I wish that social media, and notably its (still very early days) entry into the enterprise world had been happening back 15 or 20 years ago when Charles was more actively involved with the organizational world. I suspect that he would have been a very strong voice coming down on the side of its strong potential for enhancing human effectiveness at work.

Your last point – in traditional societies there was no division between your close friends and the people that you “work” with and only a small division between work and play.

In corporate life these are indeed strictly kept separate – but not in my life and in a good number of people now. I mainly work with close friends and we tend to have a really good time too.

So I do inhabit a different reality – not sure that a corporate one can accommodate a life more akin to Hunter Gathering

I apologize for inadvertently causing any confusion by inserting my personal view here and am happy to explain it further.

In your comment, each use of the word context prompts me, almost instinctively, to substitute either agenda(s), goal(s) or strategy(ies). Each of these things is a context for actions on a personal level, and this level of context is critical to identifying conflict as well as to achieving goals. In my personal experience, though, it often does not suffice to resolve conflict completely, or to go beyond conflict resolution to creating mutual benefit and harmony. Each step back to a wider view that takes in expanded situational and societal context tends to increase the scope of the participants’ or analysts’ depth of understanding.

In a historical example, the context surrounding the actions taken also resides in the entirety of the society, time, and place. Whether those actions are offensive or defensive, and whether they are well advised, successful, or have positive/negative ramifications on the people involved is certainly a matter of things such as strategy, goals, leadership, etc. The context that informs those things also includes, in addition to personal agendas, the mores, standards, and resulting behavioral patterns of the participants (a societal context), recent experiences of the participants which tend to increase in influence the closer they are in living memory (a time context), and the opportunities afforded and barriers created by physical constraints (a place context). The first two of these are also influenced by the concurrent actions of other peoples. ie. having certain allies with their own approaches and resources in a war can influence strategy the same way that competitors’ approaches can in a marketplace.

In organizational examples, context as I describe it above can be complicated by the fact that large organizations develop their own cultures over time. Contextual elements such as peer pressure, or community roles that an organization makes room for and supports, can vary from place to place and from one organization to another. Large organizations dealing with large communities of ‘outsiders’ tend to rely on individual interpreters rather than encouraging general understanding of full context, and this can lead to more conflict and interfere with achievement of goals.

This broader view of context is easier to see when components such as personal or organizational goals are defined as such. My ongoing protest against the common use of the word context to identify only some of it is based on the fact that it can sometimes cause us to forget about the rest.

Specific to your post, addressing the inherent conflict between hierarchical organizational structures and an alternative model that somewhat more resembles a community structure does suggest a positive direction. Creating community models that represent the participants’ non-organizational point of view, and examining ways in which the models conflict, for example, might reveal more specifics of conflicts such as culture clash, or lead to clearer delineations between the commercial and personal. This could suggest new paths to resolution of conflicting interests and goals.

Here is an on-topic example related to societal context:
Where and how do social network participants typically draw their ‘chinese walls’ between work and play, especially if they are using the same networks for both? How does an employer recognize, understand, and respect the personal needs underlying this? Wouldn’t doing so be a powerful intangible benefit to employees? Might it not even improve productivity and loyalty?

Vera

When I say context what I meant was that The French approached war in the context of it being a static and defensive activity – the Germans as a fluid and offensive activity:- That most airlines see efficiency as mechanical and Southwest see it as cultural:- When most people think organization they see the context as owning preserving and expanding the unit and controlling it whereas a 2.0 organization sees the context as facilitating meeting the needs of all parties.

This is how I see context – am I still off base with you? If I am am could you help me by being more clear – for me that is

Thanks
Rob

Your examples in this post are not reading to me as being primarily about context, but as more about conflict and competing agendas. My definition of context is influencing factors. These include preceding events on both a personal and societal level as well as influencing factors, which can include environment, culture, and family and peer pressure. Full context helps us derive meaning, whereas conflict can obscure or destroy meaning. This is not to say that win-win conflict resolution, or winning a war against Hitler, is not meaningful. Full context is also one of the most valuable tools available in conflict resolution, in my personal experience.

Vera

Im about to embark on my own blogger experience… starting off with elephants and fleas…

I truly enjoyed your take on things and exploring reasons why sharing and collaboration are elusive, to say the least despite all the efforts, technological solutions.

Handy’s Age of Unreason has been a favourite of mine ever since I read it some years ago. Being in education, Im curious about collaborative learning. Must say, the current FaceBook and MMS, SMS and IPod generation look differently at sharing… in fact, hoarding is frowned upon. Maybe we must wait long enough….

Regards

A