ORGANIZATION:PART 1:THE ROLE OF CULTURE AND PERSONALITY

The Victorian family

Those who meant well behaved in same way as those who behaved badly-Aldous huxley

The law of survival of the fittest was not made by man.We can only by interfering with it can we make the survival of the unfittest - John Kenneth galbraith

Our values are what we think are good and bad,noble and contemptible -Isaiah berlin

Theory of mind and origin of organizations

Theory of mind enables individuals to understand the thoughts of others.This enables communication through language. However the use of this faculty occurs in society in the formation of groups and organizations. This takes place through seeking means to cooperate with each other to attain a common beneficial aim. Partly it is used for competition between individuals for skill and power within groups. However group formation predominantly requires cooperative coordination to succeed.

     Group members require commitments about mutual support. This obligation weakens due to cultural change as circumstances alter the power relationship between member and effects of ideology. In case of severe imbalance an aberrant personality leading the organization can cause catastrophic harm. In early 20th century  certain stakeholders in western countries advocating race and militarism had gained cultural prominence. It was in extreme in Germany where war reparations and a business cycle downturn had caused the public to look for a messianic leader. In these circumstances Hitler rose with a narcissist sociopath personality. It led to the beginning of genocide of Jews and worldwide wars.

Social exchange,power imbalance and exploitation

The ability to be part of an organization is crucial for survival of humans. This is so because it is only in organizations that division of labour and specialisation enables exchange and satisfaction of material needs. But organizations will allow entry only if it considers a persons skill valuable. So individuals have a social skill to attract others and be attracted to groups to survive.This is called social protection skill and is equally important as ability to develop physical protection skill from natural threats.The social protection skill builds families ,kin relations,friendships and also business and political organizations at the macro level. 

 When the give and take is equal in a dyad there is no dependency. However sometimes only one person has the factors and the other is dependent persistently. This gives rise to power relations between individuals and subservience. This can happen at a group level as between opposing races,cadre,regions, religions and is the basis of social exploitation.In organizations political and business leaders have asymmetrical power over workers as their contribution is recognised by others to be more with resulting dependancy on them to lead the organization.

   Groups are based on mutual exchange . However in certain circumstances this exchange cannot be monitored especially in large groups. Supervision occurs to prevent evasion of contribution in these situations.  Morever theft,murder ,rape is favoured when circumstances lead to poor supervision or isolated unprotected areas ,darkness.Similarly many dysfunction in organizations occurs such as bribe taking,fraud because the organization does not have the monitoring capability for these situations.As the complexity of society increases with multiple monitoring organizations , the incidence of individual dysfunctional behaviour decreases. However even for less developed nations appropriate frameworks can be devised for preventing gross individual dysfunctional behaviour.

Family and its evolution

    The first groups which formed was the family and the  tribe based on extended family. Here the basis of cooperation is primary recurrent face to face interaction, The family stability is based on commitment of spouses to take care of each other. Since procreation is a result of family function another commitment is parental commitment for taking care of children. In extended family varying degrees of help is provided to kin’s .All exchange in family relationship is in the form of gifts, and even marriage can be considered a gift of self to the spouse. Gifts typically are based on nonmonetary exchange of objects or favours. Traditional families lead to a culture of patronage based on favours. It is opposed to bureaucratic culture in modern states where culture of patronage leads to corruption 

    With rise of cities and civilization groups based on bureaucratic impersonal rules and monetary exchange became prominent. These were initially the market and state.However the family has also evolved ,over time. During tribal stage food was obtained by foraging. The hunted food could not be preserved for long. So the food was distributed to all within the group.There being no concept of private property there was no need for inheritance in family. The rules for family separation was easier compared to later agriculture stage where property was central to preserve the family ties.

  The next stage of settled agriculture had profound impact on family. The family now owned landed property and its inheritance became central to family dynamics. Separation of marriage became difficult and eternal marriage was the norm.Women  required purity to determine inheritance. As agricultural work required heavy labour and a typical woman produced 7to 8 children  during her lifetime ,women became confined to household work and childrearing.The man dominated the family and women were placed in a secondary position.Religion also played a part with letimising the position of women in scriptures as a dependant being.

