Stanford University Press Blog

An Overview of Organizations for People

Valuing kind leadership in an increasingly cynical world.

WILLIAM F. BAKER

Free for commercial use via Pixabay.

 

Many have hypothesized that the world we live in is getting angrier and meaner. Some say that it’s the pressure of the times to survive in a globally competitive world. Others say it’s how we communicate—no longer face-to-face—allowing for less civilized communication and more nastiness.  Simultaneously, the lionizing of the “strongman,” killer boss and the belief that the bottom line is the only measure has pushed our companies into places of profit over people.

In our new book, Organizations for People, published by Stanford University Press, Industrial Psychologist Dr. Michael O’Malley and I make the case that these ideas are not necessarily true. In fact, the research demonstrates that kind leadership is beneficial in creating a contented workplace and even a positive bottom line. We have closely examined 21 companies in various businesses all across the country to prove our point.

As a country we are slowly losing the social, human nourishment we require for our happiness and well-being. When managing large commercial broadcast businesses, I soon realized that when hiring a person, we were also hiring a family.

Our review begins with a Forward by Rachel Moore, CEO of the Music Center of Los Angeles, which employs two thousand people. Rachel is a former ballet dancer who regretfully stated that she began her work life around men who expected her to keep her ideas to herself. However, today she manages a workforce where employees are measured not only by what they say and accomplish, but how they do it, with ethics, kindness, tolerance and openness. We show that business in pursuit of money alone is more often less civil and even less successful over the long haul. Seemingly in agreement with this idea, CEO of JP Morgan, Jamie Dimon, speaking for many of the biggest companies in America at the Business Roundtable, stated that business leaders should commit to balancing the needs of shareholders with customers, employees, suppliers and local communities. This recommendation comes at a good time, based on a recent survey which found that only 20% of the workforce says they are “flourishing¹.”

A New Narrative on Trade

Behind the noise of techlashes and trade wars, the next era of globalization arises.

KATI SUOMINEN

Free for commercial use via Pixabay.

 

In Washington and on campaign trails, trade and technology are evil twins spreading worry and anxiety. Trade is in a state of war, big tech is ending our privacy, and AI overlords are stealing our jobs. Yet behind the cacophony of tweets on tariffs and techlashes is important policy progress on the most dynamic area of trade – digital trade. And on the ground floor of commerce, technologies such as ecommerce, next generation payments, blockchain, AI, additive manufacturing, and 5G are revolutionizing how companies make, move and market goods and services – and fundamentally reshaping how we think about globalization and its benefits. In my new book Revolutionizing World Trade, I show how a new narrative on trade is emerging – one that businesses already live and more governments must champion.

Let’s start with the good news. On October 7, as the U.S. and China readied to restart their agonized trade talks, U.S. Trade Representative announced the signing of the U.S.-Japan Digital Trade Agreement that echoes the digital trade chapter of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) signed almost a year ago. The deals commit partners to free flow of data across borders; bar tariffs on digital content crossing borders, such as  videos, music and software; and ensure online platforms are not liable for content their users post, a long-standing U.S. policy that has propelled the American online economy.

The spirit of America’s two digital deals contrasts with the European Union’s stringent data privacy and online liability rules, waves of data localization policies around the world, and the proliferation of the so-called Netflix taxes levied on digital sales by such governments national capitals in Europe to Southeast Asia, U.S. states, and Canadian and Argentine provinces.

Lebanese Uprising

The corruption of debt.

HICHAM SAFIEDDINE

Beirut 2019– Protest against Lebanon's council of ministers. Photo taken by Jessica Wahab, the license holder is NicolasGaron - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. Image has been cropped.  Via Wikimedia Commons.

