A. Organization
An organization is a consciously coordinated social entity with distinct boundaries which functions to achieve goals. It has an activity system linked to the external environment (it does not exist alone). An organization consists of people, things, knowledge and technologies.
Modernists’ assumption of reality is objectivism and view organizations are real entities which exist in the objective world. Organizations are viewed as real entities driven by rationality to achieve efficiency and organizational objectives/goals. When organizations are well-managed, they are systems of decision and action driven by norms of rationality, efficiency and effectiveness for stated purposes.
Similar to modernists, critical theorists’ ontology is also objectivism, and organizations are real entities which exist in the objective world. However, critical theorists view organizations as objects used by capitalists for the exploitation and alienation of workers and the environment.
Symbolic interpretivists believe that reality is subjective, and only exists if we give meaning to it. As such, organizations are socially constructed realities which are constructed and reconstructed by their members through symbolically mediated interaction. Without its members giving meaning to it, an organization does not exist.
Postmodernists suggest that reality is constructed through language and discourse. Organizations are ‘imagined’ entities whereby power and social arrangements are reinforced through language and discourse.

C. Epistemology
Epistemology is defined as knowing how u can know. It is concerned with how human form knowledge and establish criteria for evaluating it.
Modernist relates to positivist epistemology which assumes that one can discover what truly happens in organisations through the categorisation and scientific measurement of the behaviour of people and system. In this way, modernists can develop general theories explaining many different aspects of one overarching reality and make predictions about the future.
Symbolic interpretivism relates to interpretive epistemology which assumes that knowledge can only be created and understood from the point of view of the individuals who live and work in the organisation or culture. Hence, an individual acts in situations which make sense based on one’s experience, memories and expectations.
Post modernist sees knowledge as not being accurate because meanings cannot be fixed. There is no independent reality and facts but are only interpretations. Organisations are texts produced by and in language. We are able to rewrite them so as to emancipate ourselves from human folly and degradation.
Critical theorist relates to subjectivist where ‘knowing’ the ‘truth’ is ‘tainted’ by dominant ideology and values of those seeking ‘truth’. Nature cannot be seen as it ‘really is’ or ‘really works’ except through a ‘value window’.

D. Differentiation
The division of labour between different departments is known as horizontal differentiation.
The division of authority into different hierarchical levels is known as vertical differentiation.
Horizontal differentiation can be measured by counting the number of units or departments within the organisation. Vertical differentiation can be counted by the number of hierarchical levels.
Looking at the organisational chart, organisation with a flat organisation structure has many department and few hierarchical levels. A tall organisation has fewer department and many hierarchical levels.
Differentiation is a measure of organisation social structure developed by early modernist organisations theorists. However, in the perspective of a post-modernist, they are sceptical of the principles of hierarchy and differentiation. They insist that there are not real underlying orders but just words to legitimize those who hold power and it is a modernist fixation on controlling social behaviour.
It is argued in the post-modernist perspective that differentiation and the modernist notion of organisational structure does not recognise the ‘disorganisation’ in organisations. They also argue that organisations today are over-differentiation and it leads their members to experience them as incoherent, a state which can render them over-dependant on the most powerful members of the hierarchy. Therefore, the post-modernist perspective feels that organisations should redesign.
The critical theorist, on the other hand, views differentiation in another way. They felt that the modernist approaches to organisational structure and physical space are about reinforcing power and control, and increasing production and profitability. In addition, they also felt that the post-modernist views on redesigning organisational structure and physical structure does not provide “voice to the marginalised”. It does not after the fundamental relations between owners, managers and workers and just offered new way for the continued subordination of organisational members.

