Hedgehogs and Foxes: Character, Leadership, and Command in Organizations PDF
Preview Hedgehogs and Foxes: Character, Leadership, and Command in Organizations
Hedgehogs and Foxes Hedgehogs and Foxes Character, Leadership, and Command in Organizations Abraham Zaleznik HEDGEHOGSANDFOXES Copyright © Abraham Zaleznik,2008. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-60623-4 All rights reserved. First published in 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the US - a division ofSt.Martin’s Press LLC,175 Fifth Avenue,New York,NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK,Europe and the rest ofthe world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan,a division ofMacmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England,company number 785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint ofthe above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,the United Kingdom,Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-37348-2 ISBN 978-0-230-61415-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230614154 Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zaleznik,Abraham,1924– Hedgehogs and foxes:character,leadership,and command in organizations / by Abraham Zaleznik. p.cm. 1. Political leadership.2. Power (Social sciences) 3. Control (Psychology) 4. Leadership—Psychological aspects.5. Decision making.6. Political leadership—United States—Case studies.7. Leadership—Case studies. 8. Executives—Psychology—Case studies. I.Title. JC330.3.Z34 2008 658.4'092—dc22 2007052840 A catalogue record ofthe book is available from the British Library. Design by Macmillan India Ltd. First edition:August 2008 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In commemoration ofthe 100th anniversary ofthe founding ofthe Harvard Business School This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xv 1 Introduction 1 Part 1 The Optimists 7 2 The Propensity for Risk:Eisenhower in the Military and the Presidency 9 3 A Disengaged President:Ronald Reagan and His Lieutenants 23 4 Character and Mood in Presidential Leadership 45 Part 2 The Narcissists 59 5 To Be Single Minded:Admiral Hyman G.Rickover and the Nuclear Navy 61 6 A Change Agent:Florence Nightingale and Medical Reform 77 7 The Uses ofAggression in Overcoming Bureaucracy 95 Part 3 The Managers 103 8 The Education ofRobert S.McNamara: Secretary ofDefense,1961–1968 105 9 From Monomania to Megalomania:Harold Geneen and ITT 121 10 The Myth and Reality ofthe Managerial Mystique 137 Part 4 The Empowerers 147 11 Martin Luther King,Jr.,and Militant Nonviolence: A Psychoanalytic Study 149 12 Frantz Fanon:Purgation Through Violence 163 13 The Psychodynamics ofEmpowerment 175 Part 5 The Humanists 185 14 Joseph Conrad:Sharing the Secret ofCommand 187 15 Herman Melville’s Billy Budd:A Study ofCharacter 199 16 Identity,Imagination,and Command 211 viii CONTENTS Conclusion 219 17 Character and Fitness for Command 221 Notes 229 Bibliography 239 Index 245 Preface This book is a product ofa personal odyssey in search ofa method for the study of leadership and command in organizations.It began formally in 1947 when I became a research assistant at the Harvard Business School immediately after I earned an MBA degree there.My job initially was to go into factories and offices to research and write case studies to be presented in various classes ofthe MBA program.One ofthe perks ofthis job allowed me to study for a doctor’s degree,which I completed with the acceptance ofmy dissertation on the role ofthe foreman in a factory.The director of the Division of Research read the dissertation immediately after my defense ofthe thesis and decided to offer it to a wider audience in the division’s book publication program. As a case writer I became aware that I had certain talents,particularly in inter- viewing officials in offices and factories.It was almost second nature to me to listen carefully and to build a framework for writing the case study.I also discovered that I enjoyed writing and never felt offended at the critical comments my drafts received.I was blessed with enthusiasm for the work I was doing and also with a cer- tain freedom in writing,so that the malady ofwriter’s block was a stranger to me. As I progressed in my career at the Harvard Business School,I took advantage of the school’s liberal policy of time off from teaching to pursue research and writing.The early focus in my research was group behavior with emphasis on the role of the formal leader of the group.I read extensively in social anthropology and in the structure ofgroups,particularly in the relationship between formal and informal organization. The formal organization establishes roles and relation- ships according to the logic of purpose, but alongside this structure, roles