International Journal of Management and Humanity Sciences. Vol.
, 3 (8), 2739-2743, 2014
Available online at [Link]
ISSN 2322-424X©2014
The Impact of Postmodernism on Management and Organization
Theories
1 2 3
Ardeshir Bazrkar*, Aziz Javanpour Heravi, and Mohammad Abedzadeh
1- Department of Industrial Management, College of Management, East Azerbaijan Science and Research
Branch, Islamic Azad University ,Tabriz, Iran
2- Department of Management, College Management, Faculty Member, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
3- Department of Industrial Management, College of Management, East Azerbaijan Science and Research
Branch, Islamic Azad University ,Tabriz, Iran
*Corresponding author E-mail: ardeshir.13@[Link]
Abstract
In the 1980s, the era of grow and change of postmodernism was began. The influence
of postmodern thinking in the area of management can be considered in the
formation of the modern call management. Before the industrial revolution, the people
were skilled enough from business and industry training and apprenticeship and they
did not require someone who trains them how to plan, organize and control. In the
modern view, scientific management and human relations management have been
targeted. Modernist paradigm based on instrumental rationality and bye the efficiency
logic, provided valuable services to organizations in the era of modernism, where the
primary emphasis was on mass production and construction of simple machines. In
fact, growth and development organizations in the era of modernity were the result of
the activities people such as Durkhym, Weber, Taylor and others. The impact of
postmodernism school on management theory formed management and modern
organizations and can be stated that this modern world requires modern
organizations and new organizations need modern leaders. Leaders who in addition
to relying on the wisdom and teachings of the classical era of modernity
organizations, have modern thinking tools based on the understanding the values
and sentiment and believe on the interference of factors in the decision because, the
leadership and management in the future will require a better understanding of the
complex relationships within and outside the modern organizations and leadership.
Keywords: Modernism; Postmodernism; Organization theories; Management
Introduction
Transition from the era of "post-modern or traditionalism" was not sudden at the new era of modernity.
Manifestations of the emergence of capitalism and the rule of wealth after centuries by force and hallowed
traditions associated with the development of micro and macro social influence shadows and morality of
capitalism, said the modern era in the West. Protestant ethic requires a worldly perspective and the "law of
faith" and the new religion, hard work and hard work is not only a responsibility but also an inescapable
moral virtue knew. This insight, combined with the beliefs and habits of the material and intellectual goals,
seriously interfere with the pursuit of economic objectives and rational justification. Modernity or "modernism"
began when the man discovered his true and in fact the concept of the "reason" with the advent of the
"enlightenment" was introduced as a top human nature (Rahman Seresht, 1998). Modernity was a period of
the evolution of human knowledge and relying on distinct principles of "best practices" was founded.
The rise of postmodernism
Talking about trends of postmodernism in new form of its emerged at late 60's, mostly from France and
spread from there to other areas of the world. From the late nineteenth century, doubts have emerged in the
modernism and conquer of the bastions of nature by the human. With the advent of World War I and II,
hoping to advance the idea of modernity is absolutely safe in case of doubt, and was revised and discuss
about the ideas of postmodernism formed in 1960 (Parsa, 1998)
Intl. J. Manag. Human. Sci. Vol., 3 (8), 2739-2743, 2014
In the 1980s, the era of growing postmodernism was began, until a new series of creative movement
occurred at the end of the decade, which were called postmodern in different titles, such as constructivist
post-modernism, environmental post-modernism, reconstruction post-modernism and oriented principles
post-modernism.
From postmodern theorists and thinkers who are mainly French are Jean-Francois Lyotard, Michel
Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Charles Jencks, Jacques Lacan and Ahab
Hassan. Of course, "Niche", "Heidegger", "Freud" and "Husserl" are the ancestors of postmodernism, who
their opinions and views have had a significant effect on the emergence of the post-modernism. Generally
two views are noteworthy about this word. One idea that considers it as a period (historical faith) and another
perspective that considers it as a philosophy. In historical perspective, postmodernism is a period which has
emerged after the period of modernism (Rahman Seresht, 1998).
