Corporate and Organizational Bureaucracy
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 are [...]
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 came across an exceptional essay [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
17Feb2008 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
A New Trend in Church Accountability
The AP reports today on several new graduate programs being offered by colleges and universities in church management. Masters’ programs have been launched at Duquesne University and Boston College, and Villanova University will start a program this summer.
The programs will cover areas such as management of personnel, finances, and all aspects of church business. [...]
Jennifer Nix: A Little Sunlight Please: The Super-Delegate Transparency Project - Politics on The Huffington Post
Can the Age of Transparency finally be dawning? Welcome the Super-Delegate Transparency Project:
From Jennifer Nix: A Little Sunlight Please: The Super-Delegate Transparency Project - Politics on The Huffington Post: Super-delegates should vote according to the will of the people-the popular vote — whether Clinton won that district or state, or whether they fall into the Obama [...]
Greater Transparency in Mental Health Care
Today’s Times Argus has a good story on the ways in which mental health organizations and professionals are insisting on transparency regarding pharmaceutical company money that they accept, and in some cases cutting ties with pharmaceutical reps entirely.
From ABC News: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR
Here’s one of today’s horrendous stories, in which malice ran rampant in the midst of apparently colluding corporate and government bureaucracies. Each points the finger at the other, while no one does anything. It’s a too poignant illustration, thus far, of bureaucracy being “rule by no one.” This will be an important story to [...]
10Dec2007 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Too Easy to Believe
There is a way in which the country’s getting worse has made things a little easier for me. Back when state bureaucracy first got its hooks into me, average Janes and Joes were much more likely to respond to a story like mine with incredulity. That was a mere five years ago.
In that [...]
Vermont Again: Battles with a Corporate Bureaucracy
I honestly did not set out to dig up more stories from Vermont today–this one about Ben & Jerry’s was just the first one I came across (click here for the story.) The story does at least end on a positive note, with the company saying it will take steps to help its [...]
25Nov2007 | Deborah Alicen | 0 comments | Continued
Hello Debby,
Just this week I sent 2 copies of the eulogy for your Dad to people. This happens regularly. ...