and relationships emerge sometimes to support the goals ofthe organization,but fre- quently to meet human needs that exist apart from the design and purposes ofthe organization.Even in the most tightly knit organization,especially in factories,an underlying mistrust of authority pervades the informal organization.Norms of behavior, particularly restriction of output, are strongly adhered to, enforced through various forms of group punishment such as isolating the deviates from the rituals ofgroup membership.The norm,unstated but almost universally rec- ognized,is to avoid behavior that would make group members look bad in the eyes ofauthority. My research focus gradually shifted from the factory floor to the office and the executive suite in corporations.My reading also shifted from treatises on social anthropology and sociology to psychoanalysis,starting with Ernest Jones’s three- volume biography of Sigmund Freud.At the same time,I read Freud’s essays on the unconscious, the psychoneuroses, and group psychology. Harvard’s Department ofSocial Relations,under the leadership ofluminaries such as Talcott Parsons, Clyde Kluckhohn, and Henry Murray, sought an integration of the human sciences in which psychoanalysis was a major building block.The Boston Psychoanalytic Institute offered a program for academics to study psychoanalysis, x PREFACE but short ofworking with patients.It was an academic program with exposure to clinical material through seminars,but candidates in this program signed a pledge not to represent themselves as psychoanalysts and accept patients in a clinical practice. I became a candidate in this program (we were under the pledge designated as “C”candidates) in 1960 and began a training analysis that year.In 1961 I began the seminar program that included in due course clinical seminars in which patients in analysis were the subjects of presentation and discussion.My partici- pation in these seminars led a number ofsenior analysts in the faculty to urge me to apply for a waiver ofmedical and psychiatric prerequisites so that I could begin full training. The waiver had to be approved by a committee of the American Psychoanalytic Association.I received a waiver and began clinical work under the supervision of senior analysts.My supervisors,mostly European trained psycho- analysts, included Joseph Michaels, M.D., Helen Tartakoff, M.D., Arthur Valenstein, M.D., and Grete Bibring, M.D. I completed the formal program, graduated, and became an active member of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the International Psychoanalytic Association, and the Boston Institute.Certification for the practice ofpsychoanalysis came in 1978. Throughout my training and subsequent career, I continued teaching, con- ducting research,and writing at the Harvard Business School while engaged in a psychoanalytic practice.I was invited to join the faculty of the Boston Institute and gave the required course on psychoanalytic theory.I joined colleagues from Harvard Business School at seminars in the Philippines,Japan,and Israel in consul- ting with organizations, and maintained a lively consulting practice throughout my career. I began writing for a general business audience in 1968 with the publication of Human Dilemmas ofLeadership and later The Managerial Mystique.A number of my articles appeared in The Harvard Business Review, including “Managers and Leaders:Are They Different?”—which won the McKinsey prize for the best article of the year. Another article I wrote for the Review entitled “Real Work” also received the McKinsey Award. Except for my work in consulting,I generally avoid a prescriptive stance.I con- tinue to believe that the proper study of mankind is man in all his complexity, especially in the study ofleadership and command.In accepting a leadership role, a person brings to bear intellect and character.Intellect grows out ofintrinsic ego capacities,or talents,that can be honed through selfdiscovery,education,and the quality of mind called imagination.If an individual pursues a life path that does violence to intrinsic ego capacities, he or she will experience the discomfort of depressive reactions. While I never accepted students in my classes as patients (in fact I always intro- duced the course with the admonition that they should check their neuroses at the door as they entered the classroom),I did encourage them to come to my office to discuss the course and problems they had with the material. Many students took advantage ofthis invitation,and besides discussing the course,students often gravitated into their worries about jobs and career.One student,I recall,felt at odds with his experience at the Harvard Business School.He had applied to the
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