Driven to Lead E-Book

Paul R. Lawrence

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: J-B Warren Bennis Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 539

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

"This book is truly amazing--actually, a masterpiece. It tells the story of the human condition." --From Foreword by WARREN BENNIS IN THIS FOLLOW-UP BOOK to the best-selling Driven, Harvard professor Paul Lawrence applies his four-drive theory of human behavior to the realm of leadership, explaining how leadership--like all human behavior--can be understood as a function of the balance, or lack of balance, of four basic human drives: the drive to acquire, to defend, to comprehend, and to bond. We achieve an optimal state of leadership when all four drives are cultivated and balanced. In this next-step resource, Lawrence uses historical examples and current leadership crises to explain how the balance of the four drives results in one of three types of leadership: * Good leadership: The best leaders, followers, and stakeholders fulfill the four drives in a balanced manner. * Misguided leadership: These leaders, followers, and stakeholders fulfill one or some of their four drives while ignoring or supp-ressing the others. * Evil leadership: Defines leaders who are missing the drive to bond and have influence over others and only fulfill their drives to acquire, defend, and comprehend. Driven to Lead explains the biological underpinnings of leadership behavior and offers a compelling discussion of the history of leadership. It examines the critical turning points in the leadership of political institutions, the rise of the corporation as the leading economic institution, and the leadership of religious, artistic, and scientific organizations. Based on theories that are universal, testable, and actionable, Driven to Lead brings to light a general theory of human behavior that can be used to cultivate good leadership and leaders who have a balance of the four drives.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Endorsements

Title Page

Copyright Page

A WARREN BENNIS BOOK

Dedication

Foreword

Acknowledgments

THE AUTHOR

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE - HOW MUCH CAN WE HOPE FOR?

GOOD LEADERSHIP IS A NATURAL HUMAN BEHAVIOR

IS BAD LEADERSHIP PART OF THE HUMAN CONDITION?

LEADERSHIP IS DECISION MAKING, AND WE ARE DECISION MAKERS

PART ONE - THE LEADERSHIP BRAIN

CHAPTER TWO - A BRAIN DESIGNED FOR LEADERSHIP?

DESCRIPTION OF THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS IN ACTION

EVIDENCE OF THE DECISION-MAKINIG PROCESS

THE ROLE OF EMOTIONS

HELEN MAKES HER DEICISION

THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX

CONFLICT DETECTOR

TREASURES OF THE NEOCORTEX

THE DORSOLATERAL MODULE AND WORKING MEMORY

THE ROSTROMEDICAL AND ROSTROTER CORTEXES: WHAT I AM

CHECKS AND BALANCES AMONGST THE DRIVES

A COMPREHENSIVE TEST: THE ULTIMATUM GAME

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER THREE - DRAWIN REDISCOVERED

A LARGER BRAIN—WITH A PRICE TO PAY

A BETTER FOOD SUPPLY—WITH A PRICE TO PAY

PAIR-BONDING PAYS THE TAB

THE UPPER PALEOLITHIC TRANSITION

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MORALITY

PEOPLE-W/O-CONSCIENCE

PART TWO - HISTORIC LEADERSHIP PATTERNS

CHAPTER FOUR - ALL ABOUT LEADERS

DEFINITIONS OF LEADERSHIP

EVIL LEADERSHIP: NAPOLEON’S RISE TO POWER BY ANY MEANS

MISGUIDED LEADERSHIP ON OFFSHORE OIL PLATFORMS

GOOD LEADERSHIP: DISPLACING MACHO CULTURE ON OFFSHORE OIL PLATFORMS

OTHER EVIDENCE OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP

MORAL LEADERSHIP

PREVIEW OF CHAPTERS FIVE THROUGH SEVEN

CHAPTER FIVE - LEADERSHIP AND THE HISTORIC EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

THE FALL AND THE RISE OF LEADERS-W/O-CONSCIENCE

THE CULTURAL SHIFT TO CIVILIZATION AND THE RISE OF LEADERS-W/O-CONSCIENCE

THE DARK AGES AS AN AGE OF LEADERS-W/O-CONSCIENCE

MACHIAVELLI’S CLEAR VIEW OF LEADERS-W/O-CONSCIENCE

A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF LEADERS-W/O-CONSCIENCE?

