Replying to LO27701 --
Dear Organlearners,
Linda Ortberg < Sinte@aol.com > writes:
>Maybe we need to look to the schools teaching our
>business people. I believe if we want the business
>community to change then we must change the
>academic world that teaches business people.
Greetings dear Linda,
Your words can actually be extended to all careers. Ablation ("ab"=away,
"latus"=carry) is increasing drastically in all walks of life in most
parts of the world. Those with a university training is often at the
forefront of this ablation. Universities have to reform themselves.
However, working in a university self, I have come deeply under the
impression how much a university depends on what society expects from it.
It makes me think of how Jan Smuts (father of holism) understood
wholeness. He said wholeness is the whole AND its field. The very name
university tells that it is a whole which studies the universe. For this
whole to have wholeness, its field has to be recognised. Its field is the
society in which it operates.
What does the society in which a university is imbedded expects from that
university? If society does not value ethics highly, then sooner or later
the university will follow suite. If society does not know how dangerous
rote (French for machine) learning is, universities will dish out rote
learning as the most easiest route. If society does not know that
"increasing wholeness" is a condition for authentic learning, then
universities will keep on fragmenting the courses which they train.
Economics and ecology have the same root "oikos"=house. Economics have
deteriorated much into money making blue prints. Economics should have
studied the "cultural ecosystem" which should have sustained the evolution
of human culture just as in ecology it is studied how the "natural
ecosystem" sustains the evolution of plants and animals. However, there is
little of such a "cultural ecosystem" left over to be studied in
economics. We are all responsible for it and not merely the economists.
Since we are all responsible, some less and some more, for the decline of
the "cultural ecosystem", we will all have to do our best to promote it
again. To do this we will have to learn how to do it. There are good
sources of information to learn from. We can also develop our personal
knowledge (mastery) by reflecting on our experiences. But I think we fail
because we act merely as LIs (Learning Individual) and not also as LOs
(Learning Organisation). Human culture is more than what persons do. Human
culture is what society benefits from what persons do.
With care and best wishes
--At de Lange <amdelange@gold.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa
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