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The article I linked in my recent posts on news bias at the BBC are yet another symptom of the Professional-Managerial Class. Which the late David Graeber excoriated in his article on the way they're wrecking academia;
https://davidgraeber.org/papers/anthropology-and-the-rise-of-the-professional-managerial-class/
The idea that "management" is a particular set of skills - transferable from retail stores, to newsrooms, to airlines, to governments - is a dangerous nonsense. One that is rapidly driving human societies towards a cliff.
(1/?)
"Management" is a euphemism for two things; logistics and leadership.
The logistics of a retail operation are totally different from those of a newsroom, or a government. It seems delusional to believe that understanding the logistics of one field of activity, means you automatically understand those of another.
(2/?)
Leadership in a company is about building relationships with the people who make that company work. Both inside and outside the company.
As Ricardo Semler proved at Semco (see his excellent book Maverick), the best leaders are chosen by the people they are to lead. At least as much as the other way around.
(3/?)
While logistical knowledge is at least broadly transferable between retail stores, or between newsrooms, that's not always possible with relationships. Even within one field of activity.
The idea that someone who can lead a team at a highly successful airline can therefore lead a highly successful government, is laughable. It's like believing you can get the benefit of a MENSA member's education by grafting their head onto your shoulders.
(4/?)
Regardless of what kind of organisations they end up "managing", the PMC have much more in common with each other than with any of the workers they "manage". Unless they're also members of the PMC.
What they're best at is not making a success of the organisations they put each other in charge of, but subjecting them to the class interests of the PMC. Even when that runs directly counter to an organisational mission, as in the BBC example.
(5/?)
They are a cancer on everything they touch, and it's high time we found some effective ways of cutting the PMC tumours out of our institutions. And some organisation equivalent of radiation or chemotherapy, to reduce their chances of growing back.
(6/6)
@strypey and 20 years before him, John Ralston Saul in his 1990(ish) book, Voltaire's Bastards
@jonathanharker
> John Ralston Saul in his 1990(ish) book, Voltaire's Bastards
Yes! That's a great book. It introduced me to the term "corporatism", which I've found very useful since conservative anti-globalism hijacked and twisted the meaning of "neo-liberalism"
Saul is one of the saving graces of Canada's existence.
@strypey "Our élite is primarily and increasingly managerial. A managerial élite manages. A crisis, unfortunately, requires thought. Thought is not a management function." — John Ralston Saul