Let us return to the Forest of
Arden, the home of political exiles, banished lovers, simple shepherds and
possibly today, wandering managers and leaders. There they could find Jacques
with all his theatrical oratory unraveling the seven ages of man and setting
the scene for how we could perceive the world:
“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages”.
(As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 7,
139-143))
To read Shakespeare is to both imagine and
understand the world as it was then and the world as it is now. In all our world’s and in all the stages in which we play out our lives, we have our
protagonists, our leaders, who in their interaction with men and women,
negotiate, inspire, direct and sometimes fail, as they play out their many
parts, entering and exiting organisations in various parts of the world.
Shakespeare wrote with extraordinary insight about kings, queens, princes,
rogues, villains and clowns- all leaders in their own right. To understand Shakespeare is to grasp the
meaning of leadership in all its rich variety, as unwieldy flesh or as
gentleman on whom one can build an absolute trust. Leaders as Shakespeare found
were unique power players with some who were born great, others who acquired
greatness and still others who had greatness thrust upon them.
In his delightful book on ‘Leadership: The
Shakespearean Way’ GRK Murty does a fine job in bringing to light the numerous
manifestations of leadership in Shakespeare’s plays. Much of what Shakespeare
wrote was about power – both good and corrupt. Power as a recurrent theme in
his plays was closely examined at a time when the monarchy was under threat.
Although acceptance of the ruler and his power was widely accepted as an
obligation among people, claims to such power often brought cataclysmic
conflicts in different countries from Denmark to England. But as the
quintessential playwright the leader-protagonist in Shakespeare’s eyes could
only play his or her role in context and in relation to the people he or she
served and ruled. It was in the richness of the relationships, in the finely
grained detail of humanity, its suffering and its glory, that Shakespeare
carved out his leaders. Leadership was about the individuals who were leaders
but crucially about how, why and where they led and in what circumstances they
succeeded, failed or achieved cathartic resolution.
Sometimes, power and its value can be found where
you least expect it. A good example is that of Beatrice, who as a woman in Shakespeare’s world has
no power. Yet she takes on a leadership role using language, repetition and her
ability to envisage an outcome to convince Benedict to revenge a wrong to her
cousin Hero.
GRK captures Shakespeare’s infinite variety and
tracks the evolution of the principle of leadership in management theory and
practice through Shakespearean lenses. He tracks leadership traits and
characteristics, the motivations that drive them, the service they render,
their blindness and hubris, through to their wisdom and insight and the
processes by which leadership finds its place in different types of organisations.
Murty’s book examines twenty of the thirty seven
plays exploring leaders who play their different roles (Merchant of Venice),
how they are made (Henry IV), their charisma (Henry V), and their ability to
manage change (Richard III) and conflict (Coriolanus). He explores modern
management concepts and topics such as emotional intelligence through his
examination of King Lear, the dark side of leadership as found in Macbeth,
rivalry and jealousy through the study of Othello and why we have so few women
executives at the top in his explanations of different passages from King Lear
and Macbeth. Beyond personalities and characters, there is also the interesting
insight into organisational management processes, as in the need for different
forms of training, which is explained by way of a study of As You Like It, and
value creation or demonic activity as found in Richard III.
Murty is able to capture and analyse the intensity,
the emotion and the sharpness of intellectual rigour that Shakespeare helped
dramatise for all eternity. To then contextualise it in terms of modern
management practice is an art in itself. The author reflects on the
timelessness of Shakespeare by referring to modern management practices – good
and bad- and in organisations which have been either hampered by poor or
criminal leadership and those that have thrived under effective leaders. But
more importantly, Murty shows how Shakespeare caught the rhythms of speech of
so many different kinds of leaders and people in various situations of power,
conflict, exultation and misery. Understanding this depth of understanding in
Shakespeare’s portrayal can help us to understand leadership in all its forms
and manifestations fare better than many analytical tools that are at our
disposal in the world of management theory and practice.
I recommend Murty’s book
to students of management, both leaders and managers and to all who love
Shakespeare and are keen to appreciate how the beloved Bard’s works permeate
our thinking and our feelings in both work and play for all times. The author draws on the writing of several
management gurus to substantiate some of his own observations of management,
thus providing a good theoretical base for this book as a management text. My
only reservation about the book is the absence of specific management cases
which could have helped to illustrate many of the author’s thoughtful and
succinct observations about the value of Shakespeare to those who are serious
about understanding good and bad leadership. But this is a temporary and
limited shortcoming for what is otherwise an interesting and highly readable book
for our times.
Jay Mitra
Director
Centre for
Entrepreneurship Research
Essex Business School
University of Essex, UK
March, 2012
Dimensions - Vol. 3 No. 1,
April 2012, pp 115-116.
Thanks to the Editor, Dimensions, for permitting its reproduction here.
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