      With the industrial age women have received education and gradually taken jobs outside the home. They have become financially independent. The joint family of agriculture based on landed property has disappeared. Instead today we have nuclear families with both partners in a family working in jobs . Love has become the factor in marriage. With decline in religious influence and easing of divorce by legal authorities ,the stability of family is however getting undermined. Today half of all marriages in western society results in divorce. One third children are brought up by single mothers with profound effects on children. Another effect in western economies has been divergence in earnings. High school pass outs were proprtionately tilted in favour of women by year 2000. Morever they were more likely to have higher income in jobs than corresponding age men. A result of this has been that women are less likely to get a same income partner and many of them choose not to marry.The widespread availability of contraceptives has lead to change in sexual mores in western society. There has occurred sexual permissiveness with individuals having multiple sexual partners before marriage and incidence of living in relationships. This has weakened the sexual basis of marriage. Infidelity after marriage has further increased the incidence of divorce.

   The family is crucially dependent on mutual commitments from spouses for its survival. Due to economic changes while equality of spouses has increased ,the value of commitment to preserve the marriage has decreased.

Apart from cultural changes which affect the integrity of family,personality differences between spouses also affect the stability of family commitments

Economy and Business

There was no private property in tribal economy apart from personal tools . In a foraging society it was impractical to accumulate property which would require to be constantly shifted. With settled agriculture families produced food from their personal holding. But the agricultural state required labour to construct massive public projects. Since productivity of labour was low sustainable wages could not be given to labour. The onset of slavery solved the problem of wages as slaves were the personal property of their owners. Slavery was abolished  in Europe only when productivity of labour rose and workers could be given subsistence wages,

With the commercial revolution in Western Europe business organizations arose. In finance banks and joint stock companies arose to pool capital. In manufacturing factories arose to mass manufacture specialized goods and replaced individual  craftsmen and farmers. However in 19th century factories were owned by large traders who had shifted to produce the goods they required for trading. With mass production and assembly line techniques a special managerial class arose to manage business. Gradually they replaced the owners in managing the intricacies of business ,which had grown in complexity. The managerial class determined their own salary which has become astronomical. 

   With the knowledge economy business assets have become intangible. Banks are worried about loan recovery to these firms in case of bankruptcy. The new age companies thus depend on stock markets to raise funds. Now pension funds and mutual funds having huge capital are the market players. Firms are indebted to them as majority shares are purchased by them. These shareholders now dictate the affairs of firms in many fields thus restricting power of professional managers.In knowledge firms organized labour which was a dominant force during manufacturing has also become weakened. This has reduced the bargaining power of labour and reduced the labour share.                                                                   

          Business firms have a number of stakeholders. These are workers,managers,customers,suppliers,distributors,community,shareholders. It is extremely important that all stakeholders are given their due. The stakeholders also have corresponding duties towards the firm.Today consumer awareness has led to firms being carefull of products which can cause personal or environmental damage.Similar power imbalances exist in relation between other stakeholders and the firm. A visionary manager considers the interest of all stakeholders.

    During the classic manufacturing age managers with obsession to details and implementation dominated the higher management posts. In Information Age a visionary manager is more required to lead a team of knowledge workers.There may be abnormalities in personality in workplacece in managers or workers  leading to organizational dysfunction.

State and politics

In a tribe there is face to face encounters between all members. There is no event that is hidden to the tribe. Leaders are selected by consensus. However violence is endemic in tribal life ,the principal reason being absence of a power of state organization. With the coming of agricultural states there arose a state which prevented disputes from ending violently. The people even accepted hereditary rulers when it was not possible to choose leaders by consensus. The factors against election were the the size of the population and the powerful army of the hereditary kings

       In modern democracies people elect their representatives who form public policies. Elected politicians have a commitment to give security,economic well-being  to their constituencies. The public also has corresponding obligations and duties towards the state. The public policy in 19century Europe was of minimalist state intervention. The poverty and inequality in society was completely overlooked by the state. The situation changed with the establishment of welfare state post world war. There was a realisation that war was caused by inequality and racial hatred. With adverse demography in late 20th century ,a shrinking working age population there is now a rollback of free unemployment benefits,pension support to aged.

    Political personality can affect the public policy profoundly. Narciccism in leaders in extreme can produce a hitler or a churchill8

Ack:Labor’s love lost,The new science of intimate relationships,Family identity ties ,symbols,Business ethics,Foragers,farmers and fossil fuels,Public policy values,Culture and values at the heart of policy making,Excange and power in social life;Cheating ,ethics in everyday life;Theneed to be liked