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From Cradle to Grave

The concept of different strokes for different folks applies in most aspects of social interaction.

One method of categorizing people is by stage in life

The first two one-pagers in this set come from Managerial Psychology, the third reflects a Western philosophical overview and the fourth is drawn from the ancient Hindu tradition.

 

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Maturing in Your Work

Argyris C (1985) Strategy, Change and Defensive Routines; Pitman

Chris Argyris studied how the personal development of people, ie. their growth from infancy to maturity, is affected by the kind of situation they find at work. Some work situations help people to grow while others stunt their growth.

In creating a work situation which will help people to grow, three factors have to be considered:

Argyris reckoned that there were 7 stages in the growth of an individual from infancy towards psychological maturity:

Organisations vary in nature depending upon the kind of tasks which they are designed to perform. At one end of the spectrum are production organisations eg car factories and at the other end are service industries eg entertainment where the task is to keep as many people as possible happily occupied.

But, whatever the level of psychological maturity of the individual, and whatever the nature of the organisation, the extent to which the individual will grow psychologically in his workplace will depend upon the degree of interpersonal competence of the boss and the fellow workers, ie it will depend upon the degree of psychological maturity and social skills of the other people in the organisation.

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Phases of Maturity

In Henry J (1991) Creative Management; OU

When you are younger you can look at people who are older  and imagine what it must be like to be that old. When you are older you can look at people who are younger and remember what it was like.

The process of change is continuous but it is  useful for analytical purposes to divide it into sections or phases. Lessem (1987) has done this for late teenage and onwards and he recognises a series of transition phases fitting between more or less stable periods. There is the possibility that his model is too heavily biased towards euro-american patterns of culture but it is interesting to contemplate.

Does this model make any kind of sense in terms of your organisational culture?

If it does -

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From Cradle to Grave

Clark GG (1996) - various sources

Given a life span of the biblical 70 years it is possible to see

Stages 1&2 are spent in the home. It has often been said, "Give me the child till he is five and I will give you the man". Stage 3 sees the child making increasing contact with his immediate community and stage 4 sees him learning much about the overall pattern of culture beyond the confines of the family. For most of this time the child has been in a protected environment where it is safe to ‘play’ as the ‘elders and betters’ can be depended upon to afford support and protection.

Stage 4 covers the teenage years where it has been said, "When I became a man I put away childish things". Many cultures have definite ‘initiation ceremonies’ with elaborate rituals to mark the passage of the individual from dependent child to responsible adult.

Stages 5 to 8 are the years of maximum responsibility and productivity. They are not of necessity smooth and it is possible to identify phases of transition and stability.

Stage 9 is at least potentially the golden age when the individual can lay down the burden of mundane responsibilities and play with the grandchildren - other than when called upon to advise in exceptional circumstances. Egyptian and Tibetan cultures have their books of the dead in which pointers are given such that people can prepare themselves to die peacefully and gracefully.

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The four stages in Hindu Life.

Based on Coomaraswamy A K (1975) Hinduism and Buddhism; Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers

‘Ideals’ exist as targets. Few may achieve the ideals but this does not detract from their social value as road maps. Because ideals exist life has direction.

There is a Hindu Ideal of four stages in life – the four Ashramas. This ideal demonstrates the essentially sacramental nature of Hindu society. Whereas in a secular and capitalist society people look forward to an old age of comfort and economic independence, in this sacramental order they look forward to becoming independent of economics and indifferent to comfort and discomfort.

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