Sir, – Over the years I’ve worked for many companies, and each had a distinct company culture.
The individual company cultures were determined by whoever ran the company. In general the workforce acted in conformity with that culture, otherwise they would not progress within the company.
Unless the culture provided for a diversity of views, which was rare, the culture resulted in a groupthink, which was not necessarily in the long-term interest of the company. Whenever problems ensued, the boss would blame anybody for the problems, but never themselves.
Although Bertie Ahern insists that he has no responsibility for what happened in the banking sector during his time in government, he is wrong. Both he and his government deliberately created a culture in which light regulation was determined as being paramount to the success of the economy, and criticism of their “success” was tantamount to treason.
We must learn from what happened during this period, and we must continually evaluate what success really is, and differentiate it from a culture that creates groupthink, and we must keep asking if it is happening again. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN O’DONOGHUE,
Killerig,
Carlow.