Are we being watched?

We are supposed to be living in a democratic country, but are we really?   “From YouTube to Twitter, Ottawa heard it all during the G20  and the (Un)lawful Access: wiring the Network for Control articles say otherwise. I was shocked to read these articles and realize how much control the government has.  The overall message is that all our devices are a “tracking” device.

This leads us  back to Kadushin’s chapter on organizations and networks which I blogged about “Organizations are not Democratic!”.  Top management are not “voted” in and employeess do not work in a democratic environment.

As I work for the municipal government, I get direction from my director and sometimes from city councillor.  Yes, I have autonomy but really the final decision comes down to the “leaders”.   For example I lead the community support program.  We are unable to support all the requests so some applicants have to be  turned away.  Some of these applicants choose to go “higher up” the heirarchy chain and then the application gets returned back to me with basically  a message that says to support this group.

Another example within organizations that ties back to these articles is the blocks on social media sites.  Some of the reasons I have heard is that employees will spend too much time on these sites and not get any work down or we are unable to control the messages regarding the organizations.

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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.