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Hierarchical Organisation |
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Hi. This is my first entry, so please be kind. I want to start off with something interesting and, well, thought provoking. Set a tone and all the rest of it, don'cha know. Here goes....
The incident that forms the basis of this entry occured in March, in my school. I attended a small, catholic, all-girls school, with only 250 students. Like I said, it was small. So small that we didn't have a janitor, and sweeping rotas for each classroom were drawn up by the teachers in September.
This particular month was the turn of my friend, whom I shall dub Aine, and another girl, whom I shall dub Maria. Now, Aine took an early bus after school, so she had no time to clean up at the end of the day (our rota required one person to sweep at lunchtime, and one to sweep after school was over). However, Maria also took an early bus, and was by character rather lazy, so that Aine was the only one who ever swept the room (at luchtimes). Our room got messier and messier, until eventually another student (namely myself) was asked to clean it prior to the visit of a politician.
Now, I don't want to complain - I volunteered to clean up. But the incident set me thinking. The whole story really demonstrates the flaws of a hierarchical organisation. If the teachers had asked us to compile the rota, on the first day, it would have been a much more effective plan. We could have placed dilligent students with students who were... less likely to apply, shall we say? We would plausibly have taken bus schedules into account (as it is, we are forced to make our own, covert, arrangements in order to have any semblance of coordination). We would also have avoided giving any one person an unjust amount of shifts.
The importance placed on hierarchy, especially in institutions like schools, is actually quite damaging. Not only does it result in less efficiant control of labour, but it restrains creative thinking and limits independance (in many ways, therefore, it could be said to be fufilling it's fuction). Bottom up structures have been proven to work - maybe it's time our social institutions gave them a chance.
 moonfox6 · Sat Jul 28, 2007 @ 12:35am · 0 Comments |
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