Preview

How can organisations and communities both influence social change and affect people's behaviour?

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1101 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How can organisations and communities both influence social change and affect people's behaviour?
Part 1 – Option B

How can organisations and communities both influence social change and affect people's behaviour?

This essay considers how organisations and communities affect people's behaviours and influencing social change. Firstly, from a 'management' perspective the focus will look at the 'strong link' of both structure and culture and how this affects people's behaviour to bring about possible social change. Secondly, from a 'psychology' perspective, the essay will focus on how individual's behaviour is affected by the taking on of 'roles' and 'scripts' as well as analysing the evidence from the Zimbardo experiment. Finally, from a 'social science' perspective looking at the consideration of the 'Resource Mobilisation Theory' together with the motivations observed by sociologists with the emergence of 'new social movements'.

From a management perspective organisations identify themselves as a community of individuals who necessitate the need to work together rather than working alone thus enabling them to corporately arrive to a 'fair and consistent way' for economy, efficiency and effectiveness. Charles Handy's (1985) four models of power, task, role and person 'cultures' indicate a very 'strong link' to both organisational structure and 'culture' as a means of control people's behaviour within organisations. A stable structural characteristic of a large organisation contains 'pillars' to function, this is referred to by Handy as a 'Role Culture' There are many spans of control from CEO's down to sales executives that integrate and co-ordinate the organisational needs of authority, responsibility and accountability. Competent delegation from managers can affect individual creativity and initiative. There is also the possibility of unmanaged abuses of authority and accountability. Hidden cultural patterns of individual behaviours within organisations stealthily slide in over time with 'what has always been done around here'. On a



References: Handy, C.B. (1985) Understanding Organizations, 3rd edn, Harmsondworth, Penguin. BBC News (2013) BBC vows to tackle bullying at work, [Online]. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22378554 (Accessed June 2014). Goffman, E, (1971) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Harmondsworth, Penguin. Zimbardo, P.G. (1971) 'The pathology of imprisonment ', Congressional Record. (Serial No. 15, 1971-10-25). Hearings before Subcommittee No. 3, of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session on Corrections, Part II, Prisons, Prison Reform and Prisoner 's Rights: California, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office. Turner, J.C., Oakes, P.J., Haslam, S.A. And McGarty, C.M. (1994) 'Self and collective: cognition and social context ', Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 20, pp. 454-63. Touraine, A. (1981) The Voice and the Eye: An Analysis of Social Movements, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. McCarthy, J.D. And Zald, M.N. (1987) 'Resource mobilization and social movements: a partial theory ' in Zald, M.N. And McCarthy, J.D. (eds) Social Movements in an Organizational Society: Collected Essays, New Brunswick, Transaction.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cartwright (Mullins L J: Management and Organisational Behaviour: 7th edition, 2005, page 891) sees culture as ‘’a system of management authority.’’ He states that when accepted by employees, cultural values increase the power and authority of management in 3 ways. Employees:…

    • 1336 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are five primary mechanisms that leaders are able to use to influence a organisations culture according to Schein (Schein 2004). These are attention, reaction to crises, role modeling, allocation of rewards and criteria for selection and dismissal Schein says that these mechanisms encourage behavorial and cutural normals within a organisation. The first of the mechanisms – attention, this is because what ever catches the attention of the leader will become the leaders focus and what ever becomes the leaders focus will become the entire companies focus. The next is reaction to crisis, this is because in a crisis people will react in two ways – keep it to themselfs or look for help, in a crisis a leaders actions are to be taken as a more clear view of who they really are. Role modeling is important as employees will follow a leaders actions closer than they will their words so it is important that a leader acts how he wants his followers to act. The next is allocation of rewards, this is when people are praised for…

    • 1046 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Kanchier, C. (2007, May 12). Are you part of collective?; we are not all individualism. How you view your-self influences how you relate to others at work. The Gazette, p. 1.…

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Like all social mechanisms, an organization 's culture performs certain social functions, some or them intended and some of them unintended. Like organizational structure, culture is difficult to observe measure or map. In some cases, culture supports or reinforces structure, in others it conflicts with structure. In yet other situations, cultures acts as a functional alternative to reducing behavioral variability in organizations. These are the most commonly discussed functions of organizational culture…

