S3864180-Luu Doan Phuong Thao-ASM3-HD-BUSM2301 PDF

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ROYAL MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENTASSIGNMENT 3: INDIVIDUAL CASE STUDYLecturer: Nguyen Ngoc Qui Course: BUSM2301 – Organizational Analysis SGS campus – 2021 Student Name: Luu Doan Phuong Thao - sID: 3864180 Words count: 2029TABLE OF CONTENTSI. The conflict of in...

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ROYAL MELBOURNE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT 3: INDIVIDUAL CASE STUDY

Lecturer: Nguyen Ngoc Qui Course: BUSM2301 – Organizational Analysis SGS campus – 2021.S2 Student Name: Luu Doan Phuong Thao - sID: 3864180 Words count: 2029

TABLE OF CONTENTS I.

The conflict of interests in the gig-app economy - Radical structuralism:...........................3

II.

The implication of gig-app economy - Radical structuralism:...............................................4

III.

The establishment of Proposition 22 - Radical structuralism:............................................5

IV.

The dismantling the gig apps & Recommendation - Neo humanism:................................6 1. The dismantling the gig apps:..................................................................................................6 2. Recommendation:.....................................................................................................................7

V. VI.

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The Epistemology theory – Reflection of two conflict paradigms:........................................8 References:...............................................................................................................................9

I.

The conflict of interests in the gig-app economy - Radical structuralism: As Burrell and Morgan (1979) demonstrated, in the Radical structuralist perspectives,

the reality is thought to be indisputable, which implies the objectivism epistemology. This approach is inclined to belong to the companies, who have an omnipotent view about organizational behavior, in which the managers take control over their subordinates. By contrast, the workers are more prone to focus on subjective references, such as individual benefits and rights. Thereby, the conflict of interests between companies and workers in practical workspace under the gig economy infers their distorted versions of realities, which will illustrate as follows. The first reference places upon companies, which create apps, offering more jobs for workers based on customers’ demands. Adjunct with that, a company will profit from the commission rate of the person willing to work with the app. In this case, because of fierce competition in the gig economy, Amazon attempted to lift their financial performance by lessening the delivery time, amplifying their power over the independent contractors without compromise, which led to coercive behavior to workers. Accordingly, Amazon tended to overlook the benefits of their partners, which is when they leave Julie stranded in the snow while she was working for them without any help because she was a non-employee. Therefore, it induces dissatisfaction for Julie, one representative of social discord across the industries. This demonstrates the power disparity in economic life and organization management (Hirschleim and Klein, 1989). The second view is placed on the laborers. In effect, Amazon Flex successfully created several works shifts to meet the customer demand as much as possible. But account to Julie’s perspective, the company failed to account for the waiting time for shifts, traffic, and weather factors when establishing the general work schedule. Besides, Amazon Flex is inclined to increase their control over the workers by deactivating their accounts if someone does not perform as a requirement. She tacitly admitted that the daily company had used coercive policy to control independent contractors. This conduct of the company may stem from the Functionalism paradigm,

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which means the executives deliberately focus on profits rather considering laborers’ subjective views. II.

The implication of gig-app economy - Radical structuralism:

On the one side, the radical structuralist indicates all participants in the endeavor to obtain different benefits from the gig economy. To explain, the gig economy helps businesses making more profits without extra employment management budgets. Besides, it is available for workers who seek flexible jobs on the side of the conventional ones. The gig economy can also satisfy consumers by offering services more versatile to contemporary lifestyles and demands. Since the app-based economy costs less for the employee management budgets, the customers could receive an inexpensive service. The gig apps provide low requisition jobs for community contribution, helping people who often struggle with discrimination such as colors, LGBT, disabilities, or immigrants find a job to survive financially. Thereby, the gig-app economy would be partly cited as a measure to reduce poverty in general. On the other side, gig-app employment often comes with the worker’s low commitment and the unjust arrangement between workers and owners. In this context, although Amazon says most Flex drivers make between 18-to-25 dollars an hour, Julie denied that statement by giving descriptions about her being underpaid. In effect, she just earned 7.25 dollars an hour, and she tacitly admitted that the Amazon additional requirements next to standard wage undermine their actual earnings. To be specific, Amazon said they would not pay for the overtime, so there is no compensation for drivers such as Julie, who spent 8 hours tapping the phone for a 2-hours-shift. Moreover, the company also omits workers’ rights and protection, ranging from employee welfare to income tax and work-related risks. As a result, via the lens of radical structuralism, the organization becomes a system of oppression or the social class of Capitalism (Burawoy 1983), where the owner is characterized by exploitation and alienation of the workers’ benefits; meanwhile, the workers are vulnerable and exploited. And it is conceived on an ontology that the

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radical structuralist exhorts the workers to revolt against structural inequality to create a change (Hirschleim and Klein, 1989). III.

