Rol, yet again, crystallises an issue
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Therefore, there must be times when society would best be served by
government and business collaborating on important tasks while at other
times society would best be served by constructive conflict between the
two. How do we know when to do which, and how do we learn to collaborate?
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The second question is harder, though this list gives some good practice.
The when to do which question was, for me addressed by Jane Jacobs in her
book 'Systems of Survival' which drew the distinction of 'Guardian'
systems [government, law and order, etc] and 'commerce' systems and makes
the pervasive case that many excesses occur when the values and codes of
one system are applied in the other. Corruption in government is one
example. Cartels parasitising an economic system are another.
Note that this does not exclude collaboration in business as a wealth
creating tactic provided it is collaboration with competition. Nor does it
exclude the reponsibility of the social political system to make the rule
[written and unwritten] for the commercial system.
I do not say Ms Jacobs has all the answers but I found her insight
fascinating.
One thing governments and perhaps Senior Managers can do is create a
context in which collaboration is a likely emergent strategy of competing
entitities. Robert Axelrod's book *evolution of co-operation* provides IMO
an insight into how this might be achieved.
If Price
The Harrow Partnership
Pewley Fort Guildford UK
101701.3454@compuserve.com
--Dr Ilfryn Price <101701.3454@compuserve.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>