Book Review: The Moral Tale of Moby Dick

Moby Dick by Herman Melville is a classical example of 1851 literature that sparks deeper levels of thinking and provides a moral story for readers. As an artistic production it is seen as one of the greatest seafaring stories ever written. It provides a glimpse of early American life through the occupational experiences of sailors.

Literature has an important function in society and transfers values and cultural beliefs. Story telling has been part of the human experience since the beginning of humanity. Moby Dick tells a moral story as much as it tells the tale of a whale hunt. Encouraging people to read such stories and think about their meanings helps to broaden their perspective. 

Some of the lessons you may encounter include:

Don’t Let Your Passions Consume You: Captain Ahab had a mission and he was going to fulfill that mission at all costs. His passions consumed him to the point that he no longer considered the other factors associated with winning. All missions should use sound judgment and reasons to balance out the decision-making process.

The Whale Represents Greatness: At this time in society killing a white whale represented wealth, prestige, and accomplishment. As one of the largest creatures known to man it was difficult to find, harpoon, and bring to market. Moby Dick came to represent man’s desire for material and social recognition. 

A Piece of American Experience: Melville used his experience as a sailor to write the story and became a sensation. The story represents how life was experienced by seafaring people in New England during the 19^th Century.  Life was different then and economies made their money from natural resources such as fishing, farming, mining and lumber.

Forms of Government: The process of gathering sailors from various walks of life is a democratic process where all members are individually judged based on their contributing skills. In a capitalistic society each member is focused on catching whales for economic purposes and has a positive contribution on collective action. Captain Ahab turns into the tyrant who fails to consult with others which eventually leads his crew to death.

The Flipping of Good and Evil: At the beginning of the story Moby Dick is characterized as evil and must be hunted down for its savage behavior. As the story unfolds you find that Moby Dick is only escaping the hunt and was never a man eater. Eventually we find out that it is Captain Ahab that failed to use sound reason and becomes the embodiment of evil in the story while he irrationally hunts Moby Dick for his own vain egotism. 

You don’t need to pay for this book. It is offered for free on Kindle. 

As an interesting side note whale attacks can still happen. In July a crew of two people were attacked tracking whales on a picture taking escapade. Following their target at 150 yards a second whale jumped upon their ship capsizing both crew members and flipping the boat. The incident occurred in the ocean somewhere off Point Loma in San Diego. You may want to watch a little of their experiences to get a feeling for the chaos of a whale attack. Fox News San Diego provides additional details (1). 

Social Sciences Relate to Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior is basically studying the way people behave in organizations.  These organizations exist in many different fields of social science.  What are those fields?  1) Psychology, 2) Sociology, 3) Anthropology, 4) Economics, 5) Education, 6) Human Geography, and 7) Political Science. 

Edgar Schein created a model for organizational behavior.  By using this model, leaders can understand the three elements of an organization, artifacts, values, and assumptions.  For example, a leader may try to change the underlying assumptions of an organization.
  
Artifacts are the tangible items that people can observe.  "Artifacts can be dress codes, furniture, art, work climate, stories, work processes, organizational structures etc. (Schein, 1992). 

Values are those that are expressed by the leadership of the organization.  The values of the organization can be the mission, the goals, and the philosophies of the company (Schein, 1992). 

"Assumptions reflect the shared values within the specific culture. These values are often ill-defined, and will oftentimes not be especially visible to the members of the culture. Assumptions and espoused values are possibly not correlated, and the espoused values may not at all be rooted in the actual values of the culture" (Schein, 1992).

He also published a third edition of the book called Organizational Culture and Leadership. "Edgar Schein shows how to transform the abstract concept of culture into a practical tool that managers and students can use to understand the dynamics of organizations and change." (Amazon.com Review)

Author: Dr. Andree Swanson 

Reference

Schein, E. H. (1992). Organizational culture and leadership. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.