Stever,
Your response has prompted another set of questions related to "dead-end
service jobs" and LO principles.
If LO principles were applied at my local McDonalds, how would I, as their
customer, see it? Does the effective application of LO principles imply
changes in how both the server and customer relate to one another and to
the context of their service. If applied there, would the place end up
looking different?
I think this is interesting because McDonald's recently announced that
their special promotion celebrating their establishment in 1955, by
selling sandwiches at 55 cents, has actually diminished sales. Could they
have foreseen this eventuality?
Is it possible to change the way the corner gas station, convenience
store,fast food restaurant and news stand function? I have my car
serviced at the place where I get the best service. Attentive,
informative and efficient. The price is equivalent to most other places.
And that is not my car dealer, where I'm never sure that they have my best
interest in mind, even though they tell me ever 30 minutes.
What does the list think?
Ed Brenegar
brenegar@bulldog.unca.edu
On Mon, 2 Jun 1997, Stever Robbins wrote:
> Sorry. I didn't mean to imply such a limit. I chose the so-called
> "MacJobs" as my example deliberately, though. Most of the messages I've
> seen on this list seem to be about learning organizations in firms with
> high education levels, relatively motivated employees, etc. If the media
> are to be believed, a major trend in job demographics right now is that we
> have a growing segment of "dead end" service jobs. I was fumbling my way
> towards my real underlying question, which is:
>
> More and more people are ending up in dead end service jobs.
>
> Do learning organization concepts still apply in that
> context (e.g. fast food chains, etc.)?
>
> How to turn professional service firms into learning organizations is
> another question entirely. (I've found Chris Argyris's <italic>Teaching
> Smart People How to Learn</italic> an excellent jumping off point for that
> discussion.)
--Edwin Brenegar III <brenegar@bulldog.unca.edu>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>