Organização e trabalho em transição: da lógica "sistêmico-controladora" à lógica "processual-relacional"

Watson, Tony J.

doi:10.1590/S0034-75902005000100003

Resumos

Para pesquisadores e gestores, é útil identificar duas formas alternativas de caracterizar discursivamente as atividades organizacionais e gerenciais: uma forma sistêmico-controladora e outra processual-relacional. A primeira é proveniente de aspirações modernistas e universalistas acerca da maximização do controle nas questões humanas, operacionalizando-se por meio da idéia de que as organizações são grandes sistemas controláveis, mecânicos e orientados para resultados. Em vez disso, é mais útil caracterizar a realidade organizacional pelo foco em processos emergentes dos padrões das relações entre as pessoas, as organizações e o ambiente social que as cerca. Se os gestores compreenderem o modo como seu trabalho contribui para a formação de tais processos, podem promover a evolução do aprendizado e de competências gerenciais por meio da construção de significados, negociações e barganhas, e do exercício do poder.

Teoria das organizações; gerenciamento; discurso; processos; sistemas; aprendizado de gestão

It is helpful to both academic researchers and managerial practitioners to identify two alternative ways of discursively framing organisational and managerial activities: a systems-control way and a process-relational one. The former derives from modernist and universalistic aspirations to maximise control over human circumstances and does this through encouraging a notion of organisations as large goal-based controllable mechanical systems and individuals as small need-oriented systems. A more useful way of framing organisational realities is to focus instead on the processes of emergence in the patterning of relations between people, organisations and the wider social world. Managerial learning and managerial competence can be enhanced if managers understand the way in which their work contributes to these shaping processes through processes of meaning-making, negotiation, bargaining and the wielding of power.

Organisation theory; management; discourse; process; system; management learning

ARTIGOS

Organização e trabalho em transição: da lógica "sistêmico-controladora" à lógica "processual-relacional"

Organization and work in transition: from the "systems-control" logic to the "processrelational" one

Tony J. Watson

Nottingham Business School

RESUMO

Para pesquisadores e gestores, é útil identificar duas formas alternativas de caracterizar discursivamente as atividades organizacionais e gerenciais: uma forma sistêmico-controladora e outra processual-relacional. A primeira é proveniente de aspirações modernistas e universalistas acerca da maximização do controle nas questões humanas, operacionalizando-se por meio da idéia de que as organizações são grandes sistemas controláveis, mecânicos e orientados para resultados. Em vez disso, é mais útil caracterizar a realidade organizacional pelo foco em processos emergentes dos padrões das relações entre as pessoas, as organizações e o ambiente social que as cerca. Se os gestores compreenderem o modo como seu trabalho contribui para a formação de tais processos, podem promover a evolução do aprendizado e de competências gerenciais por meio da construção de significados, negociações e barganhas, e do exercício do poder.

Palavras-chave: Teoria das organizações, gerenciamento, discurso, processos, sistemas, aprendizado de gestão.

ABSTRACT

It is helpful to both academic researchers and managerial practitioners to identify two alternative ways of discursively framing organisational and managerial activities: a systems-control way and a process-relational one. The former derives from modernist and universalistic aspirations to maximise control over human circumstances and does this through encouraging a notion of organisations as large goal-based controllable mechanical systems and individuals as small need-oriented systems. A more useful way of framing organisational realities is to focus instead on the processes of emergence in the patterning of relations between people, organisations and the wider social world. Managerial learning and managerial competence can be enhanced if managers understand the way in which their work contributes to these shaping processes through processes of meaning-making, negotiation, bargaining and the wielding of power.

Keywords: Organisation theory, management, discourse, process, system, management learning.

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text available only in PDF format.

Aprovado em 15.12.2003.

Tony J. Watson

Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Reino Unido. Interesses de pesquisa nas áreas de comportamento organizacional, sociologia industrial, estratégia, narrativas, pesquisa etnográficas e gestão de pessoas. E-mail: tony.watson@ntu.ac.uk Endereço: Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU England.

Revisão técnica de Eduardo Davel.

Artigo convidado.

