Organizations are not Democratic!
Kadushin chapter on organizations and networks was an interesting read. The topic that had me thinking the entire chapter and still thinking is organizations are not democratic. Yes, should be common sense but I have never veiwed an organization as this way. Here is my random thoughts and hope you can follow my thought process!
How many times have you heard or thought yourself, “How did that manager/supervisor get hired for this position?”. In my case, some were not qualified and some just did not have a “likeable” personality. Some leaders are hired into a position of authority but some leaders “design” their position. By this I mean that someone will buy a business, which automtatically defaults them to being a “leader” even though they may no experience on leading.
Could organizations be democratic? Employees could vote on who they think the leader should be. It could be similiar to the current political elections. Managers would have to debate their platform to the employees, employees would vote who they think the best candidate would be. My personal opinion on my example would be in theory it could work but realistically it would not work. The potential issues would be employees voting for their friends, time constraints, and people voting for their personal needs not what is best for the organization as a whole.
Then I thought of comparing what the process is in municipal, provincial, and federal elections? I am assuming that people vote for what is in the best interest of their community/city, province, and country but do they actually vote according to their own personal interests? And how many vote without knowing what the candidates platforms are? So these issues are in political elections as well so maybe it could work for organizations. One argument could be the financial implications of voting in the wrong leader in an organization but of course this is true in elections as well.
denisekirkpatrick 
I’m always amazed at low voter turnout; the moment when we really can register our opinion. It would be interesting to look at the Goretex company way…thanks for the food for thought.
Denise I think you have a really thought provoking blog post on your hands. It really resonated with me especially after watching Shereef’s TEDx talk today where he said that we live in a democracy but work in a dictatorship. I think your blog post about how organizations work has captured this kind of sentiment well.
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