CHECKS AND BALANCES

LINCOLN’S GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP

PROGRESS AND REGRESS IN THE TWENTIETH AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES

CHAPTER SIX - LEADERSHIP OF ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS

OVERVIEW OF ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS

OVERVIEW OF THE CORPORATION

THE RISE OFAMERICAN CORPORATIONS AND THE STRUGGLE TO REGULATE THEM

THE FIRST CORPORATIONS WITH NATIONAL SCOPE: THE RAILROADS

THE FEDERAL RESPONSE

STANDARD OIL

CORPORATE ABUSES LEADING INTO THE GREAT DEPRESSION

PROGRESS AND REGRESS SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION

CHAPTER SEVEN - LEADERSHIP IN INSTITUTIONS OF HUMAN MEANING

THE INSTITUTION OF RELIGION AND HUMAN MEANING

GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP AND THE GNOSTIC CHALLENGE TO ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY

THE INSTITUTION OF ART AND HUMAN MEANING

THE INSTITUTION OF SCIENCE AND HUMAN MEANING

POSSIBLE CONVERGENCE OFRELIGION AND SCIENCE ON THE MEANING OF HUMAN EXISTENCE?

THE CONVERGENCE OF RELIGION AND SCIENCE AS A LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE

PART THREE - LEADERSHIP IN CONTEMPORARY AFFAIRS

CHAPTER EIGHT - KEEPING ON TRACK

CAN CORPORATIONS EVER BE HUMANE? GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP OF CORPORATIONS

MEDTRONIC—A VALUES-DRIVEN COMPANY

MEDTRONC—A PERFORMANCE-DRIVEN COMAPANY

NUCOR: GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY

ENRON: A COUNTEREXAMPLE OF OFF-TRACK LEADERSHIP

MISGUIDED LEADERSHIP: THE ROLE OF AGENCY THEORY

DESIGNING CORPORATE STRUCTURES TO ENCOURAGE GOOD/MORAL CORPORATE BEHAVIOR

THE ROLE OF GOVERNEMENT REGULATION IN KEEPING CORPORATIONS ON TRACK

CORPORATE CORRUPTION OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS

REFORMING THE FEDERAL ELECTORAL SYSTEM

THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF SCIENCE IN KEEPING CORPORATIONS ON TRACK

CHAPTER NINE - A WORLDWIDE SWINDLE

WAS THE MELTDOWN REALLY A BLACK SWAN?

THE FLEECING MACHINE

THE ROLE OF THE BIG MULTINATIONAL BANKS IN THE SUBPRIME MORTGAGE MESS

LACK OF CONTROOL, LACK OF SELF-CONTROL

LACK OF EXTERNAL CONTROL: REGULATION

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TEN - KEEPING A GLOBAL ECONOMY AND A GLOBAL COMMUNITY ON TRACK

THE GLOBALE CONOMY AS A CHALLENGE TO THE DRIVE TO BOND

KEEPING A GLOBAL ECONOMY ON TRACK

UNDERSTANDING THE MULTIPLE FORMS OF GLOBALIZATION

GLOBAL ECONOMIC REGULATION

WAR AND GENOCIDE AS CHALLENGES TO THE DRIVE TO BOND

KEEPING A GLOBAL COMMUNITY ON TRACK

FACING UP TO THE COMING CRISIS AT THE WORLD LEVEL

INSTITUTIONAL SUGGESTIONS AT THE WORLD LEVEL

CHAPTER ELEVEN - KEEPING ON TRACK BY PRACTICING GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP

LEADING ONESELF

INTERNALIZING THE RD THEORY CONCEPT OF GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP

