Social Power and the CEO: Leadership and Trust in a Sustainable Free Enterprise System

This work argues that the problems inherent in the way management is practiced are attributable to gravely dysfunctional systems of managerial leadership, systems that have evolved over the years, and are now, despite their ineffectualities, taken for granted. It shows how the CEO class will determine the future of free enterprise democracy, but how massive misconceptions about human behaviour have undermined its capability for leadership. The text argues that the problem of achieving effective and sustainable managerial organizations does not lie in poor decision making, interpersonal stress, lack of innovation, greedy self-interest, and other ills and defects, although they do play a part. The art of management is not securely grounded in science. It cites examples to show that management tends to blame its shortcomings and inefficiencies on other people, yet there is no research to prove that the source of managerial failure is really to be found there.