Letters to Mr. Carter

This final project synthesized discussion and learning from four different books: To Teach: The Journey in Comics by W. Ayers and R. Alexander-Tanner, Musician and Teacher: An Orientation to Music Education by P. S. Campbell, Teaching as a Subversive Activity by N. Postman and C. Weingartner, and Pedagogy of the Oppressed by P. Freire. Through a series of letters to a teacher, Mr. Carter, the letter writers demonstrate the important ideas presented in each of the books

Management as a Symbolizing Construction?

In this article, we outline the concept of management as a symbolizing construction. According to Niklas LUHMANN, organizations process by referring to decisions. But decisions are not simply "given" and in principle invisible. This is the reason why organizations institute formalities like protocols, signatures or other insignia of the official that symbolize the decision—without actually being a decision. These symbols allow for making decisions "process-able." And just like a protocol or a signature, management symbolizes decisions as well. Management provides an organizational practice with symbols of decision making without being the "unity" of the decisions, as decisions perpetually have to be reconstructed, redefined and rearranged in the communication of all organizational units. Therefore management symbolizes on the one hand more than it can achieve. On the other hand the importance of management as a symbolizing construction lies in allowing the reconstruction, redefining and rearrangement of decisions by making them visible and recognizable. Heroic managers, meetings, management tools and procedures are solutions to the paradox of decision making. By symbolizing decidedness they create credibilities that conceal the self-referential construction of organizational communication and the paradox of its decision praxis