    • 1561 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Pressure Groups

    • 1594 Words
    • 7 Pages

    * Ridley, F, Jordan, A., 1998. Oxford University Press – ‘Protest Politics: Cause groups & Campaigns…

    • 1594 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Film Language

    • 2660 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Morley, D. (1983) Cultural Transformation: The Politics of Resistance. In Howard Davis and Paul Walton (Eds), Oxford: Basil Blackwell. PP 104-17.…

    • 2660 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Best Essays

    F.Y.B.A. Revised Syllabus (2008-2009) INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY G-1 Section-I (First Term) Chapter-1 : Sociology as a Science a) b) c) d) e) Lecture hours per chapter Definition, Subject matter and Scope of Sociology Nature of Sociology as a Science, Perspectives in Sociology, Development of Sociology as a discipline in India : A brief historical Outline Importance and Application of Sociology – Public Sociology –…

    • 390 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    An organisational structure defines how jobs and tasks are formally divided and coordinated. Every organisation has a culture, which significantly affects various aspects of individual behaviour. Understanding the culture is important because it allows an…

    • 1536 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A number of studies have shown that organisational culture does make difference with respect to long-term performance. For this to happen, the culture must be rare, adaptable and non-imitable. Even though Organisational culture is manageable, the direction and impact will not always be subject to full control. This will imply that many leaders need to rethink how they view the organisation, how they set the strategic direction, and how they manage people processes in their organisation.…

    • 1980 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Social Movements

    • 4117 Words
    • 17 Pages

    All societies undergo changes. In some cases these may be gradual, i.e., spread over a long period of time. In others they may be rapid. Social change, as we know by now, does not take place merely by chance or due to some factors predetermined by fate. There are several forces operating simultaneously in society, which bring about change. Some of these may be external to social institutions. Changes caused by a change in the economy or the production relations are one such instance. At the same time, there are change- producing agents inside a society as well. Social movements are one of these internal forces, which contribute to changes.…

    • 4117 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cultural Management

    • 2311 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Corporate Culture can be defined as the attempt to exploit the individual’s anxious striving for selfhood, through the expert psychological dissection and reconstitution of modern subjects, for the organisation’s purposes (management lecture 3). The way pay systems are set, the attitude of management to customers through a high level of service or even the way employees are asked to dress, are just a few examples of what an organisations culture could be like, specified so that employees are aligned towards the goals of the organisation. As Parker (2000) states ‘Every member of an organisations products and services and the unique patterns with which they carry out their responsibilities’ (Parker 2000 p.9) he…

    • 2311 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    What is organisational culture? This it has been found, is not an easy question to answer. The concept of culture has its roots in anthropology, the study of human affairs. In this context, culture has been used to designate two different things. A tribe or a social group is studied as a 'culture ' that produces and may have cultural artefacts. The second use of the term refers to aspects within a given culture, such as customs, rituals, knowledge and so on. (Sackman, S, 1991). In the context of organisational culture it is largely the second approach that is studied. Although people may not be aware consciously of culture, it still has a persuasive influence over their behaviour and actions. (Mullins, L, 2002). This statement explains that although we may not have the knowledge that we belong to a certain cultural group it will still have an impact on our behaviour and in an organisational sense, our working lives.…

    • 3488 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Public Bank Leadership

    • 7539 Words
    • 31 Pages

    Gerth, H. H. and Mills, C. Wright (eds.) (1991) From Max Weber. Essays in Sociology, London: Routledge.…

    • 7539 Words
    • 31 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Example

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Resource Mobilization- The assumption here is that for a social movement to first exist and then to thrive, it needs to operate similar to a business which makes efficient use of available resources.[1] Scholars have suggested a typology of five types of resources:…

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this tutorial I will be looking at the theories of social change. There is no one way of looking at the effects of sociological change so I will be looking and explaining at two theories, namely the conflict theory by Karl Marx and Darendhoff and the second theory called the socio-psychological theory by theorists McClelland, Hagen and Weber.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics