Assignment 3 Organisational Analysis PDF

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ORGANISATIONAL ANALYSIS INDIVIDUAL CASE STUDY Campus Course name and code Lecturer Class day Assignment no. Due date Student name (ID) Word count

Saigon South Campus Organizational Analysis (BUSM2301) Duc VH Thursday (3.00 - 6.00 PM) 3. 12 September, 2021 Le Ngoc Anh (s3762228) 2458

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the Assessment Declaration.

Contents I.

Introduction..............................................................................................................................1

II.

Analysis...................................................................................................................................1

1.

Conflict of interest between gig-app workers and the companies using their services.......1

2.

Implications of the current conditions of gig-app work......................................................2

3.

Discussion of the claims made by the companies...............................................................4

4.

Discussion of dismantling the status quo.............................................................................5

5.

Insights from the two conflict paradigms............................................................................6

III. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................7 IV. References..................................................................................................................................7

I.

Introduction The case study represents the issue of interests between the gig-app workers and the

companies with their strategies. This report would look at the organizational issue under the lens of Radical Structuralist and Neo-humanist to analyze the relationship between gig-app workers and the companies and to weigh the merits of claims made by 2 parties. II.

Analysis

1.

Conflict of interest between gig-app workers and the companies using their services In this part, the Radical Structuralist paradigm is used to explain and analyze the case

study. According to Burrell & Morgan 1979, there is an existence of social classes, conflicts and inequality in organizations. The gig-app companies operate via digital platforms such as Uber, Amazon flex (Kotkin 2019) stated that they have the right to establish rules with independent contractors as paying 120% of the local minimum wage only during the time delivering services for the companies. Otherwise, if the contractors go against the policy, Amazon flex would deactivate their accounts, in other words, the contractors have the right to withdraw by shutting the app, and they would not make money from that program. However, for the labor group working for that company, they have not received any enacted benefits or incentives. Moreover, the contractors are treated in a way of alienation. Specifically, Julie is a contractor driving for Amazon flex, when delivering a package for Amazon, she got stuck in the snow and called the company for help; however, Amazon just sent another contractor to go and take the package for delivering to customers and left her in the snow. This company just cares about their benefits as package delivery is what the company needs. Thus, it can be seen that the company as beneficiary of that program and workers as the victims of the system are 2 antagonistic classes being in conflict with each other and equality is rising (Hirschheim & Klein 1989). Secondly, that perspective highlights the system of oppression (Hirschheim & Klein 1989). It is expressed obviously from the podcast that the main focus of Amazon flex is just productivity and profitability, they consider the workforce as a type of resource for the company to utilize and achieve their goals as much as possible. That explains why they only 1

offer the contractors to get paid for a number of hours when delivering the packages for the company. By contrast, for the second group as the labor, they feel unfair as they are out of control of the number of tasks and working hours, and they have gained such an unstable source of income. Therefore, 2 groups are in conflict within the organization and the labors view the company as a system of exploitation. According to Burrell & Morgan 1979, the Neo-humanism paradigm focuses on the efficiency of resource allocation to generate higher profitability of investment for the company. In the case study, Amazon believes that they allocate the time and tasks to independent contractors effectively, and is offering a very flexible environment as they have advertised on that job which the contractors can work up to the desired level of income. However, for the contractors like Julie, she has not been paid for a significant number of hours tapping on her phone, driving around and sitting in the car to wait for tasks allocated. It took 8 hours for her to get a 2-hour shift, also a lot of incurring expenses such as petrol, insurance during delivery packages and groceries that she needs to spend herself. She loses the entitlement for all the rights and protections available to employees including annual leave, sick leave, accidents, and no insurance covered because she is not considered as the employee for Amazon flex. 2.

Implications of the current conditions of gig-app work Through the Radical Structuralist perspectives, the labor class views the organization as

the system of exploitation (Burrell & Morgan 1979). As being the flexible contractors for gigapp companies, they can earn a very unstable source of income depending on the package’s delivery time, and they can only gain more when they deliver more for customers. Therefore, contractors experience more negative impacts than those having a stable wage. Firstly, workers could not control how much they can earn per month, and their lives are not guaranteed to be well. Instability wage status can result in disrupted family routines, the children would not be grown up in well condition, and causing them to be worse off (Ellen et al. 2008). Moreover, there are some incurring expenses as the significant amount of waiting time for shift allocated and there is no insurance covered for independent contractors. Those are the costs that they have to pay themselves. This situation even becomes worse for someone like Julie as the main source of income. It leaves them with a higher proportion of being unable to pay for basic or essential goods for living. Also, the communities can be affected by the working conditions of 2

the company as well. As the wage for contractors are reported to be at the minimum level, lowwage workers would get subsidies from the government depending on different states in the US. Moreover, the low-wage subsidies would reduce the incentives for the unskilled workers to become skilled, and the high number of unskilled workers leads to the low employment rate (Oskamp et al. 2006). From the Radical Structuralism perspective, it looks for the systemic organizational behaviors causing inequality and suffering. The status quo as the current working condition is not good enough, so it needs to be thrown away and developed with a better system or condition. It can be implied that individuals would be free to choose their future employers through app registration. Hence this impact would be positive for individuals or households as they have the autonomy to choose, have many options as they can work for Uber or Amazon or for any companies that suits them. However, they need to be aware that the job is not secured. In addition, the social system would be changed from full-time laboring to multiple types. The society is affected as a number of full-time workers will become unemployed, leading to the higher unemployment rate, and poverty rate. Moreover, that paradigm unveils inequality regimes (Burrell & Morgan 1979). In that sense, the power lays at the employer's hand, Amazon flex have the right to determine how much they pay per working hour, specifically the contractors like Julie only get paid 7.25 USD per hour as the minimum pay in the US and the wage only count the time of delivering and the time going back to the warehouse is not taken into account. Individuals have no rights to decide as if they do not follow what the company asks to do, they would be fired or deactivated their accounts. In addition, there is no regulation or restriction that directs the economy at the moment due to the conflict between 2 groups of people. Thus, the economy is stuck in between as it does not know which ways to go. Besides, according to the Ahiabor 2013, there is a link between the economic incentives and worker productivity which is proved by an empirical study. With the low economic incentive offered by gig-app work and their extra time incurred for work are not acknowledged, it is implied a significant fall in the drivers' productivity for gig app companies. If that situation goes further, it would affect the delivery quality or long lead time, customer satisfaction, and the profitability of the companies.

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3.

Discussion of the claims made by the companies This part would adopt the Radical Structuralist paradigm to dissect and explore the root

of the situation. Then, the Neo-humanism approach would be used to understand the constraints of Radical Structuralism. Firstly, Julie as a contractor has expressed her concerns about the insufficient payment, unstable source of income and poor working condition as she has not get any compensation of the additional waiting time for shift allocated, has not known the amount of time and payment that can earn every single days, lose all the entitlements of employee and does not have the right to decide or otherwise she would be fired. Also, when she was stuck in the snow during the middle of the winter in the US, the company just cared about its own needs and treated her with alienation. However, for the Amazon flex company, they believe that they provide a very independent and extremely flexible working environment for the contractors and offer the workers a fun way to make additional money whenever they want, and that offered payment is very generous because the company guarantees to pay 120% of the local minimum wage. Moreover, from the company point of view, its strategic goal is generating as much profit as possible to achieve profitability in such an increasingly competitive market (Freeman 2017). As stated in the podcast, the company has struggled to enhance the interest of labor leading to dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is obvious that 2 sides of the organization including workers and the owners of Amazon flex hold different views, ideologies and the contrasting material conditions of people’s lives, which are the root of dissent and conflict stems in the organization. Secondly, under the Neo-humanism perspective, subjective viewpoints influence and regulate the behaviors of stakeholders (Hirschheim & Klein 1989). The contractors and owners hold different ideologies, specifically, Julie believes that Amazon flex has high profitability, and become more prosperous; however, she has underpaid and is treated with alienation. From the other end, the owners of the company view that they do their best things for the contractors as offering an independent and flexible way for making extra money. However, a professional from the University of California has argued that the nature of flexibility that Amazon flex advertised about the job is actually for the employers rather than for the contractors. As when Julie went to work, she was out of control in terms of her monthly income or how much she would earn for the day, and being a main income source, she really needs money and has no choice, no decision, so she need to depend on the application-based work and spend a lot of time tapping her phone to ensure that her task is given for her to make a living. Therefore, 4

following the Neo-humanist approach, it is necessary to view organization from multiple angles. In this case, the company should look from Julia's standpoint and vice versa. The company needs to understand the reason why Julia kept concerning and complaining about their behaviors and as a contractor, Julie needs to get the rationale behind the decisions made by the company. 4.

Discussion of dismantling the status quo According to Burrell & Morgan 1979, the idea of “rational man” is rejected, in other

words, the concept of being rational never exists in the Neo-humanist paradigm. In this case, the contractors like Julie would never believe what was mentioned by that company, such as the independent, flexible job and fun way of making extra money which all went wrong. The decisions made by the company are not guaranteed and not considered to be rational. Secondly, the organisation is viewed as full of conflicts and critiques. Amazon does not understand the realistic situation of Julie and her family, which causes dissent as their views and their ideologies are contrasting. From one end, the contractors view the company as the system of oppression, they are underpaid, they feel unfair, and their income is not stable. From another side, the company believes that they offer their best working conditions for the contractors. Thus, conflict arises and it is necessary to search for the alternatives. As labor development is a key component and also an indicator for the performance of an organization (Ndulue 2012). When dealing with people, the best thing to solve is seeking the answer from all stakeholders engaged in. The Union would be the one in between to put those 2 antagonistic classes together. Moreover, the Union in Australia should be looked at as it is much more effective and powerful in terms of connecting employers and workers. In addition, it is necessary to follow the Neohumanism paradigm, so that the government could understand both sides' views, and the victims would have a chance to speak up. Ultimately, the government would arbitrate between parties equally and that would achieve organizational unity. This paradigm calls out unethical behavior, dishonesty and partial truths. As from Julie's view, the behavior of the company is unethical as they are treated with alienation, they left her in the snow and just care about their benefits. Moreover, the company never pays her enough, this unethical affects the workers, community and the environment. Besides, the company is dishonest as they never tell Julie about their expectations. The fragmentation of work and the 5

