Machiavelli's The Prince

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‘Men love according as they please, and fear according to the will of the price. A wise prince should establish himself on that which he controls, and not in that which others control. He must endeavour only to avoid being hated’ (Chapter 17 from The Price) The quote from The Prince by Machiavelli expresses his idea of a leader should appear to be feared than loved. Love is a bond of obligation but is less reliable than fear. Through fear of punishment, people would obey because Machiavelli defined men’s natural is ungrateful, false and greedy. People are less likely to break an obligation under fear because of consequence of punishment and losing privileges. Therefore, fear is preferred as both emotions cannot be combined but is important to avoid hatred. …show more content…

His idea of a prince necessity to be a successful leader must be able to demonstrate ‘virtues’ of manipulation and overcome fortune to gain advantage during war (Deagon, 2017). He believed for one to achieve power, there must be ‘virtu’ and ‘fortuna’. ‘Virtu’ is a form of manliness and courage and ‘fortuna’ is the combination of will and fate. By having the value of virtu, fortune can be handled. In addition, Machiavelli advocated it is necessary to do evil in order to obtain power. Machiavelli focused on the social as whole and played less interest in ethical and moral issues. Context of management Machiavelli defined the quality of a leader should be wise, courageous, strong, respected and feared. ‘The leader should have the qualities of the lion and the fox.’ On the other hand, Machiavellianism relates to manipulation and exploitation which emphases a leader should destroy who can injure, use cruelty sparingly but important to avoid being hated. A Machiavellianism leader displays manipulative behaviour for own priority and interests by justifying the benefit for the end result. The leader believes in exploiting others otherwise risking a chance of being abused by others (Esperger,

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