8.5 Power and Control: The Expression of Dissent

In Voices from the Field, Box 9.11, The Expression of Dissent in Organizations (p.267) I was reminded of the monthly newspaper that I receive from my union. In the paper, there are a few consistent voices of dissent. I believe that they practice upward dissent in two parallel planes. Most of the time they are criticizing the City for their lack of support on monetary and retirement issues. And when they aren’t bashing the City they look to the administration to critique their lack of leadership and/or vision.

Most of the time the author is within reason for the criticism, but many times it seems as if they are fanning the flames of conflict just for the exercise. As a reader I have taken the position of being observant and open-minded to the discourse. I believe that there is a place for this dissent and I commend those authors for taking the time and the energy to look at the organization from a different perspective. This communication is vital to creating movements of change and bringing issues to the forefront of a prioritized agenda.

8.4 Systems of Control

After reading Box 9.8, Systems of Control in Organizations: Ideal Types (p.263) I thought, “is there someone in the organization that actually thinks about the system of control?” I’ve been working in city government for over 23 years and in the early years I was very subordinate and just did what I was told. I never thought that the information I was being given should be questioned or altered. After about 15 years, I realized that the people in leadership weren’t there just because they were the best the organization could provide. I found that some of them were they because they tested very well.

So when I thought about the forms of control: Simple, Technical, Bureaucratic, and Concertive, I can see that as a member of this organization I had been exposed to the first three during the first 10 years. After achieving some success in the organization I have found myself in the Concertive Control on many projects. Although many times, the Concertive nature of the “control” is only felt because I am working alone on a creative project.

8.3 Participation and Self-Maintenance

Chapter 8, p. 233 talks about macro-level challenges of self-maintenance, autonomy, and goal persistence in voluntary organizations. The problem of self-maintenance through good and rough times is something that is well known in most volunteer groups. They talk about keeping the social commitment to keep the organization moving forward. I recently joined a volunteer group at my kids’ high school. The group was formed as the “Education Foundation”. I remember reading about it on-line and decided to participate. I spent the first five months building a communications strategy for the group. We eventually took on the task of organizing an Art Show. It took all that we could do as a group to hold the event. At the end we were glad it was over and the organization yielded some funds.

The interesting thing is that this year, the same enthusiasm for organizing the event is not there. It seems there isn’t the same enthusiasm for the event or the organization this time. Maybe we needed some new “blood” (new members) to move us forward and take some leadership roles.

Alas, no new members joined our group to move us forward and we may have to find the energy (somewhere) to get excited about this event again!

8.2 Difference among Teams

Larson and LaFasto give us an interesting concept of differentiating teams when focusing on their objectives (p.229). They categorized them as being: problem resolution, creative and tactical. I recently had to work on our organization's Annual Report. I was brought into the team to provide the graphic design support. Initially I was given a very short timetable to complete the project. I objected to the restrictive timetable and suggested that it increase from 2 months to 4 or 6 months. They compromised on 4 months.

An Annual Report tells the story about the organization. Images and graphics help to make the statistics more palatable and the stories more interesting. For me this was a creative project through and through. According to Larson and LaFasto the creative team should have autonomy to create, rather than be closely supervised or required to adhere to restrictive guidelines.

Over the last few months I have experienced a lack of autonomy with the project and the focus seems to be shifting to a Problem Solving Team. In the last few weeks the comments have turned to “just get it done”. I must admit I wasn’t prepared to realize the change in focus.

8.1 Participation, Team, and Democracy at Work

After reading Deming’s 14 Points (box 8.3, p. 221) I can see how the Japanese companies flourished into the dominant economical power. Mr. Deming’s ideas about improving the quality of the products that a company makes seem to be a template for success! Each Point seemed to be a pathway for succeeding in creating organization where there was none. For instance, Points 1 & 2, spoke directly to the overall idea of improvement. Creating a philosophy of instilling quality first and numbers last would seem to be a holistic approach to achieving a successful campaign! Creating "constancy" in the "purpose" of why you are creating the product and then creating a message that adopts the new philosophy would seem very important to the success of this new vision. It would seem to be a very monumental task in trying to convince an established organization to look at itself and think about reorganizing. Would it be the need to create profits that might allow them to look at this new idea?