Hedgehogs and foxes
Subtitle: character, leadership, and command in organizations
By: by Abraham Zaleznik.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 250
Subjects: Political leadership; Power (Social sciences); Control (Psychology); Leadership -- Psychological aspects; Decision making; Political leadership -- United States -- Case studies; Leadership -- Case studies; Executives -- Psychology -- Case studies
Genres: Case studies.
Description: "In this compelling look at charismatic leaders and their leadership styles. Abraham Zaleznik asserts that leaders are either hedgehogs, who view leadership as a single-minded track driven by unwavering rules, or foxes, who assess and re-evaluate their goals and strategies based on ever-changing factors in business, politics, and culture." "The story in back of a leader's life of thought: and action is always a mixed bag. If the proper study of mankind is man, the enduring lessons of leadership will emerge from the study of lives, of men and women who with an often tenuous grasp of command and less than perfect clarity in inner visions, dependent on the strength and the mobility of their character, search for the courage to lead. Leaders present their life stories as a text, calling upon readers to engage in vertical thinking as a way of identifying with that text." "This book contains five parts. Each part consists of two narrative chapters on the life and work of individuals caught up in the trappings of power and struggling to make it meaningful in their lives and the lives of others who become part of their story. The third chapter in each part is thematic using the stories to sharpen the portrayals of character in action in positions of responsibility."--Jacket.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The optimists; title: The propensity for risk: Eisenhower in the military and the presidency; title: A disengaged president: Ronald Reagan and his lieutenants; title: Character and mood in presidential leadership; title: The narcissists; title: To be single-minded: Admiral Hyman G. Rickover and the nuclear navy; title: A mission in life: Florence Nightingale and medical reform; title: The uses of aggression in overcoming bureaucracy; title: The managers; title: The education of Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, 1961-68; title: From monomania to megalomania: Harold Geneen and ITT; title: The myth and reality of the managerial mystique; title: The empowerers; title: Martin Luther King, Jr. and militant nonviolence: a psychoanalytic study; title: Frantz Fanon: purgation through violence; title: The psychodynamics of empowerment; title: The humanists; title: Joseph Conrad: sharing the secret of command; title: Hermann Melville's "Billy Budd": a study of character; title: Identity, imagination, and command; title: Conclusion.