managing through organisations
Hales (1994) notes that managers have the right to issue commands. However his analysis of Management Through Organization (MTO) suggests that, for managers, this power is both limited and self-defeating. Discuss.There has been in the past and still is an aspect of un-clarity about who managers are and what they actually do, however it is widely agreed that management is of vital importance to the success of any organisation. Hales clearly notes within his MTO five distinctive elements that make up the process of management, these are:These elements of the management process can be applied to both people and resources and contain similarities with elements defined by theorists such as Fayol (planning, organizing, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling). Within the essay I plan to show how hales analysis of MTO suggests the power of a manager is both limited and self defeating. I believe hales analysis suggests this is due to a combinations of complex factors. These include the separation & dispersion of management and the complex nature of exerting power over other people as well as the nature of the organizational arrangements in pla
Therefore managers must influence rather then command making management, to an extent, a political and social activity:"while managers interactions are social they must also be viewed as political, since through their meetings, discussions and interactions, managers attempt to influence and to shape the behaviour of others, so they might be 'persuaded' to work in pursuit of certain objectives" (Collins, 2000: 63) For this reason hales states a critical task of management is that of influencing others behaviour. This can limit managers power as their power is only as strong as the 'managed' perceives it to be, for example if an employee of a firm wins the lottery then they will place little weight on a managers power to cut their pay. If managers fail to consider these or chose the wrong approach their power can be self defeating in that they could receive a negative response to their commands. This is due to the fact that it is the organization that controls the power resources and develops the processes to manage people. ce (all of which are explained in further detail later on). The employees' perception is of great importance, not only their perception of the power but also of the way in which it is used to influence them. This leads to more management needed to handle new workers and processes, which leads to dispersion of the management process between both different functions and different levels of management. Also although managers have power over their subordinates if they were to obviously exert this power they could most likely come up against a negative response as people by nature dislike being controlled. In conclusion I believe that through his analysis of management through organization although hales notes managers have the right to issue commands he clearly shows this power is far from limitless and can in some cases be self defeating. In this sense the division of labour of workers if reflected in the division of labour for management. This means that management could be dispersed not only through the management ranks but throughout the entire organization. This means that the management process would be made up more of systems and processes that apply to large numbers of people then through individual interaction. If successful separation of management is achieved it causes the management to become more about the management of people.
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,
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Acceptance Essays
