Homework: Business Organizations
Learning Objective
o Identify different analytical perspectives employed to understand organizations at?the individual, social, and structural levels.
o Interpret and apply these multiple perspectives to empirically analyze organizations and the contexts in which they operate.
o Draw on different analytical perspectives as the basis for a socially responsible, ideologically aware approach towards organizational problem-solving.
o Evaluate knowledge assumptions, including one's own, and come to recognize their management implications and practical consequences.
This homework provides you with the foundations you need to complete Homework. By completing this homework you will learn how to critically analyze and deconstruct people's perspectives on organizations and management.
This is important, because it enables you to:
o see behind people's arguments and claims about organizations and how they should be managed
o understand the assumptions and values that drive people's points of view on management and organizations
o understand the strengths and limitations of people's points of view on management and organizations
o Understand the blind spots within people's arguments and claims about organizations and how they should be managed.
This homework is authentic in that it develops and emulates the kind of critical thinking you will need to employ when working in organizations where you are required to weigh information or views that are put before you, as part of your decision-making and solution-development processes.
Details
To complete this homework you must analyze and deconstruct?one?of three articles / media clips (details provided below), decide which paradigm discussed in the lectures the article/media clip best embodies, and explain why this is so. To "deconstruct" something is to look beyond the surface of what is being said or written; it is to pull an argument apart and look for the assumptions and agenda that inform a person's viewpoint and argumentation.
Each article/media clip more or less clearly embodies a particular paradigm, although they are not perfect or "ideal" fits with the paradigms. The challenge with this homework is to demonstrate your knowledge and skills by explaining?why? your chosen article/media clip exemplify a particular paradigm. Note that there is no functionalist article/media clip available to deconstruct for your homework. Instead, we will workshop a functionalist article in class, to demonstrate how you might approach the homework and analyze your chosen article/clip. Rest assured we will workshop ALL the articles/readings in class.
The three articles/media clips for you to choose for your deconstruction are:
o Interpretivist/social relativist exemplar: ?Gast, A., Probst, N., & Simpson, B. 2020. Purpose not platitudes: A personal challenge for top executives.?McKinsey Quarterly, December 3, 2020. For access, see the Reading List, Homework 1 readings: Reading List, Homework.
o Radical structuralist exemplar:?McManus, S. 2019.?On fairness.?Melbourne Press Club event, posted on Facebook on 8th February, 2019. For access, see the Reading List, Homework 1 readings. Note that McManus's full text is also provided in the Reading List, under Homework 1 Readings. You might find this useful to supplement the video.
o Radical humanist/neo-humanist exemplar:?Crenshaw, K. The urgency of intersectionality.?Ted Talk, Dec 8, 2016. For access, see the Reading List, Homework 1 readings.
How to approach the homework
o Listen to Lectures 1 - 5 closely, taking notes as you go on the characteristics of each paradigm.
o Attend your tutorials, where the paradigms will be discussed.
o Read/listen to the three articles/media clips, and?choose?one that you wish to deconstruct.
We provide worksheets for each paradigm to help you identify the relevant characteristics of the paradigm that the article / media clip exemplifies. We will be workshopping each article in class. The relevant worksheets are provided?in the tutorial activities (e.g. Module 3 tutorial activities contains a worksheet for the interpretivist / social relativist reading). Do NOT submit the worksheet as your homework.
• Review the following text, focusing particularly on your chosen paradigm: Burrell, G. & Morgan, G. 1979,?Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis,?Routledge, USA. (Part 1, Chapters 1-3, pp. 1-37). For access, see the Reading List (essential reading).
o Highlight passages that distil the characteristics of your chosen paradigm. See the worksheet as an example.
o Highlight passages in your article / media clip (type out the relevant quote/feature of the clip) where you see these characteristics in operation. See the worksheet for an example.
• In 1,000 words (+/- 10%, excluding references) build your case as to why your chosen article/media clip exemplifies its given paradigm. Below are guiding questions to consider and respond to:
o What features of the paradigm can you see in operation in the article/media clip? ?What paradigm do these features best reflect and why?
o What is the topic of interest to the authors? Are they challenging the way the existing political and economic system operates, or are they seeking to improve the performance of organizations within the existing system? What paradigm do these interests best reflect and why? (Consider the order & regulation/radical change & conflict axis of the typology of the four paradigms).
o Who has written the article/who is constructing the argument in the media clip? Who are they affiliated with, and what are their interests/agenda? What paradigm do these interests best reflect and why?
o What are the aims of the article/media clip? (Note: these may be undeclared) What does the author/speaker wish to achieve? What paradigm do these aims best reflect and why?
o What issues or aspects of organizations and management does the article/media clip ignore, or not engage with? What are the implications of these blind spots, and why are these blind spots characteristic of the paradigm this article/media clip exemplifies?
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
o The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
o The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
o Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.