Why Managers Matter The Perils of the Bossless Company
Sinopsis
A manifesto on managers and hierarchy that bucks the trend of the lean, flat, leaderless organization As business struggles to adapt to a rapidly changing world, managers are bombarded with a bewildering array of schemes for how to be a boss and make an organization tick. It¿s tempting to be seduced by futurist fantasies where every company has the culture of a startup, and where employees in wacky, whimsical office settings, liberated from hierarchies and bosses that oppress them, are the foundation for breakthrough performance. ¿Get real,¿ warn Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein. These fads ironically lead to…
A manifesto on managers and hierarchy that bucks the trend of the lean, flat, leaderless organization As business struggles to adapt to a rapidly changing world, managers are bombarded with a bewildering array of schemes…
A manifesto on managers and hierarchy that bucks the trend of the lean, flat,
leaderless organization
As business struggles to adapt to a rapidly changing world, managers are bombarded
with a bewildering array of schemes for how to be a boss and make an organization
tick. It¿s tempting to be seduced by futurist fantasies where every company has the
culture of a startup, and where employees in wacky, whimsical office settings, liberated
from hierarchies and bosses that oppress them, are the foundation for breakthrough
performance.
¿Get real,¿ warn Nicolai J. Foss and Peter G. Klein. These fads ironically lead to
micromanaging and, often, to disaster. Companies and societies, they show, need
authority and hierarchy to coordinate work, including creative work. And,
counterintuitively, Foss and Klein illustrate how the creative use of authority and
hierarchy helps companies to be more agile and flexible, enabling educated, motivated
people and teams to thrive.
And not a moment too soon: Foss and Klein provide evidence that global challenges
such as the proliferation of artificial intelligence, economic disruption, empowered
knowledge workers, and black swan events such as the pandemic actually make
hierarchy and the job of the manager more important than ever
