Page 72 - Journal of Management Inquiry, July 2018

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offer two contributions of a broadly speaking ideological and, times, which no one was able to prevent. An economic down-
for managers and (other) leader-wannabes, identity-boosting turn so profound that it only evidenced how much we still
nature: the fuelling of hero and saint fantasies” (p. 142). Thus, cannot control about the global economy. Like this, many
following Alvesson and Kärreman’s (2016) call for a more other examples could be found about how little do we actu-
critical perspective of leadership and power, I would like to ally control. Perhaps taking a different instance, from the
explore a different dimension of the power-leadership con- other extreme of the spectrum of human experience, could be
nection, so that as Collinson and Tourish (2015) argue, we helpful. So let us look at the self. The revolutionary work of
finally “go beyond the romanticized assumptions of main- people like Freud (2005) sheds light into our inner selves. As
stream perspectives to highlight the importance of power in Gabriel (1998) describes, Freudian psychoanalysis, through
leadership practices” (p. 590). its cornerstone concept of the unconscious (i.e., that which is
Now, the latter will only be possible as our conceptualiza- repressed, yet having constant covert impact on who we are),
tion of power evolves as well. Power tends to be defined “as shows us that sometimes we are not even in control of our-
the ability to influence others” (Blickle et al., 2013, p. 602). selves. Now, if you do not profess the religion of Freudian
However, what influences us goes far beyond other people. psychoanalysis, do not worry, as the same conclusion
Taking this argument forward, hence, I will develop an alter- emerges from Darwinian approaches to human behavior,
native conceptualization of power, which will show us that where evolutionary Darwinian processes of natural selection
before anything else, we are first subjects of physika (the natu- have selected genes that program behaviors in humans that
ral order). It will be such reconceptualization of power that best fit our environments (Wilson, 2014). Thus, leaving us
will allow me to identify the paradoxical position in which empty-handed in terms of our beloved desire for agency, and
many leaders have to operate. Eventually, this paradoxical making us instead largely slaves of our genes (Harari, 2014).
position will show us that leaders are not necessarily or exclu- But the question is, to what should we attribute this inca-
sively vehicles and nodes of power but also subjects of it. pacity we have to control our fates? Reasons abound, yet one
In sum, the question is, how could leaders escape from that is central is the complexity and chaotic essence of many
this paradoxical position? In other words, how do leaders events and processes in which we are embedded (Kauffman,
cope with power over them? This article will suggest that 2008). For instance, the impossibility to control the economy
from this paradoxical position, leaders escape through cogni- might emerge from the large number of interacting and inter-
tive vehicles called magical realist fantasies. To illustrate this dependent variables that make of the global economy a com-
point, I will use primary rigorous qualitative research done in plex system. Now, as it is well known, complex systems tend
the context of England’s higher education sector. After work- to be chaotic at some point. Chaos means that small variances
ing with 47 very senior leaders in English universities, in a certain part of a system might derive in disproportionate
including 24 university presidents, I will show how through changes in other parts of the system, cascading sometimes into
a period of significant turbulence, leaders found themselves events and outcomes that no one could have foreseen (Stacey,
in a paradoxical position of being demanded to control that 1992). The tragedy of complexity and chaos derives in our
which they actually could not control or master. Yet, it was Heideggerian being in the world turning into an everlasting
the use of sophisticated magical realist fantasies, which slavery to countless forces that we cannot always fully control.
allowed these leaders to cope with power over them. The ideal of the human being as an individual, the heroic trav-
eler in control of his fate, is therefore to be forsaken, and
Theoretical Background instead we must settle with the traumatic realization of the
subject: he or she that far from free is the slave of countless
To Be Is to Be Enslaved: An Interdisciplinary variables, forces, events, and circumstances.
Perspective of Power
Coping With Our Subjection: Fantasy
If there is an illusion, it would be the illusion of freedom.
Despite its hubris, ambition, and arrogance, our species is, To conceive our existence as that of a living organism sub-
whether we like it or not, only one form of life out of myriad jected to forces galore is not an epiphany that warms hearts.
others. Humans dwell in a vast universe (Kauffman, 2008), By contrast, humans have done every possible effort to pre-
and for ages, we have tried to master our destinies in it. There tend like they could fully conquer their destinies. To be free—
is no question that with the advent of science, we have taken in control—is eternally longed by Homo sapiens, the Great
significant steps toward this aim. However, we still remain Ape who romantically found in its fantasies the possibility to
largely incapable of fully achieving it so far. Let us illustrate forget the nonsensical essence of its existence. Fantasies, as
the latter. Economics might represent a good first example, Lacan (2005) would argue, are distinguished because they pre-
because in spite of the plethora of research, academic, and sumably emerge from the frustration of confronting a world
practical developments in the field, we just recently evi- that fits in no absolute way with our wishes (Zizek, 2006).
denced one of the most tragic and catastrophic crises of all Thus, fantasy as “an attempt at wish-fulfillment” (Ornstein &