Abstract
The present paper studies the role literature can play in management in general and in leadership, organizational behavior and communication in particular. Literature normally gets a skeptical reception in management studies. The paper discusses the relevance of literature for a better understanding of human behaviour and a judicious discernment of situations, preferences and consequences. Literature, replete with an array of people and situations either mismanaged or otherwise can then become a potent, instructive and a much more engaging source and tool of teaching. The paper explores the possibility of using literature as a reservoir for focused case studies and issue based excerpts from appropriate works. Shakespeare’s famous heroes, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman , Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Sharer and many more exhibiting leadership challenges, decision making, self-awareness, judgment, ethics, interpersonal conflict and communication can provide meaningful parallels from literature to the modern day managers.
Highlights
While story telling in management is highly appreciated as an effective tool to connect and motivate, when it is called literature, it becomes a source of discomfiture
Management experts agree that stories are key ingredients of our persuasion pursuits and engagement principles yet literature fails to be their cup of tea
Literature is still perceived as an unlikely instrument with scant potential to be effective in management practices
Summary
While story telling in management is highly appreciated as an effective tool to connect and motivate, when it is called literature, it becomes a source of discomfiture. Management experts agree that stories are key ingredients of our persuasion pursuits and engagement principles yet literature fails to be their cup of tea. To address this paradox, it is argued that if stories remain with us and engage more than lectures, bulleted points, cold facts, distant data, spreadsheets or logic alone, the possibility of drawing stories from their biggest source (literature) must be explored. Storytelling could be used as a compelling business contrivance to vend a vision or an idea, motivate a team or draw a commitment It can become a fundamental instrument in carving a manager’s success story. The subsequent sections showcase Communication, Organizational Behavior and Leadership lessons that can be learnt through deliberate and designed unveiling of literature
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