Essay outline FAIL
Apr. 26th, 2009 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trixtahWell, I'm in a bit of a bind right now. I have read hundreds of pages in relation to power, and organisations, and so on, and I have realised that my lack of motivation about getting it all down in writing is essentially due to the fact I have no idea on how to relate it to the essay topic I was looking at.
Now, the quotation we're starting from relates to power as a "positive force". We are supposed to discuss how organisations manage the behaviour of their employees, and achieve their goals, and the importance of power to organisational effectiveness. All well and good, although fairly complicated (due to the fact that most management-type articles coyly avoid overtly discussing power, except in terms of top-down "empowerment" in the sense of their generously conferring a tiny bit of control to employees, such as "task autonomy"). However, where I'm getting stuck, quite majorly, is with the last part of the topic question, which states "...with particular reference to the complicating factors of organisations which have diverse workforces and/or operate in the global market place."
I don't think I can get away with simply saying that "x stuff I just discussed will be complicated in organisations with diverse workforces", as much as I'd love to. I was going to discuss how individuals will respond to power interactions differently... but I don't think that's sufficient for this. Buggery bollocks. I could talk about how workers on a factory floor will have a different experience of power interactions than the white-collar workers in the office, but have I found anything I can reference that talks overtly about that? No. While we're supposed to express opinions at the post-grad level, we are also expected to back them up. :-(
I need to submit an assessable essay outline by next Tuesday - the actual essay is due a month later, but I also need to complete three more assessable pieces of work for this course during that time, one of which being a group exercise (not to mention the other assessable work I need to complete for my other course). I'm wondering whether to ditch all this work I've done so far, and do the alternate topic, which relates to the efficacy of organisational change, and is much simpler to tackle (since the management journals do overtly discuss it, and with varying points of view).
Hmmmmmm.
Now, the quotation we're starting from relates to power as a "positive force". We are supposed to discuss how organisations manage the behaviour of their employees, and achieve their goals, and the importance of power to organisational effectiveness. All well and good, although fairly complicated (due to the fact that most management-type articles coyly avoid overtly discussing power, except in terms of top-down "empowerment" in the sense of their generously conferring a tiny bit of control to employees, such as "task autonomy"). However, where I'm getting stuck, quite majorly, is with the last part of the topic question, which states "...with particular reference to the complicating factors of organisations which have diverse workforces and/or operate in the global market place."
I don't think I can get away with simply saying that "x stuff I just discussed will be complicated in organisations with diverse workforces", as much as I'd love to. I was going to discuss how individuals will respond to power interactions differently... but I don't think that's sufficient for this. Buggery bollocks. I could talk about how workers on a factory floor will have a different experience of power interactions than the white-collar workers in the office, but have I found anything I can reference that talks overtly about that? No. While we're supposed to express opinions at the post-grad level, we are also expected to back them up. :-(
I need to submit an assessable essay outline by next Tuesday - the actual essay is due a month later, but I also need to complete three more assessable pieces of work for this course during that time, one of which being a group exercise (not to mention the other assessable work I need to complete for my other course). I'm wondering whether to ditch all this work I've done so far, and do the alternate topic, which relates to the efficacy of organisational change, and is much simpler to tackle (since the management journals do overtly discuss it, and with varying points of view).
Hmmmmmm.
