Exit, voice, and loyalty
by Albert Otto Hirschman · first published 1970
33% recommend65% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, readable framework for why members leave an organization, speak up, or stay loyal. Useful for understanding companies, communities, and states, and for handling customer or employee feedback.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
An innovator in contemporary thought on economic and political development looks here at decline rather than growth. Albert O. Hirschman makes a basic distinction between alternative ways of reacting to deterioration in business firms and, in general, to dissatisfaction with organizations: one, "exit," is for the member to quit the organization or for the customer to switch to the competing product, and the other, "voice," is for members or customers to agitate and exert influence for change "from within." The efficiency of the competitive mechanism, with its total reliance on exit, is questio
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…unexpected allies. Here is a good start: Volume 1: The Origins of Political Order by Francis Fukuyama Volume 2: Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama Seeing Like a State by James Scott Exit, Voice and Loyalty by Albert Hirschman The Problem of Political Authority by Michael Huemer The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joesph Tainter The majority of the time these authors are interested in outcomes, not in…
on “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny” ↗…need a more complex feedback system. And it will have to be effective. This has long been an Achilles' heel of Google (and, to be fair, many other large corporations). On which, see A.O. Hirschman's Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. https://www.worldcat.org/title/exit-voice-and-loyalty-respon... The fact that the modern corporation is, by its very intent and design, a risk-externalising…
on “YouTube employees say violent threats from creators have been going on for years” ↗Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: https://www.amazon.com/Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Responses-Organiza.... A classic for a reason.
on “Google Culture War Escalates as Era of Transparency Wanes” ↗You just described the thesis of one of the wisest books I've ever read, Albert O. Hirschman's 1970 classic "Exit, Voice, and Loyalty." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit%2C_Voice%2C_and_Loyalty
on “Big company tale: six months for a list and a button” ↗Take a look at Hirschman's Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, which describes in general terms the political phenomenon you're describing. I hope you check this—you should put an obfuscated e-mail address in your profile.
on “Obama to release FISA court opinion that ruled NSA surveillance unconstitutional” ↗Like cancer, mediocrity, incompetence, and resistance to ideas (new products etc) was endemic at PayPal when I was there. The easiest way to become irrelevant was to challenge their confirmation bias. In other words, you try to fix it it blows over on you, Similar to the the third rail in politics. the smartest move will be to move out, create a different world, and show them how its done. (Refer
on “Facebook poaches PayPal president David Marcus to run Messenger” ↗Since the post doesn't mention it explicitly, it's probably worth noting that the title is an allusion to the excellent book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty [1], which is short and worth reading for anyone interested in the behavior of communities. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty
on “Last Exit to Loyalty” ↗Hirschman wrote a book called Exit, Voice, and Loyalty that you may find interesting. What I see in your response is this: 'Exit and Loyalty are enough, so why have Voice?' In your mind it's good enough to just go to another job that has better conditions,…
on “Tech workers are organizing and demanding democracy in the workplace” ↗So you are a quitter? That's fine, but obviously that's just one choice of the options available: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Albert Hirschman wrote a nice book about it. I can recommend it.
…Malcolm Gladwell) or a series of podcast episodes (anything by Robert Greene) and even some serious and influential books in the social sciences and can be cooked down to a single university lecture like Exit, Voice and Loyalty by Albert O. Hirschman Logic of Collective Action by Mancur Olson The Zero-sum Society by Lester Thurow (want to know why the world gave up on tariffs?) maybe some worthwhile management books could…
on “Ask HN: What podcast episodes changed the way you think about startups?” ↗Hirshman, Exit, Voice, and Loyalty Camus, the myth of Sisyphus Borges, the Aleph Chomsky, on Language Cicero, On Invention Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Wiener, Cybernetics James, Pragmatism Tzara, Dada manifesto
on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗…have to buy the majority of the company and fire the management? It kind of seems like you don't actually understand that soft power exists. The canonical book on this within organizational politics is "Exit, Voice and Loyalty". Have you ever had a social interaction in your entire life? Not everything is an ultimatum, some things are conversations.
…this type is also dropping the ball in listening to customer feedback through normal channels, such as tech support or customer service. Customer complaints are a gift, a point well made in the classic Exit, Voice and Loyalty. Being removed from the voice of the customer is one of the worst things that happens to business leaders as their organizations grow.
on “AT&T CEO threatens customer who emailed him” ↗There's a wonderful book that an HN'er recommended a while back on a thread similar to this one called "Exit, Voice, and Loyalty" which is in essence precisely about this: what makes members of an organization (be it a company, country, or other) leave or stay. Highly recommended reading.
on “Twitter, Box, and Dropbox attracting hordes of employees away from tech giants” ↗More people should be aware of "Exit, voice and loyalty", and its excellent discussion of the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit,_Voice,_and_Loyalty Personally I think all this manifestation of what "should" be political-sphere politics at work is…
on “Googlers Are Protesting Company’s Deals with Big Oil” ↗