LEARNING AND PRACTICING GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP

SIZING UP THE LEADERSHIP ROLE

SUMMARIZING WHAT LEADERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GROUPS

PRACTICING GOOD/MORAL LEADERSHIP

ACTION IMPLICATIONS OF THE RD THEORY AT THE INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL

OVERVIEW OF THE PEOPLE-W/OCONSCIENCE ISSUE

ENDING THE NIGHTMARE

CHAPTER TWELVE - RENEWINGTHE STORYOF HUMAN PROGRESS WITH DARWIN’S HELP

APPENDIX - DARWIN MISUNDERSTOOD

NOTES

INDEX

Endorsements

“This is an inspiring book, filled with excellent examples, valuable advice, and warnings not to be overlooked. Every executive would be well-served to read this book cover-to-cover.”

—Robert Porter Lynch, chairman emeritus, Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals

“Paul Lawrence tracks leadership qualities into the deepest recesses of the human brain. Listen up, business! Tapping into this scientific understanding of leadership is key to your company’s success or failure.”

—William C. Frederick, professor emeritus, Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh

“Paul Lawrence proposes that nature has provided us with individuals of conscience who are capable of good leadership, but also with a small number of individuals whose lack of conscience typically makes them bad leaders. He refers to such individuals as free riders, psychopaths, or ‘people without conscience,’ and discusses in detail the devastating impact they have when placed in a leadership role, particularly in business, politics, the military, and religion. His thesis is brilliant and compelling, and in line with current research on the neuroscience of psychopathy. Driven to Lead is essential reading for anyone who hopes to gain some understanding of the scandals and disasters that result from bad leadership.”

—Robert D. Hare, professor emeritus of psychology, University of British Columbia

Praise forDriven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices

“In this pathbreaking book, Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria show [that] ... the deep study of human nature does not justify Social Darwinism and gladiatorial commercial combat of the kind often portrayed in popular media. On the contrary, it offers formulas for a more harmonious and efficient conduct of human affairs. The approach .... is naturalistic, based on self-understanding and the cultivation of the strong cooperative instincts that have favored group survival for countless millennia.”

—Excerpt from the Foreword by Edward O. Wilson

Copyright © 2010 by Paul R. Lawrence. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lawrence, Paul R.

p. cm.—(Warren Bennis series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-62384-8 (hardback)

1. Leadership. 2. Executive ability. I. Title. HD57.7.L379 2010 658.4’ 092—dc22

2010016270

Warren Bennis

A WARREN BENNIS BOOK

This collection of books is devoted exclusively to new and exemplary contributions to management thought and practice. The books in this series are addressed to thoughtful leaders, executives, and managers of all organizations who are struggling with and committed to responsible change. My hope and goal is to spark new intellectual capital by sharing ideas positioned at an angle to conventional thought—in short, to publish books that disturb the present in the service of a better future.

Books in the Warren Bennis Signature Series

BrandenSelf-Esteem at WorkBurke, Lake, PaineOrganization ChangeClevelandNobody in ChargeCloke, GoldsmithThe Art of Waking People UpCloke, GoldsmithThe End of Management and the Rise of Organizational DemocracyFrohman, HowardLeadership the Hard WayGeorgeAuthentic LeadershipGeorge7 Lessons for Leading in CrisisGeorgeTrue NorthGeorge, McLean, CraigFinding Your True North: A Personal GuideGergen, VanourekLife EntrepreneursGlenLeading GeeksHigginsCareer ImprintsKellerman, RhodeWomen and LeadershipKleinerThe Age of HereticsKohlrieserHostage at the TableLawrence, NohriaDrivenMitroff, DentonA Spiritual Audit of Corporate AmericaRhodeMoral LeadershipRiggioThe Art of FollowershipSampleThe Contrarian’s Guide to LeadershipScheinThe Corporate Culture Survival GuideTownsendUp the OrganizationZaffron, LoganThe Three Laws of Performance

To Martha, my lifelong partner

FOREWORD

by Warren Bennis

This book is truly amazing—actually, a masterpiece. It tells the story of the human condition. It tells this story across human history, deep human history. Lawrence realizes that our understanding of leadership can be no better than our understanding of what makes humans, all humans, tick—what are the ultimate motivators of our behavior. This is true because leadership is all about relationships with others. So that is where he starts—with the basic few motives, the innate drives that have been essential to our survival and development into the dominant species on earth.

