Ch 3 - Division of Labor and Hierarchy

From Chapter 3 entitled the Three Early Perspectives on Organizations and Communication in the sub section The Industrial Revolution on page 71 the topic of the Division of Labor and hierarchy are introduced. Here the authors define the “division of labor as the separation of tasks into discrete units and hierarchy as the vertical arrangement of power and authority that distinguishes managers from employees” (Eisenberg, Goodall, Trethewey, 2007). The authors also state that these concepts are part of the modern organization theory. Our modern organizations have strict levels of hierarchy in order to define rank and those who observe, keep order, and who can fix problems (the managers) above the employees who have work split up among other employees and when their work is put together a complete project is the end result. As a manager I found that some employees resented the decisions or requests I made. For example: I made someone a lead (assistant manager) that had only been with us for one year, but was an incredible worker and always went above and beyond what was expected. She was a great example and I wanted others to see that if they work hard it pays off and she was a fantastic lead. Later I had an employee who had been working there for four years ask why she had not been made the lead because she believed seniority had priority. In actuality she rarely got her work done and spent most of her time listening to baseball games on the radio and was eventually let go. Seniority should not take priority (even though sometimes it does) I believe work performance should determine the growth of an employee throughout the organization. Despite the resentment people may have when it comes to the division of labor and the hierarchy it creates I feel that these concepts make organizations run smoother then it would if it had everyone has equals because there would be no one to delegate and make important decisions when no one else can.