QUESTION 2

Part Two
Critically evaluate the extent to which the study of Alternative Perspectives of Management, which largely draws on Critical Theory, be of relevance for practice? Support your answer using selected case study material presented in seminars, and/or other real-life examples some of which can be taken from journal articles.
Critical perspective vs. Functionalist view
The first being that structural functionalism focuses on the factors in society that allow it to interact cohesively. Instead of focusing on the causes of a cohesive society, the critical theory supports the notion that the social system may only work for a few people of society. In the critical theory these select few are the rich or the bourgeoisie of society. The structural functionalism theory is the theory that supports this misplacement of power throughout the classes of society. The imbalance of money and power is what keep society in order, according to the structural functionalism theory. On the other hand, conflict theory believes that this imbalance of power and money is the flaw in the social system. This imbalance gives the upper class member of society an upper hand in all areas such as employment, politics, education, etc. Due to this imbalance, members of society are not provided with equal opportunities to progress. Society is no longer focused on quality but instead on quantity. During a job interview or a job offer, logically the job should go to the most qualified and experienced candidate. Instead, due to this imbalance of power, the job will go to the candidate with better connections and networking. Critical theorists believe that this imbalance has created too much of a rift between classes.

Our identities are comprised of ideas, ideologies, and ways of seeing the world around us. Our identities, therefore, are socially constructed, and the way we were born is only part of who we are, as Focault claims. In many cases, we’ve learned and internalized these values over the course of our lives from family, peers, role models, organizations, government, etc. The media also plays a prominent role in creating meaning, shaping our values, and defining who we are. These values are powerful because they generally come from places of power, but also because we internalize them and take them for granted, because they seem natural and the way things should be, and further because they can shape the way we see and understand the people, objects, practices, and institutions in our lives. If our identities are socially constructed, then they are not neutral.
In fact, our gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and class can play a significant role in determining whether we have social, political and economic power, how we get that power, and how we use it. Our identity can fundamentally shape our life experience, how we’re treated, whom we meet and become friends with, what kind of education and jobs we get, where we live, what opportunities we’re afforded, and what kind of inequities we may face.
Marketing is a clear example of social construction because behind its purely informational goal, marketing takes advantage of our human desires, such as wanting to fit into a social group, and makes us purchase products or services in order to help us fulfill these desires, even though in reality we don’t need these products. Starbucks do not market the product itself but the fantasy they create regarding the product. For example, Starbucks are not marketing ground up coffee beans mixed with milk and hot water, but they are marketing Christmas spirit and the fantasy that you are likely to have a good Christmas if you go to Starbucks during this time of the year. Furthermore, by associating the image of Starbucks with various public figures such as actors, singers or athletes, people are socially constructed to believe that Starbucks coffee is better than any other coffee, even though we could potentially pay lower rates for it elsewhere and still receive the same quality.
Social construction can also be outlined by the architectural configuration of John Henry Brookes Building at OBU that claims to inspire students, whilst encouraging fluid movement and collaboration, which has a significant impact on their identities. This creates an identity scape according to which students have to take on a certain identity when walking into the building. The whole space is designed to encourage group work, with little space allowed to individual work. Hence, a good worker/student is seen as reliant on group-work and collaboration, not extremely focused on reading but more on discussion and exchange of ideas, as opposed to ‘individual scholarship’ (an intellectual that studies on his own) ideology encouraged by the old library where spaces designed for group work were limited.

Social construction
Members of society continually construct reality through social negotiation. At any particular point in time, certain patterns of meaning become the socially accepted or objective truth. This is not regarded to be arbitrary, but takes the position that it has been greatly influenced by power relations within a particular culture. Social construction is the view according to which knowledge is constructed through the external environment as opposite to a created ideal (Andrews, 2012). Everything is socially constructed. There are no objective facts, only socially constructed facts (Denzin, 2008). Moreover, social construction refers to the theory that the way we present ourselves to other people is shaped partly by our interactions with others, as well as by our life experiences. How we were raised and what we were raised to believe affect how we present ourselves, how we perceive others, and how others perceive us. In short, our perceptions of reality are colored by our beliefs and backgrounds.

Power and ideology
Power – true power is power to control discourse – dominance over other practices and form dominating norms and values (culture) (Alvesson and Skoldberg, 2000). According to Focault, power relations significantly influence social construction; it is essential to understand the role that elite agendas take in shaping socially constructed realities. Many of our collective and established patterns of meaning are shaped by the interactions of media, work organisations and educational institutions. Ideology is used in critical theory to operationalise these relationships. Ideology provides order and meaning for societal members, but also prevents individuals from living fulfilling lives as it masks social contradictions, creates false expectations and thereby limits societal possibilities. Examples are the 40-hour working week, gender-roles, and race. Praxis
Transforming critical theory into an aspiring and constructive springboard for action. Critical theory approaches the unmasking of patterns of oppression and hegemony called radical engagement. This is achieved by working consciously and systematically on action plans for rebuilding organizations and work relations while having a realistic appreciation of social and cultural constraints. It is likely to be the most difficult element of critical theory to accomplish, but yet still remains the most important.

Agency
Agency is the capacity of people to make decisions. In the Marxist ideology, “agency is the capacity of people to act independently and to make their free choices. However, from a critical standpoint, agency is limited by “structure” (social class, religion, gender, ethnicity) that seem to constrain and limit the opportunities of individuals. Therefore, agency is still restricted within the discourse as the discourses are socially constructed (Discourse-form of power and control over what individuals think). However, the empowerment of individuals to reinterpret, misunderstand, or not to take into account the discourse is agency.

Conclusion
By encouraging students and practitioners to critically view so called organisational “realities” and make considerations as to why and how these “realities” are created and shaped, change primarily happens at an intrinsical level as the individual is enabled to have a profound and multi-faceted understanding of However, it is difficult to change the inherent assumptions gained through educational experiences where the emphasis is on a functionalist perspective and management is strongly embedded in a system of beliefs or social structure (Prasad and Caproni, 1997). Therefore, even though you acquire an in-depth understanding of various ideologies regarding management, your actions will unequivocally still be socially constructed.