Engaging and Winning People Within and Beyond Organizations.
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What is common between Anna & Starbucks?
Further to my July 30 post 'Eyes on Star-bucks', the Starbucks strike at Chile has ended. In July, the nearly 200-member strong union in Chile launched Starbucks' first strike at company-owned stores, seeking pay that keeps up with inflation, a $100 monthly lunch stipend, as well as other benefits.
Although the strike ended with the company willing to welcome back the unionized partners, the larger issue that this low profile strike stirred has not been lost on many. Experts feel that Starbucks strike in Chilie is a symptom of a larger people movement in that region. Not only starbucks, some other companies have also seen such conflicts. but to read these strikes as organization-specific and only IR-related case would be a huge error. Rosa Luxemburg describes - 'workplace struggles as part of a fabric of broader political struggle against the state and its imperialist wars. She points out how essential it is to see the overlapping between political and economic struggles, to see how struggles for unionization emerge in the context of broader political upheavals. She also points out to the dynamic relationship between economic and political struggle and how they enrich one another.' (source: blackorchids collective)
This is why Anna's movement in India perhaps has a huge significance. More than anything else, the mass-support to Anna's movement is a representative of the angst of people against the corrupt system. The movement also marks yet another major show of real people power and spontaneous support rather than orchestrated show of strength that most of the political parties have been doing in India.
Nations and organizations cannot remain blind to such movements, whether in Chile or India. Engagement of people in any systems can only happen on real and equal terms and by initiating concrete steps towards building both rational and emotional connect with the enterprise.
I Agree To Your Point Sir. Whether It Is India or Chile, Whether It Is Starbucks or Alliance, people power Plays A Major Role.
As it happened at Alliance, earlier the management has imposed policy of Minimum 87 marks in WAC, MC & Personality Development, but when students gathered and talked with them, they restricted it only to Personality Development.
It gives a clear sense to organizations even, that employees, students or citizens together as people as you have said cannot be neglected or under estimated.
How much is too much? Sexual violence against women goes unabated. The recent Mumbai rape of a photo journalist , gang-rape of a ladyconstable at the hands of dacoits in Jharkhand are stark reminders that nothing has changed since the Nirbhaya’s case in Delhi. And rape is not the only kind of sexual violence that women face in our country. Another growing menace is acid attacks. The BBC documentary below is nerve-racking as it shows the acid attack victims and their unimaginable sufferings. Most of such attacks have happened against young women who refuse the advances of unsolicited males. Why had India seen a spurt in cases of sexual violence in India? What’s behind this growing brutality? Is there anything wrong with the men and boys in our country? There is everything wrong in the way they are brought-up in our society. We seldom teach our sons to be respectful of girls and women. And most of them see how mothers and sisters are treated in the househol...
A mob in Guwahati , Assam, gropes, molests and strips a teenage girl in full public glare for 30 minutes before help comes in the form of police. No one comes to the rescue of the hapless girl. Reportedly, a TV journalist induced the mob to do the act. Some officers in the administration reportedly make light of the incident. A U.P. Khap Panchayat has issued a decree according to which all girls and women under the age of 40 must stay indoors. The older ones who are allowed to step-out must cover their faces with cloth like that of a corpse. What more…a state minister has reportedly supported the Khap’s diktat. A class VIII student is sexually assaulted by a bus driver in Hyderabad that leaves her traumatized. Despite the complaints by the parents, the authorities fail to act. In the past one month there has been series of sexual crimes against minors in India. What kind of society do we live-in? A society that treats its girls and women as cattle, or may be even worse! All i...
' Alliance invited for our only son (29/5'8"), well-settled, working in a MNC from a fair, slim, beautiful, educated, smart homely girl. Please contact 00-000000' - a typical matrimonial classified advertisement that you will find in our newspapers. Looks a normal matrimonial ad except when you look closely through the fine print, that is never written in the ads but always spelt and meant in majority marriage alliances in the country. What's the fine print? Well, the fine print goes like this - a. The girl should be FAIR complexioned, fairer than the whites! No marks on skin and face should be glowing. This is true even if the boy looks as if he has just been to the coal mine. b. The girl should be Slim - she should have a good figure. The out of shape, 'ALL' size wearing boys also want in-shape girls. c. The girl should be Educated but not more than the boy. The girl can be successful, intelligent but not more than the boy. d. The girl sho...
Comments
As it happened at Alliance, earlier the management has imposed policy of Minimum 87 marks in WAC, MC & Personality Development, but when students gathered and talked with them, they restricted it only to Personality Development.
It gives a clear sense to organizations even, that employees, students or citizens together as people as you have said cannot be neglected or under estimated.
Cheers,
Debashish