E. Market control
Market control is one of the modernist theories of control. It takes place through economic competition. When organizations participate in free markets, prices and profits can be used to evaluate and control their performance. In competition, prices are taken as indicators of performance because it is assumed that comparison of prices and profits among a group of competitors in a free market provides a reasonable means of evaluating their relative efficiency. Market control can be used at the unit level within organization by treating the units divisions of multi-divisional organizations as profit centers. Top management tracks their revenue and costs in order to compare their performance. Market strategies lean heavily on output controls. When competition is not present or cannot effectively stimulate, another mechanism of control must be found.
Such control theory differs from postmodern and critical theory understanding of control. Postmodernist look at disciplinary power differs from the modernist concepts of sovereign power and hierarchical power, it resides in the routine practices of surveillance used in organizations and is regarded as normal by employees. Postmodernist ‘deconstructing’ modernist methods of control, it suggests that organizations rely upon surveillance mechanisms to control organizational members such as video surveillance, monitoring of email and computer use, the ‘time-clock’.
Critical theorist thinks that there is dominant ideology preserve and legitimize the unjust and undemocratic relations within organizations. It neutralizes unequal and exploitative arrangements. For example, it is normal to work overtime. People consent and conform their own domination.

F. Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy is formal, hierarchical organization with many levels which tasks, responsibilities and authority are delegated among individuals, offices and departments, held together by a central administration. The focus of bureaucratic systems is on the standardization of behaviour and reward of individuals for compliance with established formalised rules and regulations.
Bureaucracy is a modernist way of organizational design because it reinforces rationalised control through rules and traditional hierarchies. Modernists use bureaucracy as a control mechanism to manage the organization and control organizational members to achieve coordination, compliance and attain organizational goals and effectiveness.
Critical theorists will argue that bureaucracy as a form of control is used by capitalists/those in power to dominate and subordinate its organizational members. Critical theorists propose a democratic organizational design which encourages industrial democracy.
Post modernists view modernist methods of control as a dominant discourse which seek to have power over the marginalised. Postmodernists aim to de-construct modernist control methods. For example, modernists achieve control through surveillance; post modernists suggest self-surveillance, whereby organizational members manage themselves through self-discipline (the anticipation and fear of “inspection”).

H. Organizational Culture & Organizational Sub-culture
Organizational culture is the totality of learned ideas, values, knowledge, normative behaviours, rules and customs shared within an organization. It comprises the organization’s assumptions, beliefs, values and behaviours that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization as well as define organizational membership.
A sub-culture is a subset of an organization’s members that identify themselves as a distinct group within the organization and routinely take action on the basis of their unique collective understandings.
The modernist approach takes on the belief that organizational culture is ‘real’ and is a variable that can impact upon organizational performance. Organizational culture can enable or constrain organizational effectiveness and capacity to bring about change.
The symbolic interpretive approach also believes that organizational culture is ‘real’ and that interpretation and meaning making occurs through cultures. It suggests that taking part in the organizational life and culture is like fulfilling a part in a theatrical play. Organizations have scripts to ‘perform’ while organizational members are actors who perform an organizational role within this script. The overall success or failure of an organization is partially determined by the capacity to perform the script and its actors.
Critical theorists suggest that organizational culture is ideological and is a manipulative attempt to ‘manufacture consent’ and pacify consumers, organizational members and others that the organization is dependent on. It criticizes the modernist understanding of culture as too simplistic and that it cannot be manufactured and/or easily controlled by the management, as well as makes organizational members cynical and suspicious of management attempts to ‘manufacture’ a culture.
The post-modernist approach challenges the idea that organizations have cultures and suggests the notion that organizational culture is just an illusion. This approach believes that corporate ‘culture’ is conceptualized within postmodern notions of power and the contestation of power.

