opinion: rankism

Robert W. Fuller has written an amazing book called, Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank (New Society Publishers, 2003, www.newsociety.com).

Among many other positions, Fuller taught physics and served as president of Oberlin College. He describes in the book how he left his job as college president and for the first time in his professional life, found himself without any title or rank. He was now a "Nobody"; in the eyes of the world. He writes in this book that he believes Rankism is the mother of all "ism" (i.e. sexism, racism) and asks "What makes it possible for one group to discriminate against another?"

We believe that Rankism is an unnamed elephant that deserves to be surfaced. How does rank affect your organization? How does it create inefficiencies? Fuller explores how power has an appropriate use but that rank-holders can easily abuse their power. For example, he describes an executive pulling up to a valet and throwing his keys while yelling at the valet because he wasn't instantly at the man's car door. As Fuller says, we've all tasted rankism, but perhaps we should start to explore the price we as individuals and society pay for the abuse of rank.

Start in your work group and have a dialogue about how rank is established and how it is represented. In Good To Great (Harper, 2001: an absolute must read for any manager), Jim Collins compares Bethlehem Steel designing their executive office to maximize the number of 'corner offices' to Nucor's "dental-suite sized headquarters." One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Good To Great companies is their lack of rankism.