In criticizing the "second approach" to explaining the supposed lack o* rational transformation of the workplace, the author most likely assumes which of the Wowing?
A.
Upper management sometimes encourages innovative policies of flexible and participative work arrangements.
B.
Versions of the second approach take upper management to have sometimes attempted to transform the workplace to improve performance.
C.
The second approach often takes factors within a firm to have less of an impact on its organizational culture than they in fact do.
D.
The second approach fails to consider the various ways In which new policies an be mediated by the manner In which they are introduced.
E.
The second approach often fails to address the point that middle managers tend to view new work practices as threats to their traditional status and authority.
Although a substantial body of evidence Indicates that flexible and participative work arrangements make possible significant performance advantages over more traditional centralized and hierarchical structures, the proportion of businesses that have so transformed themselves remains quite small. Why, then, do firms that purport to be rationally acting organizations appear to resist the very methods that would best equip them to achieve their stated goals?
One line of analysis points toward the phenomenon of structural inertia, suggesting that organizations are "imprinted" with the conditions under which they were born, tending thereafter to ding to long-established routines, production methods, and identities. A second approach fastens on resistance to change among middle managers, who are said to view new work practices as threats to their traditional status and authority. A third approach suggests that because firms have tended to adopt innovations singly, rather than in clusters, the firms often fail to achieve far-reaching organization change.
Although each of these perspectives contains a partial truth, each one is limited. Analysis using the concept of structural inertia tends to emphasize the conservative aspects of organizational culture and to neglect inside factors as sources of change. While theories of managerial resistance have stressed the importance of within-firm political processes, they often endow upper levels of management with an omniscience and openness to egalitarian practices that upper-level managers do not possess. Finally, the last approach often views new practices as if they exist in a vacuum—as if they are unmediated by the manner in which they are introduced.
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