Don Pearson
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Don Pearson is a management consultant and executive for a Folsom, California firm, e.Republic, engaged in publishing and staging 'government technology' conventions. (see EGovernment) Pearson is perhaps best known for his role in training Allstate Insurance Company managers and salesmen in the tenets of L. Ron Hubbard's 'management by statistics' during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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[edit] e.Republic
Together with fellow Scientologist Dennis McKenna, Pearson currently operates e.Republic, a media and event management enterprise primarily serving the government information technology market, including the Government Technology and Converge [1] magazines (GovTech.net), which McKenna founded in 1983. Another e.Republic offshoot, the Center for Digital Government, provides research and consulting to state and local governments.
To the outside world, e.Republic is a trusted resource for government officials and business leaders. Inside, employees are predominantly Scientologists. The vast majority of managers at e.Republic, which has become a principal information source for government agencies for their adoption of technology, practice the controversial religion known as Scientology.
New hires at e.Republic are given a copy of Speaking From Experience, a management training book by Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. New hires are required not only to read the book, but also to take a course based on its contents. For those who do not ascribe to the Hubbard training, the prevalence of all things Hubbard at e.Republic can be disconcerting. "It fosters a level of paranoia because you feel like if you speak out against how much Hubbard stuff is in the training you think they’ll come after you," said one worker, adding "They pressure every employee to take Hubbard-based training."[2]
Critics assert the training and education techniques used by e.Republic are simply an attempt to get Scientology Ethics and beliefs established in business and government. Although company executives (see Sea Org) deny proselytizing Scientology, the use of L. Ron Hubbard materials as "secular" is cited, which makes the practice of Scientology a fact. In a taped lecture dated January 9 1962, titled, "Future Org Trends" L. Ron Hubbard states:
"You want to know what happens when you clear everybody in that neighbourhood, the only thing that [Scientology] center can become used for is a political center. Because by the time you've done all this, you are the government..."
[edit] Management by Statistics
Before joining e.Republic, Pearson worked as a management consultant in the Sacramento area. His primary client was Allstate Insurance, for whom Pearson taught Hubbard's 'management by statistics'. The training fostered the idea that workers who had low statistics should be penalized for low productivity, or for crossing a favored employee with 'up-statistics'. Some Allstate managers took such ideas too far, resulting in charges of "management by intimidation."[3]
Pearson also pushed other Hubbard books and tapes while a consultant to Allstate. After a lengthy February, 1995 front page story ran in the Wall Street Journal, describing training that included use of Scientology's 'Tone scale', Allstate banned and repudiated the courses. According to the article, more than 3,500 Allstate supervisors and agents participated in nearly 200 seminars conducted by Pearson's firm. Some agents who worked under managers who took the training courses eventually filed religious-discrimination and harassment charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- OurSites.org - 'About Myself', Don Pearson
- GovTech.net - 'Government Technology: Solutions for State and Local Government in the Information age'
- TheCIA.net - 'Allstate applied Scientology methods to train its management', Rochelle Sharpe, Wall Street Journal (March 22, 1995)
- Lermanet.com - 'Stalked by Allstate: Being an agent for the giant insurer can be tough--even terrifying. An extraordinary war between a company and its own troops is only getting fiercer.' Richard Behar, Fortune (October, 1995)
- NewsReview.com - 'Scientology Inc.: Publishing executives in Folsom are spreading the word on technology in government. Some employees say it’s actually the words of L. Ron Hubbard that are being spread.' Sacramento News & Review, Jim Evans (August 28, 2001)
