In the article in the url below, John Kay draws on the work of Vaclav Havel (The Power of the Powerless) and George Orwell (1984 and Politics and the English Language) to demonstrate both the emptiness and danger of modern-day business language (slogans, annual reports, value or mission statements, etc). Kay points out that business language can be vacuous at worst, but is too often accepted and regurgitated as “a declaration of conformity” because of “the human desire to avoid confrontation”:
“Like George Orwell, Mr Havel described "living within the lie". Both saw how the dishonesty inherent in such acquiescence ultimately corrupted all aspects of life, personal as well as political.”
Kay terms such language “the theatre of empty rhetoric”:
“In western liberal democracies, no one exhibits slogans calling on the workers to unite. But you see similar displays in reception areas of businesses and even in government offices. They urge us to pursue excellence, to delight our customers, to be wholehearted in our embrace of change.”
Importantly, Kay notes danger in the short step from language to behavior. The purpose of such language is to obfuscate, rather than convey meaning. People accept it without protest, however, because it is the easy thing to do. Over time, the failure to question, to hold organizations to account, results in the superficial or vacuous becoming reality. It is here that there is the potential for larger, damaging consequences:
“The self-deception of living within the lie is how banks fell victim to the credit crunch and the US came to be embroiled in Iraq. The greengrocer, and millions like him, perpetuated a great evil by acquiescing in a minor deceit. Dishonesty of speech quickly leads to dishonesty in behaviour because the language we use governs all we do.”
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
(c) Sage Publications, 2006
Weasel words have the teeth to kill great ventures
Kay, John
677 words
14 January 2009
Financial Times
Asia Ed1
09
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/89550200-e190-11dd-afa0-0000779fd2ac.html