In the field of social sciences, postmodernism is not discern to a independent and teller human, but
sometimes by emphasizing on the instincts and desires, and other factors in the motivation, attacks the
tyranny of logic and reason (type of device). Although the problem of "postmodernism" which is lack of clear
definition, it is still remains, however empirically what is accepted by most theorists is that our generation
passing the various stages of the modernism era is in the era of postmodernism. The fundamental thought of
postmodern is nothing other than the fact that modernity revolution is reduced to modern traditionalism (Boje
and Dennehy, 2000).
The effect of post-modernism on paradigm in various fields
The phenomenon of postmodernism can be studied in two points of view:
• As a philosophical essentialist that criticizes wisdom assumptions and modern humanistic enlightenments.
• Or simply, as a specific time ranges that contains the view and all conversations that agree or disagree with
such an attitude.
• Pass from the simple notion of knowing the probability of world toward the belief in the reality of its complex
and multiple.
• Transition from the hierarchical world to multipolar world order.
• Transition from the world's imagination as the embodiment and machine to looking the world as a visualize
shape.
• Emphasizing the uncertainty of the world instead of the belief in the stability of the world and predictions
based on previous assumptions.
• Pass from the stage of belief in the direct cause -effect and one way relationship and achieving the stage of
effect of belief in the rotational and reciprocal cause -effect (emphasis on nonlinear relationships).
The effect of post-modernism on management
The effect of postmodern thinking in the area of management can be learned in the formation of modern
management. Before the industrial revolution, people from business, training and apprenticeship in industry
were skilled enough so that they did not need to someone learns them planning, organizing and controlling.
They had exactly learned what they do. On the other hand, many also serve as slaves and masters. They
were machined gears. Pioneers of pre-modernism were Adam Smith, Max Weber, Frederick Taylor and
Elton Mayo.
In pre-modernity and the rule of Taylorism, bureaucratic issues were in the head and it was assumed that
scientific management is educational management. Even with the movement of human relations managers,
this assumption did not change considerably and managers were the brain. Hierarchical monitoring and
control continued and despite introducing decentralization and empowerment concepts, but talking and
making of leader was the best. While the turbulence, uncertainty and chaos seeking threatened the discipline
and stability, controlling of relationships was the answer to these threats. Target based management,
management information systems and management strategies used in relation to the control and finding
ways for inspection and control. With the advent of modern bureaucracy, people were shifted to a machine
without soul, and doing something repetitive, boring, and became highly specialized. This trend continued
until the new pioneers considered the organizations as a whole that the parts were not separated. In this
situation, the initial plan of post-modernity was releasing the pressure under control, so that any release fear
and threat (Boje and Dennehy, 1999).
Peter Drucker in 1992, with questions such as: "Are we beyond the era of machine? Beyond the time
when people had no skill at work? Whether working in autonomous teams in a global network, makes people
stronger and self- control? He firstly spoke about the post-modernism management. He says: "In post-
modernism revolution, different parts found that the words such as: comprehensive quality management,
technical-social systems, empowerment and flexible manufacturing systems are substitute words for
modernist command and control or domination and coercion ago. Boje and Dennehy (2000) argue that the "
pre-modern means skillful circuit management, modern means orbit pyramid management and post-
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modernism means network management. But post-modernism is not only a flat network management
system of an organization, but a way to explore and challenge the forms of exploitation".
In modern view, scientific management and human relations management were targeted. Human was a
mechanical device that was controllable by scientific manner. In Weber's theory also the big jobs such as
governance and widespread surveillance should be formal, standardized, normal, centralized and
professional. In post-modernism narrative, human which is the victim of a system of available scientific
categories, should be released from incarceration in the world financial and organizational goals. Post-
modernism narrative on the web organization, with flat lines, horizontal coordination and temporal
relationships between vendors, consumers and employees are stressed; a responsive network, temporal
and blur all parts of organizational boundaries. In this case, the post-modernism is related to the
environmentalist. As a result of this environmentalists, given the diversity increased that this was against the
rules of modernity.
