Organizations underperform, or fail, when members avoid partnering with managers—whether through subtle resistance, disagreement, protest, or walkout—to achieve common purpose. Managers should boost partnering not by affecting a pretense of leadership but through a nuanced balance of managerial authority and understanding of members’ points of view. The objective of this article is to sharpen attention on the concept of partnership with organization members and how it relates to some of the important previous literature. We also argue that some of the previous scholarly work contributes to misconceptions related to these concepts. Our work is forward-looking in that it is motivated by the dangerous societal and cultural differences evident in the world, differences that surround management’s decisions and that may induce an overuse of authority to quash disquiet. Using our experiences in both industry and academia, we argue that the crucial link between managers and members is leadership—not leadership thought of as directional and inspirational, but leadership as building a relationship toward common purpose through partnership. “Lead” and “leader” are sorely misused terms, and worse, substituting “leader” for “manager” is just plain wrong. We believe that managers become leaders only when followers agree to follow, not when the managers simply step forward energetically with direction. Managers are cheated by mistaken definitions. Reviewing past perspectives about what makes good leaders and managers, we rethink ways to enhance organizational harmony through a clearer understanding of managership, leadership, followership, and partnership. Only by thinking and acting as partners in common purpose can managers and members form the core of success in organizational endeavors.

当成员避免与经理合作时——无论是通过微妙的抵抗、分歧、抗议还是罢工——以实现共同目标，组织就会表现不佳或失败。管理者不应该通过影响领导的伪装来促进合作，而是通过管理权力和对成员观点的理解之间的微妙平衡。本文的目的是让人们更加关注与组织成员合作的概念，以及它与以前的一些重要文献的关系。我们还认为，以前的一些学术工作助长了与这些概念相关的误解。我们的工作具有前瞻性，因为它受到世界上明显的危险社会和文化差异的推动，围绕管理层决策的分歧，并可能导致过度使用权力来平息不安。利用我们在工业界和学术界的经验，我们认为管理者和成员之间的关键联系是领导力——不是被认为具有方向性和鼓舞人心的领导力，而是通过伙伴关系为共同目标建立关系的领导力。“Lead”和“leader”是严重滥用的术语，更糟糕的是，用“leader”代替“manager”是完全错误的。我们认为，管理者只有在追随者同意跟随时才能成为领导者，而不是当管理者只是带着方向积极地向前迈进。经理们被错误的定义所欺骗。回顾过去关于什么是优秀领导者和管理者的观点，我们重新思考通过更清楚地了解管理、领导、追随者和伙伴关系来增强组织和谐的方法。只有作为共同目标的伙伴思考和行动，管理者和成员才能在组织努力中形成成功的核心。