Business Education: Who Gets to be an Authority?
Business Education: Who Gets to be an Authority?
February 8, 2010
By: Online MBA
The grassroots leader of the people vs the elected official. Rush Limbaugh vs the prize-winning economist. The best-seller vs the critics’ pick.
Each of these is an example of two types of authority, coming from two different places, and often at odds with each other. On the one hand, the popular, and on the other, the expert with the right credentials.
The Source of Authority
While both possess an authority, the path to get there is often quite different. Something becomes popular when it hits a nerve with a broad audience, but a person gains a credential by earning the respect of an instution or an industry.
Seth Godin is a great example of a popular authority. His work is compelling, inspirational, and though-provoking. He writes for the popular audience, and his books are regulars on the best-seller list.
The Harvard Business Review is an example of the other type of authority. You could plug anyone into that publication and people would be willing to take that person’s thoughts seriously as a default because the institution itself carries weight.
The Limits of Both Popular and Credentialed Authority
Each type of authority has its strengths, and each also carries an inherent limitation.
In the case of popular work, by definition it has to have mass appeal. This means it must be a relatively simple subject to gain broad appeal. It has to be accessible in its scope in order to be applicable to a massive swath of people. Finally, it has to leave the reader feeling optimistic and improved because being deflated and lost after a read is not a recipe for a best-seller.
By contrast, material that floats on the credentials of the author more than it’s popularity is free of much of these limitations. When you are considered an expert by other experts, it can be a badge of pride to produce something dense, narrow, and obtusely difficult as long as it stands up to the scrutiny of peer review. But this approach is weak where the popular work shines–it can easily become introverted, abstract, and even lifeless. And depending on how far down that path it goes, it’s possible for these authors to lose perspective on what problems are most in need of solving and for whom.
A Need for Both
I’ve set this up as a more cut and dry contrast than is actually the case to illustrate the point that there is a difference in the origin and the approach of these different kinds of authorities on business ideas. In reality, it’s not so drastically divided.
Popular works often have substance and credentialed experts often try to frame things from as accessible a perspective as possible. And there are also authors that have the charisma and the depth to achieve the acclaim of peers and the public alike.
But on the consumer end, we tend to find a comfort-zone and stay there. I’ve seen first-hand people who limit themselves only to one or the other of these types of resources, either thinking themselves too smart to read what’s popular or, at the opposite end, only reading what’s easy to access.
A balance of both makes it easier to challenge yourself intellectually while staying connected with the pragmatic concerns of staying inspired, motivated, and grounded.
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