http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzKVkgPwkQM

1. I love this guy's accent. 2. Love Berger's "strip that of the often pretentious sociology jargon" and how willing he is to admit to being wrong. 3. Seriously disappointed by the lack of the usual Youtube comment snark. I mean c'mon? Nothing more inspirational than: "I disagree" and "Is that Mark Chaves sitting next to Berger?"

Again, Berger is talking about religion. But again, his words can be so easily related to the world of organizational communication. And I'm seeing this is a common theme with me, managing to tie everything to organizational communication in some way :D Anyways....

People have worried for a long time that the modernisation of the society automatically means that while big organizations take over religion and spirituality go out of fashion, so to speak and people will lose faith. Berger himself admits that it took him twenty years to realize this was, indeed, not the case and then moves to say that though religion and society have changed a lot in the course of years people have not turned away from faith. Just found it in new ways. 

And this brings me to the organizational comms field. Trends like going green, sustainable development and responsibility are making a comeback. It's the same with many other more "traditional" and perhaps even "old-fashioned" values. And organizations have to react to that. The people are finding these values again - not that they have been exactly lost during the last few decades, maybe just not so highlighted in the media - and in increasingly competitive markets tapping into these values can take you ahead in the game. Just pushing forward for the sake of going forward and gaining more and more, not caring about the mess you leave behind, is frowned upon. It is not exactly the religious boom happening in the USA but it is not the feared industrial, institutionalized world where everyone is alone either.

Anna

PS. How cool is that that Berger wrote a blog post about beards?