His byword was "force and prudence," and he believed that demonstrating a combination of these two things is the mark of an effective leader. Kotter may agree that prudence is a valuable characteristic in a leader, but disagrees with the outdated principle of force, saying that change cannot be forced, it must be incorporated into one's life and future:
Change sticks only when it becomes "the way we do things around here," when it seeps into the very bloodstream of the work unit or corporate body. Until new behaviors are rooted in social norms and shared values, they are always subject to degradation as soon as the pressures associated with a change effort are removed (Kotter, 1996, 14).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an influential philosopher, artist and thinker during the 1700s, and was influential in creating a new way to formulate political bodies. He discussed the inherent goodness of humanity in his Discourse on Inequality, in which he says "natural" or "savage man" is able to refuse to be an animal, to perfect him or herself and improve his/her situation physically and environmentally. He saw civil society as being evil, with its competitiveness, vanity, hatred and power-seeking. But compassion and drive for perfection leads mankind to improve its condition. He believes that one's ability to think of him or herself as free and to make choices raises mankind above the animal kingdom. This discussion of the theories floating about in the 17th Century espoused by Hobbes and Locke, helped the populace to think of themselves as more than lower class laboring masses and to strive for mastery of their fates in forming democracy and overcoming monarchs.
Kotter's ideas are thus compared to the Confucian, Machiavellian and "natural man" theories which have preceded it and it is obvious that he has learned something from each of these.
Works Cited
Kotter, John. Biography. Harvard Business School, 2007. Website: http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=bio&facEmId=jkotter&loc=extn.
Kotter, John. Leading Change. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 1996.
Kotter, John. Power and Influence. New York: Simon & Schuster Free Press.1985.
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