Values, Rationality, and Power – Organizational Considerations
Brad C. Anderson
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn the following.
- How to incorporate values into recruitment processes
- How to build teams capable of wise action
- How to create an organization capable of tackling the unknown
- How to create structures that facilitate organizational wisdom
- The importance of developing your own bureaucratic, institutional, and contextual (cultural) rationality of your operating environment
The previous chapter considered ways to combine values, rationality, and power within an organization to act effectively. This chapter explores similar themes at the level of the group.
As you read this chapter, you may feel that implementing many of these concepts requires a manager or senior executive’s authority. Sure, there’s some truth to this–the more authority you have in an organization, the higher the scope of activities you can influence.
Everyone, however, has some power to act. Therefore, everyone has some power to affect their organization regardless of their job title.
As with other subjects covered in this book, this textbook does not present this content as the “one best way” to do things. Instead, it seeks to provide you with some ideas to address age-old problems. Other cultures, and even other scholars within Western educational paradigms, have different insights and learnings. Add the ideas presented here to your toolbox, recognizing that there are many other tools out there that you may find better suited to your specific situation.