I’ll give the obvious answers to your questions, at least as a starting point:
To what extent are these dynamics the inevitable result of large organizations?
Unknown, but far less than 100%. I know of a number of large organizations that are much more functional than described in these posts.
If so, to what extent should we avoid creating large organizations?
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who’s this “we” you speak of who has even a little bit of influence in how other groups of people organize themselves? More importantly, you haven’t justified the “difficult exit” criterion very well—we have lots of evidence that people choose stay in these places, maybe they don’t WANT the bargain of being poorer but having better work conditions. Principia Discordia (referenced in initial Moloch writeup) asks a very core question “And what is wrong with that, if it is what they want?”
Has this dynamic ever been different in the past in other places and times, and if so why and can we duplicate those causes?
It’s different in the same places (large organizations) and times (now). It’s bad in some and OK in others—how can we analyze the differences better, and decide which things to change?
Given the existence of these immoral mazes, what do I do?
Work elsewhere. Advise the “victims” that there are other careers which they may prefer.
The third category is the one I’ve been struggling with, which is to finally get a good written model of the dynamics of anti-epistemic anti-virtue.
I wish you luck, but I’d personally advise starting a bit easier and getting a good written model of work-life balance in an epistemicaly sane but very competitive environment. When marginal cost is lower than average cost, AND price is driven to marginal cost, how fun is it to work in a widget factory?
I know of a number of large organizations that are much more functional than described in these posts.
That’s one thing that stood out to me as well. The dynamics seem typical for law and finance, but far less so for firms that actually have to produce goods and services that are consumed by others (and, insofar as those dynamics do take hold in firms that have to produce, the results are usually disastrous—see: American auto manufacturing from the late-70s through the 2000s, the decline and fall of Sears, the decline of GE, and, most recently, Boeing).
I believe the corporations in Moral Mazes were mostly in the manufacturing sector. (Your second point applies, though, as a decent explanation for why American manufacturing has been increasingly outcompeted in the last few decades.)
I’ll give the obvious answers to your questions, at least as a starting point:
Unknown, but far less than 100%. I know of a number of large organizations that are much more functional than described in these posts.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Who’s this “we” you speak of who has even a little bit of influence in how other groups of people organize themselves? More importantly, you haven’t justified the “difficult exit” criterion very well—we have lots of evidence that people choose stay in these places, maybe they don’t WANT the bargain of being poorer but having better work conditions. Principia Discordia (referenced in initial Moloch writeup) asks a very core question “And what is wrong with that, if it is what they want?”
It’s different in the same places (large organizations) and times (now). It’s bad in some and OK in others—how can we analyze the differences better, and decide which things to change?
Work elsewhere. Advise the “victims” that there are other careers which they may prefer.
I wish you luck, but I’d personally advise starting a bit easier and getting a good written model of work-life balance in an epistemicaly sane but very competitive environment. When marginal cost is lower than average cost, AND price is driven to marginal cost, how fun is it to work in a widget factory?
That’s one thing that stood out to me as well. The dynamics seem typical for law and finance, but far less so for firms that actually have to produce goods and services that are consumed by others (and, insofar as those dynamics do take hold in firms that have to produce, the results are usually disastrous—see: American auto manufacturing from the late-70s through the 2000s, the decline and fall of Sears, the decline of GE, and, most recently, Boeing).
I believe the corporations in Moral Mazes were mostly in the manufacturing sector. (Your second point applies, though, as a decent explanation for why American manufacturing has been increasingly outcompeted in the last few decades.)