Control
Most early modernist supporters agreed an American sociologist’s opinion; the authoritative use of control could create resistance, so managerial control was practiced from monitoring the worker’s behaviour through the market, structure and organisational culture (Hatch & Cunliffe 2006). There are three modernist control theories in organisations introduced by Hatch and Cunliffe 2006), they are cybernetic, agency and markets, hierarchies and clans. Hatch and Cunliffe (2006) gave the purpose and processes of control for those three models. The cybernetic model’s purpose is to differentiate between individual and organizational performance; it’s also about evaluating, and giving feedback and rewarding for performance. There are 4 processing steps of control, 1.setting goals in organisations is treated as strategic plan 2.Setting standards 3.monitoring behaviours 4.Correcting wrong tasks. Any negative results from performance would be used for feedback and punishment, but positive results would be rewarded (Hatch & Cunliff 2006). The agency model’s theory’s purpose of control is about managers consider owners’ interests and how to make the best interests of owners. The steps of control process are binding contracts between owners and managers, ensuring managers’ behaviour meet the contract and their owners’ interests and the last step is rewarding agents (Hatch & Cunliff 2006). Managers are main control medium for organisations. Market, bureaucracy or clan control’s purpose of control is about collaboration among individuals. Market control concentrates on economic performance, such as prices or profits, it’s more like an economic competition and a free market can provide more opportunities and a reasonable evaluating efficiency; bureaucracy is more based on rules and monitoring behaviours to implement control, and it also depends on hierarchy of authority (Hatch & Cunliff 2006); ‘it is difficult to assess results, then rational means of control by market or bureaucratic mechanisms will fail’ (Hatch & Cunliff 2006, P.264), so the last one clan comes, it can be seen like symbolic control, which means members’ behaviours are based on cultural values, norms and social systems.
Resistance
According to Waddell & Sohal (1998, P. 544), the early human resource theorists gave that ‘resistance was in a negative light by perceiving it as a form of conflict that was indicative of a breakdown in the normal and healthy interactions that can exist between individuals and groups’, as organisational theory developed, resistance influences the organisation toward greater stability, resistance can balance the pressure in environments within organisations.
Post modern perspective
Postmodern perspective can be described as ‘doing so privileges some forms of knowledge over others and this violates postmodern ethics’ (Hatch & Cunliff 2006, P.16). Post modern perspective didn’t accept and deny some particular frames. Postmodernists denied the idea of universal truth and also denied a conscious subject and humans are not self –conscious and independent (Hatch & Cunliff 2006).
Power and Control
Power is ‘the multiplicity of force relations immanent in the sphere in which they operate and which constitute their own organisation’ (Foucault, 1978). Foucault explained that power can shape human’s sense and relate each other in an organisation, so it can be seen as a social phenomenon. Power is everywhere in our world, it is scattered to our personal, social, political or organisational life. Disciplinary power and self-surveillance can explain postmodern concepts of power and control. Hatch and Cunliff (2006) gave Foucault’s idea about the relationship between disciplinary power and self-surveillance. Foucault thought the expectance of control contributes to self-surveillance. So some theorists have suggested that Foucault’s idea of disciplinary power can be used in our everyday life and organisational life, but some of postmodernists also argued about this, they see power and control as involved in our social relations and the interactions between humans, not just depends on some particular positions in society or organisations. Finally, power and control are not offensive each other, they are shared and be used in our everyday life in social, political, or organisational area.
