The Myth of Leadership: Creating Leaderless Organizations [Hardcover]

Jeffrey S. Nielsen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 25, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0891061991 | ISBN-13: 978-0891061991 | Edition: 1

In this thought-provoking book, Nielsen call for an end to rank based hierarchies organizations, because they foster secrecy and miscommunication, while stealing joy and dignity from our work. His new paradigm is the peer-based organization,

Editorial Reviews

Review

A book that challenges my thinking keeps me reading. Therefore, I recommend this book. Provides practitioners with a useful model. -- Training Media Review, December 2004

Arguing that "rank-based hierarchies" are counterproductive, the author uses real world examples to demonstrate this principle. -- Forecast, May 2004

Offers guidance as to how companies can gradually introduce peer-based concepts. -- CIO Magazine, June 2004

The book outlines how rank-based organizations develop, and identifies three management vehicles you need to start a peer-based organization. -- HR Magazine, September 2004

Though readers ask how this idea would work in reality, there is no doubt...not a bad place to start. -- Training Magazine, September 2004

Very timely and powerful. This is serious brain food for business and one of the best books of the year! -- The CEO Refresher

What is worth paying attention to here is his belief that organizations invest too much power in senior leadership. -- CIO Insight, June 2004

What you'll learn: Peer-based thinking and decision-making organizations are more effective than rank-based, bureaucratic firms. -- Chicago Tribune, Aug. 2, 2004

From the Author

My purpose in writing THE MYTH OF LEADERSHIP is to make organizational life for all of us as meaningful, joyful, and prosperous as possible. A book also, I believe, needs to influence, if not change, the way a reader views the world. Hopefully, reading this book will positively affect your perception of the possibilities of life in organizations. My book is not meant to answer all the technical questions surrounding organizational management and design, but to introduce a new paradigm and point out a possible path to follow as we create peer-based organizations. The key idea to keep in mind as you think about how you can apply the book to your experience is the distinction between rank thinking and peer thinking.

I define rank thinking as the belief that only a few in any organization should be given special privilege to monopolize information, control decision-making, and command obedience from the vast majority either through coercive or manipulative power. Peer thinking, on the other hand, is the belief that everyone in the organization should have equal standing to share in information, participate in the decision-making process, and choose to follow through persuasive means. Peer thinking assumes that we each have equal privilege to speak and an obligation to listen. Peer-based organizations create a space--an arena--where we come to recognize and respect one another as equal participants in organizational life. The message of the book applies to our family, our workplace, and our community life together.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 140 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 1 edition (March 25, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891061991
• ISBN-13: 978-0891061991
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #878,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read For Organizational Consultants!, May 6, 2004

By 

Joseph Albey (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of Leadership: Creating Leaderless Organizations (Hardcover)

This book presents some profound ideas with world changing implications, and does it in an easy to read style that completely moved me! I will never view "leaders" or "leadership" as I once did. After reading this book, I have found myself suddenly challenging anyone who glibly used the word "leadership" to promote their agendas. The author's argument that we create a dualistic and unhealthy world whenever we uncritically accept our own leadership over others or their own over us, has completely changed my approach to organizational consulting. His suggestion as well that we do less soft skills training and more hard skills like decision-making and strategic thinking makes sense. I also appreciated his advice to trust more in the tacit wisdom of our own employees over the expertise of outside consultants.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Insightful Books Ive Read in a Long Time, May 6, 2004

By 

Lawrence Rasmussen (Brigham City, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Myth of Leadership: Creating Leaderless Organizations (Hardcover)

I found that the book's portrayal of most business organizations as rank-based resonated with my own experience. The author's careful analysis of our assumptions regarding leaders and followers - that he calls the myth of leadership - was truly profound. Other writers have challenged hierarchy and command and control leadership, but no one has struck at the root of the problem as deftly and provocatively as this book does. I liked the three parts of the book, discussing first the context of leadership, second the history of organizational types, and then the strategies for creating peer-based organizations. I found the idea of organizational attractors - modeled on chaos theory - very interesting. I wish the author had said even more about the parallels of attractors in natural systems, like strange attractors, and organizational attractors like the Big Chief and Hierarchical organization. All in all, one of the most insightful books I've read in a long time.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, I Wish I'd Read This in Business School!, May 18, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Myth of Leadership: Creating Leaderless Organizations (Hardcover)

I predict that before long everyone will be talking about organizational management and design in terms of rank and peer. The book does a wonderful job comparing and contrasting these two basic types of thinking and relating. It reminds me of the pioneering work of Douglas McGregor and theory x and y, but this book goes deeper into the very nature of leadership as inherently rank-based. Excellent!