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Principle # 6 - Managing in a Wired Workplace

January 18, 2005 in Main Page | 4 comments

 
 

Trust, Transparency and Authenticity are the glue that holds it all together

 
 

People want to trust, they want to believe – even in the face of large amounts of evidence that the system is being manipulated in the favor of a select few.

 

In North America, we’re still trying to shake off the disbelief about the blatant  dishonesty and fraud demonstrated by some corporate (and governmental) leaders.  We actively do not want to believe things may be as corrupt as they seem … institutionalized dishonesty and deceit.

 

We don’t want to believe that these attitudes and behavior might be more widespread than is apparent, yet somehow we have a feeling that the common corporate culture rewards and supports this possibility.

 

Many people – checking  their 401K’s or stock portfolios, or looking back at the job(s) they’ve lost – feel at best disrespected and at worst enraged that they have been taken advantage of.

 

The interconnectedness of the Web has created a means for people to challenge blind authority, and to push back.  If their trust is abused, many will use this to establih their own authority or fight back

 

Let’s understand one thing … when people who have been abused decide to get organized and push back, they become a potent force. 

 

Interconnectedness is a potent force for creating transparency and demanding trust, and many are just now learning how to use it more effectively.

 

 

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January 18, 2005 at 10:31 am

Anonymous

Sadly people who have been abused often end up abusing others.

[Euan]

January 18, 2005 at 10:58 am

Anonymous

Sadly … you’re right.

January 20, 2005 at 5:18 pm

Anonymous

You know, Jon, my business partner and I were talking about this at lunch today. We’d both heard tales in the last couple of days about the kind of dishonesty or plain jive that goes on in corporations daily. We were thinking about that moment in the mythic future when middle and senior executives themselves simply cannot tolerate it any longer. Soon? Who knows. Unavoidable? I think so.

January 22, 2005 at 1:14 pm

Anonymous

Paradox: many, if not most, businesses now have as part of their infrastructure technology that would make employee organizing/union building much, much easier than it’s been in the days of face-to-face contact organizing. At least in the US, nothing has come of it; unions appear to be moribund.

I think Max Sawicky diagnosed the problem: it’s not the (presence or lack of) interconnectedness, it’s the ideology:

Outsourcing today debunks the common idea of a separation between “professional” and working class. You get a specialty, you might have thought you were set for life. Uh-uh. Manufacturing workers learned this a long time ago. More are learning it now. Outsourcing discounts the value of human capital. All you have left is your labor power. The other people have the capital, the good health insurance, the vacation home, the tax-deductible $75,000 SUV. You have the house, the aging car, and your dog Santorum. If you’re lucky, some kind of shaky pension fund. You’re a worker. Welcome to the working class. You have nothing to lose but your credit card balances.

from his post “Outsourcing is Good for You—Not”

People have the tools they need to do something about it. But they don’t seem to know there’s a problem, let alone one they’re in a better position to solve than ever before.