The Dichotomy Of Late Socialism In Ernest Mandel: Late Capitalism

Ultimately, the impossibility of a genuine coordination between the economic plans of different private companies is not due- as bourgeois economists claim –to the uncertainty and discontinuity of technical progress but to the fact that behaviour which is rational for individual companies can lead and periodically must lead to irrational results for the economy as a whole.

Ernest Mandel: Late Capitalism

Abstract

The dichotomy posed by Mandel goes to the root of every corporate plan and every CEO’s concern. Professional bodies like the All India Management Association and business collectivities like the various Chambers of Commerce have been grappling with this for decades now, and with very little success too. Given

Culture, in its simplest meaning, is the sum total of how an organisation accomplishes all that it has to do to fulfil its purpose or mission. Culture can be observed in the many ways that things are done, in the processes that everyone in the organisation knows must be followed for work to be accomplished. Culture is embodied in the phrase: "This is the way we do things around here." Management researcher and writer FonsTrompenaars defines culture as the way in which a group of people solves problems and resolves dilemmas. This view is a very hands-on, pragmatic approach. Geert Hofstede has described culture in a somewhat more philosophical way: culture is a deeply rooted value or shared norm, moral or aesthetic principles that guide action and serve as standards to evaluate one 's own and others '

These four elements viz. strategy, structure, people and process, flow from a clear statement of the organisation 's mission or purpose. These are the four elements that leaders, managers, supervisors and employees at all levels must formulate, shape, integrate and manage. Through the interplay of these elements, the culture is formed and reinforced. (a) Strategy sets out how resources will be focused and applied to accomplish the organisation 's mission. (b) Structure determines how the organisation will arrange itself to carry out this strategy to ensure the mission is achieved. (c) People are deployed within the structure to carry out the required work. (d) Process entails the procedures, the "hows" of work and the way the organisation actually