The Concept of Rationality in Understanding Work - Case Study Example

ASPECTS OF THE CONCEPT OF RATIONALITY IN MANAGEMENT By Introduction Rationality is an aspect that all employees and employers should uphold. By business standards, rationality refers to the aspect of personality in which a person or groups of people are able to make sound decisions. The sound judgment has to be based on reason as opposed to emotions so that objective decisions are made. Management teams especially need this so that they are able to effectively lead other employees to effective production in the business (Wilson F. M., 2004, p. 41). This work seeks to develop plots on the concept of rationality in understanding work and management. In light of this, it will draw on the rationality concepts of practice, theory, substantive and formal rationality. Drawing practical situations with specific focus on the works of Chakrabortty (2010), Wilsher (2007) and Hill and Jones (2011), it will relate these to theoretical perspectives that are manifested to ascertain the strength of rationality practiced by each of the authors. Is rationality a relative situation? In many circumstances, people tend to view the end as justifying the means used. If the end is positive, then the means do not matter. The different types of rationality will provide a thematic perspective on the whole analysis. However, Archer and Tritter (2013:45) ultimately suggest that it takes some form of sacrifice with some people playing the red herring to reach some high points in organizations. Practical Rationality According to the work cited by Kalberg (1980: 1173), Max Weber presents practical rationality as judgment based on both egoistic and pragmatic interests. This is opposed to actions that tend to manipulate situations for the benefit of a group of individuals only. If the manipulation is based on benefitting the whole value system, and the most expedient way of dealing with situations absolved, then this is practical rationality. Pragmatic actions are attained by carefully planning on actions that would give the most formidable result. Human capacity is maximized at this point, and if it were to be leadership, there would be democracy in decision making and actions at the place of work. The means-to-end rationale therefore justifies the procedures used. In pragmatic rationalism, individuals are subjected to given realities about life. A struggle to develop a good and understandable system that would make it easy for all to agree on terms then ensues. A reference to this practicality in rationality takes us back to Hill and Jones (2011:56) where there is the contribution of thinking and experience to making of a rational decision. Macdonald’s Company is a large and influential enterprise that deals with a lot of people. There is absolute routinization and, from the concept of specialization and division of labour, work is broken down to the constituent specialists. Service is uniform and predictable and customers go there knowing what to expect (quality). Meals are served quickly, with courtesy and with an assuring smile and the environmental exceptionally clean. To achieve this, the company has impacted the use of management principles of centralized planning, centralized training and well-designed programs, thorough and clear supervision of suppliers and specifications that are meticulous. The employees, customers, suppliers and the management all feel satisfied where there is an air of democratic leadership all over (Wilson, 2004, p. 289). That is an example set of practical rationality. To the employees, the franchisees who are the owners of the outlets make sure that there is effective control over the pay scales. To maintain a low employee turnover, the franchisees make sure that their demands are met effectively and this is a benefit to the whole company as opposed to the individual outlets (Hill, Jones, & Schilling, 2014, p. 301). From Webber’s definition of practical rationality, there is seen a situation of dominating democracy as opposed to personal interests. The means-end rational system as expressed is working for MacDonald’s Company where there is harmony between all the stakeholders related to the company. A reference to the company SWOT analysis leads to the idea that there is a low quality food menu at the company. This quality has however been linked to the changing consumption trends where people no longer consider junk food useful to them. This is however swallowed in the positivity of the rationality of the company where loyal customers have fully been created (Hill & Jones (2011). Theoretical Rationality Kalberg (1980:21) presents Webber’s views on theoretical rationality. As opposed to practical rationality, there is an aspect of people knowing the truth and what is expected of them but their actions show an otherwise situation. Mastery of reality is created through constructing increased abstract concepts. Personal experiences end up creating a logical deduction or induction in the whole process. The attribution of situations is always linked to causality, forming symbolic meanings is typical and the whole process is led by cognitive processes. Theoretical rationality is not a means-end concept and people tend to adapt to situations based on their inability to control as opposed to their willingness to live in these conditions (Starzak, 2012, p. 477). It therefore masters reality through thought and not practical expressions. The patterns of action are indirect and they may end up on the negative aspect as opposed to the positive one (Shafir & LeBoeuf, 2003, p. 499). Malcolm Moore (2010) presents a situation of irrationality in the thought processes of workers in Foxconn Company. The workers are confined in the company premises where they work and are housed. They are not supposed to talk to each other during work lack of which a warning from the management becomes the most imminent thing. The company presents to the workers a collection of facilities to use and enjoy but these employees feel and complain secretly of there being no time to use these facilities (BBC, 2009, p. 3). This is an example of the thought processes that are therefore related to the theoretical rationality. Actually this should be irrationality. When the workers continue committing suicide, it becomes part of a thought that is not expressed and therefore not handled. Even so, the company management does not seem to address the inertness of these thoughts by seeking a reliable solution. It further practices the aspect of theoretical rationality by resorting to develop buildings that would prevent this suicide (Chakraborty, 2010, p. 11). The control over the minds of the workers is what Webber expresses