Christian Salandra

COMM 406
3/14/17
Dykstra

Application Paper

While addressing homelessness in the Morgantown area, there are many different
organizations and foundations that struggle with helping the homeless. Although there are many
different reasons to why the organizations may struggle, perhaps there are different theories or
concepts from the study of communication that can be the reason why they struggle at addressing
the problem of homelessness here in Morgantown. A concept from organizational
communication I want to apply to the struggling challenges of helping the homelessness in
Morgantown, is systems theory. The general systems theory in the textbook is defined as The
study of living (including social) structures as interdependent, goal-oriented that are irreducible
to their basic elements. (Mumby, 2013). In Morgantown, these organizations that help the
homelessness have the goal orientation of helping these people and the organizations are most
commonly built up of individuals who all have the same social status and structure within that
organization. Down at the Salvation Army they have employees who are potentially living in
poverty or have lived in it in the past. They all have the goals of helping the poor and homeless
but thats just on the surface. I believe that the systems theory at the Salvation Army and
Salvation Army thrift store could be a reason why they struggle to deal with homelessness in
Morgantown. When it comes to systems theory its all about the science of figuring out patterns
and goals that can be applied to all levels of that organization and I think that the organizations in
Morgantown lack goal orientated workers in their organizations. The workers at The Salvation
Army had bad attitudes and did not want to help give an interview about the homeless and
poverty and that was a consistent pattern in their organization that I found while conducting my
interviews. If one was to research the patterns and goals of the workers in that thrift store they
wouldnt find any goals, and the patterns would be that they just simply care about what they are
doing. The interrelated elements of these workers and their attitudes in Morgantown could very
well be why they struggle to help the homeless. By applying the systems approach to this, you
might be able to see that these organizations of the Salvation Army need workers who want to go
above and beyond to help fix this problem and figure out a way to make more an impact. For
instance, systems theory is a perspective that hones in on the ways that organizations as a system
engage in acts of regulating and adapting. (Mumby, 2013). This explanation may explain why the
workers here in Morgantown adapt this attitude because they were once homeless or in poverty.
The Salvation Armys process of adaption and regulation make for a bland job that the workers
will not like, they just do it because it is their job. The social structure based off the systems
theory of these organizations are people who might not even care for the people struggling with
homelessness or poverty in the first place. Like I said no one who worked there didnt even want
to answer a few simple questions on the topic, yet these are the people that they are set out to try
and help and serve. Ludwig von Bertalanffy says that, We cannot reduce biological, behavioral,
and social levels to the lowest level, that of the constructs and laws of physics. (Von Bertalanffy,
1986) The social level of the people they are hiring are already at their lowest so they cannot be
reduced. To the systems theory these employees are the elements of the organizations that
potentially make it the reason that they are struggling to address the problem of homelessness
and poverty in Morgantown. To contrast organizations in Morgantown, I think its suitable for me
to do that with The Salvation Army and Christian Help. Both places are based from the Christian
church, but Christian Help has goal orientated workers that are irreducible to their basic
elements. The systems theory works for Christian Help, because their social level of workers and
management have more positive and driving attitudes to help the homeless. Christian Help has
characteristics that are common to everything in the system, and they also try a lot harder. The
Salvation Army, while being a Christian organization that is there to help poverty and homeless
addresses it differently. Their thrift store prices were not very cheap considering they are aiming
for people in poverty. Altogether after spending 6 hours at that thrift store I felt that the systems
theory wasnt in effect there but it was also making them struggle at being an effective
organization whose attitudes were low with not much goal orientation, it was just simply a job
they had to come do. Another facet of the systems theory that doesnt work well in these non-
profit organizations is the management not caring enough or doing anything to make these
elements aka. Workers have better attitudes and want to help homeless and poverty stricken
people when they come walking in through their doors. When I was in the Salvation army, I
witnessed at least three times the employees giving horrible customer service and attitude to
costumers. In systems theory, there is an interdependence and interrelationship of parts and those
attitudes and personalities with costumers are the type of things that make a system fail, and give
a bad rep for the organization. That element can systematically make an organization weaker and
struggle with what they are trying to do. Using systems theory to analyze how the Salvation
army is run is something to be argued. You could say that the organization doesnt really have
any structures or goals that are irreducible down to their basic elements, but I believe they do.
The Salvation Army thrift store is right next to the main office of the Salvation Army of
Morgantown. I went there to their social worker offices and soup kitchen for interviews. I
noticed that those lowest levels of their elements are right next door in their thrift store. The main
Salvation Army office runs the thrift store and I think that they need to set higher standards and
goals for both their office and headquarters and the thrift store. In Morgantown, the goals set for
half of these non-profit organizations that are trying to help homelessness and povertys goals
may not be set too high. That starts right with the system, and the collective activity from the
workers cant truly happen without the interdependence of the activities going on in those
organizations. The thing about systems theory and interdependence is that with that, you can
solve more problems, and be more creative. Even garnering work teams could do it. Instead its
more of a lackluster attempt for the employees to just do their hours and can go home. They
could rise above their low social levels and low goals and set out to go advertise the thrift store
and get people to go shop there who dont have the money to buy expensive things. The systems
theory has something they call the correspondence problem. (Monge, 1982) It is said that too
often something of a disconnection has taken place between the principles of the system the
elements of the system (Mumby, 2013) Maybe the employees and goal oriented people here in
Morgantown trying to combat homelessness and poverty have shied away from their principles
because their attitudes and goals have become so low that they have become the smallest
elements of the organization. Which means they stop trying hard to help and lose the strength of
their goals. The struggle to help people living homeless and in poverty is real in Morgantown.
Systems theory can be applied to it because the patterns and elements of these systems and
organizations are just not all there. The pattern of workers who dont care about people who are
homeless or living in poverty like the manager of the Salvation Army thrift store, is very high.
The absence of interdependent structures of working and the fact that the employees have such a
low goal orientated attitude, makes them become the lowest level of elements in the
organization. That is why places like the Salvation Army and its thrift store struggle to help with
the homeless in Morgantown.

