Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning

Citation

Schneider, P.A. (2004), "Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 21 No. 3, pp. 227-228. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760410534786

After reading the news release from Viking regarding this book, my first inclination was to dismiss it altogether as being another one of those books that claim to have all the answers to all questions. According to the release, the basic premise of the book is that “this is an age in which business and work have begun to take the place of religion and politics as central forces in contemporary life.” Consequently, it is up to business leaders to create “flow” or the appropriate concentration of “psychic energy” in their organizations so that employees will be happy and fulfilled. The question I immediately asked myself was: “When did religion or politics cease to be important and when did a CEO become responsible for employee happiness?” Also, the claim that former President Bill Clinton was inspired by the author did little to endear me to the writer. Fortunately I proceeded actually to read the book, and while I disagree with much of what the author has to say, I found his arguments to be thought provoking.

The foundation of this book was a project that began in 1998 and consisted of 39 interviews with business leaders who combined high achievement with strong moral commitment, which the author defines (p. 213) as a “long‐term dedication to goals that advance the interests of the community, the people living in it, and humanity in general.” While it is easy to define success in business, the author recognizes that what is moral is often a more difficult question to answer. He realizes that our economic system is governed by Joseph Schumpeter's concept of creative destruction, in which progress is real but does not come without pain and cost.

Csikszentmihalyi believes that religious and political leaders have run out of visions that are compelling enough to provide global leadership, which by default falls upon business leaders (whom, I might add, constantly deal with the realities of globalization and technological change). He admits that most business leaders would argue that it is not their responsibility to provide this kind of visionary leadership, but he argues that if they fail to do so the only alternative will be leadership by charlatans and demagogues. At this point, I almost imagined the fifteenth century banker Cosimo de Medici smiling down on the author. Cosimo was the de facto ruler of Florence and safeguarded the city by maintaining a “balance of power” in Italy while at the same time financing the Renaissance. Ironically, Csikszentmihalyi takes a dim view of the numerous books that advise managers to follow the principles of power laid out in The Prince, which was written by that other great Florentine – Niccolò Machiavelli.

What is the problem that today's business leaders must combat? Csikszentmihalyi believes that most people want to work and do a good job, but are prevented from doing so because they are given no clear goals; get inadequate feedback; experience a mismatch between their skills and given opportunities; and have no control over their work. A Marxist would sum up the problem in one word‐alienation. Is Csikzentmihalyi a Marxist? In some places he sounds like one when he complains that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting a poorer – a notion I would dispute – or about the greed of managers – a notion I would not care to dispute given some of the recent corporate scandals. He also seems to accept the Marxist belief that it is the economic substructure that determines the political and social superstructure.

It would be fairer to say that Csikszentmihalyi is inspired more by Aristotle's concept of the good life rather than by Marx's concept of class struggle. The problem with a boring job is not that it leads someone to violent revolution, but that it prevents that someone from fulfilling that person's potential and achieving the good or happy life. Aristotle's Politics immediately follow the Nicomachean Ethics because he believed that it was up to politicians to create a society that would enable a citizen to achieve the good life. Likewise, Csikszentmihalyi believes that it is now up to business leaders to create a working environment that enables an employee to achieve the good life. Business leaders can accomplish this by having a broad vision greater than any personal ambition; through a commitment to the organization; and by creating products that benefit everyone. It is a beautiful concept, but I have my doubts. Aristotle believed in small city‐states and was almost oblivious to the empire being built by his most famous pupil. Likewise, the stability that Csikszentmihalyi desires may not be possible given the dynamics of the marketplace or the principle of consumer sovereignty. He seems to be advocating something akin to the paternalistic Japanese managerial practices that at one time were thought to be the key to success. Today, those same managers seem to be unable to do anything about the moribund Japanese economy. Consequently, I suspect employees who are unhappy would be better off looking for positions in other companies or even non‐profit institutions or perhaps starting their own businesses rather than waiting for changes from the top.

In one sense, this book can be seen as a nice complement to the classic work In Search of Excellence by Peters and Waterman (1982). To me, they enthusiastically represented the marketing concept, whereas the more reserved Csikzentmihalyi represents the societal marketing concept. I suspect his feelings may have been affected by the attacks of September 11, 2001 as well as the wave of corporate scandals that occurred just as he was preparing the manuscript. He mentions (p. 31) how the terrorist attacks “provide a clear warning about how vulnerable a complex society can become.” As I was reviewing this book, it appears that our economy has survived Enron and the other swindlers and our armed forces have defeated the Taliban and ousted Saddam Hussein so I have reason to be more optimistic. A complex society may indeed be vulnerable, but it may also have remarkable recovery powers, too.

It appears to me that Csikzentmihalyi is trying to make sense of the numerous forces that affect the business environment as well as offer solutions to some very real problems. If he does not succeed, it is not for want of trying. Again, the reader will find many parts of the book very interesting without necessarily agreeing with the observations of those who were interviewed or the conclusions drawn and remedies recommended by the author.