Summary:
\nExit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States by Albert O. Hirschman is an academic approach to the movement of people with given systems. Hirschman begins the book with his basic belief: \u201cUnder any economic, social, or political sysetem, individuals, business firms, and organizations in general are subject to lapses from efficient, rarity all, law-abiding, virtuous, or otherwise functional behavior.\u201d (Hirschman, 1) These \u201clapses\u201d result in two basic responses: \u201cExit\u201d or \u201cVoice\u201d. In \u201cexit\u201d the customer or follower departs it patronage of the business or person. In \u201cvoice\u201d the customer or follower voices their dissent and feelings to business or person. Hirschman offers one other solution, Loyalty, which is not without negative feelings or dissatisfaction, but results in the retaining of customer or follower. The authors\u2019 ultimate goal is to explain the migration or movement of individuals away from a person or idea.
\nAnalysis:
\nI found this book academic in its way of communicating its ideals but simple in its nature and concept. I found that although Hirschman relegated exit more to economics and voice more to politics, both (exit and voice) are prominent in church life. This prominence creates a tension for the leadership to manage. The management of this tension results in success and growth of the church or it\u2019s stalemate of mission or ultimate demise. There is never a time where parishioners are completely silent or still, there is always opinions voice and people moving in or out the church. In fact, the larger the church grows the more voice and exit a pastor encounter. Although the ripple effect of parishioner change or movement becomes dramatically less as the church grows.<\/p>\n
The key to Hirschman\u2019s dilemma is strikingly similar to that of pastor: elasticity. The more leadership can stretch with the absorbing of change and parishioners can stretch with adaption that change brings, the less voice or exit occurs. The less the elasticity occurs, the more voice or exit occurs. Regardless there is an inevitable tension to be managed by the elasticity required. This elasticity primarily rests on the leader, is the very nature and expectation of pastor as leader.<\/p>\n
As for loyalty, this is becoming an increasingly rare characteristic of parishioners. People may be loyal to God, but are not so loyal to his word, worship, or his body. Due to experiences resulting in voice and exit, loyalty is extremely rare if alive at all. The reality is that most do not connect God with his word, worship experience or bride. This lack of connection creates a void of loyalty that is beyond rational thought or even concern. However, for the pastor there is a grave concern over lack of loyalty to God that is evident in its disconnect to his word, worship, or body. This resulting tension is bound to break because if a person is not loyal to following God\u2019s word, worship, or in community with his bride eventually he is not be loyal to God himself. This lack of loyalty will result in apostasy of the believer. Although this is not the not always the fault of the pastor, it is a real felt tension and reality to be faced by the pastor.<\/p>\n
Ultimately it feels as the \u201ccustomer is always right\u201d. The truth is that this axiom may be true in economics and politics, but I don\u2019t find much precedent in the Church. However, the ideals of voice, exit, and loyalty are very real. The best way to meet these demands and meet these tensions, is not by relegating the power to \u201ccustomer\u201d (parishioner), but rather to embrace the tension and manage it by leading. This leadership requires the pastor to listen to the voice, but only change based on Biblical principles and agreed church cultural values. It requires the pastor understand why someone is exiting, but to be like Jesus and not \u201cchase\u201d after them. Lastly, do not expect or demand loyalty, but rather focus on leading people closer to Jesus and not on consumeristic goals or mindsets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summary: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States by Albert O. Hirschman is an academic approach to the movement of people with given systems. Hirschman begins the book with his basic belief: \u201cUnder any economic, social, or political sysetem, individuals, business firms, and organizations in general are subject to lapses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[726,251],"class_list":["post-9798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlpg6","tag-hirschman","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}