I recently re-read The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer, which is retrospect was a really good predictor of the state of the world today with regards to leadership. This entry will be a very high-level review of it as this is a book that should be on most leaders’ reading lists.
The Authoritarians actually is a free e-book in several formats. It is also available in paperback and audio book for those who prefer other formats.
The first thing that I want to say is that Altemeyer’s style of writing is down to earth, he uses a good wit and a slightly self-deprecating humor to get his points across which make this heavily evidence-based presentation palatable. And when I say “evidence-based” I mean evidence-based. Altemeyer not only summarizes his own 40+ years of research on Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) but how it fits with the newer concept of Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and applies both to not only his and others’ experimental findings but specific circumstances in the world such as the time leading up to the 2008 elections as well as general explanations of trends in American society.
I won’t get too specific here as I don’t want to give away any pertinent details to anyone who plans on reading. But I do want to comment quickly here, that the “right wing” part of the concept is a bit of a misnomer. It actually refers to authoritarians of any political background. It just happens to be when he came up with the concept in the 1970s those were the most visible dictators in the world at the time. And somewhat unfortunately, the concept name stuck and now that’s the name it goes by.
This book is so good, it makes me want to read his 2020 book that I just recently realized he published. And I will be obtaining a copy very soon. I find it really interesting that one personality trait (RWA) and a similar type of concept (SDO) can explain so much of the prejudice that goes on in the world as well as how certain types of leaders can really make an organization down a nasty route. It really speaks not only to the validity of these individual concepts, but how science really can at times be boiled down to simple ideas with a lot of explanatory power.
As an I/O psychologist these ideas are interesting to me as they are not topics that typically emerge in the study of organizations. Personality is studied, but RWA and SDO may be topics that can strongly add to the current explanations of failed leadership in organizations and provide solutions on how to avoid these pitfalls. Several ideas emerged for research projects (SDO was already a research project of mine based on my dissertation) but they need to be fleshed out a bit more, but the general idea is how SDO leadership and RWA followership can be used in both positive and negative light. I also think that I am going to revise some lessons in some of my leadership classes that examines these ideas as well.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about how people can follow seemingly bad leaders with authoritarian or dictator tendencies.
Reference
Altemeyer, B. (2006). The Authoritarians. Retrieved online at: https://theauthoritarians.org/options-for-getting-the-book/