Management components from the perspective of post-modernism management
Post-modernism management defines the management components differently. The components of
planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling in the post-modernism management are
defined as innovation, active organizing, encouraging, both entrepreneurship and self-control, respectively
(Mirsepasi, 2004).
The new components are investigated as below:
• Innovation
This concept is replaced by planning component in postmodernism. The organizations need to effectively
manage uncertainty and risk in the environment. Uncertainty in the sense that, the decision makers do not
know a lot about the environment and for predicting the changes are in trouble; so for their survival must
continually offer new ideas. In addition, the values of individuals and organizations with the facts will change
and these changes in turn modifies the application and revising the goals and means of achieving the goals
necessary to achieve it (Scott, 1996). As a result, we can no longer speak of the classical notion of
programming concepts and inventions and innovations are proposed. Therefore, due to the belief of post-
modernism, relativism and lack of stability, innovation post-modernism management and employees may be
considered in the planning of the main funds are encouraged and appreciated. Post-modernism leader
should be creative, inventor and innovator and to guide the employees towards creativity and innovation.
• Active organizing
This component is replaced by the concept of organizing in modern view. Post-Modernism, due to the
importance for decentralized manner, investigates the concept of active organizing against organizing, which
a model that is selected based on data is obtained from recognized environmental conditions, goals and
tasks, information technology and organization's technical and strategic positions. Widespread organizing,
decentralized, with low layers and steps, flat and flexible is emphasized for autonomous teams (Boje and
Dennehy, 1999). In this type of organizing, flexible production systems, comprehensive quality management,
delegation and empowerment have proposed in order to replace the whole hierarchy of modern organization.
Staffs will speed up their work by statistical quality control charts and information technology. Pyramidal
organizations disappear and principles of horizontal, flat and post hierarchical organization design are
replaced.
• Encouraging
This component is replaced by the concept of command in modern view. It means that arts management
and the ability to pursue new dreams and make a commitment to their prospecting. In the modern era,
people are educated and thus acquire one common goal by participation in groups and through this way they
committed to working towards achieving their goals (Qiu and Tobin, 2000). Thus they don’t need to have
direct command. Manager tries to guide them by influencing and affecting. People are empowered from
encouraging. Empowerment of people means providing context for listening to their sound and sharing in the
knowledge- power trade. In post-modernism thinking, shared decision making and thinking are the results
from contributing in organization (Powell and DiMaggio, 1991).
• The creation
In contrast to coordination, the creation arises in the post-modernism management. When coordination of
voluntary, informal, non- institutional protocol, to be created by individuals and organizational units, the
creation is done. In this case, the employees must understand their objectives and their unit and clear picture
of what they need should be considered. In the creation, informal mechanisms and coordination of work
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group by those groups are used. For this purpose, post- modern management by establishing the different
work group will facilitate talking among people trying to exchange information between them and resulted in
more participation of them and so improvement organizational activities are open (Clapper, 1996). Talking is
of importance by post-modernisms because it is an instrument to strengthen and extend their social
interaction and cause: the tendency to promote cooperation and collective action, increasing tolerance to the
opposing views and developing new ways to solve problems will follow (Ahanchian, 2007).
In the creation a person mentally and emotionally engaged in a group situation, and this engagement
forced he/she to help the group goals and be responsible for doing the goals of his/her group.
• Self-control
The concept of control and power in post-modernity is far from Weber's definition that only emphasizes
social control and individual performance and are discussed in self-control manner.
The control is applied by interview and interview structure may encourage acts of subordinates in an
organization, and thus control means engaging in a dialogue of equals knowledge.
Own control is done by acceptance of personal responsibility for your work. Because in the post-modern
organization the presence and relationship are based on shared values, it is expected that due to the internal
pull of personnel and external gravitations and organizational issues, disciplinary problems appear to be
lowest (Boje and Dennehy, 2000).