The next concept I want to use to analyze the way organizations struggle to solve
homelessness in Morgantown is Theory X management control. Like I have stated so many times
above, the employees who work for these organizations, and especially non-profit, already have
attitudes, and low levels of drive. They just want to come in to work, so they can leave. I do not
think a lot of them truly care about the starving, homeless people on the streets in Mon County.
The textbook defines Theory X as the dominant management philosophy that sees workers as
having inherent of work and needing to be coerced to be productive. (McGregor, 1960) The
average person who is working at these organizations has an inherent dislike for work and what
they are working for, I have seen it almost 3 different times, with multiple worker. Theory X is a
way to analyze why homeless people in Morgantown dont get all the help they can from these
organizations, since the employees have no interest in their work. In the book, McGregor says
these 3 things about Theory X, The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and
will avoid it if he can. Because of thismost people must be coerced, controlled, directed,
threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of
organizational objectives. The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid
responsibility, has relatively little ambition, and wants security above all (McGregor, 1960).
That quote has so many possible points to why Theory X is and isnt being used in places like
The Salvation Army and why they struggle at helping the homelessness. First off, since the
average human dislikes work, they just let those average human beings who dont like work,
work in their place. He also states that they will avoid it if he can. When I worked at the
Salvation army for my service hours, I noticed one thing and that, the employees were always
outside smoking cigarettes. They all took a cigarette break every fifteen to twenty minutes. That
is a perfect example of people trying to avoid work best they can. Another point brought up from
that is the fact that they are avoiding work and dislike it, so they call out for volunteers like us.
The thing is, college students who are volunteering usually dont want to do that work either,
they are just doing it because of a specific course or the court. There is another facet from that
quote that must do with how they are handling themselves. It is said they must be coerced,
controlled, directed, threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward
the achievement of organizational objectives. If you should do those things to these employees,
then they already hold no ambition for the organizational objectives. Its just work for them. If
you want homelessness and poverty to be challenged and helped in Morgantown, then you need
workers who already believe in the cause and want to help. Instead of workers who need to be
coerced or threatened to carry out goals for the organization. Another claim from McGregor is
that, as long as Theory X continues to be a guiding philosophy behind the management strategy,
then organizations will fail to realize the full potential of workers as human beings As such, he
argues that management philosophy must shift from coercion to what he calls selective
adaption, in which the power to influence workers is not a function of coercive authority but
rather the selection of the means of influence that circumstances require. (Mumby, 2013) I
particularly like this, because it is something that should be done in the main offices at The
Salvation Army to their thrift store. They can get workers in which they can achieve effort and
the full potential from their employees. This sentiment goes for all the organizations dealing with
poverty and homelessness in Morgantown. Theory X should not have to be used here but at the
same time it needs to be, if the workers hate work, and essentially dont care for what their
organization is trying to accomplish. Contrasting McGregors Theories, Theory Y is about
treating your employees with motivation, and engaging them in creative self-direction and
enjoying work as play (Mumby, 2013). The leadership and management at these places cant
really do that and especially if they are non-profit. I think that Theory Y is meant for an
Organization with more effective and ambitious workers. The Salvation Army and all the other
homeless helping organizations are not, because frankly what they are dealing with is a
depressing and tough matter. Its work that leaves them potentially feeling pity. Although Thats
not how I feel for some of them, because they essentially dont care for these people and they are
just working their hours they need to get done. A common theme I have noticed with these
organizations is the leadership in management. Many of the managers dont have the positivity
for their objectives and therefore cannot manage their teams and organizations in a hopeful
manner. That is why Theory X should be and shouldnt be used. If youre going to coerce and
threaten your workers to work, you would need the manager to get up and do it. In a way,
though, the leadership and management control is viewed as suspicion by subordinates, and that
seems crazy for this topic because there is nothing to hide from your employees, until they start
using a Theory X approach. In an article by the researcher Carey Noland, there is a way that
managers behaviors work Theory X, Noland states that, managers behaviors are shaped by
their assumptions about the motivation of their subordinates. He believed managers view
workers two different ways. Theory X managers assume that workers do not want to work and
only work for money. (Noland, 2014). The Salvation Army manager, already knows her
workers dont want to work, and thats because she doesnt really want to work either. Its a
serious struggle to try and help the homelessness and poverty in Morgantown if you dont even
care about how your managing is. The Salvation Army, should be doing a thorough check up on
their thrift store, and find the workers that are willing to put in the time and commitment to make
it a better place for people to come in and shop and it starts with, using Theory X, and not using
it. You shouldnt have to use Theory X. It goes both ways in how it applies to why the
organizations like Salvation Army struggle with what they are doing. An organization starts with
the manager. They have the main job of running their operation and doing the best they can for
success. One huge object of running the organizations, is influencing your employees to want to
work and do the best job possible. Organizations like the Coordinating Counsel on Homelessness
is a place that doesnt need to use Theory X. Although I have not yet been able to go inside and
observe the Organization, myself, after hearing about them and viewing their website, I have a
firm idea that all their workers are already motivated and working towards helping the homeless.
Organizations with that amount of drive and goal- orientation in Morgantown is what the rest of
them should be like. I believe that the main headquarters of the Salvation Army also has a lot of
workers like that. After doing my interviews I met two people who seemed eager to answer my
questions, because they care about them. For example, the Chef in the soup kitchen at the top
floor of the Salvation Army. He sounded like he very much wanted to help and took pride in
coming in every day to serve the homeless men and women who walk in there for a meal every
single day. The same goes for the social Worker Brian I met with for my interview. He was very
nice and looked very involved in the community and knew at least four different homeless
people that he wanted to help. Only if the main boss in that organization could trickle that
attitude down to their thrift store employees, then they could either use Theory X approach of
management or wouldnt have to at all, even to begin with. `The productivity and overall
viewpoints of these workers should not have to be coerced or threatened by management but in
this case, maybe it should be. Theory X management control is one concept from organizational
communication that I think should be applied to the organizations helping homelessness in
Morgantown, but at the same time should not have to be used.

