Conflict and Creativity at Work: Human Roots of Corporate Life

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Overview

Conflict and Creativity at Work contributes to the tide of activism that is calling for higher ethical standards and corporate social responsibility within the corporate world. It offers a new way to look at a company, work, a product and company organization. Nobel prizewinner Milton Friedman says that the only social responsibility a company has is to make a profit. Albert Low questions this basic assumption and provides an alternative view: a company is a complex field of interacting and conflicting forces out...
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Overview

Conflict and Creativity at Work contributes to the tide of activism that is calling for higher ethical standards and corporate social responsibility within the corporate world. It offers a new way to look at a company, work, a product and company organization. Nobel prizewinner Milton Friedman says that the only social responsibility a company has is to make a profit. Albert Low questions this basic assumption and provides an alternative view: a company is a complex field of interacting and conflicting forces out of which a product emerges. The interests of the stockholder make up just one set of these forces. … The corporate system arises out of the natural creativity of human beings and is expressed in the work that we do. Therefore to understand a company, its organization and its reason for being, we must understand creativity and work – what they involve, and their importance to our mental health. This new understanding of social responsibility is imperative for the very survival of our way of life. Business Ethics quotes Thomas Donahue, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President, as saying, “There is something fundamentally out of balance when short-term considerations become so dominant.” Creativity and Conflict at Work offers a new way to look at the corporate system and long-term corporate social responsibility. … Depression is widespread throughout western society. A contributing factor is the way the corporate system operates. People are now adjuncts to the system and the result is alienation and impotence. China and India are looming as major industrial competitors, and their employees are very well motivated. To compete in the West we must revise the present antiquated corporate philosophy that asserts that the interests of the stockholder are the only interests that the corporation can legally serve and adopt policies that promote corporate social responsibility.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781845192723
  • Publisher: Intl Specialized Book Service Inc
  • Publication date: 11/7/2008
  • Edition description: New Edition
  • Pages: 219
  • Product dimensions: 6.01 (w) x 8.99 (h) x 0.61 (d)

Meet the Author

Albert Low is an internationally published author of many books, including Invitation To Practice Zen, which is now in its thirteenth printing. In 2003 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Law degree for scholastic attainment and community service by Queen’s University Ontario. He is currently director of the Montreal Zen Centre, which has over 200 students, many of whom are doctors, psychiatrists, and university professors.
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Table of Contents

Foreword Alfonso Montuori xi

Preface and Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

Part 1 The Dynamics of Human Nature

1 The Origins of Stress 13

2 On Perception and Thought 26

3 The Meaning of Creativity 32

4 Ambiguity, Creativity and Work 41

5 The Spectrum of Creativity, Perception and Thought 52

Part 2 The Structure of Work

6 Work and Organization 67

7 The Dilemma at Work 80

8 Management by Product 88

9 Idea and the Four Criteria 96

Part 3 The Company Field

10 The Three Power-holders 107

11 The Company as a Field 114

12 On Task Cycles 123

13 Types of Work 133

14 Conflict and Growth 144

15 Non-Productive Conflict - Territory and the Manager 154

Part 4 Conflict, Creativity and Capacity

16 Commitment, Capacity and Ability 169

17 On Capacity and Ability 176

Part 5 Ownership and Ethics

18 A Question of Ownership 187

19 Creativity, Spirituality and Ethics in the Corporate World 196

References 207

Index 210

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