Vicious or Virtuous?
By report and repute our planet has become a less pleasant place over the last hundred years. We’re wealthier and healthier – well, at least in some parts of the world – but this doesn’t seem to have made us any happier. Certainly the world of work is a harsher place, where people are no longer socially attached to their places of employment but a rather viewed as resources to be disposed of as and when required.
One line of argument suggests that this change is not simply due to increased economic pressures on people and corporations to get results but is because managers have learned – been trained – to behave in accordance with the principles of economics, founded on the dubious idea of self-interest. When we act on the basis of ideas these become self-fulfilling. Vicious circle or virtuous ladder?
By report and repute our planet has become a less pleasant place over the last hundred years. We’re wealthier and healthier – well, at least in some parts of the world – but this doesn’t seem to have made us any happier. Certainly the world of work is a harsher place, where people are no longer socially attached to their places of employment but a rather viewed as resources to be disposed of as and when required.
One line of argument suggests that this change is not simply due to increased economic pressures on people and corporations to get results but is because managers have learned – been trained – to behave in accordance with the principles of economics, founded on the dubious idea of self-interest. When we act on the basis of ideas these become self-fulfilling. Vicious circle or virtuous ladder?