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Hard Advice to Follow
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14517 |
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BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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3 / 1988 |
2,517 Words |
| Author
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John Hoving
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Anything that sheds light on how major American corporations can survive and prosper in an increasingly unfriendly world is to be welcomed. An objective, creative analysis of how these major economic institutions developed, and what they are doing wrong is extremely useful, particularly if coupled with some solid signposts for the future. Whether Paul Weaver's book, in spite of its catchy title, provides either is an open question.
Weaver explains that, in the usual meaning of the terms, he is neither a conservative nor a liberal. He writes:
This book falls into neither camp. It shares with conservatism a belief in the marketplace and limited government--but it parts company from the conservatives when they refuse to admit that business has been a major backer and beneficiary of the government intervention that harms the economy. The book shares with liberalism the belief that business has been a major source of the nation's economic problems, and that business efforts to escape the discipline of the marketplace should be deplored and resisted. But it parts company with liberals where they go on to accept government intervention as the cure for most economic problems rather than fight it as the disease itself.
Certainly a bold statement of purpose: He not only proposes to analyze but to present a proposed program designed to guide business leaders back to the paths of righteousness for their own good and for the good of America. But before we get to that, it is worth reviewing the case he presents.
Importantly, Weaver is a trained observer and commentator, with an eye for detail and a gift of phrase. Both make the book entertaining. A guide for substantive corporate policy, however, needs to have its observations, no matter how keen and interesting, tempered by the perspective and insight gained from the experience of real-life management responsibility. Counseling on action is not the same as reporting on it.
Weaver was hired by Ford Motor Company in 1978 for its public affairs staff as economic-communications planning director. He devotes five chapters detailing his two years of misadventures. To those who have worked either in or around private and public bureaucracies, it may seem that Weaver makes a bit much out of quite a little. The shock of moving from the academic or journalistic world, where one is apparently free to observe and to speculate, is always jolting, the reaction frequently bitter.
Academics seem to understand--and even manage enthusiastically and effectively for their own interest--the arcane and frequently convoluted politics of institutions of higher education. They are shocked to discover, however, the same human organizational game in a different realm. Liberal academics often react negatively when they experience the reality of government bureaucracies, which just as often leads to the production of a profitable book. In the same fashion conservatives, who tend to romanticize private corporations, may become furious when they actually find themselves part of a corporation. This is particularly true if they become part of the headquarters, which like all top-level units is inclined to be Byzantine, political, and far away from they publicly expressed noble purpose of the organization.
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