Leadership Definitions LO17842

Rol Fessenden (76234.3636@compuserve.com)
Tue, 21 Apr 1998 21:00:14 -0400

Replying to LO17826 --

John,

You state, in your response to Doc, "Peter Senge has said repeatedly that
the bureaucratic and hierarchical practices used during the industrial
revolution are incongruent with the facilitation and the implementation of
the learning organization. I agree."

I know that Senge says this, and you repeat it, and you believe it.
However, you also say, "No matter what concept of leadership an individual
might align with at this point, it is understood that leadership is not
attempted in a vacuum."

Whenever I read one of those business books about some organization that
has succeeded beyond anyone's dreams, it is almost inevitably a story
about a person who created the context. That is a component of leadership
-- creating the context -- that appears to be practiced by the
owner-operator of the business, and in my experience, it is the most
important task of leadership. How does this fit in with the top quote?
Does the top quote imply or mean to imply that all hierarchy will be gone,
or is it more limited than that? The reason I ask is that most people
would assume that it implies a complete overthrow of past organizational
methods. I wonder if the implication is more limited than that.

[Host's Note: So... The question seems to be what is the role, importance,
and method of operation of leadership in a learning organization? In a
learning organization, leadership would not be hierarchical, not
support bureaucracy, and not be imposed unilaterally. So, what would it
look like? ...Rick]

--

Rol Fessenden

Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>