A management system exempt from power: Learning to manage with consideration for others. Christian Bourion (2006). New York, NY & Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 150 pp. ISBN‐13: 978‐0‐230‐00218‐0 and ISBN‐10: 0‐230‐00218‐8

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.28
• Published date: 01 September 2007
• Date: 01 September 2007
• Author: Louise Tourigny

Can J Adm Sci

Copyright © 2007 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 229 24(3), 229–230

Book reviews/Recensions de livre

Reviewed by Louise Tourigny,

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

A Management System Exempt from Power: Learning to Manage with

Consideration for Others

Christian Bourion (2006).

New York, NY & Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 150 pp.

ISBN-13: 978-0-230-00218-0 and ISBN-10: 0-230-00218-8

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

24: 229–230 (2007)

Published online in Wiley Interscience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.28

Christian Bourion is Professor and Director of the

Commercial Institute at the University of Nancy, France.

He writes with a structured style and provides practical

means for a realistic approach to management. His book

is motivated by a new organizational paradigm: A man-

agement system exempt from power.

One of the main concerns of managers is the weak-

ening of hierarchical instruments of power, which calls

for a new management approach. Indeed, as specif‌i ed by

Bourion, managers who cannot exercise position power

because they are not in a situation to reward or punish,

promote or demote, increase or decrease salary, hire or

dismiss employees must learn to develop an organiza-

tional culture fostering mutual respect, favouring per-

sonal and professional development, and enhancing

eff‌i ciency, empathy, and imagination. Throughout his

book, Bourion explains how managers can develop per-

sonal power based on expertise; the f‌i rst skill managers

must possess in order to be effective. Furthermore, he

provides practical means to assess and enhance one’s

empathy, develop one’s creativity, and solve problems in

innovative ways.

In essence, the book proposes a model of manage-

ment exempt from power that is based on an autonomous

management of the self where each employee is respon-

sible for the development of unique skills and where

decision making is done by the most experienced and

qualif‌i ed employee. It presents a managerial approach

that fosters individuality and free reign wherein relation-

ship management sustains subordinate-centered decision

making.

This book is particularly relevant to managers

working in public service organizations where local man-

agement or disempowered management replaces author-

ity, rewards, and sanctions. It is relevant to managers

who work with knowledge workers and who seek to

produce innovative ideas. Moreover, it is of particular

interest in the economic context of a decreasing job

supply and an increasing job demand where employers

tend to hire overqualif‌i ed employees who are more

demanding. Finally, it is relevant to all managers who

enjoy less freedom than their employees.

The book provides a brief historical review of major

changes in the evolution of organizational power. The

author shows how managers moved away from the neu-

rotic manufacturing concept of power and learned to share

power and implement participative management in an

increasingly complex and dynamic environment. He ex-

plains how recent economic changes led to a zero-growth

period, which called for the development of a community

organization where power over oneself constitutes the

starting point of a return to individuality and to a search

for the development of personal competency.

The book emphasizes the human dimension in

decision making. It focuses on relationship management.

It demonstrates how decision making without empathy

can lead to negative emotional outputs and poor apprai-

sal of reciprocal inf‌l uences, which directly impact

performance.

Managing with consideration for others is certainly

of the utmost importance. The book offers some

insights and highlights some particular problematic areas

in organization that managers should identify and

remedy.

The book offers several self-assessment question-

naires so that managers can easily identify areas for

improvement. Furthermore, it provides brief real life sce-

narios to illustrate how managers can deal with various