Introduction
Whenever something catastrophic happens in the government department or a corporation in America, it is a common trend for the responsible officer to hold a press conference and explain what went wrong. Rarely will the officer, whether in the public or private sector take personal responsibility for what went wrong. Instead, several scapegoats including God and ill-luck will be blamed for the happening with the leader seeking to prove that all that could have been done to avoid the catastrophe was done. This is a good example of the Symbolic View of Management. Within it, the manager is only a cog in a large system whose contribution cannot guarantee positive or negative results. However, in a similar situation within the Far Eastern region, an avalanche of resignations and acceptance of responsibility would ensue. In extreme circumstances, a few suicides of top officials would also happen. This is because their view of leadership entails that a failure is directly attributable to the leader. This is the Omnipotent View of Management. The main focus in the instant essay is a quest to establish that Omnipotent View of Management and the Symbolic View of Management are not mutually exclusive, neither is one particularly superior to the other and the best view of leadership would be a careful balance between the two.
Omnipotent View of Management
The omnipotent view of management considers that everything rises and falls with leadership thus everything is a secondary factor. Members of staff, superior management as well as contingencies all fall in the place of secondary factors (Patterson, 2010) . The manager must, therefore, find a way to make the secondary factors fall in line and support the eventual goals and objectives of the manager. Under this view, it is not the intention of the manager to have the good and competent members of staff but rather the right members of staff. Right in this instant means capable and willing to do exactly what is asked of them and in the way it is asked of them. Therefore, the manager will have a rigorous recruitment exercise as well as a training exercise. Further, instead of seeking better working condition, a manager operating under this view will seek to make the available condition feasible under the ideology that the boss is always right (Lussier, 2015) .
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A textbook example, at the very least in the first instance of the omnipotent view of management is Brigadier General Frank Savage of Twelve O’clock High, a classic 1949 American war film set in the European Theatre of the Second World War. Savage takes the place of a squadron leader to prove a point to the unit’s leader Colonel Keith Davenport. The unit had been facing catastrophic failures in its missions yet losing men in air battles. When fresh orders are issued, Davenport tries to have them revised to protect his men hence his replacement with Savage (‘ Twelve O’clock High’, 1949) . Savage is overqualified for the position and, therefore, has the authority for full control of his team. He uses this control to institute an extremely tough management and training regimen at the unit. This triggers an immediate rebellion but being a disciplined force, the only recourse for the officers is seeking for transfers. However, through the intervention of Major Harvey Stovall, the transfers are delayed and the regimen of Savage begins in earnest. Savage takes control of everything from training to missions and even flies missions with his men, while inside the weakest vessel from the perspective of staff competency dubbed Leper Colony (‘ Twelve O’clock High’, 1949) . The film shows this management system by Savage to transform the failing army unit to a very successful one primarily through the efforts of one man; the unit commander.
General Russell Honoré is another believer in the omnipotent view of management which he indicates as the source of his success in the management of the after disaster management for Hurricane Katrina. Honoré attributes success for any army mission to two leadership attributes. The first is the preparation of the mission parameters, rules, and procedures accurately and meticulously. The second is to superintend the implementation of those parameters, rules, and procedures to the latter as prepared (Gallup, 2009) . Adherence to this according to Honoré will always guarantee success. Further, when a mission fails, an analysis will always show that in a way, the rules were not adhered to. Therefore, the contribution and capacity of staff members must be accurately assessed and factored in the planning and implementation by the leadership. The presence of contingencies must also be anticipated and factored by the leadership too. If under any circumstances the mission succeeds or fails, the approach of Honoré guarantees that the failure or success is due to the leadership itself (Gallup, 2009) .
Symbolic View of Management
The symbolic view of management considers the accomplishment of any duties as an exponentially complicated undertaking that involves so many moving parts that leadership alone cannot guarantee any results (Lussier, 2015) . Therefore, it is the obligation of the leader to do the best possible under the circumstances including seeking to change external circumstances. After doing the best possible, the leader can only hope for the best and wait to see if everything will work out. If things fail, this could have resulted in any of the secondary forces which are outside the purview of the leader. Success or failure cannot, therefore, be directly attributed to leadership. In many cases, leaders upholding this form of leadership suffer from selective amnesia and apply it mostly when a project fails while abandoning it in the case of success (Patterson, 2010) .
