Leaders, jesters and swindlers

ESSAY ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEADERSHIP

The explosion of literature on leadership makes it extremely difficult to give a definitive answer to the question of which leadership styles are most effective. Instead of the flat and mechanical framework traditionally offered in management studies, Leaders, Fools, and Grifters paints a complex and realistic picture of how people interact in organizations. Drawing on extensive clinical experience, this work focuses on the psychodynamics of organizations, showing how the unconscious and conscious processes of the inner personal psyche of leaders influence corporate production and organizational dynamics. The book demonstrates that the rational approach to management, which assumes that human beings can be governed by logical, rational models of organization, is flawed. It shows that top managers are not purely rational beings, that they can experience emotions, hopes, and fantasies that greatly determine how they manage their corporations.