ALVESSON, M.; KARREMAN, D. Taking the linguistic turn in organizational research: challenges, responses, consequences. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, v. 36, n. 2, p. 136-158, 2000.
ATHOS, R. T.; PASCAL, A. G. The Art of Japanese Management Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.
AUSTIN, J. L. How to Do Things with Words Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962.
BENDIX, R. Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait London: Methuen, 1966.
BURRELL, G. Organisational paradigms. In: SORGE, A. (Ed.). Organization London: Thomson Learning, 2002.
CHIA, R. Organisational Knowledge as Deconstructive Practice Berlin: De Gruyter, 1996.
CHIA, R. Ontology: organization as "world-making". In: WESTWOOD, R.; CLEGG, S. (Eds.). Debating Organization: Point-Counterpoint in Organization Studies Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
DACHLER, H. P.; HOSKING, D.-M. The primacy of relations in socially constructing organisational realities. In: HOSKING, D.-M.; DACHLER, H. P.; GERGEN, K. J. (Eds.). Management and Organisation: Relational Alternatives to Individualism Aldershot: Avebury, 1995.
DAMASIO, A. R. The Feeling of What Happened London: Heinemann de Gruyter, 2000.
DEAL, T. E.; KENNEDY, A. A. Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1982.
GERGEN, K. J. Toward Transformation in Social Knowledge New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982.
GIDDENS, A. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration Cambridge: Polity, 1984.
HOSKING D.-M. Constructing power: entitative and relational approaches. In: HOSKING, D.-M.; DACHLER, H. P.; GERGEN, K. J. (Eds.). Management and Organisation: Relational Alternatives to Individualism Aldershot: Avebury, 1995.
JAQUES, E. The Changing Culture of a Factory London: Tavistock, 1951.
KELEMAN, M.; HASSARD, J. Paradigm plurality: exploring past present and future trends. In: WESTWOOD, R.; CLEGG, S. (Eds.). Debating Organization: Point-Counterpoint in Organization Studies Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
PETERS, T. J.; WATERMAN, R. H. In Search of Excellence, New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
PETTIGREW, A. M. On studying organisational cultures. Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 24, n. 4, p. 570-581, 1979.
SCHEIN, E. Sense and nonsense about culture and climate. In: ASHKANASY, N. et al (Eds.). Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate London: Sage, 2000.
SILVERMAN, D. The Theory of Organisations London: Heinemann, 1970.
SILVERMAN, D. In: PARKER, M.; HASSARD, J. (Eds.). Towards a New Theory of Organizations London: Routledge, 1994.
STRAUSS, A. et al. The hospital and its negotiated order. In: FRIEDSON, E. (Ed.). The Hospital in Modern Society, New York: Macmillan, 1963.
STRAUSS, A. Negotiations New York: Wiley, 1978.
WATSON, T. J. Theorising managerial work: a pragmatic pluralist approach to interdisciplinary research. British Journal of Management, v. 8 (special issue), p. 3-8, 1997.
WATSON, T. J. In Search of Management. Revised ed. London: Thomson Learning, 2001a.
WATSON, T. J. Beyond managism: negotiated narratives and critical management education in practice. British Journal of Management, v. 12, n. 4, p. 385-396, 2001b.
WATSON, T. J. The emergent manager and processes of management pre-learning. Management Learning, v. 32, n. 2, p. 221-235, 2001c.
WATSON, T. J. Organising and Managing Work: Organisational, Managerial and Strategic Behaviour in Theory and Practice Harlow: FT Prentice-Hall, 2002.
WEBER, M. Economy and Society Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
WEICK, K. E. The Social Psychology of Organizing Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1979.
WITTGENSTEIN, L. Philosophical Investigation Oxford: Blackwell, 1953.

Datas de Publicação

Publicação nesta coleção
10 Fev 2011
Data do Fascículo
Mar 2005

Histórico

Aceito
15 Dez 2003

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

[1] ALVESSON, M.; KARREMAN, D. Taking the linguistic turn in organizational research: challenges, responses, consequences. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, v. 36, n. 2, p. 136-158, 2000.

