Root Cause LO8058

Mariann Jelinek (mxjeli@mail.wm.edu)
Sun, 23 Jun 1996 21:15:56 -0400

Replying to LO8048 --

If's comments have caught my eye today: in his example of the
CEO dynamiting the old HQ building, seems to me we have an example of
David Hurst's "ethically created crisis" (i.e., a crisis deliberately
created, but done so on ethical grounds). Crises are needed, in Hurst's
view, for systemic change. Where the CEO (or other managers) also engage
in the dilemmas this creates, seeking to jointly create new sense, it's
"ethical"; where said execs. disengage, leaving their subordinates to
flounder, or where they manipulate the employees, it's not ethical.
At any rate, the notion of crisis as a spur to insight and
(possibly) change is an old one: "There's nothing so wonderfully
concentrates the mind," wrote Samuel Johnson, "as the threat of hanging
in the morning!" While not threatened with hanging, crisis in my own
life has certainly pushed me to thinking hard about values, root causes
and other such matters!

Sam

MXJELI@MAIL.WM.EDU
Mariann Jelinek
Richard C. Kraemer Professor of Business
Graduate School of Business,
College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, VA 23185

Tel. (804) 221-2882 FAX: (804) 229-6135
************************************************************************
The only enduring strategic advantage is the ability
to change the rules of the game.

-- 

mxjeli@mail.wm.edu (Mariann Jelinek)

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