[Granville-Hough] 11 June 2009 - Managerial prerogatives and pecking order
Trustees for Granville W. Hough
gwhough at oakapple.net
Fri Sep 24 06:24:48 PDT 2010
In teaching business management, I sometimes used the example of
jackdaws (the crow in the British Isles). These jackdaws had very
similar behavior patters to their cousin crows in North America, and
patterns which remind one of top business managers of banks, etc. in
business. Jackdaws typically had a nesting tree where the top-ranking
jackdaw had his perch on the highest limb, just as the top business
manager has the highest office with the best view, etc. Joining the top
jackdaw for nightly rest and recreation was his mate, who inherited with
her position, pecking rights over all the female crows. Now jackdaws
are generally monogamous, and once mated, stayed together till death did
them part.
Now there developed in one of the British towns, a fine jackdaw
rookery where the top ranking pair were as slick and bright as could be,
and the others, on lower limbs were a little more ruffled. The bottom
pair were on a low limb, very scruffy looking; but their task was to be
the buffer, to endure the nightly prowlers, and to give the alarm in
case of fire or disorder. Any of the jackdaws who lived above them
could come down and give them a good pecking anytime they wanted to do so.
Now it happens that a hungry fox came by one night, and took away
the male of the lowest ranked pair. The other females thanked their
lucky stars and gave the widow jackdaw one more peck to remind her that
she must now do double guard duty. A night or so later, the top jackdaw
female got careless and flew into a fast moving automobile and became
just another road-kill. Now the rookery had a top-ranking male widower,
and lowest-ranking female widow.
Now the top jackdaw had a real dilemma. It was lonesome being on
top with no mate. He dropped down to the next limb to look over the
females at that level. The males got very nervous and clearly insisted
that all females were taken. So top jackdaw kept dropping down, and the
males all got more and more nervous, now seeing that top jackdaw was
going to have his way, no matter what. Executive prerogative was the
term in crow language.
When top jackdaw got to the lowest rung, he got a welcome reception
from the bedraggled widow, who could hardly believe her good fortune.
She was enthusiastic in joining him on the top rung, and her new
feathers were soon glossy and slick. She had a few debts up and down
the tree rookery, and she repaid them all, peck for peck, with interest
indeed.
So that is how executive prerogative and pecking order worked in the
crow rookery, the Bush world, and the business environment.
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