[2] ATHOS, R. T.; PASCAL, A. G. The Art of Japanese Management Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.

[3] AUSTIN, J. L. How to Do Things with Words Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962.

[4] BENDIX, R. Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait London: Methuen, 1966.

[5] BURRELL, G. Organisational paradigms. In: SORGE, A. (Ed.). Organization London: Thomson Learning, 2002.

[6] CHIA, R. Organisational Knowledge as Deconstructive Practice Berlin: De Gruyter, 1996.

[7] CHIA, R. Ontology: organization as "world-making". In: WESTWOOD, R.; CLEGG, S. (Eds.). Debating Organization: Point-Counterpoint in Organization Studies Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.

[8] DACHLER, H. P.; HOSKING, D.-M. The primacy of relations in socially constructing organisational realities. In: HOSKING, D.-M.; DACHLER, H. P.; GERGEN, K. J. (Eds.). Management and Organisation: Relational Alternatives to Individualism Aldershot: Avebury, 1995.

[9] DAMASIO, A. R. The Feeling of What Happened London: Heinemann de Gruyter, 2000.

[10] DEAL, T. E.; KENNEDY, A. A. Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1982.

[11] GERGEN, K. J. Toward Transformation in Social Knowledge New York: Springer-Verlag, 1982.

[12] GIDDENS, A. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration Cambridge: Polity, 1984.

[13] HOSKING D.-M. Constructing power: entitative and relational approaches. In: HOSKING, D.-M.; DACHLER, H. P.; GERGEN, K. J. (Eds.). Management and Organisation: Relational Alternatives to Individualism Aldershot: Avebury, 1995.

[14] JAQUES, E. The Changing Culture of a Factory London: Tavistock, 1951.

[15] KELEMAN, M.; HASSARD, J. Paradigm plurality: exploring past present and future trends. In: WESTWOOD, R.; CLEGG, S. (Eds.). Debating Organization: Point-Counterpoint in Organization Studies Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.

[16] PETERS, T. J.; WATERMAN, R. H. In Search of Excellence, New York: Harper & Row, 1982.

[17] PETTIGREW, A. M. On studying organisational cultures. Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 24, n. 4, p. 570-581, 1979.

[18] SCHEIN, E. Sense and nonsense about culture and climate. In: ASHKANASY, N. et al (Eds.). Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate London: Sage, 2000.

[19] SILVERMAN, D. The Theory of Organisations London: Heinemann, 1970.

[20] SILVERMAN, D. In: PARKER, M.; HASSARD, J. (Eds.). Towards a New Theory of Organizations London: Routledge, 1994.

[21] STRAUSS, A. et al. The hospital and its negotiated order. In: FRIEDSON, E. (Ed.). The Hospital in Modern Society, New York: Macmillan, 1963.

[22] STRAUSS, A. Negotiations New York: Wiley, 1978.

[23] WATSON, T. J. Theorising managerial work: a pragmatic pluralist approach to interdisciplinary research. British Journal of Management, v. 8 (special issue), p. 3-8, 1997.

[24] WATSON, T. J. In Search of Management. Revised ed. London: Thomson Learning, 2001a.

[25] WATSON, T. J. Beyond managism: negotiated narratives and critical management education in practice. British Journal of Management, v. 12, n. 4, p. 385-396, 2001b.

[26] WATSON, T. J. The emergent manager and processes of management pre-learning. Management Learning, v. 32, n. 2, p. 221-235, 2001c.

[27] WATSON, T. J. Organising and Managing Work: Organisational, Managerial and Strategic Behaviour in Theory and Practice Harlow: FT Prentice-Hall, 2002.

[28] WEBER, M. Economy and Society Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.

[29] WEICK, K. E. The Social Psychology of Organizing Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1979.

[30] WITTGENSTEIN, L. Philosophical Investigation Oxford: Blackwell, 1953.

Brasil

Brasil

Organização e trabalho em transição: da lógica "sistêmico-controladora" à lógica "processual-relacional"

Organization and work in transition: from the "systems-control" logic to the "processrelational" one

Resumos

Datas de Publicação

Histórico