Anthony T. Cobb

A Habermasian approach to justice in organizational change

Organizational development has begun to incorporate research findings from organizational justice into its own intervention technology. Because perceptions of fairness can facilitate change success, it is quite natural to do so. Business ethicists are concerned, however, that such technology is aimed more at making change “look fair” than being fair. We label these two perspectives the “technical” and “philosophical” perspectives respectively. Proponents of the technical perspective argue that achieving justice will always be a struggle in the concrete world of organizational change. Critical ethicists question whether a technical approach to justice in change can ever really achieve it. The article presents these two positions more fully and goes on to develop a synthesis of them. Relying on Habermas and others, it presents how technical and philosophical perspectives can complement one another to achieve justice in organizational change.

INFORMAL INFLUENCE IN THE FORMAL ORGANIZATION: PERCEIVED SOURCES OR POWER AMONG WORK UNIT PEERS

The article discusses sources of power among work unit peers in organizations. The study examines power sources in terms of power bases, including reward, expertise, legitimate authority and coerci...

Beyond Structure: The Role of Social Accounts in Implementing Ideal Control

In order to survive, the contemporary organization must quickly adapt to its ever-changing markets and environment. The methods of structural control associated with the bureaucratic organizational form impede such adaptation. As a result, organizations are supplanting structural control with newer means of control - the control of ideas. Drawing on and extending social accounts theory, the authors explore how social accounts are used as one method to help to gain control of ideas, lessening management’s dependence on bureaucratic structures. The article exemplifies the managerial use of social accounts by reviewing the text of a videotape used by one organization in its attempt to influence workers’ ideas about management, unions and their own interests in order to keep the organization union free. The authors conclude with a discussion of how managerial uses of social accounts can be resisted by workers.

Power, Politics, and Organizations

The article presents a review of the book “Power, Politics, and Organizations,” edited by Andrew Kakabadse and Christopher Parker.

Investigations of sexual harassment allegations: Legal means fair—or does it?

Sexual harassment investigations are among the most sensitive and explosive of all HR activities, yet HR managers typically do not receive training in how to conduct these investigations. As a result, and despite the best efforts of the HR manager, the parties involved often believe they were not treated fairly. Our article focuses on the central question of providing fair treatment during the emotionally charged atmosphere of a sexual harassment investigation. We integrate the organizational justice literature with case law and move through five “stages” of an investigation. Lessons in each stage are highlighted, dilemmas are discussed, and guidelines are offered.

Toward the Study of Organizational Coalitions: Participant Concerns and Activities in a Simulated Organizational Setting

A qualitative laboratory research design is used to study coalition formation within the simulated context of a formal organization. The scenario used focuses on an issue shown to produce political activity: executive succession. A content analytic approach was used to analyze the ideas, perceptions, and actions of the participants as reported by themselves. Results indicate that the process of coalition formation involves a much wider range of concerns, objectives, and interconnected behaviors than suggested by previous research on coalition formation. These are presented and implications for future research and theory building are discussed.

Trouble at the next level: Effects of differential leader–member exchange on group-level processes and justice climate:

Leaders develop different exchange relationships with their followers ranging from higher to lower quality. As these exchange relationships increase in quality a number of beneficial outcomes often accrue to both the leader and the follower when examined at the individual level of analysis. At the work unit level, however, differential leader–member exchange (LMXD) can lead to structural schisms between subordinates receiving higher- and lower-quality exchange that can interfere with productive group processes and the benefits of a favorable work climate. This article examines the incremental effects of group-level LMXD over average group levels of LMX on three group processes (co-worker communications, relationship conflict and team-member exchange) and three justice climates (interactional, procedural and distributive). Results from 87 intact teams indicate that LMXD has a sizable and negative impact on all group-level processes. LMXD also substantially decreases the strength of interactional, procedural and distributive justice climates. The incremental effects for LMXD on justice climate levels were negative for interactional justice and surprisingly positive for distributive justice. Post hoc analyses indicate an additional positive moderating effect of LMXD for relationship conflict and interactional justice climate level.