A growing number of contemporary organizations have management structures that are less centralized and hierarchical than the traditional bureaucratic model. This book takes a close look inside one such organization: an employee-owned manufacturing corporation. It addresses the question of how conflicts are handled when bureaucracy is greatly reduced--and its findings will surprise and enlighten many readers. Therapy, a behavior or practice normally thought to be confined to the offices of psychiatrists and the wards of mental hospitals, turns out to be the most common way of handling conflict in the postbureaucratic work environment. James Tucker reveals that this therapeutic system of social control contrasts sharply, and tellingly, with the more authoritative--often violent--systems of social control found in more centralized and hierarchical work settings, especially those of the past.
Author(s): James Tucker
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 192
Contents......Page 12
One: Introduction......Page 16
The Blackian Paradigm......Page 18
The Social Structure of Therapy......Page 23
The Postbureaucratic Organization......Page 28
Therapy in Corporations......Page 30
Inside the Corporation......Page 34
The Formal Organization......Page 37
The Structure of Social Relations......Page 41
Bureaucratic Variation......Page 45
Method: The Conflict Case......Page 47
Downward Conflict......Page 50
Strong Discipline......Page 51
Weak Discipline......Page 55
Therapy from Above......Page 62
Lateral Conflict......Page 82
Vengeance......Page 84
Settlement......Page 90
Therapy and Conciliation......Page 92
Upward Conflict......Page 110
Strong Rebellion......Page 111
Weak Rebellion......Page 118
Therapy from Below......Page 121
Six: Conclusion......Page 134
Therapeutic Democracy......Page 136
Therapeutic Communalism......Page 137
Therapeutic Evolution......Page 140
Notes......Page 142
References......Page 158
A......Page 178
C......Page 179
D......Page 180
G......Page 181
I......Page 182
M......Page 183
P......Page 184
S......Page 185
V......Page 187
Z......Page 188
