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Synthesizing elements from linguistics, philosophy, and the histories of science and spirituality, Dr. Eggert opens the door to new ways of thinking, perceiving, valuing, inquiring, and acting for leaders of entrepreneurial organizations. She maintains that the mainstream leadership paradigm both opens and closes possibilities for inspired leadership. Today's leaders need an alternative because the dominant leadership paradigm is no longer serving them well. Her book illustrates the contemplative tradition, exemplified by the 14th century mystic Meister Eckhart, and offers a set of fundamental assumptions about organizational life that can serve as precisely the sort of alternative paradigm needed to challenge the current logical-rational paradigm inherited from the Enlightenment. Indeed, by adopting the contemplative style of leadership, management in today's often distraught organizations will find new, more effective ways to approach today's very special, and wicked, organizational problems.
Dr. Eggert explores leadership styles that would arise from the comtemplative paradigm. Her book first considers several classics such as Thomas Kuhn's
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kenneth Boulding's
Images, and Gareth Morgan's
Images of Organizations that illustrate and explain how our basic set of operating assumptions affect how we think, inquire, value, perceive, and act-highlighting certain aspects and obscuring others in accordance with the reigning paradigm. Alternative paradigms, Eggert argues, offer alternative and additional ways of thinking and acting that bear on today's
wicked problems-the chronic, unwieldy, malignant tangles that bedevil organizations today. Using the contemplative experience itself as a key metaphor for the contemplative paradigm, the second section of the book uses theologian Matthew Fox's work on medieval German mystic Meister Eckhart to identify and map the underlying assumptions of the contemplative approach to life. The focus then shifts to Contemplative Leadership, the style of leadership that would flow from contemplative assumptions. Eggert's book is fascinating, important reading for people with management responsibilities in today's public and private sector organizations.
List of contents
Wicked Problems, Paradigms, and Metaphors: New Possibilities for Thought and Action
How Paradigms, Metaphors, and Images Affect Thinking, Perception, Inquiry, Valuing, and ActionThomas Kuhn and the Role of Paradigms
Lakoff and Johnson and the Function of Metaphors
Kenneth Boulding and the Function of Maps and Images
Toward a Theory of Paradigms
Paradigms, Images, and Theories in Organizational Life
Burrell and Morgan: Sociological Paradigms
Morgan and Organizational Images
Harmon and Mayer and Organizational Theories
The Shape of the Contemplative Paradigm: An Alternative for Addressing Wicked ProblemsThe Dominant Paradigm
The Contemplative Experience
The Fourfold Path: A Description of the Contemplative ParadigmThe Fourfold Path: Appreciation
The Fourfold Path: Detachment
The Fourfold Path: Creativity
The Fourfold Path: Compassion
The Contemplative Paradigm in a Contemporary Context
The Contemplative Paradigm and Organizational LifeThe Contemplative Leadership Style
Alternative Paradigms for Wicked Problems
Bibliography
Index
About the author
NANCY J. EGGERT has been an attorney and manager for the National Labor Relations Board for 25 years. She holds a doctorate in public administration, a J.D., and master's degrees in urban education and divinity. An ordained minister and current pastor of a Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Virginia, Eggert has been active in international development and literacy organizations, and has been an adjunct faculty member of the Washington Theological Union, a Roman Catholic seminary in Washington D.C.
