Priyanka

Botny Srinath
Santa Clara University, California
May 19, 2015

Viewing leadership from the philosophical angle

Plato believed only a select few with superior wisdom should be leaders. Aristotle
contended "From the moment of their birth, some are marked for subjugation and others
for command." This dialectic whether leaders are born with talents and traits that allow
and even cause them to be successful leaders, or whether effective leadership behaviors
can be learned through experience is a difficult question. There is not even consensus
about universal traits that cause leaders to be effective. The notion of a leader is
individual centric whereas the acts of leadership is a social emergence. (1)
According to Daniel Kahnemans depictions of System 1 and System 2, System 1is
described as fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, subconscious that gives
casual conclusions leading to anomalies and System 2 is described as slow, effortful,
infrequent, logical, calculating, conscious that is closely related to non-teleological
thinking by Steinbeck. Anomalies raise contradictions and the two opposing forces
generate another thesis. The next cycles repeat to nurture thinking to make the outcomes
of these valuable triad cycles into useful resources to bring harmony enhancing the ability
to engage with emergence.
Emergence is the process of complex pattern formation from simpler rules. (2) For the
phenomena to be termed emergent it should be generally be unpredictable from a lower
level description. At the very lowest level, the phenomenon usually does not exist at all
or exists only in trace amounts. Thus, a straightforward phenomenon such as the

Prof. Pravin Jain, Santa Clara University

Priyanka Botny Srinath

Santa Clara University, California
May 19, 2015
probability of finding a raisin in a cookie does not generally require a theory of
emergence to explain. It may, however, be profitable to consider emergence of the
cookie as a relatively complex result of the baking process and the mixture of ingredients.
The shape and behavior of a flock of birds or school or fish are some of the examples.
Non-teleological thinking considers a wider look at the situation that explains what
actually is that answers what or/and how of the situation in real while beating the odds
of personal beliefs and biases. It aims at getting the best solutions rather than the right
one. Example: An electron is let free to go at it will. But a number of electrons flow
together to be fixed and certain, producing electricity. The flow of electrons together in
mass movement is emergence. John Steinbeck, in his Book: Sea of Cortez - mentions
about the non-teleological notion that the people we call leaders are simply those who, at
the moment, are moving in the direction behind which represents a future mass
movement.
Management is led by a group of people, who have the power to recognize and promote
individuals with an ability to bring emergent thinking in the presence of uncertainties,
interacting with the team and mindsets, facing complex problem solving situations to
arrive at the greatest common solution that is meeting the vision of the organization.
Education or training at schools or in organizations can teach people on how to
understand, recognize and utilize emergent phenomena in an organization to become a
manager that equips managers to not inadvertently disrupt the emergence of leadership
and learn to engage with organizations in a way that maximizes the emergence channels
to meet objectives.

Prof. Pravin Jain, Santa Clara University

Priyanka Botny Srinath

Santa Clara University, California
May 19, 2015
Over a period of continuous engagement in class and writing this essay, with my
understanding of concepts and seeing them in the real world, one can say that leadership
is an outcome of the emergent phenomenon beating the odds of personal biases (nonteleological thinking) that helps the management to make decisions in recognizing
talented candidates or finding power patterns, who discover emergence leading toward
leadership in achieving solutions to complex problems. Leadership has been focused on
durable, distinctive properties od entities, a complexity-inspired model of leadership in
events presents an alternative conceptual framework, based in relationships, complex
interactions, and influences that occur in the space between individuals in the complex
world of business. (3)
Aristotelian Framework Thinking
As defined by John Stuart Mill - The central idea of Utilitarianism is the foundation of
morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in
proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse
of happiness (4) To illustrate with an example about utilitarianism, we can consider the
case of the child labor protest against making footballs for FIFA 2010 World Cup.
Children in some of the Asian countries worked for the football manufacturing factories
and it was brought to notice only a few days before the FIFA 2010 World Cup and the
decision was to be made whether to play with the football made by these children or not.
Utilitarian theory is helpful to seek out for the needs of people and holds a right in a
situation. The limitations to utilitarian ethics do not evaluate the needs of all the
stakeholders (FIFA teams in the example) in that situation. Taking the example of FIFA
Prof. Pravin Jain, Santa Clara University

Priyanka Botny Srinath

Santa Clara University, California
May 19, 2015
2010 World Cup, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) banned the manufacturing
of football hand-made by children but ILRF did not consider children who took care of
their families in these countries by making a living working at these factories.
On the other hand, the deontological theory states that people should adhere to their
obligations and duties when analyzing an ethical dilemma. (5) Considering the same
example of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, the teams and organizers did not have any choice
but to continue using the same footballs manufactured by children for the 2010 World
Cup.
Deontological theory helps in following duties that are preset to happen in the case of the
FIFA World Cup, as there were a number of people who were waiting to watch the teams
play and the teams who trained themselves to play from many years were at stake. The
limitation of this ethical theory does not consider the moral behind the negative impact
created on children (future citizens) manufacturing footballs.
The Aristotelian framework encourages a variety of perspectives and views to support
ethical decisions for the common good by not expecting clarity and understanding the
pain points of all. In the case of our example, it is the duty of the FIFA World Cup
organizers to look at various viewpoints and balance out the duo (FIFA stakeholders and
the children) as the primary focus of the framework is to do relative good to human
beings and the good is determined by choices to flourish. Considering one such choice, as
part of a social responsibility, it is evident that the children (future citizens) can be
directed to alternative resources to earn while they work or be sponsored to study by
providing meals etc. and at the same time, the FIFA organizers can look out for other
Prof. Pravin Jain, Santa Clara University

Priyanka Botny Srinath

Santa Clara University, California
May 19, 2015
football manufacturing companies to make footballs and continue the game by doing
good for others as well as themselves. By analyzing the situations or truth from each
individual standpoint, moral ethics can be achieved by considering a number of choices,
thinking logical, considering all the partial truths and analyze individual truth (parallels to
non-teleological thinking and System 2 introduced by Daniel Kahnman) while keeping
the benefits of all human beings, and then approximating the final truth leading toward
ethical decisions to bring a greater common good to mankind.
Bibliography
(1) http://www.henmanperformancegroup.com/articles/Leadership-Theories.pdf
(2) http://www.win.tue.nl/~keesh/ow/id/javaproj/emergentbehavior.pdf
(3) Complexity leadership theory https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl6lu4h6tl7v1au/complexity%20theory.pdf?dl=0
(4) https://bearmarketreview.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/happiness-in-society-anaristotelian-vs-utilitarian-viewpoint/
(5) http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/kabernd/indep/carainbow/theories.htm
(6) https://www.colorlines.com/articles/fifas-world-cup-having-ball-child-labor
(7) Professor and Classroom Notes: Advanced leadership , Santa Clara University
(8) Santa Claus, unicorns and leaders paper by Prof. Pravin Jain
(9) Steinback Essay and Book- Sea of Cortez and Aristotle: A pre-modern postmodern? Implications for business ethics - Paper

Prof. Pravin Jain, Santa Clara University