Dear Eugene,
Thanks for your thoughtful approach to the profit motive strand, but I
think the following passage does stretch reality a little! (NB I am
totally supportive of profit as one of a number of necessary factors in
organisational performance!! So please, nobody flame me!)
>Most American manufacturers, in fact all I have been close to, tried to
>pay attention the environment and total implications of what they were
>doing. Years ago 'they' we did not know that some things done were
>harmful but as 'they' find out the practice changes.
I cannot speak for American manufacturers, but if they are anything like
Australian manufacturers then some companies might have done some or all
of the following:
a. continued to mine and expose workers to asbestos in manufacturing years
after the medical evidence pointed to a strong link between asbestos and
various terminal respiratory diseases.
b. promoted tobacco long after they knew of the health problems
c. exported processed milk products to the Developing World as "health
products" that caring mothers should give their children even if they
could not provide sterile ingredients to mix the milk powder in and with.
d. avoided waste dumping charges by deliberately pouring toxic products
into sewers and/or dumping garbage into parks and bushland.
f. tried to sell drugs and chemical banned in our country to other less
well-policed countries
This is not to say all companies do all of this as most companies are, of
course, law abiding corporate citizens, but all of the above happened and
still happens here...and all driven by an unethical pursuit of profit.
Regards,
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
"Loosening horizonatal boundaries...calls for integration, not
decentralization; process, not function; and teamwork, not individual
effort.
When an organization is viewed integratively as composed of shared
resources, it puts an end to the structural questions about power,
authority and priority raised in the centralize/decentralize debate."
-Ron Ashkenas et al
--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>