Leadership: Leaders, Followers, Environments

Checks and balances and managerial discretion

Strong organizations (or nations) tend to have equally strong institutions and powerful countervailing centers of power. U.S. President James Madison believed checks and balances would impede abuses of power and unilateral control. Branches of government would have independent authority and responsibility; each branch could place limits on the power of others. Systems without shared control—for example, corporations lacking independent board oversight or universities with weak shared governance traditions—allow individuals or parties to usurp power.⁸⁴

Managerial discretion in the management literature and the notion of “presidentialism” from political science concern the extent to which senior managers or government executives are insulated from the supervision and influence of others.⁸⁵ These concepts are analogous to Madison's checks and balances for government. They refer to executive power, to the centralization of decision-making and independence from institutional guidelines. Certain follower characteristics, (e.g., a culture of dependence, poverty, low levels of education) contribute to or exacerbate tendencies toward centralization of power.⁸⁶ Madison's notion of checks and balances in government is designed to mitigate tendencies toward presidentialism and centralization. Centralized governing structures stand in sharp contrast to organizational environments with empowered followers and with effective institutions that share ...