Postmodernity or post-modernism refers to a new historical era. It has been described in a variety of ways. Through thorough research, the post modernity is built up of criticisms of the modernist forms of organisation exemplified by bureaucracy.
As the modernist perspective divides itself into two sections, ontology and epistemology, the postmodernist perspective also separates its view to make it more understandable to other people who look into the perspective to analyse it such as Marxists. The post-modernists ontology is what post-modernists believe to be the very core or organisation. For example, it is a realist ontology, organisations and the environments exist and are tangible. Postmodern organisation is characterised by its flexibility and a belief in the ability to make technological choices. The post-modernists epistemology is what post-modernists believe to be the ways in which we know what are the ‘truths’ of organisational life. For example, understanding what is going on depends upon subjective understanding. It also matters in the organisation are conducted in a way that emphasises indeterminacy. This is an acknowledged that the environment is highly unpredictable and uncertain. There is also an assumption of mutual causality. People look for complexity and the interconnectedness of cause and effect.
The post-modernists technology is what post-modernists believe to be the best ways to undertake organisations so that they can be effective in a complex environment. For example, there is a complex structure of boundary relationships. There is little distinctiveness of roles. Emphasis on ability to create relationships and to work with the ambiguities. There are high levels of fluidity in relationships. Structure related to function. Leadership distributed within heterarchy. Relationships between the tasks and members are holographic. The experience of work is holistic. Organisation and work are highly de-differentiated and members are multiskilled. Organisation is complex with fragmentary relational forms such as networking and out sourcing.
One of the problems that exists when trying to examine postmodernity as a period in time is that there is much debate as to whether the post-modern period represents something new. Some sociologists like, Zygmunt Baumann argued that it is ‘fledged’, viable social system which has come to replace the ‘classical’ modern capitalist society and thus needs to be theorised in its own terms, (Baumann, 1998). Others argue that the distinction is not so clear and that the post-modern form is emerging but at that moment is still a rather vague conceptualisation. Other theorists suggest that rather than seeing postmodernism as a break of rupture with modernism, we should maintain awareness of the basic community between society today and that which preceded it. Marxists have also analysed the postmodern view, Mandel suggested that the features of late capitalism include the development of the transnational business corporation with the flight of production to advanced underdeveloped areas of the world which leads to a new international division of labour. Mandel discusses the rise of the use of computers and automation. He discusses the emergence of new relationships in international banking and stock exchanges and new forms of media interrelationship. The analysis is echoed by the view that post-modern international corporate organisations are concerned with profit maximisation and productivity with mono-dimensional structures concerned with developing corporate culture and identity while ignoring the ‘necessary complexity of social experience and ambiguity of human experience, that inhabits successful public/working space’ (Daskalaki et al., 2008, p.53).
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The term postmodern has been in use for over 100 years. Welsch (1988) discusses how Rudolph Pannwitz used the term as early as 1917 to describe the collapse of moral values in contemporary European culture. A more detailed exposition of the post-modern era comes from Barraclough (1964). He proposed that the new post-modern age is constituted by revolutionary developments in science and technology, a new imperialism, a transition from individualism to mass society and new forms of culture. Similarly, Etzioni (1968) considered the possible developed to solve social problems and enable people to lead better lives. Eventhough, Parker (1992) has dated the first use of the terms postmodern and post-modern in organisation studies from the late 1980s, can be used to identify from earlier than this as an interest in forms of organisation that are analogous to post-modernist design. As an example of this is in 1963, where the sociologist Tom Burns was writing that the traditional bureaucratic form of industry were no longer adequate to meet the need for research and development for the new advanced technologies and the need for a new relationship between the manufacturers and their consumers.
Coca Cola is a prime example of a business which is impacted by the changes of the organisation theory. The Company employs around 31,000 people from all kinds of cultural diversities in order to maintain organizational diversity within the work culture and to generate high employment opportunity (Barkay, 2011). This shows the adoption of post modernism perspective by the company. Ciafone (2012) opined that majority of the problems of Coca Cola arises due to diversities in the prices of the raw materials in global market conditions. Depending on the geographical demand and supply chain the prices of the raw materials and supplier costs increases. Consequently, the cost of production and the bottling costs also increase. Hence, the decentralization of the organizational structure of Coca Cola has helped the company to concentrate on the pricing, marketing and branding strategies separately for the separate geographical regions (Aritz and Walker, 2012). Hence by decentralizing the organizational structure and commencing the responsibility of the separate locations on the location head has helped Coca Cola to indentify the unique target market ( like diet coke for US customers). The company can is also able to adopt appropriate pricing strategy for the target market (low pricing strategy in India) and promote the product to suit the local customers (story telling experiences in developing countries).
The company’s flexibility, stability and high degree of standardization are the mechanistic features of the company and on the contrary, the high degree of responsiveness, efficiency and top down communication channels are the features of the organic model of Coca Cola. With the progress in the consumer markets, the consumers have also adopted post modernism perspective instated of modernism perspective in relation to the acceptance of a particular brand (Benedict, 2009). The postmodern consumer is focused on customer experience, meaning of the product rather than the product features, brand name and brand image.
Gill (2007) suggested the adoption of modernistic approach of ownership would help the company in resolving the supply issues. If the company adopts ownership strategies and instated of controlling suppliers, owns or purchases a supplier company then the company can develop its own supply as and when required. The owning of a supplier will enable Coca Cola to reduce the supplier costs and increase the make the business profitable.
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