So I heard another phone call come into the Acting Manager’s office where I heard the female voice blurt out on the speaker phone that “he is still blogging.” It is not hard to guess who she is referring to. My response is, if you follow Observations in an undemocratic world so closely, why don’t you just subscribe?

Naturally, I enjoy the notoriety, I write provocative posts to get a rise from these people. I know they are trolling me electronically, their surveillance shows up on my LinkedIn account. They have been waiting to catch me out on my social media use, they should know better. I go right to the line, I never post when I am angry and I never post under the influence of alcohol. My posts are scheduled approximately three months in advance with a large backlog pending.

So we need to explore why I post at all. I started Observations in an undemocratic world back in 2013 when some Turkish friends asked me to get some messages out. I headed off to UWA Extension school for a Saturday class to learn how to set up a blogger account and run a site. From there I have turned the blog into a site that publishes three times weekly for a decade recording over a couple of hundred thousand hits some years back.

Whilst I have swapped accounts from Blogger to WordPress, Observations in an undemocratic world is still operational and posts original content Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Interestingly, they have followed me across publishing platforms, they have in their possession very sophisticated military grade cyber software tools. I will need to check the ethics of trolling staff on social media with government funded resources.

Observations in an undemocratic world is not a travel blog, but sometimes posts about personal travel. Nor is Observations in an undemocratic world a watch blog, I certainly have plenty of posts about watches, same with sports, leadership, business and management, current affairs, news events and the Russian invasion of Ukraine and resultant war crimes has taken precedence on my blog. The Brittany Higgins sex assualt claims, the interference of Lisa Wilkinson and the absence of due process leading to trial by media are some contemporary issues. So it would be fair to state the content produced is current affairs, social commentary, business and management issues, and world events.

This is not a narrow rant against my current [unidentified] employer, this is a series of posts aligned to my business studies. I undertook case studies in my university education, this is a very common assessment practice in universities and private business schools. I have replicated this process in my blog, this is not full academic writing style as my writing is not referenced to the Harvard standard.

The failures of leadership are central to my writing as they are topical, I have a business degree so I write first hand accounts of leadership failure. This is where I need to thank them, they provide me with wonderful examples of leadership failure, a lack of ethics based on shared values and vision. I read McKinnsey and Co Insights as well as Insead Knowledge as I have these apps loaded on my phone, these are good short articles from leading academics. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BBC World Service, The Australian, ABC News and Reuters are also frequently accessed apps where I seek current articles.

So this blog never identifies my employer, that is not the purpose of my posts. A case study is an example of a failed application, these posts are an extension of my business studies as I have expertise in this area. I write about failures of leadership including contemporary management issues. An area I am interested in is organisational behaviour as I have studied OB, so the chapters within an OB textbook are referenced to keep me current, they are well aware of the need to maintain vocational currency – they may even appreciate the irony.