At 07:03 pm 4/24/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Yet I must put in a promo for technology as a servant of the model
>organization. If I stop believing in that possibility, then why are we
>working so hard to improve organizations and their management
>techniques?
Your question seem to imply that:
Believing in technology as a servant of the model organization
is necessary for us to want to improve organizations and their
management techniques.
I may be misunderstanding you, but in my mind, there's no relationship
between the two. I would love to improve organizations totally WITHOUT
the use of technology. If we can get them better just in pure human
terms, <italic>then</italic> we can introduce technology and find out how
much better they can be then.
I read about a consulting firm that will run team meetings. They give
every participant a computer, and people can type comments which are
anonymously sent to the front of the room for discussion. This is
heralded as a great advance in the ability to be honest at work.
[incredulous, cynical grin] EXCUSE ME? Putting $8,000 worth of machinery
between two people because they are too scared of each other to talk
face-to-face seems like a "shifting the burden" archetype if I've ever
seen one. I'd rather eliminate the technology altogether and address the
question of why people in my organization can't talk face to face, the way
they would in any other area of their life.
- Stever the high-tech Luddite
--stever@verstek.com, <<http://www.verstek.com/stever/>
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