as that which was used by witch doctors to subdue the thoughts of their subjects. Willsher (2007) presents an issue of theoretical rationality. Webber presented evidence on theoretical perspective with an example of the judgment made in courts of law by the judges. In the same respect, the French workers are operating under very strict laws and the courts in France use the same judges, in application of theoretical rationality to observe that these laws are upheld. Arthur (1994) further states that 800 workers joined a silent march in tribute to two of their colleagues who had committed suicide. The suicides are silent because there is an inner suffering about the conditions at work in Renault Company. Therefore, theoretical aspects of management are responded to by theoretical responses from the subjects. Substantive Rationality This is rationality that orders patterns into actions (Bratman, 2009, p. 235). It relates the past, present and real value that is postulated in a situation. Value here is measured in terms of comprehensiveness, completeness and consistency. This rationality exists based on man’s value capacity to create value rational action. It may involve touching on and improving one side of life and leaving the others and this single part will have an all-round effect on the other sections. Substantive rationality is real, unending events of empirical situations. In this case, all actions are led by one action that leads to all the others shaping themselves. In every era that is established, there is a situation of ordered terms of specifiable value that is created (Arthur, 1994, p. 409). Arthur (1994) presents a management practice that is purely rational substantive. Macdonald’s Company has made sections in what was a reference to the specialization and division of labour. It has rationalized departments by making specialists eligible in these. The customers, employees and suppliers have substantively been mentioned. The management is centralized. This is a key substantive rational area of focus for the company. The meals are given attention, one at a time. This is regardless of the fact that there are several departments and stores all over the world. In this case, the concentration is on management of the whole company. In another perspective, the company has designed its building designs as to lead the customers to the interior of the restaurants. The focus and concentration here again is on the design of the buildings and the rest of the issues such as the customers locating the restaurants take care of themselves. Democratic management is equally centralized in this case. In this central democracy, all the franchised centres follow suit and become democratic centres of management (Verma, 1996, p. 10). Another aspect of this is expressed by Chakrabortty (2010) who introduces the aspect of supermarkets introducing technology to their operations. In this regard, it is a set of rationality that works both positively and negatively. When the technology is introduced, there is a collection of duties that were done by human beings but are now done by the machines. The aspect however here is not that there are a people or machines; the aspect is that there are machines as an aspect introduced that leads to many other departments and changes depending on this move. Jobs were split to the less skilled, the trained and the professionals. Sociologists came in and introduced the aspect of specialization through operations; there are a high number of workers that have to lose their jobs because of that (Willmott, 1993, p. 531). It is also essential to note that there was only one change that led to other section following suit. The management aspect of diversification therefore radicalized the whole process and supermarkets’ operations. Formal Rationality In this case, Webber presents an aspect of domination in rationality. There is the aspect of domination presented in the field of bureaucracy, scientific spheres, legal and economic fields. Bureaucracy, according to Savoie (1994:11) is a way of leadership that inculcates into place fundamental domination through intellectual knowledge. Therefore, the aspect of being formal is presented by the idea of having more knowledge than other people. Formal rationality advocates for universally acceptable methods of solving issues. Abstract rules reign and there is ‘no regard to persons’. Regardless of the qualities of the persons making the decisions, there is a high possibility of sticking to decisions that abound and have been in existence, bit too conservative (Willsher, 2007, p. 10). Weber decided to state that bureaucracy is formally rational because laws that are made by intellectuals as formal because he believed that these rules are sound enough to be democratic to all societal situations. He practically believed that the most rational method is bureaucracy because it was nothing more than calculating the most efficient method of issue resolution (Farazmand, 2010, p. 244). Many companies all over the world have many workers not satisfied with the conventional methods of resolving issues. In some, the frustration associated with this leads to them committing suicide. This is because of the management situations that rule all over the work they do. At Foxconn Company for instance, they are confined in the company premise because it is the conventional way of handling situations at the company (Moore, 2010, p. 13). The workers cannot use the facilities that they are provided with and their salaries do not match the efforts that they are putting in their work. Moreover, the job laws at Renault Company are strict and the workers are pushed to the wall. However, as a way of living, they have to continue working. Therefore bureaucracy is an aspect of management and rationality that is complex and is only understood from a personal perspective. The management believes in the conventional way of management as rational while the workers believe that there is a better way to have their needs attended to (Grey, 2006, p. 486). Conclusion Different management theories are all applicable to different situations in different companies. However, the universal definition of rationality harmonizes satisfaction to all the parties affected by these management styles (Meier, 1997, p. 194). Rationality has been presented in different perspectives in this context. Using the four types of rationality as presented by Webber; practical, theoretical, substantive and formal, it is worth noting that the issues raised all come to a conclusion that rationality in management has not been fully defined because each individual believes in the immediate working definition. 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