To do this, Lawrence had to rediscover Darwin’s insights about humans in Darwin’s second epic book, The Descent of Man, which evolutionary biologists have, strangely, ignored. This reveals a new Darwin that turns the public’s assumptions about Darwin upside down. The key is Darwin’s revolutionary observation that the most important difference between humans and lower species is our innate moral sense, our conscience. What an observation—and now we have evidence that it is a valid observation—except for the very few people who are missing the key mutation in their brain.

But this is enough of the story for me to tell here. Read on and you will find explanations of key turning points in human history, explanations of good, bad, and misguided leaders, and even evil leaders like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Lawrence provides an explanation of the greatness of America’s governmental form as well as the nature of its current crisis, and the same is true of the greatness and the current crisis of our vast corporations.

And, finally, Driven to Lead offers a path toward a better future for all.

ACKNOWLEDMENTS

Over the years that I have worked on this research project I have benefited greatly from the many scholars and friends who have studied various drafts of this work and helped me develop its strengths and avoid its pitfalls. The following people have read and provided insightful comments on one or more drafts of the work: Louise Ames, Oakes Ames, Max Bazerman, Michael Beer, Robin Ely, William Frederick, Benjamin Freidman, William George, Joshua Greene, Boris Groysberg, Ranjay Gulati, Marc Hauser, Linda Hill, Rakesh Khurana, John Kotter, Anne Lawrence, William Lawrence, Hans Loeser, Jay Lorsch, Robert Porter Lynch, Joshua Margolis, Kenneth Miller, Lynn Paine, Steven Pinker, Joseph Platt, Jo Procter, Robert Simon, Scott Snook, Renato Taguiri, David Thomas, Andrew Towl, Michael Tushman, Andrew Van de Ven, Charalambos Vlachoutsicos, and Richard Wrangham.

In addition, I wish especially to recognize the help of the following:

• Nitin Nohria, my coauthor of Driven, who throughout the work on this follow-on book has been a steady and wise advisor to me every step of the way.

• Warren Bennis, the general editor of the Jossey-Bass series on leadership, for his unwavering support of the merit of this work.

• Kathe Sweeney, our senior editor, and Rob Brandt, our associate editor at Jossey-Bass, for their wise guidance and hard work throughout the publication process.

• Fred Dalzell, who provided valuable historical consultation, especially on the U.S. Constitution.

• Janice Simmons, who provided secretarial assistance and good humor with printing and copying numerous drafts of the book.

• John Elder, for all his splendid editing and his insightful comments on the several rewrites.

• Ed Wilson and Ernst Mayr, the deans of evolutionary biology who have generously guided my biological education.

• Martha, my wife, for her constant support and her amazing patience with my many years of preoccupation with this project.

Especially because this book is pushing on the edges of knowledge in a diverse set of fields, it is by no means perfunctory for me to add that I take full responsibility for any errors and other shortcomings of the text.

Bedford, Massachusetts May 2010

PAUL R. LAWRENCE

THE AUTHOR

Paul R. Lawrence is Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Organizational Behavior at Harvard Business School. He grew up in Michigan, where he did his undergraduate work in sociology and economics at Albion College. After serving in the Navy in World War II he finished his masters and doctoral training in organizational behavior at the Harvard Business School. He was the cofounder of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. His research, published in twenty-five books and numerous articles, has dealt with the human aspects of management, organizational change, organization design, human nature, and leadership. His best-known titles (with coauthors) are Organization and Environment, The Changing of Organizational Behavior Patterns, Renewing American Industry, and Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices.

