To more than a generation of
children growing up, Enid Blyton offered a panorama very few can afford to
miss. The escapades into realms of realistic fantasy more than enjoyment was an
experience few could describe in words. The contemporary woke find might things
wrong one too many yet its hardly justifiable to judge a past person on current
political correctness. It would be best to enjoy Blyton for what they were
rather than through coloured blinds.
Yet, as we glance as adults,
Blytons work very diverse and assorted, it is pleasantly surprising to find
insights into man management and several other lessons from dissecting the
content in the books. He observation and description are too touching and in
more ways than one points to Blyton’s understanding of human behaviour and
nature. Browsing, by accident, couple of
her circus books, it was revealing to find each character and action of that
character could yield insights into several of organizational and behavioural theories.
Her circus stories revolving around circus run by Mr Galliano is a series of
three books viz Mr Galliano’s Circus, Hurrah for the Circus and Circus Days Again.
Let us take a few instances and examine the managerial leadership styles being
described.
Circus Days Again is an
interesting book. The circus expands with new performers and animals joining
the team. Yet while the circus was doing roaring business, all of sudden Mr
Galliano’s wife takes ill and she has to be shifted to another city for
treatment and recuperation. Mr Galliano, the owner and the ring master has to
accompany her and it means, someone else has to manage the circus in his
absence. In the run up to this scene, it would be instructive to take a look at
the character of the owner and ringmaster Mr Galliano
In describing Mr. Galliano, Enid
Blyton seems to have been influenced by Traits theory of leadership. As
Stodgill would survey, traits theory thrust upon certain physical characteristics
on the leaders. We see very early in Mr. Galliano’s circus, how Galliano’s
physique, dress, appearance, conduct etc reflected the very traits that were
assumed to be essential for being a great (wo)man. Further as we explore the book we see Galliano
demonstrating the contingency theory in his conduct. From an economics perspective, his style of
wearing his hat differently at the different times to convey his mood is
indicative of signalling theory to his folksmen and women. Contingency theory
is reflected best in the way he handles the situation when the bears escape in
a storm. While he was an autocratic in dealing with ‘runaway Jimmy and Lotta’
in search of bears post rescue, yet he doesn’t fail to recognize the valuable
role they had played in getting the bears back. Earlier, when the elephant escaped
in a storm, it was left to young Jimmy Brown not yet a circus boy to rescue
him. Galliano’s appreciation of the same talks about the rewards and motivation
perspective. His mixture of autocratic and kindness simultaneously is again
observed when Jimmy rescues the monkey from the tigers.
At times, one could not wonder,
whether Blyton was trying to portray Galliano as an ideal mix of subordinate cantered
and boss cantered leadership styles. When Jimmy was not allowed initially to
perform with his dog Lucky, it was Mr. Wally who persuaded Galliano for the
same. Here we find traces of democratic centred leadership who consults and
listens to the advice of his peers and subordinates.
Coming back to Galliano’s
departure, it was left to Britomart, the conjurer to manage the circus.
Britomart had just joined the circus and would rarely interact with others. He was
by and large aloof and did not even stay with the circus people preferring to
stay in a city hotel instead. Britomart was a perhaps a personality where
superego was often most prominent. If Galliano represented agreeableness, openness
to experience and conscientiousness, Britomart perhaps symbolized neuroticism.
In fact in Managerial grid paradigm, Britomart was the one to described as
solely concerned with production and not with people.
Britomart’s management of circus
reflected the same very well. He was aloof and hardly interacted with the
circus folk. The performance of the circus did not suffer on the ring. It
continued to earn huge money if it were to be described as such. Yet outside
the ring, there was all round despondency. The circus folk were completely upset with the
style of functioning, they were frequent run-ins and many planned to leave the circus
for greener pastures. When Galliano returns, his dialogue with Britomart is
worth reading. In the words of the acrobat, Britomart had fine ideas but simply
could not get along with people. Britomart might have been an idealist, yet he
was least diplomatic. For Galliano, Blyton’s character would symbolize
pragmatist and steward.
Coming back to the dialogue,
Galliano tells Britomart, all that he needed to do was a little kindness to his
circus folk. Britomart might have revelled in punishment and harassment but
aligning with the stick is the carrot which was missing in the leadership. To Enid
Blyton, Galliano perhaps demonstrated the carrot and stick approach best as
illustrated in one his men describing how they loved him. Britomart might have
viewed as spoilt, quarrelsome, disobedient etc yet to Galliano’s leadership
style they manifested the normal functioning of a family. The rules of the camp
being successful being elucidated to Britomart by Galliano is interesting
testimony to conscious or subconscious application of managerial theories,
organizational theories, leadership theories, interpersonal theories etc.
Maybe, it could be a good case
study to students of organizational and individual behaviour.
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