On 9 Aug 96 at 20:06, J C Howell wrote:
> > Robert says:
> >
> > "I agree to some extent, but the interesting thing about systems
> > thinking is that we must also apply it to management. So by the
> > same logic, there is also no such thing as bad managers, only
> > managers that are working in bad systems, or who are, themselves
> > asked to do the wrong things."
>
> I think that most systems were developed with the best of intentions
> at the time. They just don't work anymore. Unfortunately, part of
> most bad systems is an often-unwritten, but completely understood,
> tenet that you just don't challenge the management. After all, it's
> THEIR company and they must now what they are doing.
The issue for me is one of responsibility. Nobody on the list seems
to have responded to this issue. Focusing on the system can encourage
staff to use that as an out, and abdicate their own responsibility,
and the same can be said to focusing on management causation.
Likewise management focus on employee causation of problems leaves
THEM an out.
I have no desire to work in such a place, that doesn't recognize the
inter-relationships between the three "parties".
I think that focusing ONLY on one component doesn't push us to
systems thinking, and I see little difference between looking only at
systems and looking only at staff (the old school)...both allow total
abdication, and organizational blindness.
Is looking at the system, the same old process of segmenting
everything, but with a different target?
Robert Bacal, CEO, Institute For Cooperative Communication
dbt359@freenet.mb.ca, Located in Winnipeg,Canada.
*For articles on management, change, training,communication, etc,
visit our home page at: http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~dbt359
--"Robert Bacal" <dbt359@freenet.mb.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>