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RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR
If organisational behaviour relates
itself to the study of how human beings behave in an organisation,
as individuals or in groups, not to speak of how organisations
themselves behave, it goes without saying that we are all
organisational creatures, born not only into a society and
culture, but also into a specific/complex organisation: call
it family, marriage, schools, businesses, or what you may…
Here's more...
Yes, we all seem to know too that we live
in society, a society of contrasts -- a society that has almost
forgotten the glory of what it means to be human. And, this
is where there's something seriously wrong -- not so much with
the culture where values have changed, but in ourselves.
So, what's the remedy? "We are in
need of healing."
Dr M Scott Peck, a psychiatrist and author of the best-selling
The Road Less Traveled, evolves on the genesis of it
all in his novel work, A World Waiting To Be Born,
which has all the essentialities of the former: extraordinary
in every sense, and one that remained on The New York Times
best-seller list for several years. The question is not whether
or not A World… emulated The Road…
example. Even if it did not, the good doc's brilliant volume
is bound to arouse, stimulate our brain cells, rally it to
think deeply, and also inspire... even when we re-read it.
A man with a vision of his own and heightened consciousness,
Dr Peck, in the expanse of his fine book, explores and gives
us powerful new reasons for both hope and confidence. In so
doing, he offers a needed prescription for our deeply ailing
society. "Our illness," Dr Peck implores "is
incivility:" an imposing amalgam of morally destructive
patterns of self-absorption, callousness, manipulativeness
and materialism so well entrenched in our routine behaviour
that we don't even recognise them. Or, even if we do, we're
always trying to keep our powder dry and ignoring them with
"seasoned" contempt.
Dr Peck dissects several clichés with the precision
of a surgeon at the operating table. Is there something that
is seriously wrong with our personal and organisational life?
To take one example. Unlike armchair critics or cognoscente,
Dr Peck uses examples from his own life, case histories and
dramatic scenarios that made a conscious decision to bring
civility to their organisations. What's more, the author also
demonstrates how change can be effected and organisations
restored to health.
Walking on the tightrope of marriage and separateness, ethics
and submission, selves and systems, ambiguity of pain, and
disease and the need to achieve, Dr Peck offers his "solutions"
-- sort of -- but, tells us that there's no panacea, or quick-fix,
unless and until we try out best to drive the "devil"
within, and embark on a voyage of [re] discovering ourselves:
of revisiting our own Utopias. This ain't all. The evolution of a paradise
also applies equally well, adds Peck, to organisations -- organisations
that are in the world, but not in the world.
The author's signature tune to the essence of "greatness"
and spirit of one's burden in a competitive world is only
too relevant: "All of us are actors in a marvellous,
complex, cosmic drama."
The psychiatrist in Dr Peck is at it,
once again. Understandably too, as his writing sensibilities
provide the saga of Sigmund Freud as a case example. At the
height of his "judgment," observes Dr Peck: "I
do not know you. If you have a sense of destiny, it cannot
certify that sense, sight unseen, to be perfectly sane. And,
even if I meet you, it is unlikely I could forecast -- no matter
how sane you are -- that you will, in fact, do the great things
you feel you ought to be doing."
A World… is eminently readable. A 'peck' at simple,
incisive logic -- and, more than just pure delight.
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