INTRODUCTION

Humans have studied human behavior and leadership behavior for as long as we’ve had written records. In the past four centuries or so, the methods of systematic science have been applied to this study, at both the individual and collective levels. But it has been a somewhat messy pursuit.

As this book will show, the truly scientific understanding of human behavior began with the work of Darwin, published some 150 years ago. Since that time, however, the study of human behavior has become a story of fragmentation. Each of the disciplines shown in Figure 1.1 was launched and carried forward primarily by the intellectual leadership of the persons named beneath each discipline. The prominent newer fields are also named. Figure 1.1 illustrates not only the fragmentation of the effort to understand human behavior scientifically but also the nature of the task of integrating these various fields in order to develop a unified theory of human behavior and leadership. The repetition of the question “only?” at the bottom of the figure indicates the limitations, as I see it, of each discipline’s approach to human behavior.

Specialization, as illustrated, is an essential phase in the advancement of knowledge, but it needs to be balanced with continual efforts to integrate and unify our ever-growing understanding. This integration process has been badly neglected in the human sciences, largely, I believe, for institutional and organizational reasons. University departments compete for funding, personnel, and attention. A scholar who hopes to advance within a discipline is expected to make noteworthy specialized contributions for his or her “team.” Who can afford to collaborate with the competitive teams? Perhaps a senior professor, such as myself, whose career struggles are over but whose intellectual life is not.

FIGURE 1.1. SCHEMATIC OF THEORY FLOW REGARDIND HUMAN BEHAVIOR SINCE DARWIN.

In 1991, when I moved to emeritus status at Harvard Business School, I started working full time (on a half-time salary) on the challenge of finding a more accurate model of human behavior and leadership. Although I had been a student of the full spectrum of the disciplines of human behavior since I was a young man, my primary motivation in 1991 was the rapid rise of agency theory, not only at Harvard Business School but also at many other business schools. Agency theory, as proposed by Michael Jensen and others, started with the axiom of economics that rational self-interest motivated all human behavior and built further on Milton Friedman’s argument that the sole purpose of business was to maximize shareholder (owner) returns. I deeply believed that this doctrine was seriously flawed and that it was generating many disturbing consequences. But such was the enormous appeal of agency theory that I felt it could only be displaced by a better theory of human behavior and leadership, one which took into account the (to me, obvious) fact that there is much more to human behavior than simply rational self-interest.

But there was more on my mind than the need to move on from agency theory. I and others had long been frustrated by the fragmentation and dissonance of the various human sciences. It seemed to be an outrageous case of the blind men describing the elephant. For these reasons, I felt strongly that the time to try for a better synthesis had arrived.

We continue to be mystified by much of our own behavior, both as individuals and as nations, races, and faiths. The historian Norman Davies, summing up the period of the two world wars, wrote,

At a time when the instruments of constructive change had outstripped anything previously known, Europeans acquiesced in a string of conflicts, which destroyed more human beings than all past convulsions put together .... What is more, in the course of those two war-bloodied generations, the two most populous countries of Europe fell into the hands of murderous political regimes whose internal hatred killed even more tens of millions than their wars did.... Future historians, therefore, must surely look back on the three decades between August 1914 and May 1945 as the era when Europe took leave of its senses .... In the course of the horrors, Europeans threw away their position of world leadership1

We can ill afford to remain such a deadly mystery to ourselves. The human race now faces more than one danger that (1) could end civilization as we know it and (2) is of our own making. Nuclear war, environmental collapse, and the spread of pandemics such as AIDS readily come to mind. And how can we account for the fact that people such as Hitler can cause so much damage to so many other people? A more adequate theory of human behavior and leadership would generate practical applications and would distinguish the possible from the impossible. Such a theory would surely be worth a mighty effort.

