We’ve been looking at how various modern professionals look at the questions of how the universe works, what our place is in it, and which elements – physical reality or psychic will – drive which. But this is an ancient question. And the earliest of those who asked it . . .
Continuing from Friday’s post, today we are going to finish up reviewing some of the blog and press activity of the past few weeks which touches on themes we expect to address here soon. Again, virtually all of this material is on my daily reading list, and I mention that here because I think it would make an immediately effective addition to the daily scan of any serious manager or student of management; I hope you will be persuaded and add some of this to yours. . .
The responsibility for administering a business originates, unsurprisingly, in owners. They are the only group naturally possessed of the requirement to make decisions regarding the direction and management of the organization. They can delegate their authority to other groups, but not their responsibility. Except in circumstances wherein they become one or another sort of silent, or absentee, owner. . .
Responsibility is a surprisingly slippery subject in the world of modern organizations. We talk about it easily and with assurance. But it turns out that we can often find ourselves talking past each other about quite different uses of the term. Let’s take a quick look at one way this works. . .
The concept of the democratic workplace has gained a good bit of ground in recent times. A particularly interesting aspect of it is the idea that employees should be given “ownership” of the decisions they implement. One version of this theme goes so far as to insist that the more important the decision, the larger should be the group that makes it. The problem, though, is that in politics the core tenet of democracy is that . . .
We observed, yesterday, that the workplace is just one of many social settings in the lives of its workers. This, if nothing else, compels managers to pay close attention to both employees and the community. That is, it is prudent for managers to do so well beyond the requirements of the law, and even beyond the provisions of contracts they may otherwise be able to negotiate, in order to more effectively discharge their primary responsibilities to enhance shareholder value. As uninspiringly calculating as this may sound, it does nothing to diminish . . .
It is common to think of corporations as entities separate from ourselves – as “things” with no human characteristics or motives. They are just profit making machines, the deadening instruments of distant and terrible masters. We are dragooned into service from the local villages, and all of us – we and our communities, in our ignorance, destitution, and dependence – are held hostage to the mysterious rulers of the silent keep in our midst. Or so it sometimes seems. But the truth is . . .
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