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The pathology behind the hypocrisy is the obsession with values we see in corporations today. Let's be clear: work is something we do to provide for ourselves.

The pathology behind the hypocrisy is the obsession with values we see in corporations today. Let's be clear: work is something we do to provide for ourselves. It is a contract. That contract should not encompass a prescribed belief system, and that is exactly what 'values' are. In the past 30 years we've turned many work environments into quasi-religions where it is expected that employees adhere to particular sets of values or at least signal that they do. Doing your job well should be enough.

hyeonwho2 9y ago
Organizations of people are defined by shared values and shared goals. Throw out the values and you throw out the bases for civil communication and conflict resolution within the organization.
- golemotron 9y ago
  That's one definition of an organization. Can you think of others?
- Asooka 9y ago
  I have never seen an organization subscribe to any set of values other than "do what will make the most profit". The only goal is to increase profit. This works out pretty well, because it pits my desire for profit versus yours, and encourages socially beneficial policies, because too-greedy profit seeking destroys further chances of profit. We do not have shared goals, we have the opposing goal of maximising profit in a largely zero-sum game. However, due to how the system is set up, we can collaborate and increase both our profits more than what we can do each on our own. I don't see how anything else can be a working system. Everything else can be gamed by semantic manoeuvring from the side of the profit-seekers. The only way to make sure a given set of values are followed is to make them the most profitable course of action, ensuring via evolutionary mechanisms that only the ones abiding those values survive.
cat199 9y ago
> Doing your job well should be enough. Define 'well' without some sense of 'values', and I might start to believe what you think here.. Otherwise I'm inclined to suspect your critique and resistance might simply be some sort of transferrence of wanting to maintain the dominant own anglo/protestant 'congregational personal piety' values in US culture to the more intrinsically communitarian sense required in this context - (assuming you are from US) e.g. the philosophy of "I can believe what I believe and you can believe what you believe, I can associate or not associate with others who beleive the same thing, there is no 'correct' way, all things are valid so long as they are 'good', although I don't define 'good', because human nature is naturally good", etc, which is itself an intrinsic and communal set of 'values' embedded within the US culture that is directly traceable to the english/low-countries protestant reformation in combination with the values of enlightenment philosophy.. Agreed some companies get carried away with values lip-service without actually following through though, and, if I'm correct, perhaps this common mode should be the default.. but best to be aware of hidden bias..

hyeonwho2 9y ago

Organizations of people are defined by shared values and shared goals. Throw out the values and you throw out the bases for civil communication and conflict resolution within the organization.

golemotron 9y ago
That's one definition of an organization. Can you think of others?
Asooka 9y ago
I have never seen an organization subscribe to any set of values other than "do what will make the most profit". The only goal is to increase profit. This works out pretty well, because it pits my desire for profit versus yours, and encourages socially beneficial policies, because too-greedy profit seeking destroys further chances of profit. We do not have shared goals, we have the opposing goal of maximising profit in a largely zero-sum game. However, due to how the system is set up, we can collaborate and increase both our profits more than what we can do each on our own. I don't see how anything else can be a working system. Everything else can be gamed by semantic manoeuvring from the side of the profit-seekers. The only way to make sure a given set of values are followed is to make them the most profitable course of action, ensuring via evolutionary mechanisms that only the ones abiding those values survive.

cat199 9y ago

> Doing your job well should be enough. Define 'well' without some sense of 'values', and I might start to believe what you think here.. Otherwise I'm inclined to suspect your critique and resistance might simply be some sort of transferrence of wanting to maintain the dominant own anglo/protestant 'congregational personal piety' values in US culture to the more intrinsically communitarian sense required in this context - (assuming you are from US) e.g. the philosophy of "I can believe what I believe and you can believe what you believe, I can associate or not associate with others who beleive the same thing, there is no 'correct' way, all things are valid so long as they are 'good', although I don't define 'good', because human nature is naturally good", etc, which is itself an intrinsic and communal set of 'values' embedded within the US culture that is directly traceable to the english/low-countries protestant reformation in combination with the values of enlightenment philosophy.. Agreed some companies get carried away with values lip-service without actually following through though, and, if I'm correct, perhaps this common mode should be the default.. but best to be aware of hidden bias..