I. Organisational narrative
Organisational narrative is a described as a story of real events with a plot and characteristics that when analysed will tell us about the organisations’ culture and distinctive practices. However, taking a narrative approach to culture demands more than just collecting and analysing the content of stories- it involves the process of storytelling. The cultural significance of stories lies as much in the teller’s art as in the message the story relays.
Modernist uses organisational narrative such as generic narrative that create the company, personal narratives including the life history, dreams and visions of the founder and situational narratives of critical events that explain why things are done in certain ways within the organisation. However, post modernist believes this merely construct subjective experience as objective fact while hiding the identity of the narrator.
Post modernist believes that organisational members recite and create different narratives with different audiences resulting in polyphony of competing and incoherent stories being told simultaneously within an organisation. They require us to recognise, ‘listen’ to and critically reflect upon dominant and marginalised organisational narratives. These narratives can help us to identify points of instability and dissatisfaction within organisation. These multiple and competing narratives can help guide our decisions and provide organisational members with a better sense of involvement in management processes.

J. Organizational Design
Organizational design is the designated formal structure of an organization as applied to roles, authority, responsibilities and decision making.
Modernists view organization design as a variable which influences organizational performance. As such, modernist theories of organizational design are often prescriptive (prescribe a way of doing things, for example modernist theories of “ideal” or theoretical types of organizational design: bureaucracy, horizontal vs. vertical differentiation) associated with finding “universal” ways of managing organizational design to achieve effectiveness and efficiency.
In the modernist perspective, a good organizational design optimizes organizational performance by balancing elements of a social structure such as differentiation (horizontal vs. vertical) and integration (i.e. proper division of labour and integrated work).
Symbolic interpretivists suggest that organizational design is fluid and continually constructed and reconstructed by its members. Roles and authority within the organization are continually negotiated. Organizations are viewed as “communities of practice”, where the organizational structure is formed when groups of people share ideas, values, goals in a coordinated capacity under conditions that allow them to learn and develop new practices together. There can be multiple “communities of practice” in a given organization. One example is the Xerox’s Eurika project, where organizational members come together to share knowledge and brainstorm ways to improve work processes within the organization.
Post modernists are suspicious of modernist ideas of organizational design as they legitimise control though organizational language and discourse (to give power to the dominant group). Post modernists aim to de-de-differentiate modernist methods of organizational design (horizontal and vertical differentiation). De-differentiation is a reintegration of activities through self-management, decentralisation and improved self-coordination (i.e. autonomous work groups).
Critical theorists suggest that organizational design maintains managerial control and authority which is used to dominate and exploit workers. Critical theorists encourage organization designs which are democratic and take into account industrial democracy.

M. Organisational effectiveness
Organisational effectiveness refers to the degree to which an organisation attains its short term and long term goals, the selection of which reflects strategic constituencies, the self interest of the evaluator and the life stage of the organisation. The five approaches for measuring organisation effectiveness are the goal attainment, system, strategic constituencies, stakeholders and balanced scorecard approach.
Goal attainment approach assumes that organisations are rational and goal seeking entities which focus on the end result. They believe organisations exist to achieve goals and its effectiveness depends upon on an organisation achieving its goals. System approach views the organisation as mechanisms that produce goods and services in a repetitive cycle and focus on the process and procedure in the organisation. Both of the approaches take on a modernist view on the aspect of organisational effectiveness.
Strategic constituencies takes on the perspective on symbolic and critical theorist which emphasizes that the survival of an organisation depends upon satisfying key actors such as managers, shareholders, employees, unions and customers.
Stakeholder approach assumes the existence of organisation should place the focus not only the key actors but also on those actors with less political influences to the organisation such as family of employees and residents near a factory. This approach takes on the perspective of the post-modernist and it focus on the relationship with all the actors related to the organisation.
Finally the balanced scorecard approach is an integrated measure which consists of the above four approaches in an attempt to cover all the factors and issue that affect the organisational effectiveness and its long-term survival.

