Dear Organlearners,
On this matter, I see many have been talking about, let me get in a couple
of words.
Let me try to de-construct the main concept.
Profit. Profit is nothing more than getting from our work more than we put
in. Once I think iniciative and originality should be rewarded, I don't
think there is anything wrong with it. One may think that profit has to do
with money, but it really hasn't. Money is but an instrument.
Once, when I was a kid, I saw a cartoon explaining what money was. I saw a
shoe-maker who wanted meat, a butcher who was naked except for shoes and a
tailor who was all dressed up but bare-footed. They all lived 20 km apart.
The shoe-maker had to travel about 60km to finally get the meat. Money is
an instrument. It represents other things. It has different functions:
instrument of trade, measure of value and instrument for saving values.
Now, why would one be motivated by money? Because, as it is so useful, it
gives you power. So, power as motive is something I can understand. And
within this framework you can look for all the pathologies in psychology.
In Portuguese law, corporations do not have penal personality.
Corporations do not commit crimes. People commit crimes. We must always
understand that people are in charge of the organizations.
People motivated by power we can find at every corner. In fact, it is true
that our culture leads us towards a culture of power and conflit based on
power poles. But much before this being a problem caused by society, it is
caused by neurosis and psicosis in most of our individual beings. Of our
individual ways to see the world. Of how we percieve threats and dangers
in the world around.
Yes, it is common for people to be frustrated that the world is not kind
to us. It seems to work in a value frame distant from us and it is easy to
look at it through the inaction of society as a whole, but many times this
is due to our own need to get control on reality and thus power over our
destiny. In fact, we do have it. But we must understand that getting
ourselves into a non-power frame of mind is the first, and usually the
most difficult step we must take. And only if each of us can get into this
new difficult frame, can things, in the end change.
Profit motive, in my view, is a false question.
Bruno Martins Soares
--"Bruno Martins Soares" <bmartins.soares@mail.EUnet.pt>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>