In Why Globalization Works, his fabulous book on political economy, Martin Wolf quotes Nobel-laureate Kenneth Arrow: "truly among man's innovations, the use of organization to accomplish his ends is among both his greatest and his earliest."
Numerous elements, and the innumerable interactions among them, go into generating economic growth. Some, like population growth and demographic change, contribute to what Joseph Schumpeter called the "circular flow." Others, such as technological innovations, war, and institutional change, are more discontinuous in their impact and, at least according to some schools of thought, are what really drive progress.
Per Arrow above, it seems logical that the quality of a society's organizations--their effectiveness, their structure, their growth--should also be an important growth factor. To the extent this is true, it would mean that the way these organizations are managed or lead is a key ingredient in growth.
This is what an astute colleague pointed out to me yesterday, and that, therefore, a site about economic growth should also cover leadership. According to her, our economic future depends on our ability to produce effective leaders and that the extant leadership literature is of, um, marginal relevance.
Let this post thus initiate a continuing dialogue on the subject of leadership and growth. I don't quite know what that means yet, but it seems fruitful, so I invite Tim and Bob and readers to weigh in. Conjecturing, this dialogue might end up covering Max Weber, philosophy, Warren Bennis, behavioral economics, and much, much else.
You might like Tribal Leadership by Logan, King, and Fischer-Wright, reviewed here:
http://brokensymmetry.typepad.com/broken_symmetry/2008/10/tribal-leadership-and-group-selection-theory.html
Posted by: Michael F. Martin | February 06, 2009 at 11:28 AM