A remarkable example of an adherent of the symbolic view of management is Michael DeWayne Brown the former administrator of Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Brown is remembered for being in charge of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged several parts of the USA more so the Gulf Coast in general and particularly in the city of New Orleans. For over 5 days, New Orleans went out of control with people in need of rescue getting little or any help (David & Scott, 2005) . Wanton looting, violence, and lawlessness also took place in many parts of the greater New Orleans area for days with abandon.
In an interview after he was relieved of his duties, Brown declined to take any personal responsibility for the crisis and instead sought to place blame in many quotas. Further, Brown also refused to place blame on how FEMA operates or his appointing authority the federal government. Instead, he placed blame for the failure of the local authorities, the local populace and the difficult circumstances created by the hurricane . He also decried low staff numbers at FEMA and a low budget (David & Scott, 2005) . Under the circumstances, therefore, the federal government, FEMA, and Brown had done everything humanly possible to accomplish their missions but were frustrated by external circumstances.
The aforementioned Colonel Keith Davenport, the unit commander who preceded General Savage was also an adherent of the symbolic view of management. Indeed, the role he plays in the movie Twelve O’clock High is the exact opposite of the advice and concept given by General Honoré as outlined above. Davenport considers his mission as too hard, the circumstances as too harsh and his subordinates as too unfortunate, hence their continued failure. Instead of seeking to improve both himself and his team, Davenport makes excuses for them, sympathizes with their lot and even petitions his superior to consider giving them easier missions. This makes Davenport very popular amongst his men but his unit is a hopeless failure in almost all its missions ( Twelve O’clock High, 1949) .
Discussion and Conclusion
Discussion
It cannot be currently argued that Savage and Honoré are right but Davenport and Brown are wrong. Indeed, Honoré himself admits in the interview that soldiers are human beings who will sometimes defy orders and, therefore, jeopardize a mission. Further, Honoré also admits that exigent contingencies can unpredictably arise and occasion the failure of a mission even under perfect circumstances. This is a direct attack to the infallibility of the omnipotent view of management. Further, General Savage with time becomes too involved with his men and, therefore, over-empathizes with them.
Further, in spite of his superior training and perfect planning, his men continue dying in the mission until finally he develops a nervous breakdown and is unable to lead his unit. Failure under the perfect leadership of Savage is another indictment on the omnipotent view of management and a vindication for the symbolic view of management. It creates the impression that instead of replacing Davenport, Savage should have combined his point of view and that of Davenport and perhaps this would have created a better leadership regimen. This shows that a balance between the two extreme viewpoints on management, which entails the leader taking responsibility for the team and its fate yet acknowledging the input from secondary circumstances is the right and balanced management view (Patterson, 2010) .
Conclusion
The upshot of the foregoing is that the leadership views embraced by Savage and Honoré on the one part as well as those of Brown and Davenport on the other represent the extremities of fundamental views of leadership. The extremities of Savage and Honoré not only make them dictators but also cause them to shoulder a burned that is too heavy for them to bear. Further, the approach that everything rises and falls with leadership creates the risk of taking secondary factors for granted which could risk failure. On the other hand, the approach of Brown and Davenport borders on dereliction of duty. The two employ an argument that their goals are only attainable if they are easy. This is an escapist approach and one that avoids an obligation of doing all it takes to accomplish a duty. The solution to the two extremities, however, is combining and rhyming them into a careful balance between omnipotent leadership and symbolic leadership.
References
David D. K. & Scott S. (2005, September 15). Ex-FEMA Chief Tells of Frustration and Chaos . Retrieved March 20, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/us/nationalspecial/exfema-chief-tells-of-frustration-and-chaos.html
Gallup Inc. (2009, January 08). A military general's leadership lessons . Retrieved March 20, 2017, from http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/113629/military-generals-leadership-lessons.aspx
Lussier, R. N. (2015). Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, et skill development . Los Angeles: Sage publishers.
Patterson, C. (2010). Management briefs . Bookboon http://tpielibrary.com/resources/16d9a.pdf
Twelve O’clock High, (1949). Available at http://putlocker.today/watch/QG3M99vo-twelve-o-clock-high.html
