Why employ a person? LO24347

From: Leo Minnigh (l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl)
Date: 04/11/00


Replying to LO24315 --

Dear LO'ers,

In an other contribution I replied to "The ass trotting in front. LO24254"

It was a reaction to the contribution where At de Lange told us about the
droppings of the leading mule in front of the wagon. Droppings that are in
some way or another signs of free energy.

In LO24315 of At, he suggests that the reason to employ a person is
because of his free energy:

> Here is an example for a novel answer, but not necessarily a comprehensive
> answer. A person gets employed for his/her spiritual "free energy". It is
> that spiritual "free energy" which allows the person to change and affect
> changes.

This is an interesting suggestion. While thinking, the question becomes
more and more intriguing.

In the small wagon pulled by the leader mule with some followers at the
back, the number of followers is critical for the distance to make (or the
job to finish). But I made already a slight correction to this idea. Maybe
it is not the number of followers that is critical, but the total
quantity of available free energy of the whole team. Well, here we have
probably one clue: there should be enough free energy available in the
company or team to anable the finishing of the job.
However, in the wagon example, the followers save there free energy for
the times that they will be (temporary) the leader. We may slightly change
this analogy and maybe we should define leadership as 'showing
initiative'. Sometimes this initiative is only sustaining the hierarchical
leader, sometimes it could even take over the leadership.

But in all these cases, the new employee should have the chance to show
his/her 'droppings'.

But I remember very well the discussion we had in this list one and a half
year ago. It was about structure and size of an organization (see the
'Digestor' thread).
An organization should have a certain amount of structure. To maintain the
structure or coherency, free energy is necessary. Only of there is still a
surplus of free energy, the organization is able to grow or to produce
'droppings' (products). The trouble is that with increasing size, the
amount of free energy necessary to keep the structure still in order, more
free energy is needed. The larger the size, the more free energy needed.
So, with a new employee the organization must realize that this person
needs more free energy than needed for increase of production. Sometimes
free energy becomes available after a reorganization (usually, that means
'downsizing'). In my mind, the probable forced subdivision of Microsoft,
could give a new impulse to its products; we shall see.

Maybe I should rewrite the above paragraph. What I mean is this. A new
employee could be essential for the 'glue' in the organization, to be a
teammaker, to increase the order and structure. In that case, the free
energy of that person lies much more in his/her social skills.

If the organization's structure is well ordered and increase of size is
possible without disturbing this order seriously, a new employee's free
energy could be completely spend to increase of production. In this case,
the skills of this person should be completely different of the former
example.

In a sort of conclusion: leadership needs sustaning from followers.
Together they could produce more. But there should be a structural
relationship between the leader and the followers, as well as between the
very followers. Sometimes, this latter case is forgotten and sometimes the
structure between the followers might be complicated. Production AND
structure need free energy.

I hope I was clear.

dr. Leo D. Minnigh
l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl
Library Technical University Delft
PO BOX 98, 2600 MG Delft, The Netherlands
Tel.: 31 15 2782226
       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Let your thoughts meander towards a sea of ideas.
       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- 

Leo Minnigh <l.d.minnigh@library.tudelft.nl>

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