The Aesthetic Compass: Foundation of Leadership Action and Inaction

The Aesthetic Compass interprets classical management through the lens of aesthetic experiences and aesthetic judgments to explain, in simpler terms, why organizations today are led much the same way as they have been led in the distant past. Readers will gain an understanding of how aesthetics informs leadership action and inaction directed towards maintaining the status quo in management thinking and practice, which delays or stops the uptake of modern progressive management that is better suited for current and future times. From the Foreword: The original and important contribution that The Aesthetic Compass makes to the study of management is that Emiliani brings the body - the messy, dirty, chaotic world of bodily sensations and emotions - into his provocative and incisive analysis of why classical management repeatedly rejects the many forms of progressive management… Emiliani is a staunch advocate for a better system of management but feels that until we understand the current realities of executive thinking, we have little hope of bringing about positive change on a more widespread basis. To better understand current executive thinking, he argues, we cannot continue to look through the traditional lens of rationality. We must instead look through an aesthetic lens to understand the immense power that the perceptual-emotional realm has in maintaining the ironclad values and beliefs of classical management. - Ken Eakin