A World Expert Throws Some Light on the Dark Side of Leadership: Professor Manfred Kets De Vries Is an Internationally Recognised Expert on Leadership and Organisational Behaviour. He Is Best Known for His Work Exploring the Darker Side of Organisational Life and in Particular, His Use of Psychoanalysis to Understand What Happens When Executives Derail. (Cover Story)

Dearlove, Des, New Zealand Management

Based in France at the international business school INSEAD, Manfred Kets de Vries is the author, co-author or editor of 20 books. He talked to Management's contributing writer Des Dearlove about why companies crave heroic leaders--and what happens when executive egos get out of control.

How would you describe your work?

Really, it is an evolution of trying to work in two main areas--management and psychoanalysis. The first serious application of the two fields was in a book I wrote with Danny Miller, entitled The Neurotic Organization. That was the first time someone tried to show in a systematic way the relationship between personality, leadership, corporate culture and strategy.

And that gave you a distinctive slant on leadership?

I became a sort of pathologist of organisations. People would ask me to look at organisations that they thought were going in the wrong direction. So I edited a book called Organizations on the Couch. I'd written some books before--Prisoners of Leadership, The Irrational Executive and another called Leaders, Fools and Imposters--they were looking at the darker side of organisations, and particularly the darker side of leadership. How do leaders derail, what goes wrong? How can you recognise the signals when things go wrong and what can you do about it?

In your experience, how many business leaders are well-adjusted individuals?

You can argue that 20 percent of the general …

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Publication information: Article title: A World Expert Throws Some Light on the Dark Side of Leadership: Professor Manfred Kets De Vries Is an Internationally Recognised Expert on Leadership and Organisational Behaviour. He Is Best Known for His Work Exploring the Darker Side of Organisational Life and in Particular, His Use of Psychoanalysis to Understand What Happens When Executives Derail. (Cover Story). Contributors: Dearlove, Des - Author. Magazine title: New Zealand Management. Volume: 50. Issue: 2 Publication date: March 2003. Page number: 29+. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group.

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