Monahan

The following is written on a plaque in a U.S. IT room. “It’s not my job; I’ll be glad to take the responsibility”. Describe briefly what these words represent to you.

Monohan uses this and others like it (such as, "It's contrary to policy; anything's possible") to illustrate flexible thinking in a Post-Fordist world. I get the willies when I read this; it seems pretty Orwellian to me and I would not want to work in a place with a poster such as this one on the wall. I get that it is supposed to represent the dichotomy between "old school rigid thinking and new-school flexible thinking" (p. 81), but to me it is just another form of control (I won't say brainwashing; it's not quite that Orwellian!). If something's contrary to policy and I decide to do it anyway, who's going to take responsibility? If something's not my job and I do it anyway, what will the person responsible think and feel? Of course, flexible thinking is good, but these axioms actually don't represent flexible thinking. Perhaps something like this would work:

"It's not my job, but I'll see who's job it is and find out if I can help" or "It's contrary to policy so I'll look into whether it's possible or not"