The article provides a convenient overview
of the various strategies
used by companies to encourage loyalty
(such as a company ideology, mythology,
special language, and socialization behaviour)
and innovation
(such as encouraging employees to defy management,
forming heterogeneous teams,
providing time for the pursuit of new ideas,
and employing classing brainstorming techniques).
The article calls into question
the value of majority power
and provides explanations for its effectiveness
from psychology research.
The basic conclusion of the article is sound:
that dissent is a powerful mechanism for promoting useful innovation.
Dissent provides the force of natural selection for ideas
in Karl Popper's model for the evolution of knowledge.
WEAKNESSES
The article provides lots of examples and anecdotes
from various companies,
but fails to present any sort of coherent hypothesis
on company strategies.
Every example comes with a counterexample.
A lot of what the article says seems obvious.
For example,
the author seems to spend a lot of time
pointing out that exceptional people are usually exceptional,
or that new ideas come from new thinking.
The article never resolves the conflict
between the concept of cult-like ideology
and the encouragement of dissent.
zesty
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