>Why does this fact disturb me? Because the "soul" of the organization,
>which may be bent toward quite artificial meaning and goals, such as
>making money for already rich investors, also alters the "souls" of its
>individuals. This effect is even more evident in Japanese society, where
>people often approach the values and goals of their employer with nearly
>religious zeal.
>I am ultimately worried that, as we attempt to approach perfection in the
>workplace, we may be paying a terrible price in individual intellectual
>freedom.
As I read the message, I guess that it also confuses me a bit. Western
culture (most cultures, actually) do not suffer from the kinds of
"problems" we believe occur in Japan due to some of their cultural /
business practices. In most cases, the Dilbert themes are much much more
common.
Most people do need to link up behind goals and beliefs and seem to desire
strong aligned relationships to leaders. Look at religion for one
example.
Scott refers to "artificial" meaning and goals but I am really not sure as
to what those actually are. Is feeling good about accomplishing business
goals and making money something to be concerned about? Yes if it is
accomplished in immoral and illegal ways but most certainly NO in the vast
majority of situations in my opinion.
Think of the positive reactions when one's pick-up basketball team "wins"
in a hard-fought game. Isn't this good for the "soul" of the players?
Isn't the pride that results from even losing but playing well a positive
outcome?
I would hope that more organizations would develop collective visions and
goals and provide people with an understanding of the key issues in
alignment. To me, that most certainly has a higher balance of positive
outcomes than the more typical situations we so often discuss.
-- For the FUN of It!Scott Simmerman Performance Management Company 3 Old Oak Drive, Taylors, SC 29687 (USA) 864-292-8700 fax 292-6222 SquareWheels@compuserve.com
visit The Lost Dutchman at http://www.clicknow.com/stagedright/dutchman/
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>