{"id":1121,"date":"2005-02-10T04:55:49","date_gmt":"2005-02-10T09:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/deconstruction_"},"modified":"2005-02-10T04:55:49","modified_gmt":"2005-02-10T09:55:49","slug":"deconstruction_","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=1121","title":{"rendered":"Deconstruction of the monolithic corporation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The corporate meltdown<\/a> comments have begun to take on a life of their
\nown. The last two comments are a good starting point for an expanded
\ndiscussion of the possible humanization of industry as they illustrate
\ntwo sides of a complex issue.<\/p>\n

\nJill wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

\nI think over time large companies will have their young road warriors,
\nbut as they marry, have children, grow older and burn out, these road
\nwarriors will start their own businesses many of them outsourced or
\nhome-sourced. I think technology will enable many of these to form what
\nShoshanna Zuboff calls federations of free agents who come together to
\ncreate and perform "deep support" in people’s lives, something large
\ncorporations cannot do.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nDan wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

I think that there is another factor that all of us forget. The economy
\nis not all about people sitting next to a PC… People manufacture…
\nand these things needs heavy equipment. examples: chip fabs, food,
\nmachines (like cars or ships or planes)<\/p>\n

…The PC+internet are powerful tools for creation (i.e writing),
\nbut… there is more then writing things… there is still a real,
\nconcrete world out there…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dan makes a valid point. I am not suggesting we set up chip fab
\noperations in our garages. (Disposing of the byproducts would be a
\nroyal nightmare!)<\/p>\n

\nBut, I am insisting that industry, even heavy industry, is no longer in
\nthe position it was in the 20’s and 30’s when workers were viewed as
\ninterchangeable cogs, and worked routinely in dismal, sometimes hellish
\nconditions. <\/p>\n

\nI have worked in a factory setting and am familiar with foundries and
\nassembly and welding operations performed in dimly-lit caverns. I have
\na real appreciation of the errors that are routinely made because of
\ninsufficient illumination and the numbing fatigue that comes with long
\nhours of deafening noise. <\/p>\n

\nThe mindset that uses people as robots is no match for those who think
\noutside the box and look at people as resources which are most
\nvaluable when self-actuated.<\/p>\n

\nAmerica was throwing workers at the problem of welding and painting
\nautomobiles and probably would still be doing so if the Japanese
\nhadn’t bypassed us by building robots to do those jobs faster and more
\nefficiently. <\/p>\n

\nIn a free market, those who are more efficient take business away from
\nthose who are less efficient, assuming that the efficiency is
\ntranslated into lower prices and better service for the customer.<\/p>\n

\nMy purpose in pursuing this line of discussion, is to examine whether
\nself-actuated groups are inherently more efficient in a business
\nenvironment than groups using strict command and control protocols.<\/p>\n

\nFor openers, we could consider the success of Communism in Russia vs
\nthe arguably inefficient and undisciplined methods of controlling the
\nAmerican economy. Somehow, America’s free market system kept muddling
\nthrough and coming out ahead time after time. <\/p>\n

\nCould it be that distributed decision-making has some peculiar power
\nand unexpected efficiency?  Sounds like blogging and the blogosphere to
\nme. Perhaps we should throw some more bloggers at the problems of humanizing industry. <\/p>\n

\nMore on this later…<\/p>\n

Tag:  corporate meltdown<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The corporate meltdown comments have begun to take on a life of their own. The last two comments are a good starting point for an expanded discussion of the possible humanization of industry as they illustrate two sides of a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1804],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3R4iK-i5","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}