organizations and the new economy

This morning I sent out the welcome message to the students enrolled in COMM 144 for the summer. Although the class doesn't officially start until Monday, getting an early start tends to reduce some of the ambiguity and anxiety students new to online classes often feel.

I'm in Michigan for the first 10 days of the summer session visiting my folks. The effects of the world-wide economic collapse are evident here with so many houses for sale, boarded up businesses, and less traffic on the roads. The headlines of the Detroit Free Press are all about GM's impending bankruptcy. For me, the saddest part is the impact on people's daily lives, especially those who retired from GM with promised benefits and pensions. That deferred compensation now may never reach the workers who depend on it, or at least the amount will be reduced. GM breaking its promise with retired employees provides support for Eisenberg et al.'s observation that there's a new social contract between employers and employees in which employers are not loyal to their employees, and employees are not loyal to their employers.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the turbulent economic climate will provide many examples of how organizations cope, change, survive--or don't.

~ Professor Cyborg