Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology, Revised Edition

Preface

Leadership at its best not only arises out of personal mastery but also results in group synergy. As such it fulfills two of the four purposes for which this book has been written. However, it does not necessarily lead to organizational learning and sustainable development. These are the other two purposes which we shall be addressing. In fact, such a combination of personal mastery, group synergy, organizational learning, and sustainable development needs to be maintained by an evolved sense of value. Such a sense and sensibility transcends mere business leadership, which is closely associated with economics and ethics, thereby balancing economics and ethics with ecology. In this context “ecology” serves as both an organizational metaphor for learning and a physical foundation for sustainability.

For a conventionally western, economically oriented manager, then, effective management is a matter of efficient resource allocation. Economic value is specifically added when a firm's financially accounted-for output proves to be worth more than the commercial value of its inputs in alternative uses. The “global” manager at whom this book is aimed, while taking due account of this economic reality, must go further. For a conventionally eastern, socially oriented manager – characteristically engaged in a large Asian (especially Japanese) manufacturing concern – wealth creation requires that an organization successfully develops, and brings to market, products and services which ...