Leadership by Virtue
Leadership by Virtue is a novel written by Jaro Berce[1] an Associate Professor of Social Informatics Center at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The novel presents the conflicting concepts of leadership trends that exist between the east and the west and it reveals the harmonious blending point of the two. The content is written in first person narrative. The novel was published in 2013.[2][3] The underlying story elaborates the theme “Nothing is impossible to a willing mind” an extract from the books of Han Dynasty.[4] The novel as a whole aims at enhancing leadership through Wing Chun and Tai Chi philosophy.[5][6]
The novel presents a new method of problem solving,[7] personality development and amazingly blends varying topics such as engineering, project management and leadership with martial arts philosophy.[8]
Plot summary[edit]
Leadership by Virtue is written in chronological order revolving around the life and activities of the protagonist Dr. Ben Young. Ben is appointed as the new CEO of a telecom Company FixCom, which is a very challenging position for him. He is also tasked with an equally challenging responsibility to merge FixCom with another telecom company MobiCom. The workforce within the two companies are worlds apart with one company staffed mostly with old people who have worked for years and the other one comprising mostly of dynamic and active young people. The challenge for Ben lies in managing this mixed workforce to ensure productivity and growth of the company and also to ensure existence of tranquil relationship among the workforce.[9]
Ben is stressed out at the beginning. However, through the wise advice of his martial art teacher ZhàoHuī- shifu, Ben discovers the secrets of oriental management philosophy ingrained in martial arts form. With this new discovery, the protagonist not only learn to manage himself amazingly well but was also able to keep a balance between his marital and professional life. In the end Ben becomes an efficient and calm leader with a supportive team who trust one another. This is achieved when Ben applied the philosophy of changing others by changing self, preached by most martial art philosophies in the field of project management.[10]
Chapter content[edit]
Leadership by Virtue has eighteen chapters.[11] The first five chapter contains the introduction of the characters and evolution of the story. Chapter six to nine introduces the different approaches found in martial arts philosophy for problem solving. Chapter twelve contains the basis on the evolution of the concepts and principles of the far east. Chapter thirteen to seventeen elaborates the techniques of utilizing the concepts for developing leadership qualities by the protagonist. Chapter eighteen merges the lessons learned from the philosophies of the far east with known western concepts for refining leadership qualities.[12]
List of characters[edit]
Ben Young - The central character of the novel, a teacher at a university before becoming the Managing Director at FixCom. Ben also practices Wing Chun and Tai Chi Chuan.
Beth – Ben’s wife. She is a human resource manager in a private company.
Mike –Ben’s son. A typical adolescent child who devote most of his time playing games on the Internet.Mike is not in good terms with his parents.
Tasha – Pet dog at Young’s home.
ZhàoHuī- shifu- A martial arts teacher from China who teaches Wing Chun and Tai Chi Chuan in his dojo. He opened his martial art gym after giving up a lucrative job in a prospective engineering company.
Martin – A student of ZhàoHuī- shifu. Martin teaches physical education at a secondary school and also pursuing his Ph.D. research based on blending martial arts with sports activities.
Andrew (Andy) Smith – A friend and former classmate of Ben serving as the President of supervisory board at FixCom.
Tara Ricci–Ben’s personal assistant at FixCom.
Peter Green–Predecessor of Ben as FixCom's CEO.
Gemini Taylor – Sales and Marketing manager at FixCom.
Gregory Schmidt – Becomes financial director at FixCom on Ben’s invitation.
Astra Donaldson - Technology and Innovation director at FixCom.
Waldo Gordon - Human resource director at FixCom.
Cal Harrison - Human resource manager at MobiCom.
Carr Chmelyk (short CC) - Business operations & data protection director at FixCom.
Angelina Irving – ICT senior manager and a past student of Ben.
Lucas Vasquez - Managing director at MobiCom, a subsidiary to FixCom.
Narrative technique[edit]
The narration style used in the novel is a total deviation from the conventional techniques of storytelling. Each chapter opens with some mind tickling lines that give a glimpse of what to expect without lessening the suspense that the ensuing chapter has to offer. This technique is exclusively used by Chinese writers.[13] The novel as a whole is an attempt to unveil the orient ways of dealing with problems.[14]
References[edit]
- ↑ "About the author, work and presentations". Jaro Berce. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
- ↑ "Leadership by Virtue by Jaro Berce released". Inco Movement EU NEWS. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- ↑ "Leadership by Virtue by Jaro Berce released". Broadway world on the book release. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
- ↑ "Challenges of leadership and solutions". Challenge future NEWS. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- ↑ "People Development Magazine". On Leadership by Virtue. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- ↑ "Refining Management skills using Oriental approach". On Bookreel. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- ↑ "On the content of the book related to eastern philosophy". International Book review. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
- ↑ "Philosophies related to solving contemporary leadership crisis". Todd Nielsen. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
- ↑ "Plot Summary from Amazon customer reviews". Amazon. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- ↑ "Kungfu philosophy applied as Project management strategy". PMI Slovenia Chapter Maja Ferle. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
- ↑ "Chapter wise summary on Trafford Books". bookstore.trafford. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
- ↑ "Book Review on Mar Social". Coleman. Retrieved 2 March 2015.
- ↑ "Book preview". Google books preview. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
- ↑ "Elaboration of the underlying philosophies mentioned in the book". Blog on the book. Retrieved 1 March 2015. line feed character in
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