Organization as Theatre

1. Organisation as Theatre
JIBRAN MOHSIN (MHPE Student)
Advanced Level Course on Leadership in Health Professions Education (ALC-LHPE)
Department of Educational Development (DED)
The Aga Khan University (AKU)

2. Outline
• Content
• Introduction
• Dramaturgical & institutional theory
• Organisation STRUCTURE as theatre
• Organisation PROCESS as theatre (6 components)
• Meaningful critique
• Application to own practice
• External readings / References
• Summary

3. Introduction
• Ark of Covenant (Ethiopian Christianity)
• US Navy’s Polaris missile system
• Hurricane Katrina

4. Dramaturgical & institutional theory
• Dramaturgical theory
• Social interaction among individual (similar to drama performance)
• Internal situation
• Institutional theory
• Interface between organizations and publics
• Rules of games (organization as player)
• Organization devise characteristics that guides future behavior in terms of basic values.
• Structure of organization - reflective of prevailing social myths and ideas (isomorphism)
• Coercive – similar in response to outer pressures
• Mimetic – copy others
• Normative –shared ideas by professionals

5. Dramaturgical & institutional theory
“ New practices become infused with value beyond technical requirements
of the task at hand”
(DiMaggio and Powell- 1983, p. 142)
• Correct appearance and dramatic presentation = principle gauge of an
organizations’ effectiveness.
• Primary aim: improve organization’s image rather than its products and
services

6. Dramaturgical & institutional theory
• Limitations
• Focus more on why organization don’t change than how they do
• Focus on attending to why organizations are irrational instead of how they
might become more efficient.
• Negative impact on confidence in organizations, faith/morale for struggling to
make difference, aand against cause-and-effect concept.

7. Organisational Structure as theatre
• Structural Framework
• Symbolic view

8. Organisational Structure as theatre
• Structure reflective of social values.

9. Organizational Structure as theatre
• Value of status transformation
(higher education)
• Valid Structural configuration

10. Organizational Structure as theatre
• Organizations alter appearances to mirror changes in social
expectations
• Revisions – actors / scripts / settings
• Diversity Officers – “window dressing”
• Government agencies – symbolic?

11. Organizational Process as theatre
• Activities, even without yielding expected results, serve as script and
stage markings for vital theatrical role.
• Meetings
• Planning
• Evaluation
• Collective Bargaining
• Power
• Managing Impressions

12. Meetings
• Garbage-can scripts
• Emotionally charged
• Symbolically significant
• TECHNICALLY fuzzy
• Expressive occasions - Collective bonding
• Opportunities to polish lines in drama
• Add excitement to work

13. Planning
• Strategic plan – Objectives ??
• Fanciful > factual
• Like “Ritual rain dance”
• Symbolic roles
• Plans are symbols
• Plans become games
• Plans become excuses for interaction
• Plans become advertisements

14. Evaluation
• Symbolic - Paperwork more than learning
• Drama that calms the anxieties of citizenry
• Image of government rationality, efficiency, and accountability.
• Potent weapon in political battles / base to impose own decision

15. Collective Bargaining
• Carefully crafted pugilistic performance that delivers show various
audiences demand.
• Drama of conflict
• Going off script carries high risk.

16. Power
• Irrational Power portray performances.
• Attribute power to account for observed outcomes.
• “Logic of absurdity”
• Matter of appearance than action

17. Managing Impressions
• Symbolic presentation (Dramatic flair)
Vs
• Technical promise / financial analyses

18. Meaningful critique
Comprehensibility • Comprehensively applied the sociology concept of dramaturgy to organization framework.
• Both Pros and Cons of institutional theory with respect to each component has been
mentioned with references from literature.
• Difficult to comprehend language
Usefulness • Applicable to all organizations environment irrespective of specialty
Missing • None
Bias • Not all activities in organization are ALWAYS act playing
Methods • Starting with real time examples, followed by explanation of theory and its individual
components
Others • None

19. Application to own Practice
• Each medical college / university – isomorphism
• Coercive – Accreditation standards by PMC
• Mimetic – medical colleges try to copy well renowned institute like AKU
• Normative – due to diversity of students and faculty
• Certain medical colleges lack basic structural framework
• No purpose build building
• Low faculty: student ratio
• Minimal standard meeting faculty
• Requirements of medical college to look as medical college is lacking

20. Application to own Practice
• Certain medical colleges
• Academic meetings objectives are mostly not met.
• Use plans instead of actual outcomes’ measures as a portray to attract public
for admission
• Evaluation is limitation to files with no improvement or little impact
• Senior faculty at powerful seat just for their self impression without any
authority or impact on system.
• Hiding the negative aspects from accreditation bodies and public , while
enhancing the advisement of few irrational positive aspect for own interest.

21. External Readings
Goffman's Dramaturgical Theory
• People assume roles that they use in their daily interactions with others.
• A role can be understood in two ways, both as a public portrayal of a character and as a
representation of a part played in reality, such as brother, aunt, or friend.
• These roles allow individuals to present themselves to others to create specific
impressions, just as actors present characters to a theatre audience.

22. External Readings
Isomorphism
• The greater the extent of professionalization in a field, the greater the
amount of institutional isomorphic change.
• The greater the extent of structuration of a field, the greater the
degree of isomorphics.

23. External Readings

24. THANK YOU