 

There is no shortage of corruption in Lebanon. According to Transparency International, people in Lebanon are the most likely in the MENA region to describe their politicians and state institutions as highly corrupt. From the smallest bureaucratic transaction to the largest government contract, billions of dollars are drained from people’s pockets through bribery and from the public purse through embezzlement. But the focus on liberal forms of corruption, as defined by Transparency International and other international actors, has reduced the crisis to a problem of bad governance. The ready accusation of “endemic” or “rampant” corruption is proposed by global consultancy groups, parroted by Western political leaders, and put to government officials by Western mainstream media. Such accusations are coupled with a rehearsed formula to solve the crisis: austerity, more transparency, an end to clientelism, and drastic fiscal reforms. 

Such a diagnosis sits well with elites in the Global North eager to exonerate themselves and lay all the blame on their Global South counterparts. It also drowns the debate in legal and financial jargon about the rule of law and fiscal mismanagement, with few results. Lebanon’s law against unlawful enrichment was passed 20 years ago but undermined whistleblowers rather than perpetrators.Meanwhile, other major and invisible sources of corruption, such as chronic debt, are either discussed in passing, or invoked to justify more of the same antidote: austerity measures that include cutting major social services, and subsidies that benefit the majority of the population. Outwardly, these cuts are about ending corruption. In effect, they redirect government expenditures to service public debt - that is, pay the rich lenders - and make way for profitable foreign investment. In Lebanon, corruption induced by debt has reached gigantic proportions, with serious consequences for the state and society alike. Debt is the primary source of lawful enrichment. Lebanon has become the world’s third most indebted nation, with public debt estimated at $80bn in 2018 - a whopping 151 percent of GDP.

Narratives of Narcissistic Democracy and Rational Tyranny

How Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism remains painfully relevant.

AMIR ESHEL

New York City– 370 Riverside Drive, which Hannah Arendt lived in from 1959 until her death in 1975. Photo by Amir Eshel.

Recently, following a discussion of totalitarianism, a student shared a conversation she’d had in her dormitory with a brilliant peer from China. My student was asked, “What is so great about democracy?” To explain why she was asking such a provocative question, the Chinese student showed her a headline from CNN that quoted a recent tweet by President Trump: “Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.” A bright, ironic smile spread on the Chinese student’s face, as if to say, “If this chaotic adolescent narcissism is an expression of democracy, I prefer rational tyranny.” “There was little I could say,” said my student with noticeable sadness. “At the moment, I myself am not sure how I should answer.”

The challenge posed by authoritarian regimes such as China’s to political liberalism and democracy is everywhere today. The daily headlines from Hong Kong and elsewhere remind us that around the world tyranny of multiple sorts is on the rise. Values, such as free speech and an independent press, that we used to take for granted are in doubt, as we question their ability to endure, while some are dismissed altogether. Indeed, seventy years after the publication of The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt’s analysis of the enduring threat to freedom seems as pertinent as ever. From Manila and Mumbai to Brasilia and Moscow, from Budapest and Warsaw to Istanbul, Damascus, and beyond, freedom of thought, expression, and political action are in ever greater danger. As I show in my book, Poetic Thinking Today, what makes Arendt’s insights into despotic politics in the modern era so pressing and relevant is not only the twentieth and twenty-first centuries’ explosion of the will to power or the seemingly interminable machinations of capitalism. It is also what Arendt brilliantly describes as the enduring affinity between certain philosophical assumptions and tyranny. Ever since Plato, Arendt noted in a diary entry from 1950, Western logic has been “by definition” tyrannical — fixed on principles, which are considered the outcome of “pure thought and reason.” It is not only tyrants, in their desire to repress all forms of opposition, but also the despotic idea that understanding and sound judgment depend solely on logic, method, rigor, and systemization that pose a constant threat to human freedom. If, under a tyrannical regime, the sovereign alone decides between right and wrong in all realms of life, the Western notion of “thinking” itself is constantly threatened by a despot of its own: the consecrated Western concept of “logic.” Arendt thus asks, “Is there a way of thinking that is not tyrannical?”[i]

Art alone is hardly sufficient to combat tyranny; a piece of art, in and of itself, cannot change the world. Yet art itself and the way we engage with it can indeed effect change—both within ourselves and eventually within the public worlds we inhabit.

