Execs These Days…
Published on 4 Jan 2007 at 6:41 pm |
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Filed under The Cargo Cults of Business, Manifest Masquerade, Thanks for Playing, Winners and Losers, One Corporation Under God, Limited Lie-ability, In Corporations We Trust, Business and Corporation Related.
So, the latest girls-gone-bad incident of out-of-control cheerleaders in the great state of Texas has hit the media. I ran into the mini-expose over at CBS News, though of course there’s plenty of other venues for the newsbytes on this one. What caught my eye was the baldfaced hypocrisy of the whole thing. The poor little vixens are being vilified for figuring out that, yes, that’s right, they really can get away with just about anything. Even worse, the ABC presentation, at least, attempts to take a very high-minded tone about the importance of accountability. Quoting Rosalind Wiseman (and thus implying that we have here the be-all and end-all of authorities on ethical child raising), "’Their job is to raise an ethical child, which means holding them accountable for bad behavior.’".
You’re probably thinking that I’m about to launch into some tirade about bad parenting and the need for society to support parents in the disciplining of their children, instead of Social Services and every other proponent of the Nanny State undermining their authority to mete out family justice as they see fit. It’s terribly tempting, I admit, though I’ve just tipped my hand. But here’s the concluding bit from the ABC News article that prompted this post:
Being comfortable talking to people in positions of power can be a valuable skill, one that parents can teach kids early.
"If your child learns to speak to people in a position of power about something they feel is not right and to articulate how they feel about it, you are teaching your child a very powerful life lesson," Wiseman said.
Excuse me? Where on Earth does this nice little "ethical bon-bon" match up with the world we are currently inhabiting? Things are bad enough in our court system, where spin, clever arguments, and partisan judiciary have all but destroyed the foundational virtues of Justice and Integrity that the system is supposed to operate on. But where are we really most likely to find ourselves in need of appeal to authority for intervention? Where else but in our careers and with our employers.
I doubt there are any of you out there who are are naive enough to think for a moment that the movers-and-shakers at the firms we toil at are going to respond positively to any sort of appeal about improper or unethical behavior on the part of the middle managers between the rank-and-file and the C-suites. No, this is exactly the sort of behavior that will get you shunted over to the black list and thence be first against the wall when the (inevitable) layoff comes.
For a while there, it seemed like the age of the plaintiff was of some help in determining whether the response of authority when engaged would be just and reasonable or unfair and oppressive. But that era is pretty much gone; maybe a kindergarten student could request teacher assistance in resolving a dispute, but even then I wouldn’t put any money on expecting a reasoned and reasonable response. I just can’t get better support for this viewpoint than the excellent rundown of school administrative insanity over at T.S. Eggleston’s "Zero Tolerance Stupidity" page.
And we all know that it doesn’t get any better the older you get. The difference is simply that most adults have figured out that all the prosletyzing during their youths about trusting authority was bunk, and that when you involve The Man, you’re more likely to be the one to get burned than seeing any sort of justice done.
I’m probably coming across as having a chip on my shoulder for this issue– probably even for the ongoing lack of justice in our world. If not, I do apologize for the unclear writing. As a career veteran, just when I think I’ve seen it all in terms of executive malfeasance, another chart-topper comes along. I say this about both the high-flying media bad boys like Ken Lay and Bill Clinton as well as the less visible– but no less nefarious– executives I and other co-workers have had the misfortune of seeing and experiencing in action.
There is a reason Dilbert is popular. There is a reason we are a jaded electorate who take a dim majority view of politicians. There is a reason corporate malfeasance is perpetually in the news. There is a reason executives who fail get multimillion dollar severance packages while successful line workers get the boot. The reason isn’t merely that power corrupts– it’s that we’re living in a world where wickedness wins, and virtue loses.
The media are by nature schizophrenic; they’re in the business of making news (you’re not naive enough to think they’re really just reporting it, are you?), so it’s natural for them to excoriate Ken Lay for a lack of integrity in corporate values one day, then fete their favorite politicos the next– even though the ethical level of both is probably hovering somewhere around pond scum. But this recent ABC news article is oddly condescending; do they think we don’t know the score, or are they hoping for a suspension of disbelief for the duration of the article?
The corruption and untrustworthiness of the Powers That Be in our society is an established fact. By all means, we should get ourselves together as a nation and as a society and put an end to the wicked hypocrisy that’s eating away America’s soul. But pretending that favoritism, essential immunity from prosecution, and revelling in abuses of power are somehow not the example our leaders are setting for future generations– this sort of patronizing, we can do without.
Good day.
"We cannot win. But we will fight."
– King Theoden, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
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