Organisation
The OUR SYSTEM Institute advocates that all organisations base their specific purpose within the wider purpose of enabling fulfilment without harm. In these 'common purpose organisations' people find fulfilment in work that realises their potential and also contributes, through the goods and services the organisation delivers, to the fulfilment of others.
Organisations that become common purpose organisations enable their members to own responsibility, knowledge and control for their own work. They are equal membership organisations - all participants entitled to an equal level of common human respect and no more. In these organisations information is open and shared. They are structured for co-ordination and communication, not for control. There is open accounting for fair dealing, not for maximising earnings (which will come as a by-product of being a common purpose organisation). Earnings are equalised and ownership is by way of participation. John Seddon's, Freedom From Command & Control, and, Systems Thinking In The Public Sector, are both books that align well to viewing organisations in this way, as does Ricardo Semler's, Maverick - The Success Story Behind The World's Most Unusual Workplace. Peter Senge's, The Fifth Discipline, and much of organisation design also fit soundly within the frame of the common purpose organisation, particularly when OD is taken back to founder Kurt Lewin's emphasis on participative, democratic culture change using participative, change creating research with awareness of the forces involved. |