Roy & LO colleagues -
Useful description of "democracy" - thank you. Was it your famous PM,
Winston Churchill, that reminded us that democracy was certainly the
world's worst form of government -- save all the alternatives?
A request: would you please report the citation for Carol Gould's work.
As to LO - democracy linkages:
NO WAY the high-involvement of company members, necessary for LO or any
other element of "participative management" or "modern management," will
occur without members feeling their work, culture and company governance
is guided by the principles Gould uses.
How do we know: look at high-performing companies and see how many are
managed by democratic values and practices, vs. those that feature
"top-down, KITA (backside), one-best-way, managers know best, "my way or
the hi-way?"
These coercive and exploitive management practices are the features of
Frederick W. Taylor's "scientific management," dating from the 1890s.
These practices have impeded the spread of "scientific method" (from
Deming, Juran, and other quality gurus, with their call for
"truth-seeking, hypothesis-testing, management-by-fact, use of SPC, use of
the Shehart/Deming cycle of plan-do-check-act, PDCA) as a replacement for
"scientific management."
Taylor's work has also impeded the work of Douglas McGregor, Rensis Likert
and other social scientists whose research discovered and confirmed
improved performance and results when people were treated like human
beings, consulted, involved in decisions that affected them -- the set of
conditions that lead to high-performance including learning as a
cornerstone of continual (not necessarily "continuous") improvement.
Be interesting to see what others have to say on this one.
Dick Webster
Richard S. Webster, Ph.D. - President
Personal Resources Management Institute
709 Wesley Court - Worthington OH 43085-3558
e-mail <webster.1@osu.edu>, fax 614-433-71-88, tel 614-433-7144
***
The Institute's R&D projects address the paradigm shift from "training,
instruction and teaching" to "learning" -- a key change for continual
improvement of the enterprise (company or other organization), including:
"better" leadership, systems and processes, ideas and quality; more
effective use of information and knowledge; higher involvement, improved
performance and productivity of company members and their teams; with
increased profits and other desired results. PRMI is a 501(c)3 non-profit
research, development and consulting company founded in 1978.
***
Thought: "Things are getting better and better and worse and worse faster
and faster" says Tom Atlee. Challenge: Finding and building the "betters,"
in time. Idea: Try learning -- each person's responsibility and
opportunity.
--"Richard S. Webster" <webster.1@osu.edu>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>