Solzhenitsyn, A.
(2007).
The Gulag Archipelago Abridged: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (P.S.).
"So, what is the answer? How can you stand your ground when you are sensitive to pain, when people you love are still alive, when you are unprepared?
What do you need to make you stronger than the interrogator and the whole trap?
From the moment you go to prison you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself: 'My life is over, a little early to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I am condemned to die—now or a little later. But later on, in truth, it will be even harder, and so the sooner the better. I no longer have any property whatsoever. For me those I love have died, and for them I have died. From today on, my body is useless and alien to me. Only my spirit and my conscience remain precious and important to me.'
Confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogation will tremble.
Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory."
Not to make light of Solzhenitsyn's very real and horrifying account, this passage reminded me of the following quote from Pritchett: "Visionaries have to come to work willing to be fired. That's the price you must pay. You've got to be willing to take chances, to speak up, to rattle cages, to challenge the basic premises, to suggest a better way of doing things."
Pfeffer, J., & Sutton R. I.
(2013).
Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-based Management.
274.
Abstract
"As Dennis Bakke reminds us in his book Joy at Work, life is not just about performance, effectiveness, and efficiency. The very essence of being a sentient human being is the ability to make choices and take actions—to be responsible, in control of at least some aspects of our own life, and engaged in actively creating the world in which we live. To cede those tasks to others, even others who are benign and possibly wiser than us, is to deny the full experience of being fully human and alive." (p. 199)
Levinson, H.
(2006).
Harry Levinson on the Psychology of Leadership.
"When people in defeat deny their angry feelings, that denial of underlying, seething anger contributes to the sense of burnout.
If top executives fail to see these problems as serious, they may worsen the situation. If a company offers only palliatives like meditation and relaxation methods—temporarily helpful though they may be—victims of burnout may become further enraged. The sufferers know that their problem has to do with the nature of the job and not their capacity to handle it." (p. 29)
Whyte, D.
(1996).
The Heart Aroused : Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America.
"Corporations, for their part, have been engaged in a willful battle against the very grain of existence. Like the good Dutch boy with his finger in the dike, they have spent enormous amounts of energy putting in place systems that attempt to hold back the shifting, oceanic qualities of existence. The complexity of the world could be accounted for, they fervently hoped, by a simple increase in the thickness of the company manual." (p. 10)
Zukav, G., & Francis L.
(2002).
The Heart of the Soul: Emotional Awareness.
"Boredom is the failure of the search for external fulfillment and refusal to look at what drove the search. Boredom is deep-rooted resistance to experiencing emotions after all efforts to distract attention from them have been ineffective. The root of boredom is resistance to painful emotions. This is the root of workaholism and perfectionism, also. In some cases the root produces boredom first, and then an escape into workaholism or perfectionism. In other cases, the workaholism or perfectionism comes first, and then boredom." (p. 193)
Carter, R. W., & Golant S. K.
(1999).
Helping Someone with Mental Illness.
"Work fulfills many needs. It creates structure and meaning in our lives, gives us a sense of accomplishment, provides income and security, and also affords us the chance to socialize with friends and colleagues and to feel as if we belong to a community." (p. 102)
Potash, M.
(1990).
Hidden Agendas.
"A psychological contract and a relationship that works for both parties is flexible enough to accomodate both shattered illusions and changing circumstances. However, that flexibility is not easy to come by and most of us at least initially resist altering our expectations in any way. Instead, we become all the more determined to make the other person or the relationship measure up to our standards." (p 147)
Nair, K.
(1997).
A higher standard of leadership: lessons from the life of Gandhi.
"As a leader...you bear a great responsibility. If you set the direction, analysis and support will appear throughout the organization even if you are wrong. Those who are not in positions of power will find it difficult to disagree—to be truthful—because they fear for their careers and their futures." (p. 113)