Category Archives: leadership

How not to lead or manage a health crisis

Posted on March 14, 2020 by lawrence serewicz

Trump’s response to the health crisis is problematic. He has botched the four steps of a crisis response that Joshua M Sharfstein identified in his excellent book: The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide.[i] The four steps are: Identifying the crisis, … Continue reading →

Posted in bureaucracy, leadership | Tagged coronavirus, covid-19, crisis management, trump | Comments Off

Silence and the South Yorkshire Police

Posted on September 3, 2016 by lawrence serewicz

For 27 years, the South Yorkshire Police (SYP) were institutionally silent about their Hillsborough failures. For 27 years the officers maintained their silence. For 27 years, they fought hard to deny the truth. The issue was not a dispute over … Continue reading →

Posted in bureaucracy, change managment, coruption, culture, leadership, path dependency | Tagged Corruptiion, culture, path dependency, Sexual abuse, Silence, South Yorkshire Police, Voice | 1 Comment

Who was going to stop Roger Ailes?

Posted on August 22, 2016 by lawrence serewicz

In any organisation, the question is never “how did sexual harassment occur”, it is “who is going to stop it?” The organisation will not stop it unless someone stops him. The organisation as organisation will simply continue to function as … Continue reading →

Posted in bureaucracy, change managment, compliance, coruption, culture, leadership, Uncategorized | Tagged Donald Trump, Fox News Channel, Gretchen Carlson, Republican Party United States, Roger Ailes, Sexual harassment, The New York Times | Comments Off

An analysis of Jeff Bezos’s email to Amazon staff

Posted on August 24, 2015 by lawrence serewicz

The following is an analysis of Jeff Bezos’s email to his staff after a New York Times article criticized the company and its culture. The email reveals more about Bezos than he realizes. It is worth understanding the full extent … Continue reading →

Posted in coruption, culture, leadership, management | Tagged Amazon.com, Darwinism, Dick Costolo, Jeff Bezos, Job Growth, Seattle, The New York Times, White House Press Secretary, White-collar worker | Comments Off

What is a regime?

Posted on August 13, 2015 by lawrence serewicz

What do we mean by regime? I use this term often in my writing as it explains the wider context for political activity. Politics occurs within the regime and the regime shapes political activity. The term, though, is not used … Continue reading →

Posted in coruption, culture, leadership, learning organisation | Tagged David Cameron, Government of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom | Comments Off

Leaders determine culture: The troubling case of UK policing.

Posted on June 22, 2015 by lawrence serewicz

UK College of Policing published a report on police leadership culture.[1] The report found that the top officer culture is problematic as it encourages bullying, sexual harassment, and a sense of entitlement to legal and illegal perks. The report describes … Continue reading →

Posted in bureaucracy, coruption, culture, leadership, learning organisation | Tagged Ethics, leadership, Middle management, Organizational culture, politics, Senior management | 1 Comment

The lies organisations tell themselves: the case of Rotherham Council

Posted on December 15, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

Every man has some [truths] which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there … Continue reading →

Posted in coruption, culture, leadership, management | Tagged Child protection, Child sexual abuse, England, Great Britain, Independent Police Complaints Commission, Member of Parliament, Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, Rotherham Council, South Yorkshire, South Yorkshire Police, United Kingdom | Comments Off

Is an organisation corrupt or just ill?

Posted on October 31, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

When we hear about a corrupt organisation we often are surprised and outraged. What we fail to consider is that all organisations are never completely healthy. They are all ill to some extent. They will have practices that are dubious, … Continue reading →

Posted in coruption, culture, leadership, management | Tagged Ethics, leadership, organisation, Senior management | 1 Comment

How work can compromise our ethics

Posted on September 17, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

Before we enter the work place, we are never warned that the work can deform us ethically. We hear about accidents, sexual harassment, or even fraud, but how many of us are warned about the way that work can deform … Continue reading →

Posted in coruption, culture, leadership, learning organisation | Tagged Corporation, Crime, Ethics, Hannah Arendt, Lehman Brothers, Moral responsibility, Rotherham Council | 1 Comment

Where do you discuss bad news?

Posted on April 14, 2014 by lawrence serewicz

In any organisation, you have to discuss bad news but few people consider where it is discussed. How you discuss bad news will influence, if not determine, the success of your company. The issue is more than critical upwards communication … Continue reading →

Posted in change, change managment, culture, leadership, learning organisation, management, renewal | Tagged Apple, bad news, Business, Company, Enron, management, Organization, Organizational culture, Senior management, senior managers | 2 Comments