The Road to Serfdom

F. A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom has been getting some serious attention in the media lately. (Here's the cartoon version if you just want a quick overview.) It outlines what I've come to call a "theory of change" for society based on Hayek's experience.

Recently, I led a reading discussion with the Associates about The Road to Serfdom (and a couple of other works), and I asked them to think about what lessons managers could learn from Hayek's work. Using the panels of the cartoon for reference, here are a few bullet points of what they came up with:

• Small steps can result in large changes over time. Pay attention to the little changes in organizational culture.
• In panels 1 and 2, a war results in centralization of power that stays even after the war. For an organization, a crisis can result in any number of quick changes that may or may not be optimal in the long run.
• Panels 3-7 could have a decision rights lesson. Authority through consensus doesn't always work in an organization.
• Panels 10-13 led us to a conversation about cults of personality and the implications a strong single decision maker.

While we didn't talk explicitly about panels 14-18, flipping through them this time made me think about how miserable I would be in a place that planned every second of my working day. An appropriate translation into the organization might be that entrepreneurial people go elsewhere as their days turn mindless and boring.

If you've not read The Road to Serfdom, I highly recommend it. Do you think there are other lessons we can draw from this? Do you agree with Hayek's theory of change presented in The Road to Serfdom? Do you think I'm trying too hard to draw lessons into the organization from it?

Comments

[David McGinnis]

i totally understand the concept of the road to serfdom and agree with Hayek's conclusions... BUT i have not read the book. Is it a good read, or is its best purpose for its ideas?

[Ann]

Road to Serfdom is good, but it is heavy. I would recommend reading the Reader's Digest version of Road to Serfdom if you can find it. It's much shorter and will give you the gist without the heaviness of the original.

[staffaction]

I'm glad you posted these. I don't remember learning about these parallels last year. Very good thoughts.