The Myth of Leadership: Creating Leaderless Organizations

R

rank-based assumptions: employees are lazy, 21-23; employees are selfish, 24-25; employees desire to make a difference, 26-27; influence of, 35-36; knowledge resides only with leaders, 31-33; leaders are heroic individuals, 27-29; leadership command-and-control style of decision making, 29-31; list of, 21, 37; manipulation of employees , 33-34; overview of, 20-21; us vs. them, 25-26

rank-based leadership: assumptions of. See rank-based assumptions; dangers of, 5; statements regarding, 5-6; usefulness of, 96

rank-based logic: commanding , 48; domineering, 50-51; exclusive, 46-47; individualistic, 52-53; inequitable, 54-55; inflexibility of, 48; people as characterized by, 52; power, 48; reward sharing, 54-55; scarcity based, 51-52

rank-based organizations: authority in, 114; Big Chief organization. See Big Chief organization; case study of, 80-81, 123-124; catch-22 of, 124-125; characteristics of, 83-85; command and control in, 81; damage caused by, 9; decision making in, 12, 123-124, 128-129, 143; development of, 80-82; hierarchical organization. See hierarchical organization; history of, 43-44; logic of. See rank-based logic; management strategy of, 123-124, 169; management structure in, 114; peer-based organizations vs., 6, 11-12; power in, 114; practices of. See rankbased practices; productivity effects, 81-82; rejection of, 75; reorganization in, 123-125; resistance to change by, 92-94; strategy of, 123-124; thinking of. See rank-based thinking; work process design in, 106, 126

rank-based practices: bureaucracy, 69-72; controlling, 64; deceptive communication, 72-73; fearfulness, 68; mindlessness, 64-65; overview of, 63; topdown decision making, 66-68

rank-based thinking: addressing of, 15; assumptions that support. See rank-based assumptions; characteristics of, 9-10; command-and-control style of management perpetuated by, 36; dangers of not challenging, 13-15; empowerment effects, 122; management based on, 11; organizational practices caused by, 59-60; peer-based thinking vs., 16; rejection of, 148; results of, 168; at Sears, 13-15; strange attractor and, 62-63

resistance to change, 92-94

responsibility, peer-based thinking view of, 101-102

reward sharing, 54-55

Robertson, James, 18

Romanticism, 28

rotational leadership, 69, 72, 142-143