Hello,
Im slipping over from another thread. I hope that I can do it without
breaking the flow too much. I wonder if it wouldnt make more sense
metaphorically to consider a company as a Learning Organism. Or maybe a
thinking computer. This image might make it more clear as to which types
of companies require extremely fine coordination and which ones do not.
The issue for me is whether the short-term profit motive behind most
downsizing isnt a conflict of interest with the concept of a learning
organism or thinking computer. It turns the idea of a thinking
organization against itself. Maybe they are thinking of surgery, but a
lot of people die on the surgeons table. Just a thought.
> Gray Southon wrote:
>
> > There seems to be a reluctance for many not to consider the whole area of
> > professional service, information management industries which are now
> > starting to dominate industry. These have special demands such as a high
> > levels of specialisation, life-time committment to careers, some intrinsic
> > problems with team processes, professional conservatism, external
> > definition of standards, and great difficulty in establishing performance
> > measures. (snip)
On another thread several months ago the people involved in the hi-tech
industries were talking about short term, project oriented careers that
demanded the ability to change completely at least every six years.
Benjamin B. Compton wrote:
> I'd rather see a million people
> working for a fast food joint than on welfare rolls.
A million is not very many in the society but what will happen when the
figure is 200 million? How will we compete in the world? Who will buy
all of those fancy doodads that the world is producing? There is a book
called "One World, Ready or Not" by William Greider that deals with this
issue including our coming place in the world.
For example in the not too distant future the world manufacturing base for
automobiles will be 80 million cars. The world market will be 50 million.
The thirty million over production is the size of the U.S. market alone.
The last time we thought about this was 1929. Unfortunately Welfare moms
and penny ante programs like the NEA are simply smokescreens for what is
not being paid attention to in our future.
If you don't want to buy the book just walk into a bookstore and read the
first two pages. They are like a cold glass of ice water in the face
coming out of a sauna. The other thing is that even George Will admits
that the welfare fix it bill is going to be incredibly expensive to do
what we have embarked on in the jobs sector. Much more expensive than all
of those children would cost.
This is not limited to one front. In New York City the homeless with
non-treatable TB are going to be an incredible job opportunity for the
medical and pharmaceutical establishment also. Whose child will have to
catch TB before we have a "NASA" type program to solve it. TB is
airborne. (One of my college students from Sarah Lawrence College caught
it in the subway) My questions are this. 1) how is this not human
sacrifice for the greater profit? 2)How is it not "make-work?" TB was a
dead issue not long ago.
One other thing. The media is pushing the Petty Tyrant plan for Social
Security from Chile. I would suggest you look at costs of implementation.
That one includes a huge tax increase for one complete generation. Maybe
you can afford that, I can't. A recent study completed by the 20th
Century Fund that has a web site makes some rather startling statements
about how we can avoid it. This will have big implications for work
availability in the next few years. As an artist, the problem for me is
found in the texts of the songs and operas from the 19th century when
these same battles were being fought. It aint pretty.
> I remember when I was in High School my neighbor, a single Mom, lost her
> job. If I remember correctly it paid her $7.00 an hour. She was unemployed
> for four or five months. She would turn down any job that was under $7.00
> an hour. She felt she was worth more. She wanted a "real" job. . . when I
> lost a business, and was unemployed for half a year, I did pick up work
> for building contractors, and janitorial work in the evening so I could at
> least pay my bills. I finally found the job I wanted, but all the work I
> did in between was "real" work and a "real" job. . . and all of it
> required learning.
But could the single Mom pay her bills, with child, on $7.00 per hour?
I'm a parent too and I can't. I service, as priest, my community. The
welfare mother's in our community are harassed constantly (imagine if you
had to deal with the jury duty system seven days a week, I mean this
metaphorically), they are also caring mothers and teachers for their
children. But that is because the community supports their children as
well. As for handling money, they are more creative than most. But
again, they are not stigmatized by the community. They study, grow and
love their children, but they have a lot of community support. Eventually
they will, like the kid that you wrote about teaching himself math in
school, become a part of the regular work community. But we figure that
it is better for their kids that they have a loving parent, than a
harassed day care worker. The children will eventually be significant for
the society. Much better than the cost of prison.
> As a society, I believe, we owe gratitude for every able person who is
> willing to work. . .no matter what their salary, no matter what their job.
> I have close friends who are lawyers, dentists, othrodontists, plastic
> surgens, computer scientists, physicists, chemists, biologists,
> geologists, disc jockeys, and sales clerks at Sears. I see no difference
> between them; they're all my friends; they all have real jobs; and for any
> one of them to succeed, they have to learn.
For every job that pays enough to live there are literally thousands of
applicants. We see them here lined around the blocks. A recent series of
hospital jobs in Baltimore had over 3,000 applicants. You can forget the
auditions for small acting parts. As a Screen Actors Guild member I can
tell you that those auditions stretch for blocks. Its like trying to get
tickets for the World Series.
With the temporary, flexible employment you can't even get a true figure
on the worker surplus because those people are listed as employed. They
may be lawyers or upper management HBS persons doing a short order cook
job but they are listed not as an out of work lawyer or management type
but as a working short order cook. The same is true if they are a nurse a
Doctor or a Ph.D.
Ben, I really liked your story about the kid who learned his math once
motivated. Children have to be taught not to learn. They used to say, in
Victorian times, that you had to "break" the spirit of the child, like
"breaking" a horse. Of course, if you want to enter that horse in the
Olympics, you had better not "break" him the old fashioned way. I suspect
the same is true of children. I would be interested in what you think of
the following quote from last year's book "Dynamic compensation for
Changing Organizations, People, Performance, and Pay" by Flannery,
Hofrichter and Platten. This is not a complaint but considered an ideal
by the authors.
"In Western society, in particular, money has taken on a complex and
significant role in defining and communicating the essence of both
individuals and groups. With the possible exception of religion, there is
no stronger force in determining identity, status, and personal value. In
essence, pay is a proxy of self-worth. What else--right or wrong--has the
power to communicate everything from where you stand in an organization to
what you've done, to what you are able to provide your family, to how you
are able to live, to your place in society? For most people, that power
flows from their job or role--from the work they do and from the
compensation they receive for doing it."
The people who agree with the above, listed on the back of the book are:
the President of Kinko's Inc., the Managing Director, Compensation
American Stock Exchange, Vice President of Human Resources Efectiveness
and Measurement for Dun & Bradstreet Corp., CEO of Kaiser Foundation
Health Plan, CEO BHP Petroleum, well I think you get the point.
Ray Evans Harrell, artistic director
The Magic Circle Chamber Opera of New York
mcore@idt.net
--Ray Evans Harrell <mcore@IDT.NET>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>