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  3. Should a leader strive to be loved or feared? This question, famously posed by Machiavelli, lies at the heart of Joseph Nye’s ne

Should a leader strive to be loved or feared? This question, famously posed by Machiavelli, lies at the heart of Joseph Nye’s ne

admin2015-03-25  67
问题     Should a leader strive to be loved or feared? This question, famously posed by Machiavelli, lies at the heart of Joseph Nye’s new book. Mr. Nye, a former dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and one-time chairman of America’s National Intelligence Council, is best known for promoting the idea of "soft power" , based on persuasion and influence, as a counterpoint to "hard power", based on coercion and force.
    Having analysed the use of soft and hard power in politics and diplomacy in his previous books, he has now turned his attention to the relationship between power and leadership, in both the political and business spheres. Machiavelli, he notes, concluded that "one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved. " In short, hard power is preferable to soft power. But modern leadership theorists have come to the opposite conclusion.
    The context of leadership is changing, they observe, and the historical emphasis on hard power is becoming outdated. In modern companies and democracies, power is increasingly diffused and traditional hierarchies are being undermined, making soft power ever more important. But that does not mean coercion should now take a back seat to persuasion, Mr. Nye argues. Instead, he advocates a synthesis of these two views. The conclusion of The Powers to Lead, his survey of the theory of leadership, is that a combination of hard and soft power, which he calls "smart power", is the best approach.
    The dominant theoretical model of leadership at the moment is, apparently, the "neochar-ismatic and transformational leadership paradigm". Anyone allergic to management jargon will already be running for the exit, but Mr. Nye has performed a valuable service in rounding up and summarising the various academic studies and theories of leadership into a single, slim volume. He examines different approaches to leadership, the morality of leadership and how the wider context can determine the effectiveness of a particular leader. There are plenty of anecdotes and examples, both historical and contemporary, political and corporate.
    Alas, leadership is a slippery subject, and as he rehearses the pros and cons of various theories, even Mr. Nye never quite nails the jelly to the wall. He is at his most interesting when discussing the moral aspects of leadership—in particular, the question of whether it is sometimes necessary for good leaders to lie—and he provides a helpful 12-point summary of his conclusions. A recurring theme is that as circumstances change, different sorts of leaders are required; a leader who thrives in one environment may struggle in another, and vice versa. Ultimately that is just a fancy way of saying that leadership offers no easy answers.
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
选项 A、Joseph Nye and Machiavelli
B、Secrets of Leadership
C、Soft Power and Hard Power
D、What Is Smart Power?
答案B
解析 主旨大意题。本文主要介绍了奈伊在其新作中对领导力问题的探讨。马基雅维利并非文章主要内容，只是为了与奈伊的某些观点进行对比，故排除[A]；[B]准确概括了文章主题，为正确答案。第二段第一句提到奈伊先生在其之前的著作中曾分析过利用“软实力”和“硬实力”在政治和外交中的应用，并非其书的主旨，也并非本文的主旨，故排除[C]；本文最核心的问题是领导力的问题，并非智能实力，智能实力只反映了文章的一个部分，而不能从整体上对全文内容进行概括，故[D]不准确。
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