Skip to content

Category Archives: Organizational Leadership

Mind of its own

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Nearly a century ago Mary Parker Follett noted two things relevant to our current discussion. First, the presumption that industrial-age labor lacked initiative or the instinct to quality work was belied by the tradition of self-managed craftsmanship of which these workers were the heirs. Second, she noted that workers transposed from that tradition into factory work tended, still, to self-manage their duties. . .

Also filed in Culture | | Comments (2)

Creatures of culture

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Anyone who has traveled widely, and who has paid attention, will have noticed that there are distinct – sometimes startling – differences between the way people from varying cultures perceive and respond to the same behavioral cues. The same thing happens in corporate cultures. . .

Also filed in Culture, Individual Leadership | | Comments (6)

Corporate culture

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Many people involved in organizational design still tend (or, at least, strongly desire) to think of organizations as collections of components, some of which are people whose primary characteristic might be the specific skills for which they imagine them to be programmed. These designers further suppose that these components are more or less interchangeable according to the purpose or skill they possess, and can be arranged or rearranged at will to suit various aims, such as mergers or process re-engineering efforts.

Also filed in Culture, Individual Leadership | | Comments (7)

Purposeful organizations

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

I use the phrase “purposeful organization” frequently in my attempts to explain what I mean by “managing leadership.” Admittedly, it is a bit of a redundancy. That is, you don’t organize an effort – create an organization – without a purpose for it in mind. The intent behind pairing the words, however, is twofold. . .

Also filed in Individual Leadership, Managing Leadership | | Comments (4)

Art school

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Our current discussion of the nature of leadership was provoked by comments made by to a post published a month ago called “Great Leader Theory.” Interestingly, while most of those comments expressed dissatisfaction to one degree or another with my efforts to present my view of leadership, they also implied disagreement with key contentions of the modern leadership movement. . .

Also filed in Capitalism, Individual Leadership, Managing Leadership | | Comments (2)