N. Goal attainment approach
The goal attainment approach assumes organisations are rational, goal seeking entities with clearly defined and widely agreed upon goals. As organisations exists to achieve goals, effectiveness then depends upon an organisation achieving its goal and the goal attainment approach places strong emphasis on efficiency goals. The modernist focuses on efficiency goals and places importance in profit due to their pathological nature of corporation for profits.
The goal attainment approach uses the modernist approach of measuring the effectiveness of an organisation. This approach assumes that organisations are deliberate, rational, goal-seeking entities. The strengths of this approach us that managers can use the results as a benchmark or performance indicators and seek to improve organisational effectiveness through developing measures to achieve the target. However, it is limited as it can only measure goals that are tangible. Measurements can also be inaccurate as there are differences in the organisation’s short and long term goals and manager’s goals can be incompatible with organisational goals.
However, the symbolic interpretivist, critical theorist, and post-modernist question the use of the goal attainment approach by questioning them whether organisations are rational goal-seeking entities as some organisations may be involved with illegal businesses. In addition to that, they question the differences between the short term and long term goals of the organisations as short term goals may mean to achieve profit for the organisation but long term goals may be to reduce externalities. Therefore, there may be a conflict of interest between the two goals.

O. New Public Management
New public management can be defined as a group of policy and administrative reforms aimed at the organization and management of public organizations to improve public sector performance.
Consisting of a mixture of modernist and postmodernist principles, the modernist side to it is where practices focus on outcomes rather than means. Responsibilities are transferred from the government to private sector and involve strategic and business planning for profits. It also adopts flexible employment practices. Postmodernist principles include decentralizing and disaggregating authority to allow greater autonomy among government departments and agencies which result in a flatter organizational hierarchy and quasi-autonomous agencies.
New public management thus is a business-oriented approach to government by moving away from the traditional bureaucratic organized public sector and use market mechanisms to create greater competition and choice for consumers and also improve the delivery of services.

P. Corporatisation VS Privatisation
Corporatisation is the transformation of state-owned enterprises into commercial entities which are subject to commercial legal requirements and governance structures but which remains state owned. On the other hand privatisation is the full or partial sale of state-owned enterprises to private individuals, companies or national international shareholders.
Corporatisation is often the first stage towards privatisation. Public sector reforms emanated from neo-liberal and economic rationalist philosophical thinking. Corporatisation is supported by neo-liberalism which is an economic ideology that embraces the free market, the minimalist state and individual rights. The ‘market’ is seen as the more effective and efficient provider of social needs.
Privatisation is supported by economic rationalism which is an Australian term to describe micro economic policy that favour a free market-market economy, de-regulation, privatisation of state-owned enterprises, a minimalist state and a reduction in welfare provisions.
From the above explanation, we can see that corporatisation and privatisation are both revolve around economic gains which are driven by norms of rationality, efficiency and effectiveness, making it highly modernist in nature.

Q. Pragmatism
Pragmatism is the philosophical doctrine that meaning and ‘truth’ of all concepts and theories is determined by the practical value and consequences of these concepts and theories. A pragmatic philosophy and relational world view are the necessary criteria for building learning organizations.
Aspects of pragmatism are aligned with symbolic-interpretive positions where pragmatists thinking arise from experiencing of the socially derived interpretations of what is meaningful when adjusting to the environment. Pragmatism recognized that one is always in an experiential world of negotiation and reinterpretation. In order to prosper and succeed, one has to interpret the world and align with it.
Pragmatism gave rise to the prevalence of learning organizations in China as they focus on knowing the world through experience and relational understanding of the world. Chinese organizations also places importance in humanity relationship known as ‘Guan Si’ where people are always learning from each other and building relationship. This ensure the organization remain connected to the environment for which it is constituted.
On the contrary, Pragmatism is not inherent to western societies and thus, learning organizations are rare in the west. The reason can be attributed to the prevalence of modernist approaches in the west where positivist epistemologies lays the foundation. Modernist approaches are concern with establishing a universal truth, oriented towards controlling the external environment rather than engaging with and learning from it, and believe in explicit knowledge establish from science over other knowledge such as tacit knowledge.

