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Logo of MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching.

Compliments of leodelrosa via Flickr

Is your firm a place that promotes laughter, or does it more resemble lock-down, a space in which people are both scared and unsupportive? Why don’t we hear more laughter within our corporate walls?

You have probably heard the phrase “laughter is the best medicine.’ Norman Cousins (a renowned author and editor), watched funny movies (e.g., Marx, Fields, and Chaplin) in an attempt to self-medicate. Although he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, through a concerted effort he was able to emerge cancer free, and to live for another twenty years. Cousins rationalized that if depression, worry, and negative thinking could result in his condition, then perhaps positive action could bring a reversal. Turn the page…

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Logo of MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching.

Compliments of Crashworks via Flickr

“Provide a great work environment and treat each other with dignity and respect” [Starbucks mission statement].

Some revere Nicolo Machiavelli’s teachings, particularly in U.S. culture where individualism is seen as virtuous. Recently his tenets have been resurrected in The New Machiavelli, in which Powell puts a modern spin on Machiavelli’s self-serving ideas.

Individuals who make it “the Machiavellian way” provide a frightening glimpse into the mind of corporate mania, as Ringer explains in his book Winning through Intimidation: “Intimidation is the root to earning and receiving big money. I therefore decided that intimidation would be my first order of business; it would be the key to my usable philosophy” (Ringer, 1974). People like Ringer extol clawing as a method to obtain corporate goodies, a theme reinforced by Harmer in New Paths to God: “A motto for today is ‘look out for #1,’ that is first to think about ourselves and our interests. Our culture has spawned so much fear and anger that even the simplest acts of kindness go undone out of concern for the consequences” (Harmer, 2002). Turn the page…

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