Gods of Management [antikvár]

Chapter 1 THE ORGANISED SOCIETY AND ITS DILEMMAS Sir Christopher Wren asked that his work be his only ^ memorial. To anyone looking across the Thames at the time ^ of his death towards the Cathedral of St Pauls and the other t lovely churches which Wren built in London's centre, the skyline of those days was indeed an impressive memorial to a great architect. It was a memorial not only to him but to the values of his age, for the changing skylines of our cities are perhaps the most telling commentaries on a changing society. The Egyptians built great houses for their dead. Rome had its fine arches and columns for her conquering Emperors. In the Renaissance the towns of Europe were dominated by their great Cathedrals, houses for their God, soon to be replaced in splendour by houses for their nobles and their monarchs. The Victorians in England built museums, galleries, theatres— houses for possessions and entertainment. Today the view that Wren saw is greatly changed. New shapes break the skyline, the houses not of gods but of organisations—the symbols ot OUT organised society. We may sometimes disapprove aesthetically of the new skylines, but we have long taken it for granted that the organisations which they house are a necessary and useful part of our societies. After all, 90 per cent of those who work do so in a formal organisation, although they may prefer to think of it as the firm, the bank, the hospital, the school or just 'the office'. To be 'organised' is good, 'disorganised' bad, and the benefits of organisation have indeed been dramatic in the past hundred years. In the 'organised societies' famine, pestilence, and penury are words of the past. Our children now are expected to live to maturity and to have food and shelter for