Quite often in the stillness of night when only the darkness filled my sleepless eyes, I have witnessed the beautiful similitude of my aspirations drawn on the white canvas of my room’s ceiling. But with every dawn as the colors get filled in the sky, the similitude melts & diffuses into the mundanity of day to day life.
Every dawn asks me the same question: why do we see dreams from our own eyes & live life through the eyes of others? Why does night encourage us to be a “Dreamer” while the day desires us to be a “Conformist”?
The first thought on this dissension could be a justification of conflict that is inherent in between a thought & an action (but that purely rests on premise that every thought can’t be translated into action).
The most disheartening facet of this has been the evidence of existent dichotomy everywhere: we, the great organizations that have been built by us to the concept of independent nations. We, as humans, have witnessed glorious tales of sacrifices made by heroes & their armies. But every freedom has given rise to nations which have come into existence through different (or probably the same) interpretations of the existent rules & have renamed “Slaves” of the erstwhile societies as “Citizens” of the new nation. Not without saying, I do appreciate the difference of human existence without rights & with some rights. But what disturbs me is the fact I am being ruled over by constitution of a sovereign nation (which was vision & interpretation of a society that existed six decades back) which in turn challenges the sovereignty of me as an individual. So, do we create institutions which bring only notional change into lives of people who not only are part of “US” but also constitute “US”?
As the dream melts with the dawn, a question too bamboozles me. Why do we construct an institution where a herd of mediocrity is supposed to be led by excellence of one person? Why is the world conceptualized by a dreamer & built by conformists? And what do we want our institutions to be – a herd of conformists or a group of dreamers? Why can’t institutions imbibe more brilliance than aspirations of one man, one rule or one identity?
With advent of globalization which was founded on philosophy of bringing homogeneity across human societies spread in different geographies, the concept of nations has slightly faded. But it has seen a growth of colossal organization whose spread has been guided by the size of economies rather than of human societies.
Organization as a concept is intriguing in the way it defines its “Citizens” or “Employees”, as they are commonly referred to. As the business evolved from satisfying the needs (which are basic to sustaining a human existence in this biosphere) to creating needs; the silhouette of corporate citizen has also developed from a vague concept into a discrete one.
Although organizations function in a dynamic business environment, they instill uniformity not only in their process & products; but also in their employee behavior.
While uniformity in processes & products enhances quality & reduces cost (thereby increasing the end user satisfaction), inculcating consistent employee behavior destroys the diversity which is mandated to cater to the unique & different demands of consumers.
But may be in the present design of globalised world where people are not segregated on the basis of nationality rather on basis of their disposable incomes & demands, organizations have placed themselves astutely. Each organization tries to identify homogeneous pockets existent within the piebald human population. And thus, the success of an organization becomes directly correlated to the precision in identification of homogenous pocket by it. Nevertheless, does this strategy warrant demanding a consistent employee behavior too?
Behavior is a function of personal values, attributes, experiences, observations, knowledge etc. but employee behavior is seen as a function of organizational values & culture (which is again a function of well defined variables). Employee behavior steers the DNA of workforce that is built in the organization over a period of time (as people who can’t match the set of defined criteria leave or else get chunked by the organization). But isn’t consistent employee behavior a specious aspiration given the fact that human behavior is inconsistent by nature (infact the behavior of an individual too varies). Why then organizations aim for unswerving behavior in their leaders who lead in different times, societies, cultures & geographies?
Human brain thinks through recognition of pattern & the world built by is subsequence of it which is why there is no space for disruptiveness & chaos of a dream; only order & pragmatism of conformist is accommodated & accepted. Infact, right from birth humans are conditioned to be a conformist; live by the set rules of family, religion, education etc. Observing trends has been the way of handling ambiguity of future. Quite often the order in the chaos is felt due to the basic premise of human thinking that there is an order in every dynamism too, which means that if the premise itself is abandoned the chaos can be felt & recognized in its true sense.
The years gone by are a testimony to the fact that none of institutions built by humans, right from tyranny of kingdoms to sovereignty of nations, have been able to empower the uniqueness of human societies. Will the organizations too fade into history as a failed attempt to recognize patterns which doesn’t exist?
A human brainchild called genetic science is making the world believe that all of us are unique in our construct (physically, mentally as well as emotionally). But will this undercurrent sustain & revolutionize the anthropological evolution in coming years or will it die under the might of institutions which have conquered the humans today? Is the current fad of “Consumer is the king” an attempt of the organizations to just define their homogeneous pocket with greater precision (which would ensure success through tailor made products & consequently workforce) or is it translation of the realization of the existent truth of human plurality?
I wait for another sunset…when empty eyes would be filled with another dream of mayhem & give another perspective of my truth, truth of my world. But, why has the quest of order (which emanates of human limitations of thought) made us forget the exquisiteness of truth of our universe & its inherent design?
