A Company of Citizens

Brook Manville and Josiah Ober give new meaning to the adage, "Everything old is new again" in their current collaboration, A Company of Citizens. The authors, both classics scholars, contend that the ancient Athenian model of democracy is an ideal structure for organizing people in our current Knowledge Age. The Athenian approach, which stresses self-governing citizenship, individual excellence, and community focus, could not be more relevant for engaging, aligning, and motivating workers in the current global economy. The authors successfully blend the appropriate amount of historical development and political theory with current organizational practice to illustrate that "passionate citizenship" might become the organizational paradigm of the future.