Strategic Management Essay Examples

Main Discourses

The facts and perceptions that are taken for granted can vary based on the perspective, needs and the point of view a person inhabits. Indeed, many people will view a manager or leader as only being focused on earning his or her salary or keeping (or expanding) his or her own power. Many times, employees will feel that they are less than a priority or that management just views them as a commodity even if that is not honestly the case. However, to look only at leaders when speaking of power is less than true based on the lectures for the class that this assignment is due for as well as other sources. Power can be the result of attributes such as the people they control or the companies they control or own. However, there is also power seen in things like knowledge, expertise and so forth (Williams, 2014). For example, a subject matter expert (SME) tends to wield great power as they are a “go to” person for both leaders and non-leaders alike. One can drill down even further and flesh out what types of business ownership or people control is really power or which knowledge if worthwhile to have and what knowledge is less than useful. For example, being able to repair and service a regular DVD player may be a somewhat useful thing to know but it would not lead to much power in today’s marketplace due to Blu-Ray and streaming being the dominant movie and television technologies when it comes to stored or bought content (Murphy et al, 2013).
The discourses are based on things like common sense and it is generally accepted that people have common sense when it comes to what they do, why they do it, when they do it and so forth. For example, putting cones in place to block a parking stall would lead most people to understand that the stall should not be used. However, there are some people that would actually move the cones and park there. Even so, most people would not dare do that and it is generally understood through established social, cultural or even corporate norms established by the larger collective what is acceptable and proper and what is not. The point to be made here is that there is a very symbiotic and intimate relationship between discourses, knowledge and power. When people know enough about the dynamics and paradigms involved so that they speak only when they should, behave in certain ways in certain situations and otherwise meet the generalize expectations of being an employee or citizen. Generally, people are expected to self-police their actions and if they will tend to be shunned or corrected if they deviate from the pathways they are supposed to remain within. In a corporate context, common understandings would be to conduct emails in a certain way, speak on the phone in a certain way, act in a certain way when in an open and non-private area, act in a different way when behind closed doors, to respect those with power, to treat everyone respectfully whether they have power or not and so forth. However, the lecture also made note of the fact that perceptions and reactions to behaviors and speeches can be based on assumptions and conclusions that are simply not true. Those that try to ignore that or that are unaware of this do so at their own peril and this goes double for managers and leaders (Mavridis, 2015; John & Brian, 2004).
Another shortcoming of the lecture is the lack of real world examples overall. This obviously dovetails a lot with the last point made but it is a problem that goes far beyond examples that could have been likened and compared to the Occupy Wall Street and other populist movements or events in the United States or elsewhere. To be sure, there is nothing wrong with the tendency of the lecture to stick with scholarly topics and the associated authors. However, when material is presented to students and there is no clear correlation between what is being presented and what is happening in the real business world and real society right now, then this prevents application to real-life situations. This is a drag on how much is learned and how many people actually learn something from the material. Sociology books, at least in the estimation of the author of this report, are great at using real-world examples even if the extend a bit too much into one political realm and only present one side. For example, some people bust their tail and are in poverty while others are there because they made horrible life choices or were using drugs. To relate this to the lecture and the Burr text, many people (like the Occupy people mentioned above) have extreme and strident views about commerce, business and so forth. There is a difference between making an honest mistake and having a white-hot hostility towards someone else and the book really does not cover that part of things. Using specific events may be undesirable to some but general examples would help. For example, some people make honest mistakes when it comes to perceiving things the wrong way or not understanding what the norms of a society or company are. However, a man should not have to be told to not view pornography on a work computer (let alone in the presence of female employees) or belch loudly in the office for any reason. It is against the rules but some people are ambivalent or openly hostile towards norms to the point that they are unfair and insidious. While it is rare, this should not be ignored (Boystun, Deloof, Matthyssens, 2011; Mainiero & Jones, 2013).
Finally, “common sense” really needs to be defined. One can extrapolate from the above that the author of this report truly believes that “common sense” and norms for people vary quite widely in society right now. This is probably because this country has become so ideologically and politically divided. Further, the common themes, norms, expectations and so forth are quite different between the sides of the debate. The lecture is quite prescient when it is noted that any act can be equivocal. Meaning, any act can be perceived in different ways and they can different meanings to different people. However, some people take that to extreme lengths and that needs to be combatted through a learning environment that is honest about the way things are but yet presents things logically and honestly (Crawford, 2014).

Conclusion

Ideology and misguided perceptions have greatly warped the belief systems and logic bases for people. Indeed, some people do even possess basic logic and reason capabilities. This is something that many colleges drill and test people over but not everyone goes to college and even colleges and lower skills are lowering themselves to becoming ideology factories. Reasonable people can disagree and there is nothing wrong with that. However, the items that are “taken for granted” vary entirely too much and need to be standardized in a non-political and systematic fashion.

References

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