ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON MANAGMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON MANAGMENT - Essay Example Thus management involves achieving competencies in human resources management, administration, and organizational leadership among others areas (Koontz & Weihrich, 1990). In addition, organizational image and identity refers to that which is most central, distinct and most enduring about an organization. In other words the image and identity refers to â€Å"who we are as an organization† (Whatten & Mackey, 2002). This definition indicates the other organization and ‘we’ are one and the same thing, which cannot be separated by any means. For example, a Human resource manager is involved in recruiting, training, and creating policies to motivate and retain the workforce within an organization. In performing these functions, the HRM performs a political function by creating and allocating people to positions of power within the organization (Devanna et al, 1981), and how payments and rewards are distributed. On the other hand, the manager is functional as they have t o design policies and strategies that have to ensure the recruited employees contribute to development and improvement of the firm. The manager performs a rational activity by having well organized and structured policies that will help in achieving certain ends to the benefit of the company while at the same time rewarding employees for their input. Likewise organization image is a political process as it uses the power of influencing perception. An organization has to improve its image so as to appear more aligned within a certain goal, which influences public’s perception. The strategies and policies put in place to enhance and achieve this image constitute the functional process. Its rationality is in the purpose of achieving an end, which is attracting more customers and investors through improved corporate image, while at the same time gaining the support of employees. However, the current developments in organizational study have resulted into critical theories that fi nd the mainstream management to be poorly structured in effectively addressing all the concerns of stakeholders (Adler, Forbes, Willmott, 2007) This is because; the current management structure gives more advantage to managers; sometimes misuse these positions to benefit the organization at the cost of stakeholders. According to Contu & Willmott (2003) there is unstable institutionalization of power within capitalist type of organizations where profit making is the sole purpose of such organizations. On the other hand, Lukes (2005) explains organizations that have decisions emanating from the decision makers only have one dimensional power prevailing in decision making, instead of having an agenda control type of decision making. As Heydebrand (2007) elaborates, the new organizational critic theories argue that the basic importance of power at the very initial level of management is to prevent grievances and unnecessary conflicts through consent. It seeks to define the social realit y including what people are actually thinking, acting, feeling and shaping the very definition of what is free and unfree, good and evil, or true or false (Heydebrand, 2009, Herbamas, 1990). Thus management conflict is central to important functions in the organizations such as bargaining, mediation in labor laws, other extra legal disputes, and negotiations (Stone, 2001). Largely, these are the major lacking attributed in the mainstream ma