ABSTRACT
A sociological approach to understanding the role of management might be to view it, without prior conception, as a class of individuals. They have no democratically won authority, being merely appointees. Yet within their own organization, they appear to have more or less absolute power. Their authority is not legitimated by any obvious means. Weber identified three categories of leadership: charismatic, hereditary and bureaucratic, the latter meaning through the acceptance of the rational-legal rules and procedures of bureaucracy.1 Drucker pointed out the three most charismatic leaders of the twentieth century were Stalin, Hitler and Chairman Mao, concluding ‘God preserve us from charismatic leaders!’ Nor are managers for the most part appointed as a result of an agreed hereditary succession or any other traditional process, and the legitimacy of those that are so appointed is dubious.
