Wednesday 5 October 2011

Cult of the Corporate

Now I have seen it all!!

It begins with this rather strange word and concept "corporate". I remember clearly the first time I heard this word being used. It had a kind of "toiletry" feel about it to me but I acknowledged the fact that this was the word that some people used to describe a Company. It probably began with Corporate Law and the decision that businesses could be incorporated into a legal entity and this would then give that entity the right to sue or be sued. It had the same legal status as a person and would be considered for legal reasons as a person. Therefore it became a separate legal entity.

And so it evolved. Today we can use the expressions such as "corporate culture" or "corporate World" or "corporate life". It has a whole new meaning since it has become a whole new entity-even if it is still an alien entity. Let us look at what this word really means and the impact on us as the "real" entities-you remember us-"the human kind" entities. We are the ones today that apparently have the increasing levels of stress, anxiety and depression in the workplace where 60% of employees really do not like their jobs and their places of work. Let us look at how it evolved.

Many years ago we began with another concept in the Workplace called "Human Relations" and thus from this idea we developed the idea of a Human Relations Department with a Human Relations Manager. Apparently this word "relations" did not go down too well and so it evolved into "Resources"- and so we have "Human Resources" Department and Managers and Directors etc etc. Interesting mix of words?? Human Resources -should this be resources for humans to help them at work or is it actually the fact that humans began to be seen as a Resource of the Organisation or in fact of the Corporation. So in fact we ended up then with Human resources to serve the needs of a "Corporation".

In a further indictment of our ever increasing demands to divorce ourselves from humanistic qualities driven by some unknown force from above this concept continued its evolution into "Human Capital". Indeed, like a real Balance Sheet of a Corporation humans had finally arrived in their rightful place-on the Balance Sheet?

And-why not? After all we are only another asset of the Corporation?

The concept of Human Capital was of course widely used in Nazi Germany-this was their way of dehumanizing millions of people who did not fit with their idealized vision.

So as one thing leads to another we can see the way of the Modern World and now why real humans seem to find themselves dehumanized and divorced from the Employer-because the Employer is theoretically without a face-it is the Corporation.

When we look at the Corporation we can find one of the biggest cop-outs in the modern century. How many times have you heard the expression-"we have to talk-we have to restructure and you will be made redundant-understand that it is not personal - it is simply a decision made by the Company".  Decisions made by the Company!!

There is no Company and there is no Corporation. If you do not believe this then just stay home from your workplaces and see what happens. When the entire workforce stays away from the Workplace then nothing happens. There is no one there. No one at home. The place is empty.

Nothing happens unless Humans make it happen.

Of course we lose interest in the Employer-actually we lose the Employer- We have allowed people in organisations to make decisions that negligently effect us in our work efforts. We have replaced human virtues now with the Corporate Values-see them up on the Wall -in our Board Rooms and in our Annual Reports. The Values of the Corporation and the Corporate Vision. Problem is that most employees do not see these values or visions exemplified within their leaders and why should they-people are becoming dehumanized and the outcome of this is a disengagement from the places that we spend most of our lives in -at work. At work we should be engaged, employed and involved with other humans. But we are not. In the interests of clinical efficiency we can use emails from one desk to the next rather than actually speak to another human. People these days receive emails or a message on the phone telling them that their services are no longer needed. True faceless inhumanity has finally arrived and employees at all levels all over the World are crashing.

We have lost our humanity and the Academy Award goes to the Corporation and the vision and the values which can never create a Corporate Culture-only people who belong can create a culture. Forget these disgusting words like "Human Capital"-it is an obscenity. People are forgetting how to relate to each other. Could it be the word "relationships".- even Human Relationships are becoming obsolete as we move further and further away from each other. There in lies the disengagement-the disengagement from each other-the lack of mutual trust-the lack of clearly articulated virtues within the workplaces, mutual care and respect and consideration.

This is what the term "corporatisation" really stands for -the failure to bring humans together. This can only be done by humans having a healthy relationship with each other. Happy people create happy places which create happy productivity and innovation and then profits for all concerned. This is because people interact -they get down and they get personal.

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