Posted by Reilly Atkinson on June 06, 1999 at 13:58:51:

In Reply to: Re: the beginning of a km exercise is to indicate your organizations purpose posted by Kees de Vos on June 03, 1999 at 18:43:13:

Mr. de Vos,
As a physicist I was quite interested in theory. As a businessman, I eschew theory and focus upon practical matters. There are numerous instances over the last half century in which businesses have attempted to combine employee and management interests. Such combining was a primary principal invoked in the creation of GM's Saturn division. Then there is Lincoln Electric -- they make welding equipment -- in which management is quite minimal; line workers control their work agenda to a substantial degree, and make tons of money in so doing. Employee stock options tend to bring about common interests between employees and management. They've had an enormous impact on business, at least in the US. The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, The New York Times all have run countless stories on managers and companies that have had some success in merging the interests of management and employees. Good theory is based on empirical observation. My hunch is that there is more than enough empirical stuff out there from which to formulate a solid and practical theory of corporate cooperation.

In addition, in most start ups and small businesses, the distinction between management and employee is often minimal, and cooperation is high. In my opinion, based on a few years of experience in large and small organizations, the degree to which employee and managment interests overlap, as organizations grow, is a function of manager's and employee's personalities, the degree to which all parties fight bureaucratic strangulation, as well as experience, education, age, and so on... Knowledge is indeed important, but in my opinion it is, in practice, only one of many factors driving corporate structure and integration of management and employee interests

Reilly Atkinson

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Follow Ups:

• Re: Agreed Kees de Vos 06:37:54 6/07/99 (1)
  • Re: Agreed Reilly Atkinson 23:27:26 6/07/99 (0)

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