The
words coalition and alliance have both been used, mainly, to label groups of
nations in war efforts, constituencies of individual politicians, political
parties, and collections of business and community organizations and the groups
that support and lobby for them. These words have also been used to label those
in smaller and larger groups including three or more person families, and of
peer groups in childhood and adolescence.
There are also coaches in sports or other activities (think of the
cheerleader and choir coaches in the television show Glee), educators, and counselors who attempt to create coalitions
or alliances to facilitate learning and behavior change in these groups. These
terms are often used interchangeably and most of us may consider them synonyms.
To
achieve one or more of our goals in life, we may be members of more than
several coalitions and alliances.
We might also encourage and even pay for our children to become members
of different kinds of groups (for example, a soccer or debate team, a school
band or Girl Scouts) assuming that their participation would advance our goals
for them as well as help them achieve their own goals.
The purposes
and goals of coalitions
I assume that
there are those who are the leaders and followers of many existing—even
virtual—groups who experience those in another identifiable group, at the very
least, as “opponents.” I recommend
using the word coalition to include those collections of persons who are active
or passive members of groups (for example, financial contributors to political
parties) whose goal is to defeat another group in some contest or
competition.
In some
instances those in another group are despised enemies. The word
coalition also refers to those who contribute to and/or work together to defeat
those in other groups who must be defeated in life-threatening battles and
wars. Throughout human history,
large groups of armed combatants have come together and have invaded the
homeland of others and attempt to destroy and control their population and
resources. And, of course,
throughout human history, large groups of armed combatants have also come
together to repel those who have invaded their homeland and who wish to control
or eliminate their population and possess their natural resources. Adolph Hitler and those who supported
him were part of a very large coalition of those whose “common purpose” and
goal was the elimination of persons throughout Europe (and, indeed, the world) that
did not possess the characteristics of those he and others decided were
“Aryan.” Some nations have also
preemptively attacked an enemy who is perceived as “clearly” planning to invade
the “homeland” or the land of an “ally.”
Sport,
political, and business coalitions
The
label coalition can also be applied to those involved, directly or indirectly,
in significantly less (one hopes) life-threatening and, hopefully, law and
rule-following sport, political, and business competitions. At the heart of capitalism are the
various coalitions and teams of executives, managers and blue/gray/white collar
workers in very small and very large businesses that seek victory (for example,
financial profit or elimination of the competition) in their enterprises. There are coalitions of “fans” (those
on “our” team to which they may feel a deep commitment, an intense passion, and
intimacy with the lives of the individuals in the group) against members of the
other team (and their fans) who are perceived as opponents who must be defeated
in an athletic contest to maintain or obtain school, city, or state “pride,” or
to serve “nationalistic” impulses, for example, the “Democracies” (especially
the United States) against the “Communist” states in the Olympics and other
athletic events during most of the last five decades of the 20th
century.
We
may not just have enemies threatening death to ourselves and the destruction of
our nation but many of us do have sport, political, and business opponents who
“challenge” us, make us “angry,” who are “feared,” who must be dehumanized in
more or less ways, described as not worthy of respect, and deserving of a
literal or figurative “crushing,” “thrashing” “whipping,” and
“humiliation.” As in sports, there
are also political, business and financial “contests” and conflicts and even
“reality” TV programs (from “Survivor” to “The Apprentice” to “Top Chef”) that
create coalitions between and then within groups with only one member of a
group achieving the final “victory.”
The purposes
and goals of alliances
I
recommend the use of the label alliance to refer to temporary or long-lasting
groups whose purposes, common interests and actions do not include responses to any real or hypothetical “enemy” or
“opponent.” For example, an
alliance is the appropriate label for groups of persons who come together
wanting nothing more than to “be” together, to be intimate as the only goal, to
celebrate, to grieve, to arouse and maintain joy and good spirits (for example,
via dancing, family and communal meals, and community festivals and parades),
to engage in an activity for itself rather than to engage in a competition to
determine a “winner.” For many of
us, our relationships with those in our immediate and extended families and
nearby neighbors are often long-term even lifetime alliances.
I
would also apply the label of alliance to those groups that respond to
accidents, illnesses, and disasters as well as to environmental threats to the
lives of others including the lives and habitats of the world’s non-human
species. Sometimes the threat and
enemy is “nature” or threats to the health and survival of one or more persons
because of illnesses or injuries caused by accidents, physical attacks, or
self-inflicted. There are
voluntary and paid groups of persons who work together to provide food and
medical supplies and services to those who are needy or disabled, to protect
life and property, and to help others survive confrontations with an existing
or predicted threat of famine and starvation (sometimes just hunger), extreme
heat and cold weather, tornados, hurricanes, droughts, storms, floods,
earthquakes or fires. These
include members of rescue services and human and animal shelters, the Red
Cross, Red Crescent, World Health Organization, UNICEF, Salvation Army,
America’s Second Harvest, and Doctors without Borders. Others come together to build and
rebuild structures after disasters and accidents (for example, Engineers
without Borders). “Victory” is
sometimes nothing more than helping others to survive for at least another day.
