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The burning cry in all organizations is for “good leadership,” but we have learned that beyond a threshold level of adequacy it is extremely difficult to know what good leadership is.

— Charles Perrow

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Leadership

More quotes by Charles Perrow

Technology is a technique or complex of techniques employed to alter “materials” (human or nonhuman, mental or physical) in an anticipated manner.

For many purposes of organizational analysis technology might not be an independent variable but a dependent one.

Charles Perrow (1967)

People's attitudes are shaped at least as much by the organization in which they work as by their pre-existing attitudes.

The essence of the normal accident [is] the interaction of multiple failures that are not in a direct operational sequence.

Apparent leadership problems are often problems of organizational structure.

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Political leaders are never leaders. For leaders we have to look to the Awakeners! Lao Tse, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Milarepa, Gurdjiev, Krishnamurti.

Henry Miller My Bike & Other Friends (1977)

It's simply to say that managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers is the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.

Warren Buffett Letters to Shareholders (1957)

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

George S. Patton

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

George S. Patton War As I Knew It (1947)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Perrow (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.