Living in the Corporate Zoo

Citation

(2002), "Living in the Corporate Zoo", Work Study, Vol. 51 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2002.07951gae.002

Living in the Corporate Zoo

Living in the Corporate Zoo

Richard ScaseCapstoneISBN 1-84112-187-8£16.99

Richard Scase seems to have a particular and personal point of view on many issues: globalisation, gender politics, management versus leadership, the public and private sectors, work/life balance, emotional intelligence, new technology, customer relationship management. This is a thought-provoking view of the modern world and the ways in which it is changing.

Scase does not often simply accept "conventional wisdom"; he probes and challenges before arriving at his own viewpoint. He debunks much of the hype surrounding new technology and the modern workplace, preferring to focus on different – human – trends as more indicative of change. He cites the example of the staff canteen at GlaxoSmithKline:

The morale of the catering staff is vital to the success of the company's drugs discovery process. If their morale is high, good quality food is served in the staff restaurant. This results in scientists using this facility rather than bringing snacks to work which they privately consume in their own separate work areas. By eating together in the restaurant, they share ideas and brainstorm. This then becomes the basis for later detailed analysis and experimentation.

The message is clear: for the want of a decent lunch, the patent may be lost.

Again … customer relationship management is doomed to fail because it fundamentally misunderstands how customers want to relate to the businesses providing their goods and services. The technology of CRM actually distances customers from the business – its introduction is a classic example of managers overestimating technology and failing to get to grips with real management problems. Similarly, inflated promises about the possibilities of "remote working" are shown up for the unrealistic dreams that they were.

Scase offers a non-ideological but powerful polemic on the growing belief that the public and private sectors are compatible and even interchangeable. He suggests that there is a fundamental difference. Private sector businesses, for competitive reasons, try to identify and satisfy customers' wishes; the public sector has to meet real needs. Scase poses a serious challenge to those who think that "partnerships" such as PPP/PFI deals are a simple and workable solution to the problem of under-investment in public services and infrastructure.

This is not an in-depth book; many of the ideas are not thought through to a conclusion. Sometimes it is to simplistic, and there will certainly be issues and views which you will argue with. It is, though, a set of interesting ideas and observations that allows the "standard view" to be tested. To get full benefit from this book, the reader must be prepared to follow up with his/her own thinking – to see the implications for his/her own situation, and to realise what about his/her own personal situation should be similarly tested and challenged.