Cooperation
and uniting of individual skills are
often critical for a group, even in many coalitions, whether they are members
of a basketball team, armed force, business enterprise or political campaign,
to achieve and experience the thrill of victory. However, in alliances, such as those noted above, the
cooperation is directed toward the achievement of different kinds of outcomes,
different kinds of victories. As
noted above, one kind of goal is solely existential, the experience of
consummate Brotherly Love described
by Fromm. The sense of family and
community may be achieved by nothing more than participation in bantering,
gossiping, verbal play, and the pleasure of humorous and more serious discourse
especially, for me, around a table of delicious food. At their best, religious and civic
celebrations as well as those celebrating marriages, birthdays, and
anniversaries, or traditions engaged in after the death of someone, create a
temporary community, a time of reflection on the meaning of the events and people
in one’s life, reminiscing about the good times, and expressing joy,
thankfulness, or grief. There is
only the present to be celebrated in song and sometimes in dance, verbal and
other gifts to be given, or tributes and memories shared. At their best, there is no focus on
enemies and opponents defeated and no recriminations about past slights and
rebukes. These are alliances. Compare the memories you have of your
experiences, words, and actions on such occasions to the motive, goal, and
outcome of Mark Antony’s oration to the citizens of Rome over the body of the
murdered Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play.
If there is a
motto that best describes an alliance, it is “We are family” but only when it
is making note that other families and other groups are not competitors, not
opponents, not inferior in any way, not an enemy. Similarly, the motto, “We are all in the same boat” refers
to an alliance only when the word “We” means everyone in a family, group, community, city, state, nation or the
world and that no one is to be excluded from the safety of the boat. Some may believe that “A rising tide
lifts all boats” but are not necessarily concerned about those in more less
seaworthy crafts. Many may wish
for the recognition that all of us are—literally—brothers and sisters. Many of us believe that all of us are
children of an attentive and caring God.
I hope that each
of us is part of a large number of alliances as we go through the days of our
lives. How many of the smaller and
larger groups we freely join are ones in which we feel intimate and safe,
authentic and vulnerable, in communion and secure with, and in which the
activities result in the creation of joy and beauty? How many alliances do our children belong to? What specific school or after-school
activities that they are involved in are directed to creating and maintaining
alliances? My guess is that many
of us, and our children, may not belong to more than a few. It is also possible that in
comparisons with some of the coalitions we belong to and support, for many of
us, our involvement in alliances may last even longer.
Coalitions,
Alliances and the Internet
The
internet has become increasingly relevant and even necessary in business,
political, and in our personal and social lives. There are “virtual” coalitions and alliances existing there
too. Visiting various website chat
rooms and blogging, involvement in text- and video-messaging, including tweets,
are examples of social networking and
is a daily part of the lives of larger and larger numbers of older
children, adolescents and adults.
Some websites and text messaging services now serve as locations that
permit and encourage on-line, person-to-person interchanges, with or without
photos or video. These include
Facebook, Twitter, and dating sites that may result in two or more person group
meetings (even “flash mobs”) where all parties are physically present.
All
political parties, possibly every elected person in city, county, state and
federal governments, and every candidate for office, has a website and uses it
to be in constant communication with those interested in his or her candidacy
and positions about issues…and to raise money. It is much cheaper than phone calls, television
advertisements, and direct mailing and allows immediate response to attacks
from others including politicians and commentators. Further, a very great number of dead or living public
figures including actors, and musical and other artists (even fictional
characters such as Sherlock Holmes) and college/university or professional
sports team have websites created by public relation firms, devoted admirers,
or for those still living, themselves, where they, too, can communicate with
their fans and, more importantly for the present purposes, with each
other.
Material
and messages on some websites can also support and encourage hate and provide
information that could be used for individual or group actions that can lead to
violence, destruction, and death of others.
There
is no doubt that using the internet and photo- and text-messaging services will
be an increasingly important means to create and maintain both virtual and
face-to-face personal, national, and international coalitions and alliances
that will be affecting our own and our children’s lives in the coming decades.
Impact on HR
The question I
have for you concerns how do HR policies, responsibilities, programs, and
activities go about creating coalitions and/or alliances for any organization
and how do social media contribute to helping an HR service achieve one or more
specific goals?
Carpe diem!!
Carpe diem!!
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