Lessons from Literature: Blending Academic Perspective with Management Practices

Abstract

The present paper studies the role literature can play in management in general and in leadership, organizational behavior and communication in particular. Literature normally gets a skeptical reception in management studies. The paper discusses the relevance of literature for a better understanding of human behaviour and a judicious discernment of situations, preferences and consequences. Literature, replete with an array of people and situations either mismanaged or otherwise can then become a potent, instructive and a much more engaging source and tool of teaching. The paper explores the possibility of using literature as a reservoir for focused case studies and issue based excerpts from appropriate works. Shakespeare’s famous heroes, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Sharer and many more exhibiting leadership challenges, decision making, self-awareness, judgment, ethics, interpersonal conflict and communication can provide meaningful parallels from literature to the modern day managers.