In his new book ‘ Vildveje i Velfærdsstaten’ (Welfare State Taking the Wrong Way), Senior Associate Professor Verner C. Petersen, social science researcher, claims that, in today’s Denmark, rules and regulations are more important than common sense. For that reason, we are doing what we are measured on – and not always what we consider to be important and the right thing to do.
A community or a welfare state with efficient public institutions and responsible citizens cannot be obtained by means of control, rules and regulations and measurements. Still, in today’s Denmark, it has become more important to have rules and regulations than to think. More important to microprogram the work of the individual employee than to provide room for personal reflection. More important to have random clear goals than well-founded objectives. For that reason, we are doing what we are measured on – and not always what we consider to be important and the right thing to do.
This is the claim put forward by Senior Associate Professor Verner C. Petersen from Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University, in his new book “Vildveje i Velfærdsstaten” (Welfare State Taking the Wrong Way), which was published on Thursday 30 October 2008 by Informations Forlag.
Politicians split citizens
Both the Social Democratic Party’s and the government's proposed quality and welfare reforms focus on giving the individual citizen specific rights. But, with its many examples, Vildveje i velfærdsstaten illustrates how the citizens are split into a number of conflicting roles as speeding drivers, anxious parents, demanding patients, dissatisfied taxpayers, home equity speculators etc. In each of these roles, we claim our right. The result is that the personal responsibility is eroded and the community dissolves.
A control monster
The new reforms contribute to creating a control monster – a caricature of rationality and sense. Based on an image of the world which projects scientific and economic methodology onto the welfare state and public institutions, we are destroying valuable understanding and insight based on silent knowledge and unspoken values. The result is a halving of the world: All the things which cannot be expressed explicitly are not knowledge, and all the things which cannot be measured and for which goals cannot be set are worthless.
According to Verner C. Petersen, the solution to escaping these wrong ways and to maintaining the community is to create freedom for the individual, independent thinking and to demand a higher degree of independent, personal responsibility – instead of more control measures and rules and regulations.
Facts
Verner C. Petersen is Senior Associate Professor, MA in Political Science, Dr.Phil., at the Department of Management, Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University.
He is the founder and head of CREDO (Centre for Research in Ethics and Decision-making in Organisations) at Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University.
Within the same subject area, Verner C. Petersen is also the author of the book Hinsides regler – selvorganisering og ledelse med ansvar (Beyond Rules – Self-organisation and Corporate Responsibility) as well as a large number of articles dealing with value-based management, responsibility and criticising control and measurement.
Further details:
Senior Associate Professor Verner C. Petersen, Dr.Phil.
Department of Management
Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University
Tel. +45 8948 6458
Email: vcp@asb.dk
Website