new logics of organizing

I woke up this morning, as all of you did, to newspaper headlines around the state highlighting the our elected leaders' failure to pass a budget. Frantic Budget Talks Fall Short in the San Jose Mercury News, 11th-Hour Votes on State Budget Fail in the LA Times, Governor, Lawmakers Blow Deadline as Budget Hole Deepens in the Sacramento Bee, No Deal as State Budget Deadline Nears in the San Francisco Chronicle, and California State Senate Fails to Break Budget Deadlock in the San Diego Union-Tribune. How can this happen? What have you learned in this class over the past 4+ weeks that could help out the politicians in Sacramento?

In Chapter 11 Eisenberg et al. discuss new logics of organizing, such as management as poetry and communication as discourse, voice, and performance. The authors argue "the 'old' logic of organizational communication rested solidly on a seemingly bedrock principle that assumed hierarchies of all kinds were 'givens'" (p. 347). They go on to predict that current forms of organization and ways of organizing will change, especially with the use of new media. Yet the current state of California's government suggests that little has changed in this giant bureaucracy. California found itself in a similar situation in the early 1990s and the state seems to be repeating history. State politicians have to find new ways of communicating and managing the government; the old ways just aren't working. In the meantime, people who depend on the state--those who are the most fragile and at risk, such as children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities--will be receiving IOUs. IOUs don't pay the rent or buy groceries.

~ Professor Cyborg