In many organisations people who are being led might feel that their choices are limited – that is, they, kind of have to follow the leader, even if they don’t believe in the mission of the organisation at all!
I will call the leadership that exists in such organisations coercive leadership.
Leadership in the Pillars (and, of course, in other sectors too, e.g. business, voluntary organisations etc.) can often be of a coercive nature because of low motivation and I will expand on this below.
I remember when working in various jobs disliking leaders that happened to be in charge of me but I did what they told me to do because if I didn’t I’d have got into trouble.
In other words my choice was limited, both by my financial situation (I didn’t want to lose my job) and (maybe more influential actually) the conditioning that I had experienced in school and my early life in the military – i.e. I sometimes have to put up with people who I think are doing a bad or mediocre job.
I have often met people who are working in the community sector who experience the same thing.
I came to the conclusion that coercive type leadership is necessary because many staff (not all – but quite a few) in organisations are disinterested, bored, discontented, unsupported, cynical, feel exploited anyway, and have more interest in what they can get out of the organisation than what they can put into it.
If I’m conscientious, but don’t have a sense of belonging, I’ll do my job well enough. I might complain and moan, but my conscientiousness will ensure that the job is done as I tread through treacle towards retirement.
However if I don’t have a sense of belonging and am cynical or lazy, I will use (and abuse) the system for all that it is worth. This is not too unusual in many large organisations whether private, public or voluntary.
Because of this apparent cynicism management motivates me with a mixture of reward and fear.
Increases in salary, promotions, bonuses, perks, subsistence and mileage etc. (reward) are balanced by sanctions, restrictions, HR policies, possible redundancy, disciplinary procedures etc. (fear).
The cynicism that I mention above, which often results from doing things for the sake of doing them rather than because they need to be done, is the basis of many classic comedies about the public service, prison, military life, hospitals, and other institutions.
Much of the humour comes from viewers observing how we cannot help being human despite all the efforts by leadership to impose absurd conditions and rules on our behaviour.
Coercive leadership insists on regularity, conformity and adherence to bullshit and the impossibility of this makes for great comedy.