Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Exit, Voice, and Loyalty

For some reason, when I got home from work last night at 10:30, all I wanted to do was read this book: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States by Albert Hirschman.

He discusses (citing others, and so maybe I should go find their books) the idea of slack in organizations. Firms generally don't operate at full capacity; they don't aim for the highest possible profits, they aim for acceptable profits. That way, if an economic downturn hits (ahem), they're able to cut some of the slack and ride out the crisis.

I guess it makes sense why in the current economic time I would want to read this book. Personally, I feel as if there is not enough slack in my professional life. If something goes wrong, often the time that I take to fix it cuts into home time or sleep time or personal time - so for example, not taking time to eat, to exercise, to go home, to pay bills, etc. It's incredibly stressful but I'm not sure right now how to build in more slack. Something major will need to change in order for that to happen.

The question is right now - in an economy in decline, a University with budget cuts coming down the pike, which will I exercise: exit, voice, or loyalty?