Chapter 14. Leadership and the Power of Position: Understanding Structural Dynamics in Everyday Organizational Life

Michael J. Sales

Kees Boeke's classic Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps, [42] illustrates an important truth: we are all embedded in multiple social systems, from the microworld of the family to the macrocosm of the universe. Although we prefer to see ourselves as unique individuals facing distinctive situations and choices, reality tells another story. We are actors operating in a predictable, everyday drama fashioned by the underlying structures and dynamics of organizational life. Our own system-influenced behaviors contribute to the drama's stability, but blindness to this reality keeps us clinging to the fantasy of autonomy. ...

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