R. Inequality
Inequality is defined as the different groups within society processing differing amounts of power, prestige and wealth. It is the systematic disparities between participants in power and control over goals, resources, outcomes and opportunities of promotions. Hence, there is a lack of equality, opportunity treatment or status.
Modernists focus on how inequality is distributed within organizations. It measures the impact of inequality with the goal of improving organizational efficiency and effectiveness. It utilizes a full range of human resources by ensuring that there is discrimination in the workplace. Modernist use gender and ethnicity variables to measures the effect of inequality in organizations and then formulate policies in bid to reduce such inequalities.
Critical theorists focus to move beyond inequality as a variable and view these groups not as victims but active participants in the organization. Their goal is to contribute to emancipation from oppressive social conditions. They identify the existence of ‘gender regimes’ in organizations.
Postmodernist on the other hand, view inequality as a false unity amongst the social groups due to the ambiguous classifications of gender, race and ethnicity. Identities are social performances of the intersection between gender, ethnicity and class. The goal is to show the contradictions and problematic claims of truth and to open up and destabilize cultural meanings and beliefs that appear to be unproblematic.

S. Race/ Ethnicity
Race is defined as the biological differences between the groups of people from different parts of the world while ethnicity is the way that groups of people can be defined, in term of linguistic, cultural, lifestyle characteristics and place.
From a modernist perspective, ethnicity is viewed as a variable adding in to scientific process, believe that it is through racial stereotypes and assumptions hidden in research process to be move scientific and objective rather than initial irrational and prejudicial methods.
Moving beyond inequality as variable, the critical theorists view these ethnic groups as active participants and organizing principles of a patriarchal and racist society. On the other hand, while modernists add ethnicity to the scientific process, critical theorists abide by the predominant principles and science as part of the patriarchal and racist dominance.
Postmodernists view race and ethnicity as unstable and ambiguous classifications rather than fundamental categories. They view identities as social performances of intersection between gender, ethnicity and class. Through analyzing all accounts, with the aim of opening up and destabilizing cultural meanings and beliefs, it is revealed that racist assumptions underpin organizations.

T. Patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization.
Patriarchy is an abstract system or political structure that “seeks to control and subjugate women so that their sexuality, childrearing, mothering, loving and laboring is curtailed. It is also associated to radical or socialist feminism.
This fits the modernist conception of inequality where their goal is to utilities a full range of human resources by ensuring that there is less discrimination in the workplace. However, the early modernists were aware of class conflicts but tended to assume that all workers were ethnically homogenous and male. However, gender and race was later recognised by modernist but only as a variable.
In the view of critical theorists, gender and ethnicity are fundamental organising principles of a patriarchy and racist society and scientific process as the predominant principles and rules of science are a patriarchal and racist dominance. Critical theorists feel that class is not the only force that structures society but patriarchy also creates social structure. They argue how male workers attempt to resist power from the employees but they exploit women by deskilling them so that they would have control over women. They also argue that the modernist values and beliefs and male oriented and processes and cultures usually favour males. Socialist feminism is a dualist theory that broadens Marxist feminism's argument for the role of capitalism in the oppression of women and radical feminism's theory of the role of gender and the patriarchy.

U. Network organisation
Network organisation is formed by non-hierarchical relationship comprised of human point of contact called nodes. Network link headquarters with subsidiaries and business units with each other, their stakeholders and their employees.
Network of organisations are most likely to form when organisation face rapid technological change, shortened product life cycle and fragmented and specialises markets. Networks can result from outsourcing a strategic alliance or from collaboration between small firms whose scale of operations would not allow them to compete in international markets by themselves. Within a network structure, partners are link by supplier-customer relationship that resembles a free market system. Competitive pressures on the supplying partners keep downward pressures on prices which reduce their overall costs and increase efficiency and profitability, which help keep the network competitive.
There are some advantages associated with networks. They encourage information sharing, liberate decision making and inspire innovation. Networks create webs of information exchange and mutual obligations that can provide a foundation for deeper relationships.
The greatest challenge in managing network relationships is developing and maintaining an organisational identity sense and sense of purpose in the face of geographic and cultural diversity and loosely coupled interests and activities.