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The Ugly Duckling Goes to Work: Wisdom for the Workplace from the Classic Tales of Hans Christian Andersen

2006; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

2326-3709

Michael Scharff,

Leadership and Management in Organizations

The Ugly Duckling Goes to Work: Wisdom for the Workplace from the Classic Tales of Hans Christian Andersen Mette Norgaard American Management Association (2005) 208 pages, Hardback, $17.95 Reviewed by: Michael Scharff, Limestone College In today's business environment, many managers are still using a Tayloristic management approach concentrated on exceeding the weekly, monthly, or quarterly goals and putting out fires while ensuring the company meets or beats the quarterly profit estimates. Once the quarter closes, there are new goals and profit estimates to beat. The same is true of our home lives. We sign kids up for soccer, baseball, piano lessons, art camp, and karate classes and then end up spending the majority of our time shuffling kids from one activity to the next. Rarely is there time to sit back to reflect on where we have been, what we have accomplished, and what is truly important in our lives. We move from one fire, customer escalation, school, or sports activity to the next. There seems to be no time to relax. When we do relax, often times it is spent not on reflection, but on creating to do lists for the following day. While many businesses still operate in a more mechanistic manner, as businesses move further into the 21st century, the need for continuous learning in organizations is becoming more prevalent. Part of the learning cycle is time spent on reflection by asking ourselves the tough questions and assessing what we did well and what areas are in need of improvement. Norgaard chose a novel way to highlight the importance of reflection, learning, and focusing on the essential tasks by evaluating six fairy tales by Danish writer Hans Christian Anderson. The tales include The Emperor's New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, The Dung Beetle, The Nisse at the Grocer's, The Fir Tree, and The Nightingale. Each tale begins with a short introduction, and then gives the reader the option of reading an abbreviated version or the full classic version of the tale. Norgaard then relates the tale to the work environment highlighting several lessons learned from the tale. Each tale concludes with several questions for reflection. The first chapter reviews the familiar tale The Emperor's New Clothes. This chapter highlights the need for critical thinking, character, and doing what is right during difficult times. Everyone has a desire and need to fit in, yet this desire can also lead to groupthink and could ultimately end in disasters similar to those at Enron, WorldCom, or Arthur Anderson. As Stephen Covey wrote in the introduction to this book, I believe that you will find that over 90 percent of all leadership and personal failures are basically failures of character, and at the most fundamental level the tales in this book are all about character (p. …