Shakespere on Management

Shakespeare on Management

I never knew that Shakespeare had to do with management, but after reading this book it made me realize the true importance of being a manager, and the way that real managers act toward their employees. I used to think that Management was just about giving orders and keeping the business on track but after reading this book I recognized that there is a lot more to management than that. Shakespeare wrote plays that were full of contradiction and ambiguity. He chose many different dramatic ways of building ambiguity into his plays. He used strong characters, fools, and scoundrels to give his leaders different messages. The world of Management also has its ambiguities, and when it doesn't recognize this it fails. What managers can learn from this book is that there are people who have similar problems to ours and we can learn from their experience.

Every book argues that without leadership, managers and businesses will fail, along with the idea that leadership is the quality that is missing every day of real managers. Shakespeare's characters demonstrated different ways that leadership could be provided. Until the sixteenth century, almost everybody believed that leaders were born and not made. Shakespeare argued about this point of view. Some of the leaders that he created failed because they based their power on the fact that they were born to be leaders.

In Shakespeare's (Peter and Waterman, 1982: 75) the point that Peter's is trying to make is that great leaders make meanings for their staff, which means that they provide their staff with the importance of communicating motivation. In Shakespeare's Henry the fifth's speech during the battle of Harfleur. They are in a war with the French, but the French has a strong defense and Henry's troops start giving up. Henry makes a speech to them that truly gives an example of leadership.

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.........

On on, you noblest English,

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn til even fought

And sheathed their swords for lack of argument;

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you......

For there is none of you so mean and base,

That hath not noble luster in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start.

The game's afoot:

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge

Cry, God for Harry, England, and Saint George!"

My interpretation of this is that he is telling his troops not to give up and keep fighting or quit and let down the rest of the troops who lost their lives in the war. He's telling them to fight for all the past English men who have fought in the wars, and not dishonor them. He says that there is no body there mean spirited, or that does not have good character and bravery, that doesn't want the glory. He pictures them standing like proud warriors, and wants them to follow their spirits and do the right thing for their country.

Many managers would love to have this confidence in knowing that their employees are going to follow them like the troops did with Henry. It was Henry's insight on his troops that helped him motivate them to go into war. Managers must have knowledge of the people who their communicating with to find out what motivates them. Good Managers take responsibility for the work of all those people under them. Managers should never be satisfied. Dissatisfaction is what causes change. Most of Shakespeare's leadership stories are about change and the Management of the change process.

In one of Shakespeare's plays Richard the second. Richard believes that his position as king is secure because his crown was given by god, but the duke of Gloucester(who becomes Richard the third), is powerful, ambitious, and goes out to make the world instead of letting the world make him.

It is a story about a king who thought he had the right to govern. He went from having a lot of power when he was made king to having no power at all. He risked all his power in thinking that by just having the title of king was enough.

Not all the water in the rough rude sea

Can wash the balm off from an anointed king

The breath of worldly men cannot depose

The deputy elected by the lord

These are Richards's beliefs. This is an old fashioned belief that no one believes anymore. Richard later realizes that his power is limited. This is an example of losing touch with reality. Managers must have relationships with followers who live in the real world; a lack of that relationship separates them from that world. Being Manager, does give you more authority than being the assistant manager, people have to respect you more and do what you tell them. But if the title is the only place where you can gain power from and you do not connect with the staff, what appears to be strong is really weak.

Most of Shakespeare's plays are based on authority and what happens to people when authority is abused. I think that authority and power comes from respect and the way you treat and interact with others. No one can gain power and successfully keep it if they don't build relationships with others. In Shakespeare's leaders there are more failures than success. Shakespeare's unsuccessful leaders are useful to learn from. The lesson from each character is a cruel one. If you do it this way it may work for a little while, but in the end it will be a disaster. By the end of each play, every strength has become a weakness and the leaders don't succeed. Shakespeare is trying to tell us something about power that it is not easy and if you want to have it, you have to be real good at it.

The moral of Shakespeare's stories is that there are terrible outcomes for those who try to gain leadership through murder and manipulation. The common view is that people who want to become managers need to get ready to be unpleasant and discipline