Dear Roy,
Can only imagine you have extra-sensory perception-
>I think your career is showing through in your knowledge sources! There
>are many other sources of knowledge, including the people who are left
>out. A very good reason for leaving them out is that by inclusion they
>could alter the knowledge and consequentially the power situation.
- in that my career is such an open book!
Of course there are innumerable knowledge sources beyond the ones I
mentioned. I have worked (paid) in welfare and community development with
long term unemployed persons (know what it is like to be out of the formal
knowledge loop) and still do community work in a voluntary capacity. I
originally trained as a classical musician in Australia and Europe (so
have practical experience in embodied, artistic kwowledge), am an
internationlly published writer (theoretical knowledge) and enjoy
gardening (environmental knowledge), visiting friends and playing with my
children...does all that show through?
>Is power
>associated with an individual or is power an emergent property of a group
>of individuals?
Both and...I imagine.
>What do people mean by power anyway?
Good question to which I cannot give an off the cuff answer.
>Looking at your examples. Middle managers have the most influence on
>change at a certain stage of implementation, more than the senior managers
>who decided that it was going to happen in broad terms without considering
>the detail. How much longer does society have to wait for senior managers
>to learn this lesson or are they not bright enought to learn or are they
>too arrogant or whatever? Definitly a communication problem between
>layers of management.
Yep, nicely said. A positive middle management role as "translators" is
articulated in Nonaka and Tacheuchi's "The Knowledge Creating Company" I
think.
>We need to remember that the French farmers are replaying democracy as it
>exists in France. I say replaying because it is replaying the French
>Revolution and this is their adopted form of democracy. I see
>similarities between the UK layers of management and the French society,
>both have layers getting on quietly by themselves without communicating
>between layers. Every now and then one layer tries to force unwelcome
>change on another and their is rebellion. The advantage in French Society
>is that there is respect between layers.
Sometimes wonder Roy if you are offering me a lesson in history!! Perhaps
it is your career that is showing through...
Philip
Philip Pogson
Leadership Development Strategy Consultant
Staff Development Branch
University of Technology Sydney NSW 2007
Australia
ph: +61 2 9514 2934(w)
fax: +61 2 9514 2930(w)
ph/fax: +61 2 9809 5185 (h)
mobile: +61 0412 459156
"The new heresy for the organisational renewal movement to espouse is that
when we build organisations that act upon this world we must not do so
with the intent to exploit, pollute and plunder but to renew the life of
the planet and ourselves."
-Dexter Dunphy
--Philip Pogson <ppogson@uts.EDU.AU>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>