Understanding Management Critically
A Student Text
Student Resources
Raising Critical Consciousness in Management Studies
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Chapter Summary
Critical management scholars seek to identify and expose aspects of human ways of being that are destructive or exploitative with an intention to help change such situations. Because many critical theorists believe that we are all implicated in creating, using and embedding ideas that enable such destruction and exploitation, we invite you to examine critically the key ideas with which we create the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and the ethical reasoning by which we justify the shaping of our existence. We refer to these key ideas as social constructs, social fabrications, or fictive entities. You might think of them as key characters in our version of a Genesis story – the story through which we tell ourselves who we are and why we are here. The study of what is believed to exist is called ‘ontology’. We are interested in the abstract ideas or concepts of western neo-liberalism. Among such key ideas are ‘democracy’ and ‘the market’. These ideas about the relationships and sanctioned actions between people come to be experienced as seemingly real things, as entities that we can observe, feel, and engage with. These seemingly ‘real things’ are in our view better thought of as the social fabrications or organising principles that we use to craft or accept our identities as individuals, and as groups; communities, churches, companies, economies and nations. Enacted together, these are experienced as ‘our society’ and increasingly ‘the global market’. The study of how we justify our faith in the existence of a given social order is called ‘epistemology’.
In Understanding Management Critically we are interested in exploring how we each contribute to ‘making real’ the social fabrications through which we appear to organise ourselves, allow ourselves to be organised, to control others. Do not be afraid of these difficult words. We will practise our understanding of them in various parts of this book. Practise using them whenever you can. Familiarity with them will help you develop yourself as a critically aware human being. Preparing ourselves to examine some of the basic ideas with which we generate the social world that we so easily take for granted is the purpose of this chapter. Such an examination is a good way to expand our thoughts. It is what critical theorists and activists call ‘consciousness-raising’. In this book we examine who we think we are, what we think we are entitled to, and at whose expense.
Revision Notes: Fabricating our Humanity
Creating knowledge, truth and legitimacy: The entities with which we populate our myths, our logic and our ethics
People ‘make’ meaning and through this creative action, set in place the ideas that justify subsequent action. Consider the poem below:
‘Protesters’ and ‘Hooligans’, ‘Rascals’ and ‘Remedies’
London is burning.
Young hooligans and murderers are to blame.
“…feral rats!”
Catch and trap them!
Lock them up!
Or kill them
In the managing of our activities, managing meaning is an important part of our creative responsibilities. ‘Naming’ the world that we think we see, or the world we want to see, is one of the most powerful activities we as people engage with. Some might say it is the divine in the human. Naming involves deciding who is to be seen as ‘friend’ or ‘foe’ and how each is to be engaged with. In the poem above you will see many overt and implied threats. In Chapter 5 and 6 we will explore the changes in language of employment that carry a wealth of re-negotiations, impositions and compliance – e.g. from labour to employees, from employee to welfare bludger, and in a recent example in the US Army, from a (tacit) definition of homosexual people as unacceptable for employment to their full recognition as valuable employees. These too carry implied and even overt promises and threats. Such a play with words can help us think more critically about the relationships between people and their implications. Wall Street was the Place where our wealth was managed. Directly and indirectly, we allowed its brokers to invest on our behalf. Once such meaning and responsibilities have been established, we can all ‘get on with the job’. In this case, of devising whole systems for financial organisation (legitimising hedge funds and futures trading for example) and training people to enforce the prevailing meaning. As some of the activities of Wall Street’s heroes began to cause significant grief, ordinary people became more consciously aware of the impact of these experts we had entrusted with our savings. This period of history might make it reasonable to think about Wall Street as a pirate ship or stealth bomber for example, to describe the activities that have seen many people lose their wealth and sometimes their very means to life. Those who have been fleeced of their hard earned savings or who have seen their pension plans become valueless would no doubt agree.
- What might be needed to re-orientate Wall Street to regain the respect of the population?
- Do the attitudes of bankers and brokers matter?
- If they do, how would we invite a transformation of attitudes?
Exercising your understanding
- How far will I go to protect my lifestyle?
- How far is too far?
- Who or what should come into my considerations?
- How do I ‘justify’ the ‘entities’ in our assessments – e.g. ‘profit’, ‘products’ ‘consumer choice’, ‘consumer rights’?
- How is Obama’s call to reinstate the USA as ‘Number One’ a risky call for many on domestic soil and also for the rest of the human population?
Think about the military image of drones that can be sent out to defend/destroy from a distance. How does the metaphor of ‘drones’ help us to think about ‘power from a distance’ when thinking about the governors and executives of the various corporations who are mandated to make profit that fuel our jobs, stock our pantries, and fund our pensions. The pirates of Wall Street were given much licence. But it seemed that we were all on auto-pilot. We allowed ‘the system’ to run itself – so long as we did not feel its violence directly.
Six little exercises to further stretch your consciousness
What is the difference between the protestors who were the vanguard of social change in the past, whose ideas have now become mainstream, and from whose courage we now all benefit? How have their risks and sacrifices been morphed into everyday organisational practice? (Think, for example about the early suffragettes and the impact they have had on what we now know as ‘equal employment opportunities’; the people once demonised as ‘eco-terrorists’ or diminished as ‘greenies’ and ‘tree-huggers’ and their influence in sustainability debates; the unveiling of a statue in honour of Martin Luther King (Jnr) – a man of a lineage of people once defined as ‘beasts of burden’ whose legacy has energised contemporary compensation claims and class action suits by the subsequent generations still affected.)
