Management by Sauron: Different types of Leaders in the LOTR

[Rowanberry]

Today, there was an article and the interview of the writer of an interesting book that will be published next week: Management by Sauron, Sormusten herran johtamisopas (Management by Sauron, A Guide to Leadership in the Lord of the Rings) by Harri V. Hietikko. This book is based on his Ph.D. thesis, in which he studied different management styles in the LOTR.

According to him, these types of leadership can be found in the LOTR:

The Charismatic Leader: Gandalf
Wise and reliable; a charismatic personality with a great influence and ability to affect people. However, colleagues with a low self esteem can think of such a manager as stubborn. Also, under pressure, the Charismatic Leader can turn very withdrawn, even depressed.

The Perfectionist: Saruman
An independent leader with high tolerance for stress and pressure; a perfectionist who is committed to the task and not influenced by feelings and emotions. At their best, a just and responsible leader. Under pressure, they're a bad-tempered and bitter bully, and at their worst, a ruthless aspirant to power.

The Reorganizer: Sauron
An organizer; independent, ambitious and strong-willed. A revolutionary leader or reorganizer, skillful at downsizing at need. They're logical and rational. But, they don't discuss unfinished things and procedures, and at their worst, they're a fanatical tyrant who rules the working community by fear.

The People Manager: Aragorn
Modest and reliable, does not command but encourage, socially talented and practical. But, they're not at their best in internal conflicts of the working community, because they want to avoid confrontations. At their worst, they're a stiff conservative hanging on tradition, who under pressure turns sarcastic and overly critical.

The Project Manager: Frodo
A responsible and decisive manager who doesn't spare themselves; an acting person who doesn't care about endless brainstorming. However, adopting new ideas and methods can be hard to them. At their worst, they're an absent and unsocial control freak.

The Profound Leader: Galadriel
Profound and creative, understands the motives of their subordinates, is very emphatic. They're rather like an encouraging coworker than a boss or commander. They get anxious in quarrelsome working communities, and as a responsible idealist, they can burn out worrying about other people's things.

So, what's your opinion on this?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Interesting. My initial reaction is that he is trying a bit too hard to fit Tolkien's square pegs into round holes of "management type theory" for lack of a better way of putting it. But I'll have to give it a bit more thought before coming to any secure conclusions.

[narya]

It's also hard to fit Tolkien's deliberately architypal people into the mundane day-to-day situations I can relate to.