Executive identity and the hero's story: the voyage of Dodge Morgan and the American Promise
Article Abstract:
Executive performance is discussed in terms of Bakan's theory of the dualism of human motivation with respect to agency (the motivation toward self-differentiation and personal mastery) and communion (the subsuming of the self within a shared entity). The article demonstrates that agency is prototypical of executive performance, and that communion is a goal for the potential development of executives. Agency provides benefits leading to executives' success, but has concomitant drawbacks that can cause executives to risk career derailment and the loss of supportive relationships. Using McAdam's model of personal identity and the life story, the authors propose that identity provides a means of channeling agency so that one may use its power yet minimize its hazards. Illustrations of the ideas presented herein are provided from the extensively documented life story of Dodge Moran, an executive who sailed nonstop and alone around the world in 1986. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1990
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Leaders and followers in a postindustrial age: a psychodynamic view
Article Abstract:
In the face of complicated and rapidly changing settings, leaders need to have their followers help them understand the tasks and challenges they face. In psychodynamic terms, this means that leaders must become more vulnerable to their subordinates while continuing to support them, and that followers must learn to challenge their leaders while respecting their authority. A typology of authority is presented. Case studies are used to illustrate the difficulties leaders have confronting their vulnerability, how followers fear and foil leaders' efforts to share their uncertainties, and the benefits leaders and followers achieve when they ultimately succeed in connecting with one another. The author concludes that as the workplace evolves toward a postindustrial age, leaders and followers must recognize their dependence on one another and their need to collaborate, and bring more of their personal feelings to their roles. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1990
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Managerial strengths and weaknesses as functions of the development of personal meaning
Article Abstract:
Based on a theory of lifelong development proposed by Robert Kegan, this article explores the idea that certain important and typical managerial strengths and weaknesses arise from the personal meaning systems of managers. This article asserts that strengths arising from a stage in the development of personal meaning characterized by self-differentiation and identity formation are highly prized by most organizations. In seeking to be effective and successful in such organizations, managers are consequently fixed in this stage of development. The strengths of this stage have concomitant weaknesses that successful managers cannot avoid. The author concludes that further development in the meaning systems underlying organizations and managers will be necessary in the future. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)
Publication Name: Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
Subject: Social sciences
ISSN: 0021-8863
Year: 1990
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