My answer to this question is a clear yes. In Poetic Thinking Today, I point to the post-Romantic philosophical tradition in its open-ended notion of thinking as a clear alternative to the authoritarianism of logic-bound thought. Yet, I also view the arts and our engagement with them in schools and universities as crucial for enhancing and cultivating freedom. Drawing on a variety of thinkers who all explored art’s capacity to present and to engender insight or to offer orientation—including Immanuel Kant, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Michael Oakeshott, and Richard Rorty—I suggest how we can protect and promote intellectual and political freedom when those values are under duress. With tyrannical tendencies increasing around the world, we must adopt poetic thinking in our educational systems, in our scholarship, and in the public sphere as a vital measure to protect our freedoms.

Are You Playing the Best Team?

Why collaboration and teamwork are essential to effective strategy execution.

KENNETH J. CARRIG and SCOTT A. SNELL

Free for commercial use via Pixabay.

 

We are proud to present an excerpt from Strategic Execution: Driving Breakthrough Performance in Business by Kenneth J. Carrig and Scott A. Snell.

As important as the CEO is, the top management team are the ones who initiate the game plan and have responsibilities for/to others who will ultimately make strategy happen. They are that key point of translation from strategic intent to operational directives. From above and below, we continually hear that it’s critical to get the team right. Yet it’s often a challenge to get the right people in the right roles. There needs to be a balance across the players in terms of knowledge of the business, knowledge of their functions, and ability to collaborate across the team.

Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden used to say, “I don’t play my five best; I play my best five.” Too many CEOs ascribe to a “best athlete” approach to their top teams, promoting high performers into senior roles both as a reward for achievement and an incentive for further contribution. In some cases, this creates an undeveloped “team of rivals” that breeds unhealthy competition and power plays among the most senior leaders. At a minimum, it can lead to those leaders developing fiefdoms, hoarding resources, and erecting silos. In addition to a lack of alignment, this creates dysfunction throughout the organization that impairs strategy execution. Better to find the right combination of leaders, even if this means not always promoting your stars. Ron Wallace, former president of UPS International, reinforced why, saying, “Nine times out of ten, teamwork trumps talent.”⁸

In our experience, where companies go wrong is simply assigning people to teams or accepting the teams that exist and expecting them to be ready, willing, and able to collaborate. This false belief is that any group of people within the organization can be assembled into a team where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

We’re not downplaying the importance of individual talent—it’s crucial—but the collaborative effect is critical as well. Let’s look at a couple of examples from SunTrust and Marriott, to illustrate these points and gain specific insights on how to groom the top team.

Making Black Quotidian

Matthew F. Delmont on the importance of recognizing the legacy and future of African-American newspapers.

MATTHEW F. DELMONT

April 1941– Linotype operators for the Chicago Defender. Public Domain. By the Farm Security Administration. Via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Earlier this year the Chicago Defender, a legendary black newspaper, published its final print edition after 114 years and made the decision to focus exclusively on digital content.  At its peak in the late 1920s, the newspaper claimed a circulation of over 250,000, but in the 2010s The Defender’s had only 16,000 print subscribers, while the newspaper’s website recorded 450,000 unique visitors each month.  “It is an economic decision,” Hiram Jackson, chief executive of Real Times Media, which owns The Defender and several other black newspapers, told the New York Times.  “But it’s more an effort to make sure The Defender has another 100 years.”

