Discussion
As Andrew Marcinko (DurhamU) points out too often organisations (both public & private/commercial) espouse values publicly that their actions betray:
'Employees notice that gap. They remember it. It's hugely impactful. And the costs — trust, commitment, goodwill, retention — outlast whatever the numbers were meant to justify'!
Management's organised hypocrisy has long term costs; a key aspect of both the UK's rubbish management & our economic travails!
#economics #politics
h/t LinkedIn
The hypocrisy is interesting though.
Why do businesses pretend to be good ?
The answer must surely be that potential customers (ie. people) like goodness. People are inclined to the good, while business - at least big business - in reality, leans the other way.
Conclusion: the economists have it wrong if they think the dog-eat-dog business world is a 'natural' reflection of human behaviour; on the contrary, big business can only survive by disguising itself as something more humane.
That seems likely, but do you think that businesses - and particularly individuals within that business - also like to pretend that they're doing something more worthwhile than they actually are?
Good point - it's not just hypocrisy, it's ideology isn't it ? - people mot pretending, but entirely immersed in 'an imaginary relation to real things'.
Asolutely, and possibly sanity too.
People like to think that what they do for a living is worthwhile, but for most people working in a modern service economy that usefulness can be pretty opaque.
@ReggieHere @GeofCox @ChrisMayLA6
Hypocrisy is part of being human, and businesses are bundles of humans
Judith Shklar had thoughts about this https://overcast.fm/+1c0Bsyphs
I don't agree that businesses are simply bundles of humans - they are social, legal/financial structures, with organisational imperatives not in the control of the people that happen to work in them - who indeed come and go.
I once had the dubious pleasure of teaching business.
Come asssessment time each year; every single question was about a given company's CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility.
The interesting thing about big business CSR is that it's almost always managed by the marketing department.
Agreed; its about consumer sentiment in a market where there is little to distinguish competing products/services
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