THE UGLY SIDE OF PERSONHOOD! IS THIS SIDE TO PREVAIL? AN EXCERPT FROM THE SECOND EDITION OF “WORK WITHOUT MANAGERS”

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© March 6, 2014

REFERENCE:

Work Without Managers: A View from the Trenches created a bit of a stir when it was released a quarter century ago.  In late April 2014 the Second Edition will be released by TATE Publishing Company.  TATE is investing its reputation and coin in re-releasing nine of my books in the genre of organizational development psychology, and a first edition, Confident Thinking.

As well as WWMs was received in 1990, little has changed.  One of the ideas expressed in that original book has come to haunt us today, as little moment was given to what that idea entailed.  The idea?  PERSONHOOD!  This is an excerpt from the Second Edition on this idea?

 

 

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WWMs argued primarily about the pervasiveness of the “six silent killers” that were destroying the organization from within, silently and unobtrusively in passivity, behaviors difficult to detect:


Passive Aggression -- coming in late, leaving early, doing as little as possible to get by.

Passive Responsive -- doing only what told to do, then standing around waiting for orders.

Passive Defensive -- always having an excuse why something doesn't get done or done on time.

Approach Avoidance -- accepting assignments not planning to complete, or to complete on time.

Malicious Obedience -- spreading disinformation or rumors about the company or others, or withholding information vital to a project.

Obsessive compulsive -- always wanting to have or be what others have or are, always seeing the grass greener on the other side of the fence.

 

Periodically, indicative of the rise of professionals is displayed in the egregious overt behavior of some, behavior that can and often does have world shattering consequences.  This has been allowed to happen largely because of the narcissistic arrogance of institutional leadership.

Nicholas Leeson, a young derivative trader for Barings Bank of Great Britain, an investment bank founded in 1762, conducted fraudulent, unauthorized speculative trading out of Barings’s Singapore operation that led to the bank’s total collapse and insolvency in 1995.  Barings suffered losses that exceeded 208 million British pounds sterling, and vanished.

 

Edward Snowden, a low level analyst in the National Security Agency (NSA), leaked highly sensitive classified secret documents to the public relating to NSA’s spy program.  These documents revealed how extensive the United States was spying on its allies as well as its enemies.

 

Bradley Manning, an enlisted man in the US Army, a person working in US Army Intelligence, released 720,000 highly secretive documents from the State and Defense Departments of the United States to Julian Assange, who promptly published them on WikiLeaks to the world on the Internet.

 

At this writing, Snowden is in Russia, which has no extradition treaty with the United States; Manning is in prison for violating the US Espionage Act, serving a thirty-five year prison term; Assange is on the run, and in hiding, wanted in Sweden on a rape charge, and in several other countries for unethical and/or criminal practices.

 

These three men of no demonstrable distinction other than the brazen character of their acts, are representative of the overt side of personhood, whereas the “six silent killers” are representative of the covert side of this mindset.

 

Leeson, Snowden, Manning and Assange indicate in their behaviors no countervailing common good restrain.  They are the face of the world of tomorrow where individuals with special knowledge and skills will have the power to impact, disrupt, embarrass, or destroy ancient institutions with alacrity should they so desire.  That is, if the responsible side of personhood does not prevail, and it will not prevail if it is not acknowledged to in fact exist.

These miscreants were not so much motivated by material gain as for other reasons.  Leeson was simply caught in a game that became an addiction.  He didn’t profit from the game, or attempt to do so, as that was never his intent. 

Snowden and Manning were righteous whistle blowers, while Assange had an obvious palpable hatred of the power of institutions, and of the money and celebrity classes.  In various ways, they were driven by misplaced morality codes perceived in the context of personhood in an age of greed and duplicity.