And although the fragmentation of the human sciences was discouraging, the sheer variety of findings was most encouraging. Amongst so many pieces, there might be enough to put together a unified picture. Particularly exciting were recently developed techniques such as brain imaging, which is giving us fantastic new insights into what happens in the brain during various kinds of normal human behavior, such as remembering and deciding. Gene analysis has also made tremendous advances recently and can throw a bright light not only on what makes us uniquely human but also on how we became uniquely human through the processes of evolution. Hard data on the wellsprings of human behavior were starting to accumulate and, to my mind, demanding to be brought together.

But most of all (and most surprising of all), the time was right because a scientific theory which could account for the new findings and provide understanding of the big questions we want to answer—about consciousness, ultimate motives, conscience, morality, the sense of self, emotions, and complex decision making—had been available for many years. As we will see in Part One, Darwin’s theory of evolution, formulated in 1842 and published in 1859 (Origin of the Species) and 1871 (Descent of Man), is quite up to the task. For the most part, all I had to do was (1) pay close attention to certain aspects of Darwin’s theories about humans that had largely been ignored since his time and (2) give Darwin’s insights the benefit of contemporary research.

This fortunate discovery came about when I collaborated with my Harvard Business School colleague Nitin Nohria on Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices, published in 2002.2 In that book, we proposed a foundation for a new model of human behavior, based on four innate drives and a mechanism for keeping them in balance as a choice is made amongst possible actions. That is the one element of this book’s theories which is original work. The rest is pure synthesis of the work of others.

When Driven was published, our four-drive model of man was highly controversial. It bucked the prevailing paradigms of the major disciplines concerned with human behavior. Economics explained all behavior with the axiom of rational self-interest; sociology explained it all with social forces; psychology with the learning that filled the “blank slate” of the mind; anthropology with the teachings of the local culture; and evolutionary biology with natural selection and our “selfish” genes, as Richard Dawkins memorably called them. Since then, these oversimplified (in my opinion) positions have been rapidly changing. While the struggles over these fundamental assumptions about human nature are by no means over, the tide has turned. There can be no going back.

But neither could I stand still. Driven was a success as far as it went, but it was still not an adequate theory of human behavior and certainly not of leadership, my central focus. What was missing was the process by which the prefrontal cortex not only came up with all the options for action but also, by working back and forth with the four drives, made the final action decision that was reasonably balanced as regards to all four drives. This was the impulse/check/balance mechanism that was not addressed in Driven. More important, the theory in Driven was not yet applied to leadership.

I believe that the Renewed Darwinian theories presented in this book are stronger theories of human behavior and of leadership than any of the current alternatives. They are theories that are universal, testable, and actionable. Now it is up to you, the reader, to decide whether or not this outrageously bold claim is justified.

CHAPTER ONE

HOW MUCH CAN WE HOPE FOR?

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptable to change.

—CHARLES DARWIN1

Helen’s boss, Peter, has just informed her that her unit is going to be eliminated and that, while she and some of her employees will be offered jobs elsewhere in the company (and possibly elsewhere in the country), she will have to lay off the rest of her team. What’s more, Peter doesn’t want her to let anyone know yet because the company needs her team to finish its current project ahead of schedule. Peter has always looked out for Helen, and now he says he is counting on her to manage this with as little damage to the company as possible. “We’re in enough trouble as it is,” he confides, “or I wouldn’t be asking you to do this.” He doesn’t say what the trouble is.

We can imagine that Helen has many conflicting motives. She wants to do her best for the company, or at least to live up to Peter’s expectations and to repay his past generosity. She wants to come out of this looking good, to protect her own career. There are a few of her people she could afford to be rid of, but she is anxious to be fair. She’d very much like to know what has made this layoff necessary, but she is reluctant to ask Peter for more information than he chose to give. She doesn’t feel right keeping the impending layoff secret from her team, yet she thinks that if she lets the cat out of the bag now, it would be very difficult to finish the current project, never mind speeding it up. Not that her team would deliberately sabotage the project, but keeping them extra motivated while waiting to be laid off would take some very skillful management on her part, and she’s not sure she’s up to that.