Flipping through an old Chiquita guest book, [Dan] Koeppel saw the scrawled names of United States senators, scientists, CIA agents and Honduran presidents. “Everybody was in there,” he says. Browsing through the research facility’s library, the journalist paged through a chipper recipe book featuring the Chiquita banana girl, who was shown topless, as she always was, giving instructions on how to prepare such delicacies as “banana coconut rolls.” “I found these strange Chiquita cookbooks a hundred yards away from where massacres were planned,” he says. Bananas appear so innocent. So is cocoa, coffee, and the myriad of natural phenomena from the minerals we mine to the people we harness to serve self-interest. But we can only harness these if we have identified them as ‘resources’ for our ‘legitimate exploitation’. How many seemingly ‘innocent’ products have been harnessed to serve vested interests that go well beyond the mere prioritising of profits? Make a list – starting with, for example: ‘River’: ‘source of life’ or ‘sluice-drain’?
Bankers sing to engender trust in the banking industry. Yeah right! Profits soar while employee commitments are stretched
Summary: Putting some big ideas into place
Jason and Mary had been struggling to meet their rent for some months. At the request of a friend, they hosted a travelling Swami overnight. The evening included an outreach event organised by the Swami’s sponsors. James was moved by the Swami’s observations of western society as overly materialistic. He believed a more spiritual approach to life is more valuable. The Swami offered James a personal Mantra. It cost $165 dollars. Jason was pleased. Mary was furious. What was the ‘commodity’ the Swami had to ‘sell’?
Margie was required to complete an accounting course as part of a management degree. She was not numerically inclined and was not looking forward to this course. Imagine her surprise when, on the first day, the lecturer explained that for some people, particularly many indigenous peoples, trees are believed to be actual ancestors with intent and purpose to be respected. For them, trees have a life force. The felling of ancient trees complicates the view of logging as an economic development strategy, particularly in regions such as the rainforests where indigenous people still thrive or are under threat of removal in the interests of ‘developers’. The question Margie was required to answer was: How does one place ‘value’ on ‘a tree’? Bearing the above in mind, what would your response be? How can we understand the concepts of ontology and epistemology better from this example? What kind of ‘entity’ is ‘a tree’ in a capitalist worldview? What kind of ‘entities’ are trees in non-capitalist orientations that you know about?
Medical tourism has opened the way for many people to have the treatment and recovery opportunities that may not be accessible in their domestic health systems. It has also spawned a market in body parts. What are the moral nuances in selling one’s own blood to laboratories; donating or selling one’s own kidney to researchers; allowing older or terminally ill people to die; to kidnap and kill vulnerable people; or to execute prisoners so as to harvest useable body parts? Are there any ethical constraints to what might be bought and sold on a market?
Access to personal information may be useful for marketers and politicians alike. The risk intervention in one’s legitimate business is growing.15 Does this matter?
People to meet, [web]places to go, actions to take
In this section we provide you with some key people to learn about, interesting webpages to visit, and actions you might take in relation to the topics discussed in Chapter 1 of Understanding Management Critically. Add to this list the people, places and actions you find inspirational to ensure your consciousness of and for the world is continuously expanding! Write something about each person, place or action that is of interest or concern to you.
People to meet
- Eve Annecke: founding director of the Sustainability Institute, an international living and learning centre for studies and experience in ecology, community and spirit.
http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.net - Richard Branson: English business magnate and investor, founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies.
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Group - Michael Moore: Filmmaker and activist.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/ - Vandana Shiva: Indian environmental activist and anti-globalisation author.
https://www.google.co.nz/#q=vandana+shiva - Edward Snowden: American computer specialist, a former CIA employee, and former NSA contractor who disclosed classified NSA documents to several media outlets, initiating the NSA leaks which reveal operational details of a global surveillance apparatus run by the NSA, its Five Eyes partners, and numerous commercial and international partners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden - Winona La Duke: American Indian activist, environmentalist, economist and writer of Anishinaabe descent.
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/laduke_winona.php
[Web]places to go
- http://www.corpwatch.org
CorpWatch: Holding Corporations accountable - https://www.google.co.nz/#q=Global+Reporting+Initiative<
Global Reporting Initiative: Encouraging sustainability reporting - http://www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/shortfilms
Business and Human Rights Resource Centre - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/mar/30/democracy-project-david-graeber-review?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
David Graeber: The Democracy Project - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeHzc1h8k7o
John Pilger: War on Democracy - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OazUh0Ym8rc
The ‘Yes men’ [are fixing the world!] - http://www.uncsd2012.org/
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development - http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/01/201312061337695543.html
Oxfam says we can end poverty - http://revolutionwithin.me/2009/11/03/the-world-is-made-of-stories/
Stories (not atoms) are our essence - http://globalgrandmotherpower.com/events.html
Global Grandmothers - http://www.oxfam.org/
Oxfam
Actions to take
Consciousness raising and reflective thinking: ‘be the change you want to see in the world’. This is a call to transformation of selves as a necessary aspect of changing systems, corporations and nations.
- Support the raising of consciousness in your community. See for example the creativity of ‘Thank you, Ed Snowden’ http://www.thestar.com.my/News/World/2013/12/24/Mission-accomplished-says-Snowden--Washington-Post.aspx/;
- Find out how have the Occupiers progressed their cause. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/24/occupy-wall-street-what-is-to-be-done-next
- Read the history of various forms of dissent and the processes of restoring order. Whose order is enforced? Note any police or military activity. What more subtle forms for compliance are involved? What kinds of resistance or rebellion have had lasting impact? What have been the benefits to you?
- Help fund revolting actions: e.g. http://theyesmen.org/
- Make contributions/efforts to change the world to become a fairer place,
e.g. http://www.kiva.org/ - Indemedia: Add to your ‘favorite bar’ and open often.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_Media_CenterAvaaz: Add to your ‘favorite bar’ and open often.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avaaz