Question

5.   Describe the idea of organizations as political agents and political arenas.

Book - Organizations as Political Arenas and Political Agents Ch11

Here is Ch11 -

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Sam Walton started his merchant career in 1945 as proprietor of the second-best variety store in a small rural Arkansas town. From that humble beginning, he built the world’s largest retail chain. With more than 2 million “associates,” Walmart became the world’s largest employer and, for both better and worse, one of the most powerful companies on the globe. More than 90 percent of American households shop at Walmart stores every year, expecting the company to keep its promise of “always low prices” (Fishman, 2006). Walmart’s subtle and pervasive impact is illustrated in a little-known story about deodorant packaging. Deodorant containers used to come packed in cardboard boxes until Walmart decided in the early 1990s that the boxes were wasteful and costly—about a nickel apiece for something consumers would just toss. When Walmart told suppliers to kill the cardboard, the boxes disappeared across the industry. Good for Walmart had to be good enough for everyone. The story is but one of countless examples of the “Walmart effect”—an 217 Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, Sixth Edition. Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal. 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2017 by Jossey-Bass. WEBC11 umbrella term for multiple ways Walmart influences consumers, vendors, employees, communities, and the environment (Fishman, 2006).

Yet, for all its power and success, Walmart has struggled in recent years to cope with an assortment of critics and image problems. The company has been accused of abusing workers, discriminating against women, busting unions, destroying small businesses, damaging the environment, and bribing government officials in Mexico and elsewhere. Circled by enemies, it has mounted major public relations campaigns in defense of its image.

Like all organizations, Walmart is both an arena for internal conflict and a political agent or player operating on a field crammed with other organizations pursuing their own interests. As arenas, organizations house an ongoing interplay of players and agendas. As agents, organizations are powerful tools for achieving the purposes of whoever calls the shots. Walmart’s enormous size and power have made its political maneuvers widely visible; almost everyone has feelings about Walmart, one way or another. The company’s historic penchant for secrecy and its secluded location in Bentonville, Arkansas, have sometimes shielded its internal politics from the spotlight, but tales of political skullduggery still emerge, including a titillating story about a superstar marketing executive who was fired amid rumors of an office romance and conflict with her conservative bosses. The same year also spawned the strange tale of a Walmart techie who claimed he’d been secretly recording the deliberations of the board of directors. Walmart has historically resisted any efforts to unionize its workers, but in the fall of 2012, the company had its first experience with strikes by workers in multiple cities. Ambivalent shoppers told reporters that they sympathized with the workers but still shopped at Walmart because they could not afford to pass up the low prices.

This chapter explores organizations as both arenas and political agents. Viewing organizations as political arenas is a way to reframe many organizational processes. Organization design, for example, can be viewed not as a rational expression of an organization’s goals but as a political embodiment of contending claims. In our discussion of organizations as arenas, we examine the political dimensions of organizational change, contrasting directives from the top with pressures from below. As political agents, organizations operate in complex ecosystems—interdependent networks of organizations engaged in related activities and occupying particular niches. We illustrate several forms that ecosystems can take—business, public policy, business-government, and society. Finally, we look at the dark side of the power wielded by big organizations. We explore the concern that corporate giants represent a growing risk to the world because they are too powerful for anyone to control

ORGANIZATIONS AS ARENAS -

From a political view, “happily ever after” exists only in fairy tales. Today’s winners may quickly become tomorrow’s losers or vice versa. Change and stability are paradoxical: Organizations constantly change and yet never change. As in competitive sports, players come and go, but the game goes on. In the annals of organizational politics, few have illustrated these precepts as well as Ross Johnson, who once made the cover of Time magazine as an emblem of corporate greed and insensitivity. In Barbarians at the Gate, Bryan Burrough and John Helyar (1990) explain how.

Answer 1

Organizations as political agents -
Organizations act as political agents with their own agendas resources and strategies. They have their own set of agendas in order to benefit them. As political agents organization master the skill of of individual managers as politicians. They develop their own agenda ,then create the environment and manage relationship with both there allies and enemies and finally they negotiate their contracts.
Walmart has become and political agent for clear operating on a field and with organizations who are pursuing their own interest. Walmart as an agent has powerful tools for achieving its purposes. It is the purpose of whatever shot it calls in simple words whatever it wants it will achieve.
The enormous size of Walmart has made its politically maneuvers visible.

Organizations as political arenas- Politics and conflicts are always a part of the organization. This gives rise to the political Arena in the organization. Organizations act as political arenas for the ongoing event among variety of interest. Political arenas are play fields for continuous contest among a variety of interest and agendas.
From the case study discussed Walmart the company has been growing at a rapid Pace and became arena for internal conflict. Walmart as political Arena has an ongoing interplay of the players and agendas. Walmart has always resisted any efforts to unionize its workers but the company has failed in the year 2012 when the company had its first experience with strikes by workers in multiple cities . The company has always restricted itself in forming internally any political Arena but this time it failed.
Although the Shoppers told the reporters that they always sympathies with the workers but it will shop at Walmart because they cannot refer to pass up the low prices it offered.
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