What is work?
When we say that ‘we are working’, what exactly are we doing? How do we know that we are working? Or we could also wonder, how do we know that someone is not working?
There is a question that most workers, even in the 21st century do not ask themselves, at least on a daily basis, and it refers to the multiple understanding as to what work really is. If we get a little nostalgic, it is likely that our imagination shares images of people doing physical work, wearing clothes that used to be called overalls, dressed in grey, brown or green colors. If we gave free rein to our imagination and would like to know what these people looked like, we would certainly picture a tired person, an overburdened body, a face full of wrinkles. However, does this image match a worker, you or me, today? Probably not. Let’s see some differences.
- Most manufacturing jobs have been replaced by robots and people even work from home.
- Working is no longer obeying. It is about thinking and contributing. We are expected to develop strategies to achieve the goals proposed by the organization.
- Our work requires decision-making and a high degree of judgement.
In this context, we could argue that today working means, in the first place, to make use of judgement and decision-making to achieve a proposed goal, within the ethical, moral and legal framework of the organization through the strategic use of the available resources, with a clear vision of the value added. (Jaques, 2004).
In other words, if I am working, I should be adding value to the task, and how I add value will largely depend on the decisions I make. Now, how does this vision affect your roles and functions at work?
Work dynamics in an organization
However, despite the importance of the use of judgement and decision-making, the very dynamics of work in an organization tend to be explained, to a greater extent, by the will of the managers’ plans and, to a lesser extent, through the result of a deliberate strategy designed by the individuals involved. The internal dynamic is in some cases the result of rational policies and in other cases it is understood through the behaviour of people who defend established routines. In all cases, it is a self-generated design.
It is of some interest to reflect about what we understand by the term ‘organization’. The reason for this is that people’s representations of the organization as a network of interconnected behaviours play a key role in managing individual behaviour.
An organization is the interaction of many people who do something together, guided by formal guidelines, but also by their own criteria, by modalities that arise from the work environment, and by the need to respond to situations that had never emerged before (the emergent). People do not interact with the entire organization, they move within ‘communities of practice'(Gore, 2021).
An organization can also be understood under the English concept of Organizing. This concept implies that the organization is something that is happening. However, we are faced with a limitation here since not all organizations are designed to innovate but rather to repeat what once worked.
Finally, ambidextrous organizations (AO) are those where, regardless of their size, the capacity for innovation and execution are not mutually exclusive but simultaneous (Gore, 2021). In simple terms, it refers to the ability to do different things at different times or simultaneously. An AO prioritizes the collective construction of meaning and knowledge over the exercise of power. The long-held idea that »those above think and those below execute or operate» no longer has a place. This separation of doing and thinking used to give meaning to the structure and allowed solutions to be found. Today, the solutions lie more in models of adaptive and creative organizational responses.
Therefore, it is necessary to review the notions and concepts that people have about the term ‘organization’ since they may have an impact on daily work practices and decision-making processes. By doing so, we will eventually be able to distinguish the most reliable practices and systematize a new way of working. It is only though the action that we can better understand what it really means the work we do.
Organizational climate and culture
The different notions and representations that we have about the organization help in the construction of a certain organizational climate and culture. From the perspective of Arnoletto (2009), organizational culture is the set of socially recognized behaviours within the organization. In other words, “it’s the way we do things around here”. It is the set of values and norms (formal and informal) that support such behaviours; and they configure the environment or «mental climate» in which the group’s coexistence takes place.
Culture is especially important in the life of the group. It basically has two functions: an internal function that refers to the feeling of ourselves and an external function, the adaptation of the organization to the external world (Arnoletto, 2009). The same author adds that, on the contrary, the organizational climate refers to the individual and collective perception that managers, employees, and the public of an organization have as a result of their experiences and interactions in the workplace that affects their performance. Research on the organizational climate allows us to know the numerous perceptions of the members that are ultimately those that determine the behaviours. Working in an organization that has a high degree of awareness regarding its organizational climate implies creating and developing opportunities for participation so that all members can contribute to the formation of an empathic climate.
There are various theories that support the importance of organizational climate. According to Brunet (2004) the concept of organizational climate rests on two great theoretical currents of thought: the Gestalt school and the functionalist school. From the perspective of analysis of the Gestalt School people understand the world around them from perceived and inferred criteria, or it could also be said that their behaviour is based on the way they see the world. For the Functionalist School, people’s thinking and behaviour depend on the environment that surrounds them and the individual characteristics and differences play an important role in the adaptation of the individual to their environment.
Despite the divergent views of both schools, a point of convergence is the search for balance that people try to obtain in the organization in which they work. This search for balance is also reflected in the (mis) understanding of the work they do. In general, we try to understand recent forms of value production with notions and concepts forged in a time when labour relations were different. The factory is a clear example. Hence the importance of creating spaces for reflection at work about the work practices of each organization, and their impact on the organizational culture and climate.
Advisory
At VG & Asociados we accompany leaders and entrepreneurs to develop their managerial and and soft skills from an organizational Learning approach. Our proposal seeks to enhance people’s underlying capabilities through active participation in the training process.
