Towards Wise Management (eBook)

Tuomo Peltonen is a Docent in Organization and Management at Aalto University School of Business, Finland.

Preface 5
Contents 7
List of Figures 9
List of Tables 10
1: Introduction 11
1.1 What Is Wisdom? 19
1.2 The Modern Era and the Degradation of Wisdom Culture 22
1.3 The Goals of This Book, and Its Position in Relation to Other Wisdom Literature 25
1.3.1 The Structure of This Book 30
Bibliography 31
2: The Three Levels of Wisdom 36
2.1 Analytical-Rational Information 37
2.2 Intuitive-Experiential Understanding 40
2.3 Philosophical Wisdom 46
2.4 Illustrating the Manifestations of the Three Levels in Managerial Work 51
2.5 The Connections Between the Three Levels 53
2.5.1 Obstacles to the Construction of Wisdom 55
2.6 Organisation as the Shaper of Wisdom 60
2.6.1 Closed Bureaucracy 60
2.6.2 Groupthink 63
2.6.3 Wisdom and New Forms of Organisation 68
2.7 The Application of the Framework in the Analysis of Various Strategic Situations 70
2.7.1 A Methodological Note on Analysing Past Decision Situations and Processes 72
Bibliography 73
3: Case Study 1: Wise Leadership During the Cuban Missile Crisis 78
3.1 Crisis Overview Based on the Recordings 81
3.1.1 The First Meetings 81
3.1.2 The Military Option Rises to the Fore 85
3.1.3 Towards a Naval Blockade 87
3.1.4 Difficult Reactions from Near and Far 89
3.1.5 The First Promising Signals About the Opposing Side’s Change of Heart 90
3.1.6 The President Versus the Rest of ExComm 93
3.1.7 Two Messages from Khrushchev 94
3.1.8 Critical Moments and the President’s Secret Plan 98
3.2 Conclusions from the Perspective of Wisdom 101
Bibliography 110
4: Case Study 2: The Wisdom and Stupidity of Military Calculations in International Politics 112
4.1 Mannerheim and the Soviet Union’s Large-Scale Attack in June 1944 113
4.2 Stalin and Germany’s Surprise Attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 122
4.3 War Panic in the Soviet Union in the Early 1980s 129
4.4 Summary 139
Bibliography 141
5: Case Study 3: Interpretations of the Emergence of the Financial Crisis in the Finnish Print Media 144
5.1 Analysis 147
5.1.1 2006 147
March 147
Spring and Summer 2006 148
Autumn 2006 149
5.1.2 2007 150
Early 2007 150
Summer and Autumn 2007 151
5.1.3 2008 154
Early 2008 154
Autumn 2008 156
5.1.4 2009 160
Early 2009 160
5.1.5 Conclusions 163
5.2 Elements of Wisdom in the Media’s Interpretations 168
Bibliography 169
6: Case Study 4: The Collapse of Nokia’s Mobile Phone Business 171
6.1 Nokia’s Story 175
6.2 Jorma Ollila’s Story 179
6.3 Apple and the iPhone 185
6.4 Why Was Nokia Unable to React to a Transformed Competitive Environment During 2007–2010? 189
Bibliography 194
7: In Conclusion: The Opportunities and Obstacles of Reinforcing Wisdom in Management 197
7.1 How to Develop Wisdom 198
7.2 Reinforcing Management Wisdom in Practice 202
7.2.1 A Management Training Reform 202
7.2.2 Rethinking the Managerial Career System 207
Bibliography 214
Index 217