Decisions and Organizations

For over 30 years, James March has made a sustained and innovative contribution to the field of organizational theory. In this series of lectures, previously unpublished in English, March explores the problems of leadership. These problems, he proposes, are dealt with more effectively in works of great literature than in management textbooks. Reading ‘War and Peace’ or ‘Don Quixote’, according to March, allows us to develop a critical ability which complements the techniques we acquire elsewhere.

March uses literature to present a range of moral dilemmas related to leadership – questions concerning the balance between private life and public duties, between ingenuity and innocence, between diversity and integration, and between the expression and the control of sexuality. He encourages us to explore ideas that are subversive, unpalatable, and which may not work in the short term, but which allow organisations to adapt in a rapidly changing world.