destruction of its meaning should be resisted when dismantling the status quo (Burrell & Morgan 1979). Workers are not classified, they would get all the entitlement of the employees, they would be treated the same with the employees, the unfairness and inequality, worker discrimination do not rise among workers. Then the labor would be more productive and feel comfortable when working for the company. According to the professional in the conversation, Julie can look for a full-time job or to become an employee for Domino Pizza, for Cosco. Those jobs can offer her a much more predictable income, so she would know how much she would earn per month and that gives her and her children a level of guarantee. Moreover, Neohumanism perspectives believe that the organization should serve human beings, not the human beings should serve the organizations (Burrell & Morgan 1979). This goes against the Functionalism paradigm when the organization puts all the efforts just to achieve efficiency; however, in this case, the workers should not be considered as the machine, the human beings or workforce should be put in the center of everything. 5.

Insights from the two conflict paradigms From Radical Structuralism, it is interpreted that people carry different beliefs and

ideologies based on different values, which is the reason why people resist. People would look under different versions of reality contributing to the conflict and dissents in the organization and that is the power of ideological differences. Also, from my own ideology, I am on Julie or the contractors’ side, I grew up with the same background and I can understand deeply about her circumstances. She has suffered financial hardships which was the main reason that she became the contractor for Amazon to make a living. However, the company just only focused on its main goals and overlooked the contractors’ situations so they do not understand the view of its workers. In Neo-humanism, true insight can only be attained by removing barriers to free thought (Burrell & Morgan 1979). However, in order to get proposition 22 as the decision to confirm someone like Julie should be classified as the independent contractor, the company has spent more than 200 million USD to lobby for passing that proposition in California. On the other hand, Julie and other contractors never have such a financial capacity to do the same lobbying. Thus, that becomes unfair for the workers, and that insight is not valuable. Moreover, the knowledge that does not reckon at the deepest level with the implications for human beings is 6

rejected (Burrell & Morgan 1979). Decisions of the company are only meaningful when the human beings are taken into account. However, when the Amazon company has established the policy, they do not consider contractors. In addition, most workers are Latin Americans, Asians and migrants who have difficult conditions account for 60%. However, they do not have the entitlement of the employees, they are underpaid, those decisions of the company would increase poverty and are not valuable. Moreover, following the concept of Social Constructivist, the knowledge is socially constructed. People see and interpret the truth differently, and they hold different degrees of subjectivism about the reality. However, the knowledge needs to be involved with the society or the workers, and the process of establishing the knowledge is ongoing and dynamic. Hence, Amazon should take the engagement of contractors when doing the decision-making. III. Conclusion The organization is viewed with the conflicts and dissents of interest due to the difference of ideologies, thus the organization divides into 2 antagonistic classes including workforce as one end and the gig-app companies as another end. The conflict is not compromised, so this current condition needs to be dismantled and seek for radical change and alternatives that have autonomy.

IV.

References

Ahiabor, G 2013, ‘The impact of incentives on productivity of firms in Ghana: a case study of Ghana airport company limited’, Problems of Management in the 21st century, vol. 8, pp. 6-15. Burrell, G & Morgan, G 1979, Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis, Routledge, USA. Ellen, S, Kathryn, E, Andrew, S & Rebecca, K 2008, ‘Unstable Work, Unstable Income: Implications for Family Well-Being in the Era of Time-Limited Welfare’, Journal of Poverty, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 61-88. Freeman, R 2017, ‘Five Challenges to Stakeholder Theory: A Report on Research in Progress’, Stakeholder Management, vol. 1, pp. 1-20.

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Hirschhem, R & Klein, H 1989, Four Paradigms of Information Systems Development, Communications of the ACM, vol. 32, no.10, pp.1199-1216. Kotkin, M 2019, ‘Uberizing Discrimination’, Tennessee Law Review, vol. 87, no.602, pp.73. Ndulue, T 2012, Impact of training and development on workers performance in an organisation, International Congress on Business and Economic Research, Nigeria, vol. 1, pp. 135-148. Oskamp, Frank, Snower & Dennis, J 2006, ‘The effect of low wage subsidies on skills and employment’, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, no. 1292.

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