Replying to LO25555 --
Dear Organlearners,
Peggy Stuart <pstuart@ctt.bc.ca> writes:
>I am assuming that to effectively create and sustain
>the base for a learning organization, rank and status
>would have to go out the window. A secretary (excuse
>the term) stands as equal a chance of obtaining support
>for her or his learning as an executive, no matter what
>form or level this learning took.
Greetings Peggy,
I myself would not deal with "rank" and "status" as two specimens
of the same species. Rank has a definitive organisational function,
even for Learning Organisations. For me, the difference between an
OO (Ordinary Organisation) and a LO is that
(1) in a LO there is no pulling or pushing of rank, but just a
sound implementation of rank as a complexification node.
(2) in a LO status (symbolising rank) play no role because symbolising
increasing complexity is a fuitle attempt.
>If this is true, then there would have to be steps taken
>to ensure that both the non-physical and physical
>environments (policies, office layout, etc.) sends the
>message that all employees are "worth" the same.
I myself think that the message to be sent is somewhat different. The
message ought to be "It is because we are humans that we are involved
together in this Ordinary Organisation (OO) and it is because that we are
still humans (and not members of this OO) that we want this OO to emerge
into a LO so as to make its creative identity more unique."
In this sense a secretary is not less a human than a CEO, although the
secretary's job is (might be ;-) less complex than the CEO's job.
I have been involved in a few rather than many actual LOs, and in each
case especially in the emergence from a OO to a LO. I do not claim the
notion that the OO has to change dramatically along organisational
patterns to emerge into a LO. But I have become intensely aware of a
dramatic change in the mentality of the members of those OOs as they
emerged into LOs. One of the most profound changes is that these people
flung status out of the window, not before, but after ;-)
>Right? Wrong? Or somewhere in between ....
Or somewhere above, below or beside .......;-)
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <Richard@Karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>
"Learning-org" and the format of our message identifiers (LO1234, etc.) are trademarks of Richard Karash.