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catscradle Oct. 25th, 2004 09:51 am)
catscradle Oct. 25th, 2004 09:51 am)Or How to Buck Up and Take One for the Team when your Fearless Leader is a Royal Fuck Up.
So last week the Dean scheduled a meeting for the department. We got reading material for this one. I shit you not, it's called How to be a Courageous Follower. It's about 45 pages worth of total employer propaganda wherein they get the pass the buck and blame the employees when the "leaders" fail. I'm reading this stuff and.... I like have all the margins totally filled in with remarks like "building a dysfunctional environment of social darwinism in which the perfect specimen is the sychophantic yes-men. Total collapse of organization inevitable." - which stands to reason that our Dean would give us this to read as that's exactly what he's done. Of course it's wrapped up pretty and presented in a positive light, but not a single one of us that's bothered to read the document has walked away with warm fuzzy feelings.
There's about 10 lines in this article that make the employees accountable for not only themselves, but the success of the leader and the organization. Which would be fine, except that when the "leader" is spoken of, it's always in light that the leader must be coddled so that their good qualities shine through. Bad employees will cause fractures in the leader thus making the leader less effective. At no time at all does the article hold the leader accountable for bad decisions and failures. Because if the employees were courageous and took risks that could get them fired or blacklisted, that wouldn't happen. Amazing. There's nothing in the article that holds the boss accountable for anything.
I honestly can't believe that the Dean passed this out to us. I don't want to think about what this meeting will be like on Wednesday. There better be coffee and food supplied if they don't want a riot on their hands.
So last week the Dean scheduled a meeting for the department. We got reading material for this one. I shit you not, it's called How to be a Courageous Follower. It's about 45 pages worth of total employer propaganda wherein they get the pass the buck and blame the employees when the "leaders" fail. I'm reading this stuff and.... I like have all the margins totally filled in with remarks like "building a dysfunctional environment of social darwinism in which the perfect specimen is the sychophantic yes-men. Total collapse of organization inevitable." - which stands to reason that our Dean would give us this to read as that's exactly what he's done. Of course it's wrapped up pretty and presented in a positive light, but not a single one of us that's bothered to read the document has walked away with warm fuzzy feelings.
There's about 10 lines in this article that make the employees accountable for not only themselves, but the success of the leader and the organization. Which would be fine, except that when the "leader" is spoken of, it's always in light that the leader must be coddled so that their good qualities shine through. Bad employees will cause fractures in the leader thus making the leader less effective. At no time at all does the article hold the leader accountable for bad decisions and failures. Because if the employees were courageous and took risks that could get them fired or blacklisted, that wouldn't happen. Amazing. There's nothing in the article that holds the boss accountable for anything.
I honestly can't believe that the Dean passed this out to us. I don't want to think about what this meeting will be like on Wednesday. There better be coffee and food supplied if they don't want a riot on their hands.
