On Leadership

Citation

Bullock, J. (2007), "On Leadership", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 28 No. 2, pp. 187-189. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730710726877

On Leadership is one of the most unusual, dynamic, and enticing books available in the business press today. Short in length but rich in depth, this book quickly engages the reader in a fascinating exposé delving into the problems of leadership. Academic freedom is unleashed in scholarly fashion to examine the moral dilemmas today's leaders face reflected by allegories of vulnerabilities of great leaders in classic literary works such as Othello, Saint Joan, War and Peace, and Don Quixote. Topics, once considered taboo in business writing – exploitation, revenge, private fantasies, and sexuality – are threaded seamlessly into a critique of intelligence versus reason. Insignificance and irrelevance are brought to the fore as sociopolitical forces and the ambivalence of power strike a chord disrupting the artificial harmony of vision, expectations, and reality. On Leadership is the stage upon which literary and scholarly genius commingle to evoke imagination and verve, challenging conventional wisdom belying the essence of leadership.

On Leadership is the interpretation of a series of lecture notes from a course taught at Stanford University from 1980 to 1994 based on three primary convictions: the major issues of leadership are indistinguishable from life; great literature is a primordial source of learning about these issues; and education should not attempt to furnish students with recipes or prescriptions for success. March discerned that the science and logic of research, once forming the foundation of scholarship, was becoming overshadowed by prescribed methods and tools serving as the focal point of business schools. His pivotal concern is that these mechanised approaches train business graduates to execute actions in the fashion of “conditioned reflexes” as opposed to teaching them how to think creatively when solving business problems. Although March admits that these “heroic aspirations were, of course, never fully achieved in the course; but their pursuit provided a certain protection from the grim pursuit of immediate relevance that sometimes plagues business education”.

The book is structured around nine central issues of leadership: private lives and public duties; cleverness, innocence, and virtue; genius, heresy, and madness; diversity and unity; ambiguity and coherence; power, domination, and subordination; gender and sexuality; great actions, great visions, and great expectations; and pleasures of the process. Each of these issues is examined in depth in the engaging and enduring context of great literature. “This greater engagement stems from a more profound realisation that the issues are to be seen as intractable dilemmas rather than as problems to be solved.”

The introduction of central issues is followed by a discussion of duty, revenge and innocence as exhibited by the characters in Othello (Shakespeare). This deconstruction examines why people act as they do, giving credence to the importance of work on social identity and the cognitive dissonance between the private and public self. Conceptual systems of equilibrium in the face of contradictory pressures posited include the eunuch system, predatory leaders, and schizophrenia between public role and private life. Modern day corollaries are interjected to anchor the reader in business reality, such as Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky affair, ensuring the connection between timeless literature and real life. Next, heresy and genius, exploitation and exploration are framed within the context of Saint Joan (Shaw). The central element of this discussion is whether reliable leaders, groomed over a long period of time within an organisation, can solve problems creatively when facing danger, risk, and adversity. More importantly, can these leaders impart their vision to others to overcome threats and survive a crisis? Moving further into the organisational realm, ambiguity, irrelevance, power, and social order are examined within the epic novel, War and Peace (Tolstoy). Disconnects between the expectations of achieving clarity and the existence of ambiguity commonly results in three social constructions of reality by leaders – idealism, realism, and romanticism – affected by personal intentions and influencing outcomes. This transitions into a discussion of gender, sex and leadership, before delving into an examination of a heroic leader's imagination, commitment, and joy within Don Quixote (Cervantes), bringing the skeptical analysis of leadership full circle. “He [Don Quixote] reminds us of how ambiguous reality is and how it can be subject to numerous interpretations.” The appendices that follow overview March's work examining intelligence versus reason, and mundane organisations and heroic leaders.

On Leadership is an excellent book examining major issues facing today's leaders placed in a historical, albeit literary context. Classic literature brings the discussion of leadership dilemmas to life in a way that grabs the reader's attention, promoting understanding by providing a situational context and explanatory narratives enlightening the intentions, passions, and tensions encountered by main characters. The book is suitable for business professionals, scholars, students, and literary enthusiasts alike. It's direct and evocative style is immediately engaging, challenging the reader to think “outside the box” and to “explore ideas that are sometimes subversive and unpalatable, but may allow organisations to adapt in a rapidly changing world”. This book is, in a word, stupendous!