Reflection 2: After class this week I pondered some of the things we discussed.

It is interesting to think that how I have begun to feel in a corporate environment is something that people have studied for ages. It is also interesting that they very things that the executives in these companies do to help increase morale are sometimes the very items that decrease morale. Ex; Jean Fridays at Wachovia. This policy was instituted to make employees enjoy coming to work, instead it frustrated employees because the new social construct directly interfered with the old social construct that employees had already completed the refiecation process regarding. In my environment I feel like I have fought many of the current social constructs. SAC's CEO runs the organization through hostile and tyranical techniques. These fear tactics are used in order for him to try and obtain extraordinarily unrealistic outcomes. When the outcomes are not met the employees are shamed into believing that they are bad, not worthy and not competent. The employees apologize are try to show that they are making amends and the cycle repeats. I have refused to participate in this social construct. I have avoided it by keeping detailed records and providing factual information to dispel our CEOs claims. Social construction theory is not the only theory that is at work in my current situation, however. I can see how critical theory and structuration theory also are playing out in the workplace. Since our CEO has zero leadership ability, is not well liked by the staff, colleagues and even the community, the organization has built an infrastructure to help protect him from his publics. This includes our CFO and Sr. Administrator who work directly with SACs CEO. They meet with him on a weekly basis and discuss how departments are functioning, and handle approvals. The CEO provides them feedback and that feedback is based on directly to the department managers and executives. This prevents very little interaction between the CEO and the corporate staff. Unfortunately, this process creates long approval times and prevents constructive dialogue that could propel the organization forward. Critical theory is easily demonstrated through the marginalization that occurs. Although the majority of the management at SAC is new and were hired because of their expertise, the CEO no longer trusts our judgement because we are now part of the organization. For this reason our expert advise is often not taken and in some instances consultants have been brought in by certain managers so that our CEO can hear their opinions from outside sources. It appears to me that every environment that you work in has social constructions that you must agree to participate in or ignore, has special structures that enable the organization to function and has marginalization of employees due to the way decisions are made. What would be interesting to see is a comparison of top rated corporations with little turn over like SAS and Google to mid tier organizations. I would assume that SAS and Google have a more bottom up

communication with their executives and empower their employees to make decisions thus increasing innovation.