DOST METAFORU İŞLETMELER İÇİN BİR ERDEM ARAYIŞI MI?: ELEŞTİREL BİR DEĞERLENDİRME

Özet

Bu çalışmada; dost metaforu , 14/04/2020 23/05/2020 25/06/2020 işletme ölçeğinde sorunsallaştırılarak, ilgili metaforun neden/nasıl kullanıldığı ve sıklıkla karşılaşılan dost işletme kategorileri eleştirel teori bağlamında değerlendirilmiştir. Çalışmada öncelikle, eleştirel teori ve eleştirel yönetim çalışmaları açıklanmış, ardından işletme ve dost metaforu ilişkisi ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. Örgütsel düzeyde metaforların eleştirel analizi, içinde yaşadığımız dünyayı daha net algılayıp olumlu yönde geliştirilmesine katkı sağlayacaktır. Ana akım yönetim ve organizasyon çalışmalarının konfor alanının dışına çıkmaya cesaret eden ve mevcut teorilere şüpheyle yaklaşan eleştirel yönetim çalışmaları, örgütleri sadece basit olarak bir takım mal ve hizmetleri sunan kuruluşlar olarak düşünmemekte, insan olmayı üreten ve yeniden üreten kuruluşlar olarak algılamaktadır. Çalışmada, dost metaforu işletme ölçeğinde, parçalı bir yaklaşımla, bütünsel olmaktan uzak, insanın farklı özelliklerini zayıflık derecesinde algılayan, gücün ve iktidarın sahibi olarak işletmelerin sözde hakikatçi bir tutumu olarak nitelendirilmektedir. Sonuç olarak; dost metaforu işletme ölçeğinde, kendini gerçekleştiren kehanet olma potansiyeli taşımaktadır. Eleştirel yönetim çalışmaları bağlamında, tüm kategoriler bir potada eritilirse, işletmelerin esas amaçlarına ulaşılacağı düşünülmektedir.

Abstract

1. LITERATURE SURVEY and RESEARCH SUBJECT The concept of human relations, which began to rise in the 1920s and 1930s, was based on the prison metaphor, although it placed the issue of how best to organize the work on an ideological framework. According to Fleming (2020), the employee has been treated tactfully and tolerantly since then within the conception of Taylorism, which is presented in a noble-hearted manner, until the moment he decides that he does not get what he has wanted. The main purpose here is to ensure the loyalty and commitment of the employee. Thus, the employee continues to work without feeling any discrepancy between himself and the business. The aim here is to make the employee work much more prolifically. In this context, the phenomenon of work and the relationship between the organization and employee has always been an issue to be carefully considered. 1.1. RESEARCH PURPOSE and ITS IMPORTANCE In this study, friendly metaphor has been problematized on the scale of business, and why and how metaphor is used and why it has been described as false truthfulness in the study has been tried to be clarified through Foucault’s “critical” approach, expressed in his words as “it is another dimension related to the importance of telling the truth, knowing who may tell the truth, and why we should tell the truth” (2019, s. 144). To this end, critical theory and critical management studies have been explicitly introduced in the first place, and then the relationship between business and friendly metaphor has been tried to be elucidated. 1.2. CONTRIBUTION of the ARTICLE to the LITERATURE 2. DESIGN and METHOD This study is seeking a critical answer to the question “Is friendly metaphor a search for virtue for businesses?” For this purpose, friendly metaphor was primarily attempted to be analyzed within philosophical contexts. Thus, as Bates (2001, p.582) stated, it was aimed to contribute to the effort to make the world we live in more transparent with a critical analysis through the metaphors that express our beliefs and actions. What’s more, this study bears a critical aspect that will contribute to the structural transformation of businesses. Furthermore, since there is no study in the literature that discusses and examines the friendly metaphor issue outside the mainstream management approaches in the context of businesses, the door-opening feature of this study should not be overlooked. Critical management studies (Goldman, 2016) that dare to step out of the comfort area of traditional mainstream management and organization studies and thus approach the existing theories with suspicion (Goldman, 2016) aim at humanizing business processes, creating an alternative to bureaucratic structures, realizing democracy in the workplace, ensuring the participation of employees in management, and establishing a balance between work life and other areas of life. Organizations should not be considered simply as institutions that offer a number of goods and services. The basic principle that organizations are the establishments that produce and reproduce man (Cooper, 2001, Akt.:Yıldırım, 2010) is one of the main reasons why the use of friendly metaphor in organizations has been the main point of focus in this study. 2.1. RESEARCH TYPE Although this study has the characteristics of a traditional review, the friendly metaphor concept used for businesses has been discussed from the perspective of critical management studies. 2.2. RESEARCH PROBLEMS This study is seeking a critical answer to the question “Is friendly metaphor a search for virtue for businesses?” 3. FINDINGS and DISCUSSION Friendship, which is the subject of this study, is regarded as a virtue both in the works belonging to the Aristotle period and those after Aristotle. In studies conducted on the concept of virtue, we see friendship as a dimension in the scales developed to measure individual and organizational virtue. Businesses are rendered informal with the aforementioned friendly metaphor. This informalization blurs the boundary between work life and non-work life. This blurry condition basically plays a role in favor of the company, while it has the potential to turn into a rather disturbing picture for the employee. Metaphor, which is used to ensure high commitment to the business, also paves the way for the employee to