Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!uci-ics!gateway
From: knotwell@eniac.seas.upenn.EDU ("Bradley P. Knotwell")
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: Feminist Futures
Message-ID: <25137@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: 1 Jun 90 23:37:45 GMT
References: <P19JSZ7@xavier.swarthmore.edu>
Reply-To: "Bradley P. Knotwell" <knotwell@eniac.seas.upenn.EDU>
Organization: University of Pennsylvania
Lines: 42
Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu

In article <P19JSZ7@xavier.swarthmore.edu> sdk91@campus.swarthmore.edu writes:
>-Message-Text-Follows-
>
>
>In article <4094.2652c9b3@vax5.cit.cornell.edu>, w25y@vax5.cit.cornell.edu writes...
>
>>    I think the idea is that while caring and consensus may be the best way
>>for a bunch of people to live together, it's not the best way to get anything
>>done.  If the Army Corps of Engineers was busy keeping all of its members
>>happy and giving everyone a sense of belonging and all that "nice" stuff,
>>                   -- Paul Ciszek

>Actually, if the Army Corps of Engineers put energy into making people's
>job structure less hierarchical, they might not only enjoy it more, they
>might get _more_ done.  (I've raced on a sailboat that ran by consensus,
>once - amazing!)  Also, they might stop building bridges so that Army
>Infrantry can go over rivers and kill people or roads so that
>tanks can roll over hamlets or airfields so that the Air Force or
>National Guard can spray defoliants on civilians.
>
>--Steve Karpf

Ignoring Karpf's obvious anti-military statements, both posters
are somewhat correct.  Decision-making by consensus is the rule
in Japan.  In Japan, it takes much longer to make decisions
but once made the decisions are _executed_ extremely quickly.  In the
military (and some business environments, most notably financial
businesses in an extremely fast-paced environment), decisions
must be made extremely quickly or people will die.  Thus, consensus
decision-making has no place on the battlefield (NOTE:  I'm not
saying consensus decision-making has no place in the military, just
not on the battlefield.).  On the other hand, decisions made independently
are executed _much_ more slowly.  Organizational behaviorists comparing
the Japanese decision-process with the American decision-process
have found the the Japanese process from start to finish is shorter.

These results can be seen in _The Essentials of Organizational
Behavior_.  I'll post the reference later.

ciao,

brad