Post-modern organization paradigms
The modern paradigm based on instrumental rationality and the logic of efficiency, provided valuable
service to organizations in the era of modernism, where the primary focus was on mass production and
construction of simple machines. In fact, growth and development of organizations in the era of modernity
resulted from the valuable activities of people such as Durkhym, Weber, Taylor and others. But in the post-
modernism organizations, focus is on the empowerment of people.
The main emphasis of this thought can be expressed as: decision-making based on values, feelings and
preferences of individuals and the vast understanding of bureaucracy is considered that in it the unofficial
leader and the groups have important roles. There are always several ways to achieve a certain result. In the
"integrated thinking" against "analytical thinking" achieving a desired result is considered rather than a
specific method. Among the obvious examples of this idea in an organization, TQM can be noted which is
based on the philosophy of continuous improvement, analytical assessment of the work and the
development of a culture quality. Analytical logic (thinking) is a type of thinking based on detailed analysis to
better understand the whole. It means that for understanding a whole subject, knowledge about components
will suffice. Durkheim and Taylor studies on timing and the working, is the result of analytical thinking. But in
the combined logic or thinking, understanding the component is possible only with whole understanding.
What is the important in analytical thinking, is taking the result from the components and the overall result is
always the sum of the partial results. But in combined thinking, how and why achieving results is also of
important. In addition, the final result is not necessarily equals to sum of the results.
In the modern theory, emphasis on effects of leaders and studying the legal status of leaders in
bureaucracy is concerned, but in post-modern theory, how the leadership process is emphasized (Rahman
Seresht, 1998).
In new thinking, leader is not solely on the logical legitimate location. Leadership is not dependent on the
valuable exchanges with others, to influence them, but there is an emphasis on the ability of the leader's
personality and his influence on the beliefs, values, attitudes and actions of others. Therefore lead rational
models should be combined with irrational models (based on intuition, charisma, etc.). These differences put
"pragmatic leaders" against "transformational leadership".
Pragmatic Leader: interested in maintaining legal status, improving the quality of performance through
exchanges in chief -subordinate and enhancing motivation in employees.
Transformational Leadership: influences through a system of shared values and beliefs and force
adherents to the new looking and efforts in achieving the goals. Innovative leaders are autonomous in
decision-making and problem-solving, but post-modernism leaders investigate the perfectly rational decision-
making. In one of the new methods in the study of leadership, is studying personal values and feelings of
leader followers instead of studying the skills, performance or characteristics of the leader (Parsa, 1998).
Investigating model or the single cause in studying the process of leadership is an unhelpful and annoying
task. While modern leadership studies, aimed at finding the causes of the effectiveness of a feature or
behavior, the "effective leader" is not distinguished; but in post-modern leadership studies because of the
integration many ways arises for effectiveness. For example, "Bowen", "Ledfurd" and "Nathan" suggest that
the selection process instead of emphasis on matching candidates with jobs (in terms of knowledge,
experience and skills needed) the fitness of candidates with the organization be assessed and overall merits
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be considered. Research methods in the leadership process in post-modernism relies on "aesthetics"
instead relying on experience (Catherine Toffler, 1998).
Conclusions
According to what was said and what was related to postmodernism on management theory, the formation
and management of beyond modern organizations, it can be noted that a new world requires new
organizations and new organizations are in need of new leaders.
The leaders who moreover relying on the wisdom and teachings of the classical era of modernity
organizations, with new thinking tools are based on an understanding of values and feelings and are
believed to be factors in the decision. The leadership and management in the future will require a better
understanding of the complex relationships within and outside the new-oriented organizations and will
require leadership to address the post-new-oriented organizations and new people need to tolerate the
variables.
On the one hand, the importance of creativity and growing in organizations, leaders are seen by
subordinates, and on the other hand, multiple causes, values and aesthetic thinking and decision-making
based on facts and the manufacturers should be accepted.
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