Re-theorizing Jim Collins's culture of discipline in Good to Great

Jim Collins's empirical study Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don't (Harper Business, New York, 2001) has made a worldwide impact on management and leadership practice and research. His concept of “culture of discipline” is central to his ideas for achieving enduring, sustainable organizations, whether in the business or nonprofit sectors. In this essay the culture of discipline is re-theorized in the context of Mary Douglas's grid–group analysis to provide a home within a broader theory which will locate the culture of discipline in relation to alternative cultures. The framework is illustrated with applications in a study of small, high-technology firms in peripheral areas of the UK, leading to the recognition of an organizational form missing from most of the management literature and furthering the exploration of a model of humble and collaborative leadership as an alternative to the model of charismatic or heroic leadership growing out of American management culture.

Keywords

• Jim Collins,
• culture of discipline,
• level-5 leadership,
• grid–group analysis,
• Good to Great ,
• egalitarian leadership