> Consensus processes do exist in any number of corporations -- high
> tech firms have tons of workplace management stuff, the emphasis now
> is all on communication, team-building, empowering local
> groups. That's not simply ideology; there are major changes underway in
> the new service economy, which are tied to powerfully subversive
> undercurrents of cooperation, sustainability and social justice, in the
> belly of the beast.
I assume that some of this is evident in the management literature that can be found at the local bookstore? Isn't this just the management fad du jour? Before the dot-com bubble, management was all abuzz about imrpoving "quality" through schemes like Total Quality Management and whatever Deming had crapped out recently. Did any of you go through this stuff? Alot of lip service was paid to empowering teams, but it was pretty clear that the real hierarchy could veto decisions made by the empowered team.
I suspect that this recent return to management fads is prompted by middle management's realization that they had better find something to make them look necessary again. The years of watching the stock ticker on the office PC are behind them.
Somehow I suspect that despite the lip service paid to this stuff in corporations, we're not going to see worker-run corporations come out of this.
I still think Thomas Frank's book on this stuff was pretty on target.
Chuck0