As usual, Bill Easterly's got me thinking today. It's the 10th anniversary of the FT article that got him fired from the World Bank:
Not to make grandiose comparisons between esteemed professors and myself, but this reminded me of the time I got in a bit of a pickle with my employer for writing a negative blog post. Mine was a much less drastic scenario - the blog simply poked fun at the manner in which my organization was moving to a new office (rather than criticizing the organization's core operations), and got me nothing more than a slap on the wrist. But that kind of experience gets you wondering - to what extent is an employee's responsibility to cheerlead for the organization, versus to point out the mistakes it is making, in a public manner if necessary, in an effort to make it better?
No one knows better than the employees how effective an organization is, so no one is better positioned to provide constructive criticism. But at the same time, if the people who work for an organization can't even support it, what chance does it have to build a supportive constituency outside its walls? Sure, it's more politically correct to share reservations and concerns with your managers internally than on a public forum. But what happens when you've banged your head against your bosses' office doors so many times that it seems the only way to get through to them is to name and shame?
Do employees have more responsibility to make their concerns public when they have a social cause, or are funded by public money? What about when the issues are systemic and core to the organization, versus small but potentially personally problematic to the employees? (Easterly's gripe was the wastage of billions of dollars of public funds and the lack of social outcomes to dire issues of livelihood... Mine was moving in to an incomplete office space where women were encouraged not to walk to work alone from the bus stop because of safety concerns. You be the judge of what's more important... my money's on Easterly.)
Personally, I think an organization's willingness to accept public criticism, even from employees, is pretty key to making it better. That said, I've never run an organization and experienced my employees ragging on me in a public forum. And at the end of the day, I removed my blog post: better to work to change the organization from the inside than simply picket it from the outside, right? Easterly disagreed and has no regrets... I wonder how I'll feel 10 years from now.
Ten years ago today, the piece that got me fired by the World Bank. Didn't expect it; No regrets http://bit.ly/lHRyCj
No one knows better than the employees how effective an organization is, so no one is better positioned to provide constructive criticism. But at the same time, if the people who work for an organization can't even support it, what chance does it have to build a supportive constituency outside its walls? Sure, it's more politically correct to share reservations and concerns with your managers internally than on a public forum. But what happens when you've banged your head against your bosses' office doors so many times that it seems the only way to get through to them is to name and shame?
Do employees have more responsibility to make their concerns public when they have a social cause, or are funded by public money? What about when the issues are systemic and core to the organization, versus small but potentially personally problematic to the employees? (Easterly's gripe was the wastage of billions of dollars of public funds and the lack of social outcomes to dire issues of livelihood... Mine was moving in to an incomplete office space where women were encouraged not to walk to work alone from the bus stop because of safety concerns. You be the judge of what's more important... my money's on Easterly.)
Personally, I think an organization's willingness to accept public criticism, even from employees, is pretty key to making it better. That said, I've never run an organization and experienced my employees ragging on me in a public forum. And at the end of the day, I removed my blog post: better to work to change the organization from the inside than simply picket it from the outside, right? Easterly disagreed and has no regrets... I wonder how I'll feel 10 years from now.
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