There is an illness abroad in the land.
On Monday, January 29, 1990, the USA Today newspaper carried a full-page advertisement. Tiny print in the Ieft lower corner identified the advertiser as Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), a large financial analysis firm specializing in 'The Fine Art of Managing Risk.' Otherwise, the entire page was devoted to four brief sentences in bold type:
I'M 30,000 FEET OVER NEBRASKA AND THE GUY NEXT TO ME SOUNDS LIKE A PROSPECT.
I FIGURE I'LL BUY HIM A DRINK, BUT FIRST I EXCUSE MYSELF AND GO TO THE PHONE.
I CALL D&B FOR HIS COMPANY'S CREDIT RATING. THREE MINUTES LATER I'M BACK IN MY SEAT BUYING A BEER FOR MY NEW BEST FRIEND.
Something is seriously wrong. A year earlier, I received a hint as to what is wrong-the nature of the illness involved-when I had the opportunity to meet for four days with the Commissioners of Education of the United States. These `'Chief State School Officers' had gathered together to consider a profound and controversial issue: the teaching of values in public schools. During the first day, we listened to scholars present papers on the history of public education in the United States. I was surprised to learn that in the early days of the nation there had been great and heated debate over whether there even should be public education supported by taxation. The debate was resolved on the grounds that in order to sustain a democratic society, public education was required for the widespread teaching of 'civics.'
By civics, our, leaders two hundred years ago meant something far broader than a simple intellectual knowledge of the Constitution and legislative processes. Primarily they meant a deep-seated set of values that would be a foundation for responsible citizenship-values encouraging interest and involvement in large social issues as opposed to mere self-centeredness, values necessary to maintain the health of democracy.
Closely allied to civics is another word: civility. It has an old-fashioned, almost quaint ring to it, doesn't it? Why is this so? In The Different Drum I attempted to take a word community, that had lapsed into obsolete meaningless and both resurrect and redefine it. This book is a similar attempt. I wish to resurrect and redefine the meaning of civility. This is necessary for the healing of our society.
To most people, civility means only politeness or good manners. Indeed, this is essentially the dictionary definition. But there are enormous problems with such a definition. In the advertisement the businessman flying over Nebraska was perfectly polite. He excused himself when he got up to go to the phone, and he had the good manners to pay for his seatmate's drink. Yet his behavior was utterly self-serving and manipulative. It was not at all what I would call civil.
Then what is civility? Politeness and good manners are designed to avoid hurting people's feelings. But I began to arrive at a better definition of civility when I ran across an amusing yet profound quote from Oliver Herford, who once said, 'A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally. In other words, civility might have much more to do with conscious intention-awareness-than with not hurting feelings. In fact, on occasion, it might actually be civil to hurt someone's feelings as long as you know what you're doing.
Although a far more complex matter than superficial politeness, civility certainly does have to do with how we humans relate with each other. Whenever there is a relationship between two or more people, an organization of some sort is involved. Genuine civility is then, in part, consciously motivated organizational behavior. And this is a book about organizational behavior.
Organizational behavior is the term given to the study of how human beings behave in organizations. This study includes not only how individuals behave, but also how groups-and even organizations themselves-behave.
In its very broadest sense, organizational behavior encompasses virtually the entire field of human psychology, since almost all human behavior occurs in the context of one or more organizations. Consider the businessman in the ad. He is employed by an organization, as is his seatmate. He strikes up a relationship with his seatmate in the hope of establishing a relationship between their organizations. In the process of doing so, he is using the services of four other organizations: a financial analysis firm, a telephone company, an airline, and a beer-manufacturing business. Moreover, he is doing all this within the context of an organization called society-which, in this case, seems to encourage rather than discourage manipulative organizational behavior.
We are organizational creatures. We are born not only into a society and culture but usually into a specific, complex organization: a family. Our marriages are organizations. We study in schools that are organizations; we earn a living in businesses that are organizations; at some time or another we will likely worship in an organisation to usher us out of the world.
Extracted from M Scott Peck's A World Waiting To Be Born.
