Corporate and Organizational Bureaucracy
More moves toward transparency and accountability
So the news is still full of bad stuff, but I detect a change in people’s reactions to the bad stuff, in that calls for transparency and accountability keep mounting.
15Jun2010 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Bob Schieffer on Church Bureaucracy
To follow up on yesterday’s post, here’s a great commentary by CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Catholic Church bureaucracy and the pedophile priest scandal.
4Apr2010 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
They may as well be Martians: what the Vatican doesn’t get
To date, every time a Vatican spokesman or other defender of the Pope opens his mouth, what comes out is a clear demonstration of how much they do not comprehend about the experience of sexual abuse; and, more to the point, how little they attend to what’s necessary for healing from sexual abuse.
3Apr2010 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Cigna: “That’s just the way it is;” but not if Dawn can help it
Every now and then a bureaucracy finds out that they’ve messed with the wrong person, and now it’s Cigna’s turn to find out they shouldn’t have messed with Dawn Smith.
2Oct2009 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Protect Insurance Companies PSA
MoveOn.org has released a new “insurance company public service announcement” featuring Will Ferrell. This one competes for top spot along with the Insurance Company Rules video. Here’s the new one–check it out and then look at the old one for an additional dose of hoot: Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell
22Sep2009 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Crystal Lee Sutton, “Norma Rae” dies after denied timely care by insurance company
Crystal Lee Sutton, whose labor organizing efforts inspired the movie Norma Rae, died September 11 in North Carolina at age 68.
14Sep2009 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Another corporate snafu–Tracfone false advertising? Updated
I’m not someone who needs all the latest electronic toys. Only once did I do a 30-day trial of an upper tier cell phone plan. All the little extra charges made me faint, so I ditched that for a Tracfone.
1Aug2009 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Catamount Health flub up
Vermont’s Catamount health insurance option is truly a wonderful thing for many people who would otherwise have no health coverage. And I haven’t heard any horror stories about them such as one reads about private insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment for people who’ve paid in their premiums faithfully.
29Jul2009 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
Amazon and 1984–a lovely bit of irony
Here’s one about corporate bureaucracy. You may have seen or heard something about Amazon having angered some owners of Kindle, Amazon’s ebook reader. Amazon deleted copies of George Orwell’s 1984…
28Jul2009 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
Here’s to things passing as they should…
Ah, I just couldn’t let the end of the year pass without one more post for 2008. My latest hiatus was on account of my taking the time to get two new knees installed. Though I didn’t have internet access while in rehab—and wouldn’t have had the brain power to make proper use of it [...]
1Jan2009 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
Insurance Company Rules
Netroots Nation, which recently wrapped up in Austin, TX, is something I really, really hoped to go to, but alas. Good things are popping out of there, however, including this stitch of a video, Insurance Company Rules. It’s from Health Care for America Now!, a grassroots campaign to achieve universal affordable health care. Insurance company bureaucracies [...]
20Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
Keith John Sampson’s Apology from IUPUI Chancellor Bantz
This one will also go into the BureaucracyBlog Resource Library as an example of both the importance of standing up to bureaucratic abuse, and the role that publicity plays in rectifying bureaucratic abuse.
14Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Bureaucracy and higher education
I find it astonishing, but also fairly common, that institutions of higher education often do not take time to find out, and make use of, some of the cutting edge work being done by their own students and faculty that could so well serve the kinds of administrative changes that would enhance the educational mission.
11Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Keith John Sampson update: The WSJ story
As mentioned in the post of a few days ago, there is indeed a story in today’s Wall Street Journal by Dorothy Rabinowitz about Keith John Sampson’s situation at IUPUI. The reportorial aspects of the story are fine, but oh, do I have a problem with the tone! And the graphic.
7Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Conduct Unbecoming a University
“I thought my situation was over here at IUPUI but now I find that the IUPUI News Center, run by Rich Schneider, is still telling members of the media that the problem was not in my reading the book in question but some other actions that they can not reveal to the press. “
3Jul2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Another Textbook Case of Bureaucratic Insanity
Someone saw “KKK” in the title and jumped to the conclusion that Mr. Sampson was a supporter of the KKK, and filed a complaint against him with his university’s Affirmative Action Office, alleging that his reading the book in the break room constituted racial harassment.
12May2008 | Deborah Alicen | 1 comment | Continued
An Old Cautionary Tale Made New
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the knight was lost. For want of a knight, the victory was lost. For want of a victory, the kingdom was lost. Time for a little attention to organizational bureaucracies. Today I [...]
22Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Bureaucracies at Their Worst: Governmental, Corporate, and Organizational
In all cases, there are features in the structure of the bureaucracies that have allowed this turning of responsibility inside-out, such that the government, business or organization operates 180° out of phase with its stated principles and mission. The question becomes: how can bureaucracies be structured differently to prevent that 180° shift?
20Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Catching Up
Recovery from knee surgery is going really well, but it has set me back on posting here, which is a tad frustrating with so many relevant things going on. This post will consist of snippets and links to a few of those stories. Beginning with last week, there was the story about federal bureaucrats spending [...]
16Apr2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Proposing Professional Adjudicative Standards
As evident in several previous posts, the approach I’m taking to address the problem of incompetent and conflict-of-interest ridden bureaucracies is to seek legislative remedies. I have recently had exchanges with colleagues who are taking different approaches to the same kind of problem. One aims to develop a coaching/mentoring network to help people who are [...]
17Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
