Of Atlas, Munchausen and the pursuit of relevance at the workplace

Of Atlas, Munchausen and the pursuit of relevance at the workplace
In business organisations, MAW is also employed as survival tactics. Ultimately, this is a deliberate attempt to maintain or enhance their relevance in the organisation. I have seen people trying to keep their job or to highlight the importance of their job by creating problems or letting preventable problems occur and then solving them.

“I create problems, and then I solve them. That is my style!”, declared the department head smugly.

I heard this statement a long time ago. At that time, I did not take it too seriously as I thought that it was the peculiarity of one rather ‘strange’ individual. After having spent a couple of decades in business organisations, I have come to realize that this was not an isolated incident. It prompted me to think more deeply about the underlying factors and led me to the all-important topic of ‘relevance in business organisations’ and the various ways in which we try to achieve and maintain and enhance our relevance.

Relevance is the central theme in organisational life. Relevance comes from ‘value addition’. What is valuable and how much it should be valued is always defined by the customer. The term ‘customer’ includes internal customers also. The most pragmatic definition of a ‘value added activity’ that I have come across is that ‘it is an activity that the customer is willing to pay...

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Prasad Kurian

is a senior Human Resources leader with deep expertise in Talent Management & Organization Development. He is the author of the book 'Life in Organizations - Paradoxes, Dilemmas and Possibilities'. Prasad's career has been characterized by a conscious effort to stand at the intersection of theory and practice in HR. You can see many examples of this is his blog on HR and OD titled 'Simplicity @ the other side of Complexity'.

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Author

Prasad Kurian

is a senior Human Resources leader with deep expertise in Talent Management & Organization Development. He is the author of the book 'Life in Organizations - Paradoxes, Dilemmas and Possibilities'. Prasad's career has been characterized by a conscious effort to stand at the intersection of theory and practice in HR. You can see many examples of this is his blog on HR and OD titled 'Simplicity @ the other side of Complexity'.

March 2024

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