Clegg and Kornberger (2003) thought that postmodernism and modernism are related, postmodernism cannot be without modernism, Clegg and Kornberger (2003) used Martin Parker’s description about modernism, he said ‘faith in reason to a level at which it becomes equated with progress’, the thing which can be measured, the thing exists but can be seen, the thing is knowledge which contributed to science (Clegg and Kornberger 2003); on the other hand, postmodernism described by Martin Parker said, “all our attempts to discover truth should be seen for what they are – forms of discourse”, postmodernism emphasizes the things can reach a common sense, the role of discursively negotiated, shared and conflicting conceptions , just like our language which we measure truth or not (Clegg and Kornberger 2003, P. 60). Modernist concepts of power and control is about focus on how to make power be distributed in organisations, and how to make efficiency in organisations, and how to use scientific ways of power in management within organisations. Postmodern concepts of power and control emphasize relations of social and political, organisations can rely upon surveillance to control within organisations. According to Cooper and Burrell (1988, P.92), ‘modernism with its belief in the essential capacity of humanity to perfect itself through the power of rational thought and postmodernism with its critical questioning, and often outright rejection, of the ethnocentric rationalism championed by modernism’.
Structure
Structure In organisational studies there are two structures which are covered; they are social structure and physical structure.
According to Hatch and Cunliffe (2006), modernists believed that social structure could be a powerful tool in organisations. It could control the outcomes of organisations, so power is social structure. Weber’s ideal bureaucracy made contribution to social structure; the division of labour emphasizes how to divide tasks and how to achieve goals efficient within organisations, the examples for division of labour can be seen from manufactures of computers, cars, airlines; the hierarchy of authority means decisions can be made depends on a matter of position at which level; formalized rules and procedures means clear rules, procedures, or polices must be followed. The modernism dimensions of organisation structure include differentiation, integration, centralization, standardization, formalization and specialization (Hatch and Cunliffe 2006). Burns and Stalker identified two management systems, mechanistic and organic. Mechanistic organisations present specialization with high performance and it’s more like modernism; organic organisations present flexibility with less or formalization and it’s more like postmodernism. ‘Postmodernists are extremely sceptical of the principles of hierarchy, centralization, control and integration; they suggest deconstructing any concepts, structures and management practices that presuppose order’ (Hatch and Cunliffe 2006, P. 131). De-differentiation is used by postmodernists; they suggest self-management and self-coordination which means different departments still working together, for example Semco Company, Semco is a well known company in Brazil, the whole company is using self-management and self-coordination system, there is no formalizations for employees, they describe the company is created and managed within an open management model, and the company is still running well and stable. Postmodernists also believe feminist organisations and Anti-administration theory.
‘Physical structure is generally traced to a series of studies carried out at the Hawthorne works of Western Electric’ (Hatch and Cunliffe 2006, P. 221). In modernist perspective, physical structure limits communication between employees, and they focus on individual activities in own spaces (Hatch and Cunliffe 2006). Postmodernism focuses on relations between individuals, those relations are based on physical structure which can be used as power to maintain communication flow over power. Physical location, geography, layout and landscaping design are important elements in physical structure.
Culture
Organisational Cultures are different rely on countries and regions. According to Rashid, Sambasivan and Johari (2003, P. 708), ‘corporate culture has received much attention in the last two decades due to its effects and potential impact on organisational success’. In modernist perspective, culture can be observed, culture significantly influences organisational performance when it involved in organisation environmental change or adaptation. Culture’s characteristics like values, norms, artifacts can influence behaviour. Culture also can be seen as a tool which can increase organisational effectiveness. Hatch and Cunliffe (2006, P.202) wrote, ‘Postmodernists rely heavily on the metaphor of the text’, they also gave an example, modernists regard narrative as a textual space. Culture is always changing; it is fragmented, and deconstructed. Modernists give that culture influences behaviours via norms and values, and then culture should manage the norms and values as well, but on the other hand, according to Hatch and Cunliffe (2006), they gave the argument of managing culture, ‘managing culture are severely limited by norms and values grounded in deeply rooted basic assumptions, unquestioned beliefs, everyday understandings, routines and informal social relationships’ (Hatch and Cunliffe 2006, P. 207).
Conclusion
Since Max Webber gave the definition of power, the capacity of influence over power. Power, control are widely used with social structure, physical structure, and culture. In modern perspective or postmodern perspective they got their own concepts about power, control, and resistance. In the essay, I introduced two different definitions about power, and then relate to control and resistance, and how power control and resistance relate to modern perspective and postmodern perspective and how those contribute to structure and culture.
Reference list
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