John P. Dentico wrote:
> You also wrote:
>
> But it is very rare to see genuine leadership come out of a committee. It
> happens, but I can think of only once or twice out of hundreds of firms I
> have seen.
>
> This is a very interesting point. I have lots of ideas why this may be
> so. Let me loosely state some of them. Perhaps people have been
> empowered to act, then to find themselves disempowered when the going gets
> tough. Only to be reempowered some time after. This is what I meant by
> inconsistency. Does the organization owe to a philosophy or subsidiariy?
> What about the industrial mindset of compliance? After all that is the
> pervading idea behind Fayol's, Taylor's and Weber's Ideas. The industrial
> models demand compliance, as opposed to creativity.
Just a few thoughts on this specific subject. I wonder if the social
psychological research in Helping Behavior might shed some illumination
here. Specifically the idea of diffusion of responsibility. If someone
is in trouble and a group of people are standing around, they tend to do
nothing. This has been well studied. The theory is that responsibility
diffuses across the group such that no individual feels it enough to step
forward and intervene. If, on the other hand, one individual is picked out
of the group: "You! Go call 911!", they will help.
I wonder if an analogous situation occurs in committees and if the
Diffusion of Responsibility theory is operative in that arena?
Ed Rosch
earosch@home.com
--Ed Rosch <earosch@home.com>
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