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
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.