The organizational perspective

• organizations are sources of stress

• impact of management consultancy fads

• �downsizing�

  • "In the end, a corporation almost always loses company memory and company energy.�

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The first point to be made is that modern organizations, especially business organizations, have become enormously stressful places in which to work. Terms such as 'delivering shareholder value' and 'increasing market share' are associated with aggressive managerial styles. People become 'human resources', to be moved or dismissed according to the market conditions, or simply stock-market sentiment.

We can go back to the time and motion studies of Taylor in the early part of the century, which were associated with the idea of 'scientific management', following this, we had the human factors school in the 1940s and 1950s, associated with the Hawthorne experiments and researchers such as Maslow and Hertzberg, followed by management by objectives, PPBS (Planning, Programming, Budgeting Systems), zero-based budgeting, the learning organization, business process re-engineering, and now knowledge management. All of them promoted on the Utopian ideal that success depended upon applying the ideas throughout the organization.

"In the end, a corporation almost always loses company memory and company energy. The first is caused when informal networks are destroyed, information sharing is restricted, and experienced employees depart. The second is caused from declining morale, loss of loyalty and commitment, and the departure of the most talented employees, who know they are marketable."