The establishment of Proposition 22 - Radical structuralism:

Proposition 22 was formed to describe the obligation of mutual parties: company and contractors under gig economy (Ballotpedia n.d.). This case study unveiled that the new law aims to legalize a win-win relationship for owners and workers. From a company perspective, they perceived that a 120% local minimum wage would satisfy the workers. Simultaneously, the company would offer flexibility for those who seek alternatives beyond traditional jobs. Therefore, the establishment of Proposition 22 could be a good sign. According to the company perspective, the new law attempts to reconcile the different interests of both parties. To be specific, it helps the company maximize profits by limiting the workers’ protections. At the same time, a platform-based economy provides a chance for workers to survive financially by giving them freedom of choice of time and location to work. In exchange for the mentioned advantages, proposition 22 could be viewed by companies as taken-for-granted practices, but it oppresses workers. The company will shield itself from employees’ insurances, taxes, rights, and benefits. So, this law tends to serve the companies over the workers since it helps yield company legitimacy. Besides, proposition 22 is likely to grant more power for gig app companies because they have poured the dozen million-dollar into it. Therefore, the intention of the new law asks workers to face power imbalances, conflict, and exploitation in the jobs they do. Under the paradigm of radical structuralism, establishing Proposition 22 is effective to some extent since it includes the company’s guarantee for higher wages compared to the minimum floor of 20-percent and provides workers flexible work with no discrimination. But the new law was not sufficient to regard the power disparity within economic life and organizational behavior. As analyzed, the actual hourly earnings of workers can even fall to the minimum wage, as in Julie’s case. Also, through this lobbying regulation, the companies are still seeking profit maximization.

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Therefore, the pass of proposition 22 excites dissatisfaction among independent contractors. From the standpoint of radical structuralism, although the tension between workers and companies is indisputable, Proposition 22 seems meaningless to help organizations understand the status quo. As a result, the worker’s interests may continue to conflict with the company. The workers will not stop using narratives to raise their antagonism and negotiate with companies about their “actual” flexibility. IV.

The dismantling the gig apps & Recommendation - Neo humanism: 1. The dismantling the gig apps: In the Neo-humanism framework, subjective expectations, according to Hirschleim and

Klein (1989), are seeking an alternative to the status quo. What’s more, as Burrell and Morgan (1979) indicated, this approach is seen as a social movement aimed to emphasize the role and nature of individuals in organizations and society. While Radical structuralist gathers proof against the inequality in economic life, Neohumanists desire to dismantle the presence of gig-app in the economy. In the post-modernism paradigm, the disappearance of gig app will benefit workers as it offers them a chance to voice their concerns. Otherwise, they can ask for a poverty subsidy from the government instead of getting a job. Besides, because the individual subjectivist perspectives contribute to organizational efficiency, the companies tend to emphasize the workers’ worldviews and empower them to negotiate (McKinley 2003). Nonetheless, the use of neo-humanism may have drawbacks over advantages. In effect, the impacts of COVID-19 will worsen the general economy, which generates unprecedented income volatility for companies, workers and burden the government budget. As gathered information, 60percent of people in the gig economy is color and immigrants; those will be vulnerable if the appbased job vanishes. Removing the existing status quo will create more economic disparities in social classes, such as white versus color Americans or immigrants. As a result, the dismantling of the gig economy can worsen social dissent and ramp up national poverty. Accordingly, the

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government must spend more on subsidies for the unemployed population. Most potentially, Neohumanist will provoke the social crisis aiming to reprove inequality regimes in social orders where the discrimination prevents most people of color from financial survival (Hancock & Tyler 2001). Besides, the deep analysis of workers’ expectations according to neo-humanism is time-consuming and unprofitable for the company (Brien 2011). That precludes the companies’ contribution to the national economy. Additionally, the workers will gain more authority, leading to rights misuse and autonomous behaviors. Importantly, it is impossible to know whether workers have a biased perception while seeking alternative of gig app jobs. As can be perceived, the dismantling of gig-app brings disadvantages over advantages for the general economy and all participants. It will not be sufficient to emphasize power and conflict within an organization by the neo-humanism paradigm. 2. Recommendation: As analyzed, abuse radical structuralist perspective will promote resistance, facilitating the poor understanding and cooperation (Baird & Calvard 2018). Meanwhile, the emphasis on power or individual consciousness of neo-humanism necessitates much time, and it may verge on pragmatism (Hassard & Cox 2013). Therefore, it is better to combine the two paradigms to address the problems. First and foremost, radical structuralism is aimed to dissect the stories of the conflict. Then, based on the theory of Neo-humanism, the company can identify the remaining constraints of Radical Structuralism and tackle them. From the perspective of Radical Structuralists, the conflict is not anomalous in organizational management because the interests of the company and workers often are irreconcilable (Burrell & Morgan 1979). However, its emergence is also not condoned since if not realized and addressed, the explosion of conflict may threaten the company’s viability (Morrill, Zald & Rao 2003). Therefore, the additional implementation of Neo-humanism enables the company to acknowledge the stories of dissent from the different ideologies. By which, the companies are inclined to allow workers to bargain and negotiate their expectations. As a result, the

