Replying to Duru . . .
"But I have often asked myself, on a normative/prescriptive level, _why_
should we, as workers, look to organizations to provide the higher
echelons of Maslov's needs? I was raised to believe that fulfillment came
first from family and friends. Because we spend 40 hours or more at work,
it certainly should help mental well-being to feel empowered at work. But
it seems to me, that if we rely on work to provide roles which have
traditionally been filled by family and other social networks, we actually
weaken society. Organizations come and go with opportunities for profit
and the pains of unforgiving competition. Where do you grow up? Where do
you raise children? Where do you go after work? Who takes care of you when
work is over (retirement)? Who sits by you at your deathbed? More often
than, not these questions are answered with "home." Once home is secure,
we truly become empowered to participate efectively at work.
"Perhaps as families have increasingly been letting us down we look more
and more for companies to fill these social roles?"
I apologies for jumping in late . . . too many irons . . .
[Host's Note: Hmm... 5-irons? Or irons in the fire?... Probably the
latter. ...Rick]
This is certainly a valid perspective, and I believe some do. I see it
slightly askew from this; why spend 40 to 60 to . . . hours a week
someplace that drains our spirit and devalues us as the creative beings
which we are? Not a replacement of our family and connectedness, an
extension of it.
Dave Rupley
dcrupley@earthlink.com
Man's inner nature is identical with the nature of the universe, and thus
man learns about his own nature from nature herself.
Rolling Thunder
--"David C. Rupley, Jr., MD" <dcrupley@earthlink.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>