Tensions in Employment

Life at Work: The Two Perspectives

There is a universal and unavoidable tension in organizations between management goals and employee relationships. This tension is what makes «life at work» so difficult at times. Tensions exist within management and within employees, and these lead to two complementary Tree frameworks:

■ how an employee should handle employment by an organization
&
■ how management should handle employment for an organization.

The previous analysis generates these frameworks when we recognize relationship tensions inherent in employment expectations and obligations. These tensions exist within two very different relationships:
■ individual employees to their employer (the organization) &
■ the management to the staff (all employees)
So there are two different tensions.

The management goals within the organization are shared to a considerable degree by both employees and management. By contrast, there is a sharp difference in regard to employee relationships.

■ From the management's perspective, the tension is about providing management in a way that delivers organizational goals. To achieve these goals, management must manage i.e. relate to and handle employees so that work gets done in the most effective way.

■ From the employee's perspective, the tension is about the responsibility you owe to yourself while being employed. You must handle management and your employment situation sensibly to work in a way that simultaneously meets your own needs and management's expectations.

To repeat the obvious: Management cannot Closed and should not try or pretend to look after an employee totally.

The Organizational Order

If we take the structural hierarchy of expectations and obligations in organizations, and turn it on its side, we have a seven-level holistic hierarchy based on the successive Groupings.
ClosedSee the picture:►

What do we glean from this map of «the organizational order»? 

● We note, but avoid focusing on, the numerous Groups within the Groupings. They tell us that we are modelling complex psychosocial phenomena, not simple elements of experience.

● We remember that each level/grouping is experienced and perceived as sharply different by management and by an employee. So the diagram represents two seven-level hierarchies, not one.

● We realize that the lower part, CG1-CG4, is work-focused and the upper part, CG5-CG7, is relationship-oriented.

The present task is to focus on the tensions which inevitably arise between management and employees in everyday organizational life. We have to map how the social order is handled and potentially changed. In this social order, neither protagonist, management (M) or employee (E), is primary. Neither can function without the other. As a result,Closed we cannot develop the Tree for one and then simply adjust to the other as we did for achievement.

THEE Note: The relevant tension in relating in each case is a THEEdynamic duality.

The Tree for Organizational Achievement (or Personal Achievement within an Organization) is visible (horizontally) within CG1Closedin the diagram. That should clarify that the frameworks to be developed now are not about achievement or organizational performance as such. They are about handling «life» in employment.

The focus here is solely on work-based relationships, which are intrinsic to achievement. Do not confuse these with other relationship issues in organizations. These include:

■ There are power-based relationships that develop because staff form an enduring group. These may generate political issues: read more.

■ An employee may also wish to focus on developing interactions in ways that generate personal benefits more generally (i.e. not just in regard to work and career): read more.

■ Psychodynamic factors may generate emotional relationships based on childhood longings for nurture, intimacy and sexual gratification. The workplace also offers a natural opportunity for the Games People Play.

The challenge in this section is to discover and name Centres and Channels formed by introducing relationship tensions to the structural hierarchy: CG1-CG7.

► The first step is to consider these intrinsic tensions in more detail.

Originally posted: 30-Nov-2011