Alternative Perspectives on Business

I am non sure if the counselling I felt is green in the society. But I would imagine it would be because of the individualistic mentality that most people have. Even my friends resist help if they can worry it. The p arnts, the school and other social institutions atomic number 18 helping perpetuate this liberal of self-sufficiency and self-reliance. This is perhaps a crucial situation of be part of the society. Deep down, I may be afraid to admit that I need help. Perhaps other people feel the same track too. My self-worth is dependent, in part, on my ability to submit decisions for myself and do things for myself.If that is taken away from me, then I would feel similar I lost my worth. I treasured to air my annoyance to the autobus, which I promptly did. I was not really surprised that I acted as such(prenominal) because I am used to acting based on what I think is my right. I also felt like asking the lady directly to forbear from following me was a bit rude. So I had to talk to her manager instead. It is so untold easier to talk to a superior than to a subordinate. If I talked to the lady, myself, I might have condescended and reprimanded her harshly. I did not want to make a scene so I just talked to the manager.My motives were that I wanted to be discreet season making sure that my experience at the retentiveness was not unsound. I k straightaway that I acted in my go around interest and also in the interest of the store. If they followed my advice and just let their clients charter what they want while standing at that place patiently waiting and congenially for anything the customer asks, the sales might be a little let on and customers leave be happier. I would not have liked to post otherwise. That would mean just letting go of what I felt was an provoke to my shopping experience. I do not like sitting unflurried when I felt that things are not going according to my liking.I was sensible that I was a customer and therefore I deserved the surpass possible treatment in the store. The heart and the store is designed for the customer to have the best experience in shopping. From the arrangement of products and the colourful promotional items, the customer or shopper is made to feel as if he is at the centre of the malls universe. Anything that suggests otherwise would therefore be treat like it was an intrusion into the personal life of the shopper. Managers also are being seen as the keepers of the ranks in the sense that they have the agency over their subordinates in helping them do their jobs properly.They can also reprimand employees who do not perform according to the pre-agreed standards of behaviour within the organization. As such, the manager is seen as the ally of the customers in making sure that their shopping experience is saved and ensured. Synthesis There are power relations in around all social settings. Even in the seemingly business-centred environment of the mall and department s tores, there are power relations between and among the owners of the store, the managers, the employees and the customers who forebode the stores (Pred, 1996).While the customers have considerable power by virtue of the money that they will be using in purchasing products and services, the organisation also displays its power in dealings with the customers. The customers have the money and therefore they command the mention of the attendants and the managers in the store. This is also why the store is arrange in such a way that the customers shopping experience would be superb. Anything that could disrupt that is met with uncompromising reprimand (Cuthbert, 2003). A store that cannot make a sale is closing curtain to being worthless and is on its way to bankruptcy.One thing I celebrated though is that there are to a greater extent women on the stores than there are men. Quite probably, the men are working behind the scenes and are tasked with sorrowful large boxes and other things that need to be moved every now and then. I could not rightly say that this is discrimination but perhaps, there is a preferred gender when it comes to choosing attendants in particular areas of the store. This also opens up a whole new dimension of power relations. The manager I encountered was a middle-aged male who had the look of authority on him (Harding, 2004).While I felt nothing more than a coincidence during the incidence, it now dawned on me that perhaps the power relations within the store are arranged that way so that it would be easier to subdue the attendants for anything that might have been seen or reported as inappropriate behaviour. In addition to this, the customer is, most of the time, given a big deal of power in dealing with the attendants at the store. There are customers who are treated like spoiled brats while there are difficult customers who insist on having their way even in violation of store policy.Stores and malls arrange their space or architec ture to maximize the purchasing power of buyers. As such, the products and services are arranged in such a way that customers will be enticed to buy. In exchange of this, customers also exert their power over the attendants and employees of the store so that they get something extra out of the money they will roam out as payment. The attendants, employees and managers also act as safeguards of the interests of the store while at the same time encouraging the customers to buy and spend on the stores. This kind of power relations or network is always at work within the store.What seemed like a simple act of purchasing something at the mall is actually a complex pattern of relationships involving a number of factors. For example, managers tend to act as guards for the owners of the store as much as for the customers. Most of the time, it is the employees who are caught in the middle. With the concepts I learned in the course, I manage to identify these power relations much more clear ly than if I was just using my common sense. Because of my cultural connection and the way I treat shopping as a old-hat affair, I have start out inured to it.The concepts discussed in the course helped me become more critical and draw on various theories in explaining what seems like commonplace behaviour, not only in the malls but in disparate social settings and situations. Reference Cuthbert, AR (2003). Critical Readings in Urban Design. bare-assed York Blackwell Publishing. Harding, SG (2004). The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader Intellectual and Political Controversies. capital of the United Kingdom Routledge. Pred A, (1996). Interfusions consumption, identity and the practices and power . relations of everyday life Environment and readying A 28(1) 11 24.