Individual and the Organization Author

Individual and the Organization

Author Chris Argyris argues that there should be more information available, more research done, on the relationship between the formal structure of the organization and the individuals who work within that structure for the organization. Argyris intends to present his ideas on a workable "systematic framework" through which an analysis can be made of the very nature of this above-mentioned relationship. The author is so interested in discussing and analyzing the relationship between the individual and the formal structure of an organization that he fully examines the properties of the human personality on page 472. It is clear that Argyris has an objective of being very thorough in his approach, because he identifies seven developmental trends in which the human being: a) goes from being "passive as an infant" to a state of "increasing activity as an adult"; b) first depends on others, later depends on himself; c) evolves from a few behaviors to being able to behave in "many different ways"; d) goes from "erratic" interests to deepening interests as an adult; e) starts out with a short-term perspective, ends up with a deeper perspective of the world; f) goes from being subordinate in his family to desiring an "equal… position relative to peers"; and g) evolves from being vaguely aware of the self to having a sense of "integrity" with "feelings of self-worth" (Argyris, 472-473). Argyris is so intent on being methodical his presentation is both scholarly and sincere.

On pages 473-74 the author delves into the development of the human personality, and on 474-75 he describes the formal organization. He emphasizes the formal organization's "essential rationality" and claims that the organizations offers a means for the human to act "rationally" in terms of how the organization wishes him to behave. Clearly Argyris is drawing a comparison between the development of the human personality and the development of a formal organization. He writes that organizations are formed with the intent to achieve goals, and humans must strive toward "these same goals" so there is unity of purpose (475). However, humans are known to resist formal organizational principles, but there are reasons for this resistance, Argyris continues, because many organizations lack "a logical design" (476). Also, humans are asked to devote their attention to a specialized task and that too often "…requires the individual to use only a few of his abilities" and as a result the healthy human views his tasks as "of lesser psychological importance" (478). Here the reader understands that Argyris is presenting a main reason why organizations do not always operate and function as effectively as they could. When humans are not fully utilizing their talents and skills -- and are stuck doing seemingly menial tasks rather than what they potentially could do -- the organization suffers as a result. "The social structure… is modified," Argyris explains (478), because the organization's culture rewards "relatively superficial, materialistic characteristics."

When Argyris writes about the organization's "chain of command," he points out the obvious, that the individual must be "subordinate to the leader" but that means the individual no longer controls "the information necessary" to predict his future (478). Dissatisfaction will creep into the individual's consciousness as a result. So, in order to make the individual employee feel worthy and have self-esteem, the organization must offer "ample rewards" to keep the individual happy, and the organization must also create "a psychological set which leads the employees to feel that basic causes of dissatisfactions are built into industrial life" (Argyris, 479). The bottom line for this article is that in order for the healthy personality to succeed -- when that personality is expected to be subordinate and passive and "produce under conditions leading to psychological failure" -- the individual must be willing to retreat back to his infancy, when he had a superficial ("short-time") perspective on the world and was beholding to others. The individual can become "apathetic and disinterested" toward the organization, but the organization can respond to that in a positive way by offering the individual incentives, a path upwards, by creating informal groups to enhance leadership and communication.

Application Today

In today's organizational world, there are other pressures besides those mentioned by Argyris in the previous two pages of this paper. But the pressures are to some extent created and continued due to the necessary subordination to authority and to the chain of command that Argyris has pointed to. Budget pressures experienced in the organization "tend to unite the employees against management," according to author John B. Miner (Miner, 2005, p. 307). The tension from budgetary pressures puts the factory supervisor under certain strains, which can lead to what Miner refers to as "…inefficiency, aggression, and perhaps a complete breakdown on the part of the supervisor" (307).

Beyond that, the finance staff in the organization finds feelings "of success" when they find fault with the employees down in the factory; and when the top management uses the strained budgets as "needlers" the factory supervisors view only the narrow problems in their own department -- not in the entire organization. In his book Miner references Argyris' theory that the healthy adult personality becomes frustrated with a formal organization when there is an "incongruent" relationship between management goals and what individuals really need in terms of feeling good about themselves.

In truth, Miner writes (308), when there is incongruency, healthy employees are apt to become "passive, dependent, and submissive over time." They become this way because Miner believes employees are generally "more mature than the organization assumes they are" and they dislike moving "downward in the organization" (308). Moreover, the frustrated employee may: a) leave the organization ("only to face the same problems elsewhere"); b) or he may "attempt to move to high levels in the organization" (albeit there are a precious few of those opportunities); or c) he may adapt by "…resorting to emotional defense mechanisms" like "escape from reality and psychosomatic illness"; or d) he may simply become "apathetic and uninvolved" (Minor, 308).

As an example of how to avoid the frustrations and emotional problems that employees may experience with the kinds of organizational structures that have been discussed in this report, an article in the Journal of Business Ethics points out that corporate leaders should "create and maintain a positive ethical climate" that relates to the expression of the company's values. Individual ethics (IE) and organizational ethics (OE) need to be practiced in the organization, and the best leaders to do that are "younger managers" (who are more influenced by OE than older managers are) (Elango, et al., 2010, p. 543). The "underlying importance" of ethics and values is the fact that they lead to "…certain behaviors, which may…conform to the ethical standards of the corporation" (Elango, 545).