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The Management of Participation in an Age of Diversity
Paul Kingsley Doherty
出版
NUI
, 2003
URL
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=OXRYMwEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
註釋
This research study involved an investigation of the role of professional managers working in support of organizations in which governance reflects the principles of inclusive, participatory democracy. It considers the continuing salience of Bennis's (1985) assertion that, while 'managers do things right, leaders do the right thing' in a context in which both 'leadership' and 'the right thing' are problematised and contested. It addresses the question; Contrary to the logic of the 'social contract', to what extent is it possible, under circumstances of diversity, for citizens in an inclusive participatory demos to reliably 'do the right thing', whilst surrendering authority only to 'managers', whose mandate is merely to 'do things right' in accordance with their policy determinations? The study reveals that, contrary to their 'espoused theories' (Argyris, 1996) concerning its potential as a means by which self-governing citizens may achieve just rule, the managers' theories-in-use' suggest that deliberative democracy may be unable to redeem its implicit claims to deliver legitimacy (equal participation), justification ('communicatively rational', epistemic validity) and motivational force (expressed in the coordination of action). Against this backdrop, the managers play a role similar to that of the 'transformational leader' (Bass, 1990b), albeit in the guise of 'servant' (Greenleaf, 1977) or 'helper' (Box, 1998); thereby transforming the structural and conceptual circumstances in which policy deliberation takes place. Although it is argues that this role entails merely 'doing things right' in terms of the procedural requirements of participatory democracy, this study reveals that managers are in fact driven by substantive commitments which are ultimately independent of the verdict of the participatory demos. On occasion, they therefore feel warranted to circumvent the 'management' role, doing things wrong in order to 'lead' their organizations towards 'the right thing'. The study therefore points towards a need to re-engage with the logic of the social contract.