Appunti esame Work and organizational psychology

The three levels of analyzing organizational culture

Artifacts: What can I touch?

Organizational structures, architectures, furniture, visible conducts (e.g., dressing and shoes), tools for communicating, design, decoration, rituals for improving or changing activities, integration rituals, etc.

Declared values: What can I hear?

Strategies, goals, norms, declared philosophies, language, myths, stories, anecdotes, heroes, etc.

Tacit assumptions: What can I sense/grasp?

Unintentional convictions and beliefs, taken for granted habits, basic thoughts, hypotheses on how things go the ways they go, acknowledged emotions, and not permitted affective states, values, etc.

What do you observe?

• Languages and communication
• Practices / habits / routines
• Relations (ways to relate, expressions of powers, collaborating style, etc.)
• Beliefs, myths, collective convictions
• Permitted/not-permitted emotions
• Hypothesis of the world

Organizational ethnography

It is interesting to be used in research for organizational improvement, supporting the processes, operation management, and relational systems. Through this, it is possible to explore the system through key-informants, observations, interviews, etc.

Reading organizational culture: An exercise in self-awareness

The basic ORJI Cycle is based on the book “Process Consultation” (1999) by Schein and is made of:

• Observation: Be mindful of biases, misperception, expectations, and assumptions
• Emotional reaction: Be mindful of your emotions and how they influence our thoughts and behaviors
• Judgment: Be mindful of the foundations that support your judgment
• Intervention: Be mindful of the foundations that support your behaviors and actions

In this circle, we are looking at our own perspective. When we observe, we should be aware of all factors that influence this observation and our automatic response. Rational observation is impossible; it is an illusion. Seeing different perspectives allows understanding our narrow one since having a framework is very reassuring, but it is very complex to consider also others.

Relational, ethical, and reflexive managers need to question and examine taken-for-granted ways of thinking.

• What is said: similarities - power – conformity – voices heard
• What is not said: differences – empowerment and lack of power – resistance – voice unheard

However, if there are similarities, for instance, where do differences go, and vice versa? Culture looks for homogeneity; it is a way through which people act similarly. Hence, engaging in relational activity means understanding the other side of the coin and different points of views. Managers should be ethical in this direction and give space to differences, not just to people who conform in a certain culture.

What does culture produce?

It is a way to think and react, a mental program specific and unique for a specific organization. It is broad with recruiting strategy, social processes, assessment, rewards of specific behaviors (and exclusion of others), and promotion.

Culture impacts organizational goals, aligning individual actions and identities with organizational requirements. It increases motivation, reinforces (self)identity, and the image of an organization. So, it produces positive things but pay attention because it is a “big business.”

The dark side of the culture

The dark side is strongly related to power and control of people; it can also silence some voices. Homogeneity is not the same as equality, but how does the organization research and sustain a certain cultural homogeneity? Moreover, culture is about meanings: organizations can provide some of them but also silence others. Sometimes we can stop taking for granted some meanings and think about others by exchanging opinions and listening to other voices.

Careful also because culture can be a cult, with strong beliefs, dedication to a particular ideology, and ritualistic practices. It is linked to establishing unethical behavior, which people may follow without even knowing it.

Some key processes that influenced the behavior of leaders, managers, and organizational members are:

• Denial: Problems and vulnerabilities are identified but not taken seriously;
• Omnipotence: Members of the organization feel all-powerful and infallible;
• Triumphalism: A need to demonstrate superiority regardless of the consequences;
• Overactivity: Evidence of problems is destroyed, and warnings and critics are attacked.

Culture management is a form of social engineering, a large-scale influencing of groups of people. Its impact is on the hearts, minds, and souls of employees. Culture can be a means of manipulation, managing identities, and privileging some groups over others. Culture is complex and potentially dehumanizing.

Starting from meanings, the organizational culture can be either monologic or dialogic.

Dialogic culture is one in which meanings are debated, discussed, deconstructed, co-constructed, and re-constructed through dialogue, conversations, and interpretations. We have to try not just to provide meanings, but to create through relationships a sensemaking in order to discover meanings dynamically.

