There is a lot of institution and corporate bashing in the system. Often for good reason: many, if not all, have reneged on their social contract and behaved abysmally.
But large organisations, for all their faults, do still matter in some ways. This does not give them the right to permanence, excuse them from the vital changes they must undergo, nor let them off the conversation around their long term viability.
But, with that said, here are 12 reasons why they still count:
1. They’re monuments to human endeavour: an accumulation of being and doing that can stretch back generations. Anything that has been around a long time, scaled to big or held significant influence teaches us something about who we are: the good and the bad. One might say that we get the large organisations we deserve. So, at the very least, we can look at them as an exercise in reflection to ask ourselves how we got here, who we are and what should change.
2. Failure of a large organisation can be catastrophic, especially when there is no adequate alternative and it happens at speed. The fall of a corporate or public giant is costly not just for those directly involved but communities as a whole, especially communities dominated by a single employer.
3. They are communities in themselves and all communities carry value. Large organisations are complex human networks, where, due to the frequent lack of felt community in our towns and cities, people can meet their human need to be part of a scaled community.
4. They often have the resources to care for people in a way that small business would struggle to do, from medical benefits in the short term to pension support in the long term.
5. They provide other businesses invaluable access to markets, resources, and talent while they grow, often at critical junctures.
6. The status and reach of large organisations can gather people in ways few can. Their convening power is a cold reality we shouldn't overlook in terms of generating systemic change and holding the context for it to occur. This is not only true at the corporate level, but the individual level too. Even in the most progressive of environments, people still willingly present themselves - or are presented by others - in relation to the Big Co. they once worked at. The reality is, that Big Co experience is a social and professional marker that means something to people and we shouldn't pretend otherwise.
7. They can spawn entirely new sectors, or mass adoption of new technology, at a rapid pace due to their scale and purchasing power. It is unlikely, at this stage, that small organisations alone could deliver a revolution in fossil fuel powered transport, for example.
8. Large organisations support the life cycle of a host of other organisations and contexts, as employers, funders, educators and huge consumers of goods and services.
9. Large organisations can act as a form of social architecture, like scaffolding or the banks of a river system. Their presence allows for some stability and options whilst others grow, test and develop something new.
10. They provide huge amounts of voluntary giving, both in terms of time and money; from sponsorship of the arts to new hospital wings.
11. They can provide stable employment.
12. They can maintain a healthy gap between the rights and experiences of the individual and the reach and influence of the state. Large organisations certainly have the potential to corrupt governmental process - and they often do. They also have the potential to be tools of the state - and they often are. But if they are thriving and independent, large organisations can - and do - act as an important buffer and check on politicised power, even in nations where lobbying is standard practice.
No doubt there are more reasons.
Equally, there are other - often better - ways of achieving these goals, separately and collectively. There are caveats and problems galore in the twelve points above.
But the negatives of large corporations are not the point of this article. The point of this article is for us to take a reality check on where we are: we have large organisations and they will be with us for some time to come, if not always. So, whilst that remains true, instead of simply wishing them away, if at all, it is worth pausing to ask what might be lost in the process if they did disappear. Because much of what would be lost would not be lost for good, it would be lost and leave need of an immediate and ongoing alternative.
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