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February 21, 2006
False Prophets
Rob lent me this book, False Prophets, in which James Hoopes, a history professor, retraces the lives and works of American management gurus Taylor, both Gilbreths, Gantt, Follett, Mayo, Barnard, Deming, and Drucker. Hoopes sees the gurus as wanting to skirt around and finally in this century striving to downplay or even eliminate the role top-down power must play in the hierarchical organization, eventually suggesting to managers they should be showing the way through some inspired form of moral leadership.
As Hoopes observes, this suggestion serves mainly to prevent those at the tops of the orgcharts from confronting the top-down power they exercise whether fully consciously or not. This missed confrontation may ease the conscience of those who believe in democracy and also function as corporate dictators. Yet Hoopes argues that in the end it not only further alienates those subjected to disingenuously wielded power, but also prevents those at the top from correctly interpreting situations in which they must lead those beneath them.
Hoopes offers his criticisms from near the center of mainstream corporate America. On the one hand, his book therefore could be read by folks at the tops of the heaps, encouraging them to face their top-down power head on, and to use it without obfuscation. On the other hand, the gurus worked hard to establish their apology for tyrannical power in the midst of what's supposed to be a democracy. Once we started being honest with ourselves, there'd be more explaining to do. A public works program for management guru/apologists, anyone?
Posted by Mark at February 21, 2006 07:54 PM
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