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.

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...p Peters contains a warning to all managers, disagreeing that if you don’t succeed in paying attention to the little people, you will fail because sooner or later, they will get you back. They have the power to stop even the greatest leaders. I think Shakespeare really believes this, it shows through his plays how he has leaders listen to people and how he gives the little people strong characters. The reason that both Shakespeare and Tom Peters give for managers to listen to the little people is not only because it is of good morals for managers to do so but also because it is necessary in order to run a company.

In Shakespeare’s plays the consequences of poor leadership are almost predictable: heads roll, people fall on their swords, bodies fall to the stage. Although the outcome isn’t as severe for most managers, many leaders still make the mistake of becoming “royal leaders” when that’s not the role they should be playing. In Shakespeare’s plays, as the author plainly demonstrates, successful leadership is not the result of just being born to do it. Throughout his plays, the most successful leaders are those who earn their position and the respect of those around them.