Barley And Kunda Analysis

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Tutorial CRN: 74854 Tutor Name: Hugh Dromey

SBUS10040 Foundations of Management Thought

University College Dublin

Title: Critique Barley and Kunda’s (1992) assertion that American managerial discourse has progressed in waves that have alternated between normative and rational rhetorics of control.

Student Name: Ted Collins Student Number: 14446392

Submission Deadline: Monday 1st of Decmeber 2014 “By submitting your work via this link you declare that all materials included in this submission are the product of your own work and that due acknowledgement have been given in the submission body and in the bibliography …show more content…

However it is very difficult to realise that the alteration between the normative and rational rhetorics does not necessarily mean that rationality is completely absent in the normative phases. American Industry was born in the early nineteenth century and ever since companies and factories have had to deal with management.

Barley and Kunda regularly refer to different phases of management over the last couple of centuries. These phases all seemed to occur in and around significant events such as the World Wars and the great Depression. The emergence of the human relations approach in 1915 which Barely and Kunda specifically point out as during the first world war. Abrahamson is one author who agrees with Barley and Kunda as he particularly points at 1915 as the time of this rhetorics emergence. Barley and Kunda also mentioned that the middle of the Second World War in 1943 was the period when systems rationalism emerged. (2) Barley and Kunda portray how managerial discourse alternates between rational and normative as different ideologies come along such as industrial betterment, human relations, scientific management, systems rationalism and organisational culture. Results have illustrated that the alternating phases of managerial rhetorics are related to the rise …show more content…

Organisational culture is the organisation. Organisations should develop shared values, shared values means that everyone present in an organization is striving for the same goals such as high quality output or excellent customer service. Culture can be thought of in at least two ways, two of these are “critical variable” and a “root metaphor”. A critical variable is the belief that organizational culture can be managed. Culture as a root metaphor refers to something that the organisation is rather than what the organisation has. (3) Organisational culture’s supporters often openly criticise system rationalists. Rationalisation was criticised for rewarding specialisation and calculative involvement at the cost of loyalty and commitment. Critics say it will not last when environments become turbulent. Good economic performance in turbulent environments demands the responsibility and commitment of the employees to both themselves and the

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