the broader perspective of an organization and an actor has the right to question every decision and give personal perspectives without strictly following defined roles and limitations. Modernist theory or structured hierarchy curbs an individual’s scope of thinking and analyzing. In the concerned research, the organization set up was structured with different layers of management where the structure acted as an external agent to bring about the required change. But ICT adoption required a conducive internal ambience itself.
The framework presented here shows that management needs to reorganize and modernize the infrastructure for adoption of ICT. Alterations in strategies and structure along with human skill upgradation are all required. The research conducted on Greek firms shows the potential of ICT to enable and support changes essential to sustain long run competitiveness. The impact of their use depends on the organizational management and also in the nation’s culture. Generalization is not possible based on Greece’s findings. Any firm is shaped by five forces such as technology, strategy, structure, management systems and people.
The research shows that in order to introduce ICT the role of managers play a crucial part. In a hierarchical or structured framework, every layer has its defined set of work. But to introduce the change everyone needs to follow their designated areas and yet facilitate the change. In fact introduction of ICT is possible only in a flexible set up or where strategic planning. To relax the stringency one or two layers can be removed from the management. This is the point where modernism could transform into the postmodern system where coordination is easier and smooth. Technology has enabled this. The article shows how the traditional set up operated with stringent rules and management. The findings on Greece Company however, cannot be generalized to cover all nations. Every nation has its unique culture and character. IT related better with open organization. The article points out that structural constraints negate the proper implementation of ICT.
The discord between the structured approach and risks in the process of development goes unnoticed by the members of the department whose learning abilities are subdued by the bindings of the structure where they belong. When ICT was required for development the strict structure could not be followed and had to be altered. Hierarchy would reduce. If an employee questions the discord and analyses the reasons behind it or relates it with the structural fallacies, they would threaten the very structure itself. This is most critical when an economic change necessitates transformation and the required change has to be effected within the organizational set up conforming to the rules and regulations. This becomes a challenge often to the organization itself since individual. So postmodernist concept is more applicable in contemporary socio economic scenario where all adaptability to changes is a crucial factor for success.
Postmodernism
Power and communication are central elements of postmodernism. Postmodernist perspectives lie on the importance of language and how we use it. They believe that word or language makes up the reality –as noted by Martin Heidegger, “In the saying it comes to pass that the world is made to appear” (Hatch and Cunliffe, 2013,p.13). Therefore, when an organization is criticized, it adds more value than rendering justice (Boje, et al 1996; Hancock and Tyler 2001). Joining forces with help of participation is the weapon of postmodernist way of dealing with a problem (Hatch, and Cunliffe, 2013).
Cukier et al (2009) represents the postmodern organization theory through the functioning of media discourse where political parties and government may sue power to access the content and end up modifying and altering the knowledge received by the readers. The validity claims of truthfulness, legitimacy and comprehensibility of words and the sincerity of the speaker may provide a foundation for questioning in postmodern set up. While truth, sincerity and legitimacy involve the pragmatics of language the issue of comprehensibility is about semantics, syntax, etc. A listener who engages in a discourse will question the content based on these claims and when the speech deviates form the validity criteria then one may say it reveals a “concealed strategic action”(Cukier et al, 2009, p.178) of the speaker. When the discourse fails to maintain any one of the claims the interrogator may form his own judgment about the speech. Violation of sincerity may be identified by assessing inconsistencies between speech and action. Legitimacy ensures that a person’s speech is valid in a social context or as per social norms. The research selects a seminal discourse on learning technology. The AA dominated public discourse was implemented in Canadian universities for 9 years. This gave the scope for analyzing power elations and interests which shaped the discourse in content of the public sphere. The goal was to bring in wire classrooms and encourage web based course structure. The focus is on media discourse on the project with emphasis on distortions of communication. Media texts and materials related to political and social contexts were used for AA validation. The truth claim itself raised several questions on media discourses on the program. Most of the claims about improved learning experience and good investment lacked empirical support of tested truths. Most were logically derived from general assumptions, for e.g. use of laptops could make learning easier and increase interactivity but this need not be the truth. This is an assumption based on the facilities provided by a laptop. The discourse was powerful but had systemic distortions without a clear purpose. Legitimacy claim was invalidated because the discourse did not mention that IMB would gain a monopoly by investing in the infrastructure which would yield a lot of marketing benefits as well. Going by comprehensibility the discourse was valid because one hardly would expect any language related error in print media texts. The analysis revealed clear cut power play by universities and the suppliers of technologies involved. Their benefits made them use the media and influence readers with the content they wanted to deliver. This same power play could take place in an organization set up where subordinates need to question decision making or seniors or managers and no good employee should be trusted blindly either in terms of work or performance (Hassard, 1995; Hassard and Parker 1993). So the postmodern way of management can be applied both ways and in the public sphere the results can necessitate awareness, thoughtfulness and independence of the analyst or interrogator.
A postmodernist suggests destruction of all truth claims so that arguments and criticisms can prove the point of view which stands upright. An argument can be broken down into fundamental assumptions keeping in mind the implications it may have on the original argument (Linstead, 2004; McKinlay and Starke 1998). Postmodernists claim that such deconstruction is required to set a person free from the habits of mind and make him question every custom, system and viewpoints. While modernist theory of organization may argue that institutions and the society will benefit from the top most managers or leader or the most powerful person in the management as long as they use rational methods of operations. Now the critical postmodernists observe managers cannot be given greater power only on the assumption that they will take rational decisions. This will only exaggerate the dominance of managers. Such power imbalance may be detrimental to democracy at times. So voice should replace the silence as per post modernists.
Conclusion
Instead of taking all the decisions for granted it is time to question them, think and speak about fruitful alternatives. Epistemology explains how knowledge is obtained and objective epistemology believes that one can know or learn something by independent observation. For subjectivists knowledge of the world is filtered by the recipient and strongly modified or influenced by social and cultural aspects (Organization Theory, 2016). Postmodernist approach is more relevant in today’s context.
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