democracy or constitutional state? LO27510

From: Fred Nickols (nickols@att.net)
Date: 11/04/01


Replying to Leo Minnigh in LO27481 --

Although I'm replying to Leo's post, thanks to At de Lange for his
response because I didn't pick this up the first time around.

Leo pointed out that most companies (and other organizations) are not so
democratic. He indicated that he is glad he lives in a constitutional
state. He reminds us that leaders can sometimes act above the law and
that when he sees such instances his feelings are those of unhappiness,
sadness and anxiety. He closes with the following:

>The question I struggle now with is the following:
>
>How do we see the structure in a learning organization in respect to
>democratic principles (protection to the weakest members) and in respect
>to constitutional principles (laws and rules)?

As many of you know, I was a career military man: I spent 20 years in the
United States Navy. I joined the Navy straight out of high school and so
my early years in an organizational setting were shaped by my Navy career.
I have commented on several lists, including this one I believe, that one
of the more profound differences I've noted between life in the military
and life in the civilian sector is that, in civilian organizations, the
exercise of authority is far more arbitrary and capricious than anything I
ever encountered in the Navy. Why? Because all members of the Navy, from
the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) to the newest and rawest recruit and
bound up in and bound by a system of law to which all are subject. In my
days in the Navy, there was even an article in the Uniform Code of
Military Justice (UCMJ) that provided protection against the abuse of
authority. There is no such thing in the private sector. Moreover,
beyond Navy Regulations and the UCMJ, the officers of the various services
are sworn to protect, defend and uphold the Constitution of the United
States -- or words to that effect. (You'll have to excuse me if I don't
have that exactly right because I was an enlisted man, not an officer.)

The corporate world has no such guarantees or protections. Indeed, the
basic Constitutional rights which most of us in the United States prize so
highly are of little protection in the workplace. Take privacy, for
example. The Constitutional guarantee against unreasonable search and
seizure protects citizens against the State but not against their
employer. Consequently, monitoring and searching of employees is subject
only to whatever an employer can argue is necessary to protect the
interests of the business.

More important, in the corporate world there are no parallels to Navy
Regulations, the UCMJ or the Constitution. Corporate policies are made,
changed, ignored, abrogated and otherwise made irrelevant to those in
charge. They can be caught up in common law and thus sued for civil or
arrested for criminal wrongdoing but, short of that, they are free to do
what they choose and there is no leveraging upward a system of regulations
and laws to which all are subject. That is a huge difference between the
military and civilian workplace.

If someone were to ask me am I more likely to find a brute in the military
or in the civilian workplace, I would probably say that it is more likely
in the military; after all, look at the nature of its "business." (I can
also point to the meat packing industry where I once did some consulting
and draw attention to brutality and violence there but that's an
exception.) But, nowhere have I seen any more instances of the arbitrary
and capricious exercise of authority -- as well as its abuse -- than I
have in the private sector. The exercise of authority in the private
sector is essentially unchecked by anything except the ethics and
practices of the person in authority, his or her supervisor's ethics and
practices, and the willingness of employees to fight back via lawsuits,
litigation and other legal maneuvers.

So, in response to Leo's question (herewith repeated):

>How do we see the structure in a learning organization in respect to
>democratic principles (protection to the weakest members) and in respect
>to constitutional principles (laws and rules)?

I will make this assertion: The learning in an organization that is
governed by a system of laws, rules and regulations to which all are
subject and to which all have recourse and from which all receive
protection will be far greater than in any other kind of organization. I
base my assertion on my experience in the military -- where the individual
and "organizational" learning far exceeded anything I have witnessed in
the private sector.

I will also suggest a corollary: In any organization that is NOT governed
by a system of laws, rules and regulations to which all are subject and to
which all have recourse and from which all receive protection, any
learning that occurs will be highly individualized, guarded jealously,
shared if shared at all in communities of practice (CoPs) that have no
connection whatsoever to the formal organization and applied to the
benefit of individuals, not the organization.

In closing, I have often wondered what to do about this situation. The
only idea I've had is ties to the fact that most corporations in the
United States receive their charters from the Secretary of State of one of
the states (there are some federal corporations but they are few in number
and special purpose). So, were I the Secretary of State of some state and
someone came to me with papers of incorporation, I would say in reply:
"Let me see your corporation's constitution." Indeed, I would change the
process by which corporations are incorporated to required a constitution.
Ah, but that takes us off into politics, doesn't it? I guess there is a
"real world" out there after all.

Regards to all...

Fred Nickols
Senior Consultant
"Assistance at A Distance"
The Distance Consulting Company
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
nickols@att.net
(609) 490-0095

-- 

Fred Nickols <nickols@att.net>

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