On 15 Apr 99 at 18:25, Fred Nickols wrote:
> I assume Robert means that he can't make sense of the distinctions
> between large groups as not doing things and small groups as doing
> things. Neither can I. My point was and is that abstract entities
> don't engage in action; people do. If a husband and wife do
> something, it is the husband and wife who do it, not "the team" or
> "the marriage" or "the family." These are shorthand descriptions for
> groups of people and it is the members of the group who do things,
> not the group, whether the group consists of two or 20 or 200 or
> 2000 or 200,000,000.
I'm not sure where this thread has gone, but I understand Fred's concern
about reification, but I disagree that his distinction is meaningful or
useful.
If we are going to think systems (or even not), the NATO country pilots
are doing the physical action of the bombing, but they are doing it at the
behest of others who are making decisions with/for the collective
organization.
Clinton is an actor in the process, as is Jones the pilot as are many
others, operating on behalf of a collective and speaking in the name of a
collective.
On the org. side, if I do something as part of my employment and at the
request of my employer/organization, it is equally productive to speak of
ME as doing something, AND the organization DOING something, because,
simply, I would NOT be doing what I was requested unless the organization
requested me to do it, and if no actual person did something, nothing
would be done either.
So, there may be a point in Fred's distinction but darned if I can figure
out the point, in real terms. Isn't this just nit picking?
Robert Bacal, author of PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT,(McGraw-Hill). Details at
http://members.xoom.com/perform and http://members.xoom.com/cooperate.
"Performance management - about people and creating success"=
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