A Sociology of the Total Organization by Mikaela Sundberg

Author:Mikaela Sundberg [Sundberg, Mikaela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Business & Economics, Labor
ISBN: 9781317186601
Google: Mcm1CwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-03-09T05:07:33+00:00

Concluding Remarks

Expectations are essential for the characterization of organizational totality and greediness, and in this concluding section, I focus exclusively on connecting the chapter to these aspects of overall interest to the book. Totality refers to physical separation from the outside world. In a voluntary total organization, separation is partly maintained through rules that keep members inside the regiment, not because leaving is forbidden, but because staying becomes the more preferable option (cf. Iannaccone, 1994). In relation to the fact that membership in the Legion is voluntary, it is also interesting that the rules surrounding the temporary exits of members who live at the regiments indicate an assumption that they would leave, and hide their affiliation, if they had the chance (cf. Goffman, 1961, p.133). What does this suggest regarding the conception of members? Every organization maintains a discipline of action as well as a discipline of existence, referring to expectations concerning how members should behave and concerning what they should be like (Goffman, 1961, p.135). Thus far we have seen that members are conceived of as being in need of protection, in particular because of their presumed predisposition for risk-taking. If members become disciplined by internalizing rules, not simply behave in disciplined manner, having excessive external systems to maintain discipline becomes superfluous. Conceptions of members as troublesome justify a repressive system, whereas conceptions of members as docile undermine it (cf. Goffman, 1961, p.133). Therefore, if the good member is a bit of a troublemaker, we would expect monitoring and sanctioning devices that maintain this idea. However, if NCOs are no longer restrained by certain rules, but more concerned with monitoring how others comply with them, then the NCO is a different “sort of person” compared to the enlisted man (cf. Goffman, 1956, pp.474–475). We will therefore also investigate how the system constructs the NCO.

Greediness refers to symbolic separation from the outside world, and this is maintained through rules that prohibit other affiliations—to organizations, institutions, or specific persons (dyadic relations). There is a fundamental tension involved in the fact that ties to other members, not only to outsiders, pose threats to greedy demands; at the same time, attention inwards and towards other members is important in order to distract from attractions leading outwards and to maintain the idea of an “us.” The imagined community is crucial for members of greedy organizations to feel integrated as opposed to alienated. According to Weber ([1922]1946, p.255), “those who are enlisted in the ranks are forcibly integrated into the whole,” but in what sense are they integrated? In the Legion, it is totality that “forcibly” integrates members because totality means that they spend most of their time in each other’s presence, inside the regiment. From a greedy viewpoint, the risk of totality is that those who live together will become too close to each other. Totality has ceased for the NCOs, who have to be pulled back together through ceremonies and rituals requiring their presence. Successful use of unifying ceremonies, focusing on the unit

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