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organizational relationships around power distributions in the economy could be fully recognized by all participants, which in turn create the change. V.

The Epistemology theory – Reflection of two conflict paradigms:

Overall, this article was analyzed based on the idea of epistemology. For a definition, epistemology implies how a source of knowledge is justified and yielded according to a situation or reality (Audi 2014). Accordingly, epistemology emphasizes conflict nature and its knowledgegenerated process in both Neo-humanism and Radical structuralism in this case study. Based on a commenter view, the notion of epistemology allows analysts to see the conflict as neutral. By which, I can better understand the complexities and dynamics of the conflict in both paradigms. Working on epistemic essence shows how participants conceptualize a concept of conflict. In this context, the conflict is perceived as omnipresent related to the economy, and it reflects through human power, contract, and democracy that should be aware by all participants. After listing characteristics of conflict, the study of epistemology indicates the conflict consequences like subservience and enslavement of workers, alienation, and oppression of companies (Dahrendorf 1959). These context-bound attributes are put forward as different nature of conflicts. Then, it is possible to categorize into Radical structuralism or Neo-humanism based on the definitive characteristics. Linking up to the sociology of radical change, the distinct epistemology allows the analyst to have a comprehensive insight into the two paradigms. Precisely, Radical structuralism positions its conflict on the distorted versions of understandings about reality (Fast 2017). In comparison, post-modernism stresses the conflict via the diversity of thought. For instance, despite the power conflict between workers and companies in Radical structuralism, gig-app jobs help people of color, disabilities, and immigrants from discrimination at work. By contrast, in Neohumanism, although the disappearance of app-based jobs can remove the former conflict, it raises the new strife about social justice, where most workers of black or immigrants have no job due to discrimination. The epistemic insights in the context-specific underpin the two conflict paradigms

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(Baird & Calvard 2018). Working on the theory of epistemology, there is a contrast between radical humanism and the neo-humanism paradigm, in which one directs objectivism, the other emphasizes the role of subjectivism. VI.

References:

Audi, R 2014, Epistemology: A contemporary introduction to the theory of knowledge, Routledge, Florence. Baird, C & Calvard, TS 2018, “Epistemic Vices in Organizations: Knowledge, Truth, and Unethical Conduct,” Journal of Business Ethics 2018 160:1, vol. 160, no. 1, pp. 263–276. Ballotpedia n.d., “California Proposition 22, App-Based Drivers as Contractors and Labor Policies Initiative (2020),” viewed 2 September 2021, . Brien, KM 2011, “Marx’s radical humanism,” http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21598282.2011.584162, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 186–203. Burawoy, M 1983, “Between the Labor Process and the State: The Changing Face of Factory Regimes Under Advanced Capitalism,” American Sociological Review, vol. 48, no. 5, p. 605. Burrell, G & Morgan, G 1979, Sociological paradigms and Organizational analysis: elements of the sociology of corporate life, Heinemann, London. Dahrendorf, R 1959, Class and class conflict in industrial society. Fast, L 2017, “Diverging Data: Exploring the Epistemologies of Data Collection and Use among Those Working on and in Conflict,” International Peacekeeping, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 706–732. Hancock, P & Tyler, M 2001, Work, postmodernism and organization: a critical introduction, SAGE, London. Hassard, J & Cox, JW 2013, “Can Sociological Paradigms Still Inform Organizational Analysis? A Paradigm Model for Post-Paradigm Times,” vol. 34, no. 11, pp. 1701–1728. Hirschheim, R & Klein, H 1989, ‘Four Paradigms of Information Systems Development,’ Communications of the ACM, vol. 27, no. 11, pp. 1199–1216. McKinley, W 2003, “Postmodern epistemology in organization studies: A critical appraisal,” in Post Modernism and Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp. 203–225. Morrill, C, Zald, MN & Rao, H 2003, “Covert political conflict in organizations: Challenges from Below,” Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 391–415. 9

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