LIMITATION OF DIALECTICS; DA AND DI:Overview of application of dialectics

<< A DIALECTICAL APPROACH TO ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY AND PLANNING:

THEORIES OF CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS >>

Change Management MGMT625

LESSON #12

LIMITATION OF DIALECTICS; DA AND DI

Despite tremendous benefits, there is one such risk organization may run into for employing the

above technique or process. For instance the process may damage group members' feelings,

feelings of rejection, depression, jealousy and anger, and might even corrode morale and working

relationship. Therefore the dilemma for management is to choose among (trade-off) quality

decision and group harmony. In real life such type of trade off often exists. Hence, in overall

analysis the dialectical design in organisation is introduced to have better planning. The exercise

leads to formulation of plan (thesis) counter plan (anti-thesis) constructed on the same databank

will lead to synthesis, that is the exposing hidden assumptions and new conceptualisation of

planning problem which the organisation faces. Further there are following objections by way

which the process can prove to be counter productive:

1. Dialectic inquiry does not identify the moving forces and causes behind the dialectical

process and its realisation in strategic policy planning.

2. Source of thesis (plan) and anti-thesis (counter plan) is not clear

3. It is not clear what governs the synthesis process and what determines the interpretation of

various assumptions and strategies. As happens in real life organization meetings are by its

very nature supposed to be dialectic. Like wise the danger is that the process may be

politicised. This may lead to manufacturing of consent or opposition may manifest for the

sake of mere opposition in a narrowed and rigid perspective.

4. It is self-purposeful, partial and incomplete: only deals with the decision-making process

for strategic planning and neither with antecedents (past history) of planning nor with

planning outcome

Therefore in order to overcome weakness of the process we ought to know the pre-requisites the

dialectical process.

Conditions for exercising dialectics

All theories and models have advantages and disadvantages and the applicability of theory is

permitted under certain conditions. Therefore certain conditions ought to exist before going for

such kind of activity, and these are:

1. Management is unaware of assumptions or in doubt or in disagreement) to choose

appropriate assumption and plan.

2. Multiple and alternative interpretations on the same data bank

3. In case of uncertainty (constantly changing world) management tend to rely on

synthesised set of assumptions or on synthesised view of reality

4. The cost of developing plan, counter-plan or management's involvement in the

development of synthesised world view is less than the cost of advisors' (error in

assumption)

Overview of application of dialectics

Primarily this can be utilised as a decision making and environmental assessment technique for

Change Management MGMT625

generating alternative and scenarios. For e.g. A decision maker who is provided with conflicting

policy recommendations may be involved in a dialectical process.

It is used for the production of systematic knowledge for organization, and as such can have utility

for the following business and corporate functionalities:

Inquiry systemdialectical conflict lead dialectical inquiry

Business gaming and simulation

Dialect Problem-solving technology (DPST)

Nominal Group Training

Delphi Method & control groups

Quality circle

Cross-cultural training

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