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

Total Learning – Quality Management

Our underlying premise, in this context, is that quality lies in conformance to human nature, that learning is a natural extension of being human, and that management is an externalization of learning. In so far as “arete” (Greek for excellence) incorporates a duty to yourself, learning is the means to acquire it; in so far as it also encompasses a duty to others, management is a means of applying it. Quality, in that context, forms the bridge between self – the internal – and the external world. Management becomes an extension of human “being,” represented in inner-directed learning (arete) and outer-directed quality (excellence), as is indicated in table 14.1.

The problem is that the neat, linear representation, as indicated in the table, is a gross misrepresentation of reality. Strategy, for example, may be quintessentially an exercise of the imagination, but actually it is often a more conceptual, or mental, exercise. Marketing may have an essentially wilful thrust to it, but it is also highly conceptual in its character. In effect, learning and management, like quality, are essentially holographic in nature.

Table 14.1 Management and learning