EDRD 3140 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Organizational Communication, Deep Structure And Surface Structure, Surplus Labour
12 Jan 2017
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Chapter 6 – Critical Approaches
Chapter Goals
• Understand the distinctions between a critical approach and the other approaches we
have thus far considered.
• Appreciate the centrality of “power” to the critical approach and be able to describe
how power is represented through the modes and means of production and
through organizational discourse.
• Be familiar with the critical concepts of “ideology,” “hegemony,” “emancipation,” and
“resistance” and be able to describe how these concepts fit together for critical
theorists.
• Be able to describe how feminist approaches to organizational communication and the
theory of concertive control represent important concepts to critical scholars.
• Understand deconstruction as a critical method and how critical activism requires
particular “modes of being” in the world.
Understanding similarities between approaches to organizational communication:
- Unitary frame of reference: emphasis placed on common organizational
goals. Conflict viewed as rare and negative, power is the natural prerogative
of management.
- Pluralist frame of reference: organization consists of many groups with
divergent interests. Conflict seen positively.
- Radical Frame of reference: organization is viewed as a battleground where
rival forces strive for the achievement of largely compatible ends. Conflict
and power seen as reflections of larger class struggles in society.
Critical Approaches
- Some of the most important roots of critical theory can be found in the work
of Karl Marx.
o Marx examined the relationship between owners and workers in a
capitalist society and theorized that there was an inherent imbalance
in this relationship and that eventually workers would rise up in
revolt against the capitalist system.
▪ Believed that critique would lead to revolution because it
would reveal fundamental truths about the human social
condition.
- Critical theorists tend to agree on the following:
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o Certain societal structures and processes lead to fundamental
imbalances of power.
o These imbalances of power lead to alienation and oppression for
certain social classes and groups.
o The role of critical theorists is to explore and uncover these
imbalances and bring them to the attention of the oppressed group.
▪ Emancipation is then possible, either through direct political
action, individual resistance, or awareness of the oppressed
individuals.
The Pervasiveness of Power
- Power is the most important concept for critical theorists.
- The traditional approach considers power to be a relatively stable entity that
people or groups possess.
- The symbolic approach views power as a product of communicative
interactions and relationships.
- The radical-critical approach – the theorist is concerned with the deep
structures that produce and reproduce relationships in organizational life.
o The inherent contradictions between the surface structure and the
deep structure of power must be explored.
- The following are among the most important sources of power:
o Formal authority
o Control of scarce resources
o Use of organizational structure, rules, and regulations
o Control of decision processes
o Control of knowledge and information
o Control of boundaries
o Ability to cope with uncertainty
o Control of technology
o Interpersonal alliances, networks, and control of “informal organization”
o Control of counter-organizations
o Symbolism and the management of meaning
o Gender and the management of gender relationships
o Structural factors that define the stage of action
o The power one already has
Control of Modes and Means of Production
- The modes and means of production constitute the substructure of society –
its economic and production base
- The term modes of production refers to the economic conditions that underlie
the production process.
o Example: Marx argues that the capitalist mode of production is based
on owners expropriating surplus labour from workers.
- The terms means of production refers to actual work processes – how
products are made and services are rendered.
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- When owners and managers have control over workplace processes and
technologies, critical theoriests believe the result will be an alienated and
oppressed workforce.
- Alienation can occur through repetitive and boring jobs created by
technology; oppression can occur as workers are replaced or limited in
advancement by robotics or other technical achievements.
Control of Organization Discourse
- power relationships are produced and reproduced through organizational
discourse.
- Mumby argues that narratives provide members with accounts of
organizing. Such accounts potentially legitimate dominant forms of
organizational reality and lead to discursive closure in the sense of
restricting the interpretations and meanings that can be attached to
organizational activity.
- Decision premises serve as a source of unobtrusive control in organizational
life.
- Zoller argues that entire industries can be influenced by the discursive
constructions found in regulatory materials.
Ideology and Hegemony
- Ideology refers to the taken-for-granted assumptions about reality that
influence perceptions of situations and events.
o Ideology refers to more than a set of attitudes or beliefs.
▪ Ideology structures out thoughts and controls out
interpretations of reality.
o Ideology involves assumptions that are rarely questioned or
scrutinized.
- For critical theorists, ideology is not a neutral concept but is intimately tied
to systems of power and domination.
o Concept of hegemony, originally developed by Gramsci.
- Hegemony refers to process in which a dominant group leads another group
to accept subordination as the norm.
o Hegemony does not refer to simple domination, but rather involves
attempts by various groups to articulate meaning systems that are
actively taken up by other groups.
- Hegemonic control is typically accomplished by shaping ideology in such a
way that the controlled group accepts and actively participates in the control
process.
Emancipation
- emancipation is the liberation of people from unnecessarily restrictive
traditions, ideologies, assumptions, power relations, identity formulations,
and so forth, that inhibit or distort opportunities for autonomy, clarification
of genuine needs and wants, and thus greater and lasting satisfaction.
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Document Summary
Unitary frame of reference: emphasis placed on common organizational goals. Conflict viewed as rare and negative, power is the natural prerogative of management. Pluralist frame of reference: organization consists of many groups with divergent interests. Radical frame of reference: organization is viewed as a battleground where rival forces strive for the achievement of largely compatible ends. Conflict and power seen as reflections of larger class struggles in society. Power is the most important concept for critical theorists. The traditional approach considers power to be a relatively stable entity that people or groups possess. interactions and relationships. The symbolic approach views power as a product of communicative. The radical-critical approach the theorist is concerned with the (cid:494)deep structures(cid:495) that produce and reproduce relationships in organizational life: the inherent contradictions between the surface structure and the deep structure of power must be explored. The term modes of production refers to the economic conditions that underlie.