As I can conclude my application of the concepts from organizational communication on

why organizations in the Mon County struggle to address homelessness and poverty. I will recap
my argument to why these concepts can be analyzed with the organizations. The general systems
theory can be analyzed in organizations like the Salvation Army thrift store, because of the
patterns and elements of the organization. The patterns I see that are a problem, are the workers
who have low interest and bad attitude about their work. Coming into work every day and not
wanting to work or care for what your trying to do is a bad pattern that pertains to systems theory
with their organization. In systems theory, the structures are interdependent on one another, and
the systems should be goal-oriented. In some of these organizations, the basic elements, that are
these workers have no goal-orientation and in that sense, make the interdependence and
interrelationships in these organizations fail because of that. To analyze systems theory to how
the Salvation Army thrift store is run, completely makes the system seem like its run in a horrible
way and needs the goal orientation that systems theory proposes. It makes me want to volunteer
at other organizations in this town helping the homelessness to see how their place differs from
the thrift store. And, to see how systems theory pertains to another organization that has it run the
right way.

My second application on how Theory X should be used on the organizations with low
level, bad attitude worker, but should not have to be used, is my argument for the theory. After
spending time in the thrift store and seeing how these employees would avoid work and
responsibility made me realize that McGregors Theory X is an actual reality. For managers to
have to threaten, punish and coerce their employees to work, instead of working for money is
beyond me, especially if you are trying to help serve the homeless with used items and
perishables for cheap money, which isnt all that cheap. I also noticed how the employees who
didnt want to work and avoided it would go on cigarette breaks four times in one hours. They
would just ask for college student and locals to volunteer, and that cant benefit them, because
the volunteers might not have any interest in what theyre doing either. Productivity in these
organizations should be a common theme and drive, and I would like to see that in other
organizations just to know that they are willing to help against homelessness. After thinking
about my applications, I have concluded that the main struggle for addressing homelessness and
poverty in Morgantown is the lack of interest, low productivity, and bad attitudes from the
employees of these organizations. After analyzing how they are the patterns and basic elements
from systems theory, and how Theory X is a management control that should have to be used on
them. If Theory Y was the way some organizations were run like Christian Help and the CCOH,
then actual driven and goal oriented work could be done here. The struggle to help the
homelessness and poverty starts with the management and leadership, but plays out with how the
workers respond and do their work. Goal oriented Attitudes and determination must be present
from all members of the organization for it to work. That would be a huge start to addressing the
struggles.
 Citations

McGregor, D. (1960). The human side of enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill

Monge, P. R. (1982). Systems theory and research in the study of organizational communication
The correspondence problem. Human Communication Research, 8, 245-261

Mumby, D. K. (2013). Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach.

Noland, C. (2014). Teaching Theory X and Theory Y in Organizational Communication.

Communication Teacher. 28(3), 145-149.

Von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General system theory. New York: Braziller.