Presented by:Michelle I. HerreraMPS in Public Administration

Deetz Managerialism and Organizational

Democracy

Of Stanley Deetz

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Corporate managers who make decisions without regard for the negative consequences to their employees, consumers, or the general public

Something is wrong with the way decisions are reached at the highest levels of business

ERIN BROCKOVICH

Stanley Deetz a theorist who uses critical communication theory to balance corporate and human interests

BASIC APPROACH•Explore ways to ensure financial health of institutions while also increasing the representation of diverse human interests•Regard institutions as political as well as financial institutions•Show how communication practices often distort decision-making within institutions

Corporate colonization of everyday life

• Intrusive presence of big corporations(AT&T, IBM, Microsoft)• Concentration of power in few corporate

hands (newspapers, telephone, satelite)• Corporations “control and colonize”

modern life for the vast majority of citizens

• Workweek has increased from 40 – 50 hours per week

Deetz theory of communication is critical in that he wants to critique the easy assumption that “what goods for General Motors is good for the country”

He wants to examine communication practices in organizations that undermine fully representative decision making and thus reduce the quality, innovation, and fairness of company policy

Information versus Communication• Information is really in formation, constitutive of

reality more than it is reflective of reality• Corporate information is really political process,

undemocratic and have consequences usually hurt democracy

• Focusing on language leads us to consider how meanings are created and WHOSE meanings are embedded in the use of language

• Language is not neutral, it is political• Corporate language is discursive control, it excludes

more than it includes

FOUR CORPORATE PRACTICES

TO DECISION MAKING

provides the core of his critique of

managerialism

STRATEGY: OVERT MANAGERIAL MOVES TO EXTEND CONTROL

Managerialism - as discourse based on “a kind of systematic logic, a set of routine practices, and ideology” that values control above all else

•“Because I’m the boss.” • “Because I say so.” • “If you don’t like it, quit.” • “It’s my way or the highway.”

Choice is often limited to loyalty or exit—“love it or leave it.

The control drive of managerialism seeks the medium of it s extension, and money is it…..

Values control above all elseEliminates employee voicesPrizes managerial over stockholder controlFear of public conflict

CONSENT: UNWITTING ALLEGIANCE TO COVERT CONTROL

Corporations demand the overriding loyalty of employees or their consent

DEETZ BLAME through managerial control of workplace ,language, information, forms, symbols, rituals and stories

Deetz views them as attempts to produce and reproduce culture that is sympathetic to managerial interests

CONSENT: employees actively unknowingly accomplishes the interest of others in the faulty attempt to fulfill his or her own interest.

Workers deceives themselves because they believe they are interacting freely while in reality certain options are available.

Managerialism promotes worker consent through a process of SYSTEMATICALLY DISTORTED COMMUNICATION operates under RADAR.

DISCURSIVE CLOSURE: suppression of conflict w/o employees realizing that they are complicit in their own censorship

“disqualified to speak on important issues’“discourage members to talk about certain subjects”

INVOLVEMENT: FREE EXPRESSION OF IDEAS BUT NO VOICE

Involvement includes suggestion boxes, employee consultation, corporate democracy

But real democracy requires an open forum of free expression for all those affected by decisions, and some participation in the final decisions.

The right to expression is good, but the right to be informed and to have an effect is just as important.

Through involvement, employees have a chance to air their grievances, state their desires, and recommend alternative of working.When workers find out that their ideas aren’t represented in the final decision, they quickly become cynical about the process

“It’s possible when all stakeholders realize that their communication

creates reality rather than merely describing it.”

Meaningful democracy requires not only that people have a chance to discuss the issues, they also need to have a voice for the final outcome.

REAL PARTICIPATION – expressing interests that are freely and openly formed and then having interests reflected in joint decisions.

PARTICIPATION: STAKEHOLDER DEMOCRACY IN ACTION

Deetz is convinced that “meaningful democratic participation” creates better citizens and better social choices and provides important economic benefits”“OPEN NEGOTIATION POWER” joint, open decisions in the workplace

6 GROUPS STAKEHOLDERS NEEDS AND DESIRES

Investors - security of principalWorkers – reasonable wage, safe working

conditionsConsumers – quality goods and servicesSuppliers – stable demand Host Communities – payment for servicesGreater Society and world community –

environmental care, quality of family

“NATURE DID NOT MAKE CORPORATIONS, WE DID”