ABSTRACT
Susan Long describes a shift in society from a culture of narcissism to one of perversion. Perversion reigns where instrumental relations flourish: people are used as means to an end, commodities and tools. Long argues that these kinds of relationships dominate the culture of modern organisations. The reason why that defeats strategy most days of the week is no doubt because of the much cited 'resistance to change'. As Steven Goldstein, the executive coach working with banks and financial market businesses to help them transform their risk culture observes: Behavioural change and cultural change in banks' trading and investment banking businesses require the breaking of deeply ingrained habitual responses, entrenched organisational attitudes, and long held processes and practices. Teachers in schools have been feeling the effects of the overwhelming demands being increasingly placed on them. Schools are being called upon to find the remedies for many of society's ills. Computing and information technology bring their set of challenges.
