Monsanto's Responsibility As A Knowledge Company example essay topic

After an exhausting game of basketball on my Playstation two it was time to eat. As my search for food was coming to an end I came across a bag of potatoes. So using the cooking skills that I have acquired in my many years I decided to make french-fries. As I cut my potatoes I started to think about Michael Pollan's essay "Playing God in the Garden".

This essay is about the creation of "genetically engineered" potatoes that produce their own insecticide right inside their leaves. I began to wonder if the potatoes on my plate were the same "New Leaf" potatoes that Pollan talked about. I started to change my mind about eating the fries that I had already melted cheese on but they looked to good to give to my roommate so I continued thinking while eating. The government does not require New Leaf potatoes to be labeled in stores so it must mean they feel it will have no harm on people. One of the many reasons that government exists is to look over the wealth fare of its citizens.

Think of some of the things that a company must put on their products, labels on alcohol and cigarettes tell the dangers that come from using them, and all foods packages must have the ingredients printed on them. The government also sets up programs like family first to help people in need. Even in high school a person needs four years of gym. Peter Drucker touches this subject in his essay "The Age of Social Transformation" as he talks about a changing society. The government made the decision that using the knowledge that Monsanto found was the right thing to do for the farming industry. The best times will come when the knowledge that people have is used to enhance their lives.

What good is knowledge if it is not used? There is no point in learning new things if the only reason for learning them is to prove a point or to know more than someone else. Knowledge should be used and the New Leaf is just a potato that has had knowledge applied to it. The potato helps farmers because they no longer have to bathe their fields in harmful chemicals. Imagine living on a farm and someone offers a job that pays more, has fewer hours and is easier than farm work.

Any person would leave, it just makes sense. This is the start of the industrial worker. In Peter F. Drucker's essay "The Age of Social Transformation" he talks about the next social change, the move into the knowledge society. Unlike the move from farmer to industrial worker this move will be much more difficult.

"The rise of the class succeeding industrial workers is not an opportunity for industrial workers. It is a challenge" (Drucker 253). Not everyone will be able to move into knowledge work the way people moved into industrial work. In Drucker's new society the organization has a big role. It will not only be a person's place of employment but were they can contribute to their community.

"Playing God in the Garden" an essay by Michael Pollan is about "genetically engineered" (Pollan 459) potatoes that produce their own insecticide. This potato makes farmers jobs easier and safer "from where a typical American potato grower stands, the New Leaf looks very much like a godsend" (Pollan 468). Some people feel that it is wrong for these potatoes to be on the market and are angry that they are not labeled as being genetically engineered. Both essays "Playing God in the Garden" and "The Age of Social Transformation" are related because the potato in Pollan's essay is a product of Drucker's knowledge society. The company that created the potato is called Monsanto and they signify the kind of knowledge work Drucker saw as the future.

The "knowledge worker" (Drucker) that Drucker talks about will be required to have a formal education. They will be the center of this new society. The knowledge worker is going to change what it means to be an employee. We are already moving into a kind of knowledge society, one were having a formal education is necessary.

Unless someone is on the cleaning crew a formal education is the only way to work for Monsanto, it is therefore a knowledge company. "With the advent of biotechnology, agriculture is entering the information age" (Pollan 461). Pollan knows Monsanto is trying o be the leader in the new age of biotechnology. Moreover, as a leader they will get complaints from everywhere. "Uncertainty is the theme that unifies much of the criticism leveled against biotech agriculture by scientists and environmentalist" (Pollan 464). Like the first to do anything they will be criticized by many people.

Monsanto fits Drucker's image of a knowledge company that does not care about anything but its own purpose. That is exactly how Monsanto treats itself, they are about making money and that is what they do. Phil Angell a Monsanto executive who Pollan asked the safety of the New Leaf potatoes said, "Our interest is in selling as much as possible. Assuring its safety is the F.D.A.'s job" (Pollan 468). Drucker knows that a company's main goal is and will always be to make money. "In the society of organizations each of the new institutions is concerned only with its own purpose and mission.

It does not claim power over anything else" (Drucker 268). However, Drucker feels that every company also needs to do more to help the community; they need to take responsibility for their own actions. The question is why should they? Monsanto has a responsibility to society, because their employees are a part of it. Pollan could be wrong, maybe Monsanto really thought about the effects that their New Leaf's could have on the Earth's ecosystem and that it was not a problem.

Because it is up to the scientists as knowledge workers to take into account their own actions. In the knowledge society it is possible for an employee to have a commitment to society because "knowledge workers - own the tools of production" (Drucker 260). If the scientists were to leave Monsanto they would take their knowledge with them and since Monsanto relies on them, they can decide if it is the right decision to create the potatoes or not. There probably is a chance that these New Leaf potatoes could create a change in the Earth's ecosystem and because of that chance Monsanto owes it to the world to make sure that there are no problems that can be caused by their potatoes. Besides that, they have to care because they live here too. Drucker feels that in order for someone to get the most out of knowledge they must be part of an organization.

"Only the organization can provide the basic continuity that knowledge workers need to be effective" (Drucker 259). The organization gives a person something to use their knowledge on. Monsanto puts people to work, people who have a formal education and gives them something to accomplish. If Monsanto had not put their scientists to work, the New Leaf potato probably would not have been created. "The surgeon needs the operating room of the hospital and all its expensive capital equipment" (Drucker 260). Even if a scientist had the idea for the potato he probably would not have the money to try to make his idea a reality.

Drucker believes that people need an organization to make their knowledge useful, but the organization needs them more than they need it. Even though Monsanto gives the scientists somewhere to use their knowledge if they disagreed with the company they can always leave and find work elsewhere, giving some other company the New Leaf potato. "Increasingly, the true investment in the knowledge society is not in machines and tools but in the knowledge of the knowledge worker" (Drucker 260). The investment a company like Monsanto makes is in the knowledge that the scientists they hire possess. So all the actions of the company are supported by their employees, everything Monsanto does and can do falls on the morals of the people who work there. Drucker would say that the other important part of Monsanto is the management.

"Management is the distinctive organ of all organizations. All of them require management" (Drucker 261). It is the job of the manager to bring people together for one goal. The management also has to have an "understanding of the organization itself - its purposes, its values, its environment and markets, its core competencies" (Drucker 262).

Therefore, it is up to the management to make sure the company reaches its goals. When Pollan asks questions about the New Leaf potatoes it was up to the executives to answer his questions and make him feel secure about their product. If management does a good job making people feel secure about their product then the criticism will stop. Drucker acknowledges that the knowledge society will have to be able work and cooperate with people who are not knowledge workers, and that this will be one of the hardest things to do. "People with knowledge will take responsibility for making themselves understood by people who do not have the same knowledge base" (Drucker 258).

For example, it is Monsanto's responsibility as a knowledge company to make sure everyone understands what they are trying to do. It is in their favor to have the people who are buying their product understand why it is necessary for this New Leaf potato to be available to commercial farmers and it is their responsibility to answer any other questions that people might have. The question that Drucker raises about the knowledge society is what will happen to the communities. Who or what is going to do tasks that the community should be doing.

Drucker feels that the old community cannot, the business cannot, and that the government has failed: "But as the agency to run social services, it has proved almost totally incompetent" (Drucker 263). He feels that the answer is a new social sector. This social sector will give a person a way to connect with their community, let them feel as though they are making a difference. They can make a difference by helping in their neighborhood or helping with something bigger.

And in the case of Monsanto just by caring about what they are doing. If their scientists feel that they should not create a genetic potato than they should not, it will make them feel better as people if they do what they feel is right.