Note on Management Theory at Work Three

There is a current social media phase for a third conference in the series Management Theory at Work. The next page is a recent screenshot for a search on mtw3 which finds the LinkedIn group towards mtw3 and the blog - mtw3.blogspot.com Words that show up-----------------------LinkedIn Group - Towards #mtw3 Grove Journal #GroveJournal Scribd University Campus Suffolk YouTube CMS Blogger / Blogspot --------------------------------Also on Scribd-

Dynamic Capability

Management Theory at Work Two - programme from 2003 The Grove Volume 1 Number 1 2012 International Journal of Expe... Management Theory at Work 1 -----------------------------The content for Has Leadership Reached a Sell-by Date etc could be related to a keynote for a face-to-face event at the Work Foundation later this year (2012) It should be read with the article in the Grove Journal. Will Pollard @will789gb VIDEO FOR THESE SLIDES AT http://www.ucs.ac.uk/SchoolsAndNetwork/UCSSchools/SchoolofBusiness,LeadershipandEnterprise/ Past-Lectures-201112.aspx University Campus Suffolk, The School of Business. Leadership and Enterprise, Lecture Series

The Villainy of Leadership and a Route to Salvation

John G Burgoyne 16th December 2011

I will argue that leadership, as fashionably constituted over the last decade or more, is to a significant degree responsible for the credit crunch, recession and related crisis. This is because it has concentrated on mission, vision, empowerment, transformation and all those good things while losing sight of reality, or even the possibility of its existence, and certainly the analytics, for example, of the content of those sub-prime mortgages (though I am assured that the relevant banks were full of people who knew exactly what was in them, but they were ignored). So it is time for leadership that is scientific and lean, that recognises that it follows as well as leads. I am also going to argue that the scientific blind spot of leadership has contributed to the green, ecological crisis, a phenomenon to which Business Schools have at least been complicit in. Corporations and organisations as we know, manage and lead them are systems with elements from the whole spectrum from the physical through the zoological, biological, psychological, sociological and anthropological (and possibly spiritual too, to be discussed later). It is the zoological and biological that are largely missing from the disciplines that the business school curriculum and research agenda calls upon. However the science in this area is much more contested, not so much the reality of climate change but over the part played in this by human agency. Salvation is at hands in the accelerating progression in the human condition from huntergathering (millions of years), to agriculture (thousands of years), to manufacture (the industrial revolution, hundreds of years), to mento-facture (knowledge work and the knowledge economy, decades), and finally spiro-culture or identity-culture (the pursuit of meaningfulness). The production and consumption of meaningfulness is resource light, or can be. So if, is Maslovian terms, we can learn to self-actualise more like the traditional East than the West, i.e. without a vast underpinning of materialistic wealth, we are saved, if the reverse, we are done for. I will elaborate on your route to salvation in the rest of my talk.

 Two parts: The end of leadership as we have known it An optimistic view of a possible future

An optimistic view of a possible future

Will Hutton and the Work Foundation What I mean by State From the knowledge economy to spiro-culture, identity culture, meaningfulness As individuals, customers, employees and citizens The enemies that unite us Maslow forgiven and developed Developing countries and spiritual roots Implications for the individual, the corporate and the state A new role for leadership?

Will Hutton and the Work Foundation

The Salvation of our State. The title of this possible valedictory lecture is in part a tribute to Will Hutton, former President (?) of the Work Foundation. It refers to his book called The State We are In, amongst others of his writings.

What I mean by State

I take it that state has a double meaning, state as in condition, and state as the nation-state. I will use it in these senses too, though I know less about the latter, and perhaps more about corporate life.

From the knowledge economy to spiro-culture, identity culture, meaningfulness

My argument is a largely optimistic one. It is that, although the knowledge economy is barely getting under way, to varying degrees in varying contexts, we are already moving on to another condition, or state that I will varyingly call identity culture or spiro-culture, depending on how brave I am feeling about mentioning spirituality, to which the latter refers.

My argument is that, on a long historical timescale we have progressed from hunter-gathering to agriculture, to manufacture (the industrial revolution), to mentofacture (the knowledge economy and knowledge work) to identity and spiro culture as above.

The optimistic part is that with a spiroculture lifestyle we can walk lightly on the earth, as the poor are said to do, in ecological terms. We can be spiritually rich but materially modest in our consumption. (reference here to Charles Carter, founding Vice-Chancellor, Quaker economist and his book Wealth which attempts to reclaim the term for wellbeing, its original meaning).

Lets be brave in this context. Spiro-culture is about the search for meaningfulness in life. As customers this is increasingly the value which we are paying for.

As Customers: The Nike T shirt that costs 50 may have cost 50p to make in China, 2 to ship and sell to us. The rest is for the brand. It is said that shopping malls are the cathedrals st century. We are not of the 21 there to bet the basics of food or clothing, but to find an identity we like back to the Nike T shirt.

As Employees: This applies to us as employees as well. Of course we all want a decent wage or salary, and pleasant working terms and conditions, but we also want happiness and wellbeing, and employers want engagement and identification with the organisation, its product, services and brand, mission statement and the like.

What about us as individuals and citizens?

The enemies that unite us

Darwin and evolution Maturana and Valera and autopoesis Bateson and larger units of survival All the way to the Gaia Thesis

The enemies that unite us

The world used to be divided by the iron curtain, with the communist block on the one side and liberal, democratic and, do a degree, Christian culture on the other. Today we still have the latter, but on the other side is Al-Qaeda, fundamental (or less fundamental) Islam, or the ecological challenge.

The enemies that unite us

The latter, judging by the participants in the first two cohorts of our MA in Leadership for Sustainability, are more committed to the cause as an ideology and spiritual commitment than because they are convinced by the science of it, which is arguably unclear anyway.

Maslow forgiven and developed

In terms of the well known Maslow hierarchy of needs, there are three things to say: Firstly, despite what the critics say (ref Tony Watson), it makes sense to a lot of people in terms of their everyday experience.

Maslow forgiven and developed

Secondly, it is probably not an accurate portrayal of the hard-wired dynamics of the human psyche, but a deeply rooted cultural convention, particularly in the liberal democratic, free market, and to a degree Christian, west. You can only selfactualise on a full stomach and with a reasonable certainty of keeping it that way, and of having the respect of ones peers.

Maslow forgiven and developed

In the East in contrast, Zen Buddhists, for example, can self-actualise on an insecure handful of rice a day, though they may command some respect in some quarters.

Developing countries and spiritual roots

While the East, and its growing economies, are Westernising at some speed, they are probably still closer to their spiritual roots than the West, and the West, particularly America, has its spiritual, or rather religious (explain distinction?) commitments, particularly muscular Christianity, which has its good and bad points, in my view at least.

Developing countries and spiritual roots

Perhaps the West has much to learn from, as well as teach to, the East, and this could be a fertile ground for collaboration?

The evolutionary psychology take on market drivers and the eco / green challenge

Rolls Royce cars in China and:

Despite this: I believe that in a way we are pushing on an open door here. However we can, perhaps, make it happen quicker and better, and avoid some of the perversions, from this point of view, that might get in the way.

In Conclusion and for Discussion:

Implications for the individual, the corporate and the state Is there a new role for leadership and leadership development?