In the three years I have been working on Black Quotidian: Everyday History in African-American Newspapers I have been thinking a lot about the history, legacy, and future of the black press.  Black newspapers were important to readers because they covered a wide range of news related to politics, civil rights, sports, arts and culture.  This was important because most mainstream white newspaper did not treat black people as equal citizens in the cities or country in which they lived.  Through much of the twentieth century, if you picked up a big city newspaper like the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, or Los Angeles Times, you would have no idea that those cities had thriving African-American communities.  While millions of African Americans lived in these cities, the mainstream newspapers carried only a handful of stories about black people.  And the stories that did appear were often sensationalized crime stories.  In contrast, African-American newspapers were dedicated to recording and sharing stories about the everyday joys, struggles, and complexities of black life.  Looking through the archives of these newspapers it is clear that Black lives mattered everyday in papers such as the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, Los Angeles Sentinel, and New York Amsterdam News.  And when African-American newspapers openly advocated for the humanity of black people, they also made it clear that mainstream white newspapers were not politically neutral.

I chose to focus on African-American newspapers because I wanted to focus on the lives, and not only the deaths, of black people.

While Black Quotidian includes posts about iconic figures such as Carter G. Woodson, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman, I also try to call attention to people and events that are not commonly featured in textbooks, documentaries, or Black History Month celebrations.  From January 2016 to January 2017, each day I posted at least one black newspaper article from that date in history, accompanied by brief commentary.  The digital publication now includes introductory chapters on the history of the black press, more than 365 daily posts (including guest posts from scholars and students), and more than 1,000 media objects, which are arranged in flexible pathways that enable readers to explore the text and media in different ways.

Exile

Sato Moughalian, author of Feast of Ashes, on the beginnings of the Armenian Genocide.

SATO MOUGHALIAN

Between 1915 and 1916–  A refugee Armenian woman and child receiving food aid. Public Domain. By American Committee for Relief in the Near East,REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-DIG-ggbain-26556. Via Wikimedia Commons.

 

In light of the passing of Tuesday’s House resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide we present an excerpt from Feast of Ashes: The Life and Art of David Ohannessian» by Sato Moughalian. It is our hope the following excerpt will provide historical context on why this resolution is important.

On March 18, 1915, on the western front, British and French naval forces launched a campaign to breach the Dardanelles strait—the narrow waterway separating Europe from Asia—and enter the Sea of Marmara, aiming their warships for the capital and the Black Sea. The Allied armada suffered fierce bombardment. Three Allied battleships sank, one with more than six hundred men onboard. Three more ships were badly damaged.

The British Fleet admiral⁴⁸ called off the offensive. The Royal Navy regrouped, summoning Australian and New Zealand battalions from Egypt as well as Indian Army troops.⁴⁹ When the reconstituted Allied fleet returned to menace the Aegean waters once again, the Ottoman War Ministry dispatched gendarmes into the interior to search Armenian homes and schools for hidden weapons and evidence of treachery. The smallest suspicion of disloyalty to the regime was cause for punishment.

In late March, days after the Dardanelles attack, Turkish gendarmes began to raid Armenian homes and properties in the provincial capital of Brussa, where Ohannessian had recently spent time restoring the tiling of the Green Mosque. One Sunday at dawn, officers entered the city’s Armenian Orthodox church, smashing walls in a fruitless search for arms. The police arrested nearly two hundred and fifty Brussa Armenian intellectuals and business and religious leaders. Thirteen were hanged immediately, and the others were exiled to the interior, tortured, and shot.⁵⁰ Afterward, chetes burned their bodies.⁵¹

In Constantinople, Young Turk leadership, fearful of foreign reprisals for the growing numbers of mass arrests and executions of Armenians throughout the provinces, set a powerful plan into motion. Secreted from the gaze of the capital’s large European community, members of the State Security Directorate and the police force’s Department of Political Affairs composed blacklists of the capital’s most influential, active, and accomplished Armenians. They were all to be exiled into the Anatolian interior. A spy network, directed by Constantinople’s police chief and his assistant, surveilled the subjects carefully, noting their daily movements. The committee hatched a scheme for hundreds of officers to mobilize and apprehend more than two hundred eminent Armenians in a single, grandly orchestrated strike.