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LIMITATION OF DIALECTICS; DA AND DI

<< A DIALECTICAL APPROACH TO ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY AND PLANNING
THEORIES OF CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS >>
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Change Management ­MGMT625
VU
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
generating alternative and scenarios. For e.g. A decision maker who is provided with conflicting policy
recommendations may be involved in a dialectical process.
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Change Management ­MGMT625
VU
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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