Web Lec: Domination Metaphor

Critical approaches see organizations as dominating instruments that meet the interests of an elite group at the expense of the other (oppressed) group. Organization members may accept the power-imbalanced situation without resistance. Critical theorists strive to create healthy, power-balanced societies and workplaces. This approach is meaningful to me because it recognizes this form of workplace oppression. I encountered this oppression for many years in my previous work life when I worked for a NASDAQ, corporate, semiconductor company. A whole book can be written based on my hidden transcripts. Resistance to domination did not occur, on my part, because the stock options were dangling in front of me. The domination metaphor addresses how organizations "use and exploit employees, damaging employee's health and intruding on their personal lives." Individuals (also communities and countries) are used up and flushed out. It is interesting that other oppressed members of an organizations become fearful or are reluctant to join the fight for a better workplace (similar to those women who actively campaigned against the right for women to vote).