Pathways for the future

There is the need to re-think organizations as communities of differences, in order to support more ethical and responsive organizations. This means understanding that we are unique human beings, by recognizing and respecting differences. Culture as managing differences is based on offering options rather than instruction and on a relational responsibility by being responsive and accountable to others in our everyday interactions with them.

Managing differences is not about minimizing them, neither is it to train people to think and act in normalized ways. Managing rationally, ethically, and reflexively means understanding that differences are rich opportunities to learn something about ourselves and others because they make us aware of new ways of seeing and doing.

Neoliberal functioning

Big companies are part of the system, most likely attending WEF, but they are also victims of themselves. Indeed, they have to take into account the shareholder value, and they are the result of capitalism. There is a difference between playing in the system and tricking it to their advantage. Hence, we have to think about our role in such a system and what we can do.

People are expected to compete with one another. Work psychologists should ask themselves: how do they talk about people and employees? The fantasmatic logics show what are the fantasies of researchers, even those more hidden, as well as the “harmonious employment relationship” and “social engineering.” The former claims that there is no conflict between employees and organizations; if there is, it can be resolved with mediators. The latter means that we, as researchers of workplaces, have to think about how to improve organizational performance and create a workplace optimally functioning. An efficient organization and happy work can be developed through research; this idea is rooted in the fantasmatic logic because we can create a happy place where all people should be motivated. This fact became normative; everyone should be like so.

Leadership

Leadership is strongly linked to neoliberalism, now it is everywhere, and the word is overly used. Leaders can be very important in some situations, but the invitation is to critically think about this role. If we are individuals, we are entrepreneurs of ourselves. Hence, we should be a leader. That is why the concept of leadership becomes normative. Reflection and reflexivity have been defined in many different ways; it is not important to have one single definition of these. On the one hand, we may reflect about our position. Reflexivity is not just about reflection, but also action. So, the invitation is to think and then to act.

Individualization

People are not always treated as human beings, rather as instruments.

Where do we start?

We start with Taylorism during the 1880s and the scientific management, based on some topics like: industrialization, mass production, mechanization, and productivity. Particularly, the Scientific Management is about natural science and hard science, also economics.

Rationalism

Descartes created the basis for which we live because we think. The basis for Scientific Management was rationalism, according to which organizations are rational entities and people are rational actors in work. Indeed, they are self-interested.

Taylorism and Fordism

Employees started to work with the assembly line, which aimed at increasing the efficiency, predictability, as well as the control of processes and people. The whole idea was to create a production process in which there are no errors, that would be organized well in order to create a standardized product.

Fordism

Through job analysis, it was possible to have mass production and job specialization. As a consequence, jobs become distal from the actor. An example is McDonald's, which provides the same product across the world with the same taste (no matter who prepares it or where it is eaten). Therefore, an inherent distance between work and people was developed.

Taylorism today

However, it is also true that human beings work in organizations, and they bring with them their emotions.

A critique of the Rational Actor

Is it true that ratio always drives behaviors? Actually, emotions are important, and they refer to unconscious processes. Even though profit maximization is the key outcome, this is a too simplistic view on motivation of people.

Are rationality and emotions really in conflict with each other?

Emotions are critical for rational thinking and good decision-making! Our ‘rational’ brain is quite arrogant for the actual role it plays in our lives (spokesperson).

The functions of emotions

The first one is the informational function, according to which feelings inform the ‘mind’ what to approach/avoid, like/dislike, support/destroy, etc. The ultimate goal is survival. The second one is the motivational function, where ‘cold’ thoughts become infused with personal meaning. When ‘goals’ are infused with emotion, they become passions and transform themselves into a Joie de vivre! There is also a social function, which is about communal, nurturing, and caring relationships.

Some more facts about the role of ‘affect’ at work

• Emotions motivate us to engage in actions that are important for survival;
• Emotions allow us to solve cooperative problems;
• Our ability to read into other people’s emotions is the basis of ‘empathy’;
• Beware of leaders who lack happiness, fear, and empathy (i.e., the psychopathic leader);
• Our ability to read other people’s emotions and manage them (‘emotional intelligence’) is an...