consensus thinking

CHAPTER VII

NEW WORKPLACE ATTITUDES

Self management - Workplace democracy -Personal accountability - Consensus decision making - Zen Bhuddism - The search for significance - Organizational strategies - Search for a global culture

Economics has based its calculations on the three fundamental components of any economic structure, land, labour and capital. The variable of labour, more specifically, the successful work ethic, has now superseded the study of economics as the determinant of economic profitability. In THE HEART OF BUSINESS, Peter Koestenbaum stressed the importance of ethics, philosophy, the winning of employee loyalty, and self development, as the essential factors. Economics is to be considered more of a descriptive or historical study, rather than a prescriptive study. The study of the medium, the organization, becomes the paramount study. How are people motivated? What structures and organizational strategies produce positive attitudes?

CHAPTER III
REPRESENTATIONAL DEMOCRACY,
LEADERSHIP, AND SELF RESPONSIBILITY
The representative democratic system - Political intractability
Survival fear, as the unacknowledged basis for national political power, allows politicians play on the fears and hopes of the electorate. Survival fear justifies the politician's usefulness and collectivises nations. The politicians investment in trauma keeps the electorate wondering what the nation will do in the face of danger. This focuses attention on the politicians who, at centre stage, convince their public that their acts are believable and can be trusted.