Job. Dig it, wage slaves.

(yeah… dig it – promoted by pfiore8)

MPAA-rated “G” here. Cross-posted at PFF, rated “R”.

About a million years ago I satisfied a b-school homework assignment by writing on this very subject, Job wrestling Gabriel to create “value” from a [non-performing] operation. That would be you, multiplied. The text is reproduced below. Go on, suck up a portion of my tuition, valued at $95K (2002 USD excluding room and board), entitled “Leading Strategic Transformation.” The purpose of the elective was to identify C-class mechanisms of crisis management and their instrumentality in engineering corporate “turn-around” scenarios and option calls.

That means playing the odds and the capital, including you who are oblivious to your debts to corporate acculturation.

The seminar was entertaining, as I recall. I just left the desk to retrieve the syllabus from my closet; can you imagine I’d trash any remnant of $125K worth of premium um education? Case study included interpretation of Jobean characters such as Gerstner, Ichon, Al “Chainsaw” Dunlap, Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, Nevin, Mustafa and, empirical positivism published by other b-schools. Students were also encouraged to ponder “soft” investment risk factors in “management style at the group centre” such as ignorance, ego, competititive stimuli, and aesthetic through “background” readings such as works by Frost, Marlowe, Homer, Pascale, Frankl and Fukuyama.

The meaning of the seminar for me however culminated in the screening of 12 O’clock High, wherein Pericles’ rhetorical genius for persuading [non-performing individuals] to commit suicide, reliably, for the “homeland” penetrates the situational detritus of the ages. Our lecturer invited students to role play ensemble “positions transforming self and transforming the world as a highly risky and arduous endeavor” silently, that is, in mime.

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Pretty damn funny in retrospect.

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Is crisis the threshold to corporate transformation? Apparently, it is. The Old Testament lays out the sequence of creative destruction that individuals and organizations have faced for over 3,000 years.

Jacob is the twin of Esau. Esau is the elder brother and heir of the patriarchal blessing. In order to steal that birthright, Jacob assumes Esau’s identity. Antipathy between the brothers divides their family until Jacob’s fear of retribution and guilt compel him to seek Esau’s forgiveness. Near the end of his journey, Jacob strikes camp by a river. He is alone, having sent ahead his family and gifts for Esau. A stranger appears during the night and draws Jacob into mortal combat. The stranger delivers a numbing blow to Jacob’s hip but cannot overpower him. Finally, the man says, “Let me go, for the day has dawned; but [Jacob] said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” The stranger renames him: “Thy name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name; for thou hast prevailed with God, and shalt be mighty with men.” [32:29] Then the stranger disappears from the text as mysteriously as he arrived. Jacob realizes he has confronted God. Though “halted upon his thigh,” he goes eagerly to meet Esau, saying “Receive my blessings, which I have brought thee, because God has had mercy on me, and I have all things.”

Killing off failing practices to make room for new developments initially poses ethical and philosophical dilemmas for top management. It is very hard to renounce the sense of continuity conveyed by organizational culture. Sometimes we don’t realize how valuable relationships are to us until we must choose between them. The overwhelming dread, or perhaps remorse, at the onset of Jacob’s transformation into a leader signals a condition of readiness to part with the past.

As the transformation progresses, executives must strive to maintain a balance of loosening control without losing control of organizational changes. Creative and destructive forces within the firm are competing for attention. Jacob wrestles violently with the man at the river; he draws from deep emotional reserves to reverse his plight from one of a captive to that of master. In the corporate world, managers heading up change need extraordinary focus and personal endurance to articulate a vision of the organization’s objectives during turbulent times.

Transformation culminates in a crisis of identity, because crisis brings us in direct acquaintance with belief systems that either do not describe or cannot explain the circumstances in which we find ourselves. The story of Jacob’s life as the next patriarch begins dramatically with a new name, one that affirms the integrity and courage with which he resolved great conflict. In the modern world, corporate transformation is triggered as often by merger and acquisition activity as economic conditions that are beyond our control. Vital integration and rationalization within organizations doesn’t quite keep pace with rapidly changing environment. In such cases, the trial of Job more accurately depicts transformation as an abrupt, even despicable interruption of a just and orderly world.

Job is about a prosperous and devout man. In a heavenly council, satan meets with God, alleging that Job’s love of God is hypocritical. (Exhibit 2) Job’s devotion is contingent on his material wealth not God’s grace. If Job did not have God’s blessing – riches, family, and friends – he would hate God. The two agree to test Job’s piety. God allows satan to subject Job to any adversity, save death, in order to prove his claim. Laments, hymns, proverbs, and speeches describe the series of catastrophic events devised by satan. Job loses his wealth. His herds are stolen. His servants are murdered in a fire. His ten children are killed when his house collapses on them. Job himself is afflicted with boils. His friends condemn him, reasoning that since God’s justice is inviolate, then Job must the cause of his own suffering. So, implausible is this indictment that God intervenes once more in the affairs of men to fully restore Job’s fortune, family, and health.

Job’s seeming unassailable sense of security captures the likely state of an organization that has achieved considerable market power through ever bigger and more competitive efficiencies. In this context, the purpose of transformation contradicts our beliefs. We are confused by Job’s condition and his identity. But his reactions to the reign of chaos over his life range from grief to abject humility. His resolute self-defense raises questions of confidence within ourselves and also in the authenticity of leadership in crisis.

For me, the relationship between ethics and religious literature is in the development of moral sensibilities, understanding, intuitions, or beliefs that help each of us adapt to right or wrong, good or bad, governing behavior. Creativity and destruction are complex passages between personal and economic growth. Simple though these stories may be, they have enduring value as guides to the major issues that transformational leaders face and their chances of success.

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Thus, I deem myself thoroughly informed to judge claims of “transformational” leadership among POTUS candidates. How about you?