On Monday, January 29, 1990, the USA Today newspaper carried a full-page advertisement. Tiny print in the Ieft lower corner identified the advertiser as Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), a large financial analysis firm specializing in 'The Fine Art of Managing Risk.' Otherwise, the entire page was devoted to four brief sentences in bold type:
I'M 30,000 FEET OVER NEBRASKA AND THE GUY NEXT TO ME SOUNDS LIKE A PROSPECT.
I FIGURE I'LL BUY HIM A DRINK, BUT FIRST I EXCUSE MYSELF AND GO TO THE PHONE.
I CALL D&B FOR HIS COMPANY'S CREDIT RATING. THREE MINUTES LATER I'M BACK IN MY SEAT BUYING A BEER FOR MY NEW BEST FRIEND.
Something is seriously wrong. A year earlier, I received a hint as to what is wrong-the nature of the illness involved-when I had the opportunity to meet for four days with the Commissioners of Education of the United States. These `'Chief State School Officers' had gathered together to consider a profound and controversial issue: the teaching of values in public schools. During the first day, we listened to scholars present papers on the history of public education in the United States. I was surprised to learn that in the early days of the nation there had been great and heated debate over whether there even should be public education supported by taxation. The debate was resolved on the grounds that in order to sustain a democratic society, public education was required for the widespread teaching of 'civics.'
By civics, our, leaders two hundred years ago meant something far broader than a simple intellectual knowledge of the Constitution and legislative processes. Primarily they meant a deep-seated set of values that would be a foundation for responsible citizenship-values encouraging interest and involvement in large social issues as opposed to mere self-centeredness, values necessary to maintain the health of democracy.
Closely allied to civics is another word: civility. It has an old-fashioned, almost quaint ring to it, doesn't it? Why is this so? In The Different Drum I attempted to take a word community, that had lapsed into obsolete meaningless and both resurrect and redefine it. This book is a similar attempt. I wish to resurrect and redefine the meaning of civility. This is necessary for the healing of our society.
To most people, civility means only politeness or good manners. Indeed, this is essentially the dictionary definition. But there are enormous problems with such a definition. In the advertisement the businessman flying over Nebraska was perfectly polite. He excused himself when he got up to go to the phone, and he had the good manners to pay for his seatmate's drink. Yet his behavior was utterly self-serving and manipulative. It was not at all what I would call civil.
Then what is civility? Politeness and good manners are designed to avoid hurting people's feelings. But I began to arrive at a better definition of civility when I ran across an amusing yet profound quote from Oliver Herford, who once said, 'A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally. In other words, civility might have much more to do with conscious intention-awareness-than with not hurting feelings. In fact, on occasion, it might actually be civil to hurt someone's feelings as long as you know what you're doing.
Although a far more complex matter than superficial politeness, civility certainly does have to do with how we humans relate with each other. Whenever there is a relationship between two or more people, an organization of some sort is involved. Genuine civility is then, in part, consciously motivated organizational behavior. And this is a book about organizational behavior.
Organizational behavior is the term given to the study of how human beings behave in organizations. This study includes not only how individuals behave, but also how groups-and even organizations themselves-behave.
In its very broadest sense, organizational behavior encompasses virtually the entire field of human psychology, since almost all human behavior occurs in the context of one or more organizations. Consider the businessman in the ad. He is employed by an organization, as is his seatmate. He strikes up a relationship with his seatmate in the hope of establishing a relationship between their organizations. In the process of doing so, he is using the services of four other organizations: a financial analysis firm, a telephone company, an airline, and a beer-manufacturing business. Moreover, he is doing all this within the context of an organization called society-which, in this case, seems to encourage rather than discourage manipulative organizational behavior.
We are organizational creatures. We are born not only into a society and culture but usually into a specific, complex organization: a family. Our marriages are organizations. We study in schools that are organizations; we earn a living in businesses that are organizations; at some time or another we will likely worship in an organisation to usher us out of the world.
Extracted from M Scott Peck's A World Waiting To Be Born.
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