Abstract
Comments on the original article "Leadership and organizational behavior: A thermodynamic inquiry", by R. R. Kilburg and M. D. Donohue (see record 2014-57731-002). There is no reason to get out your old textbooks. A few minutes on Wikipedia will tell you that equilibrium is a driving concept in thermodynamics: “If two thermodynamic systems are each in thermal equilibrium with a third, then all three are in thermal equilibrium with each other” (“Laws of Thermodynamics,” n.d.). Furthermore, one learns that since energy is conserved, the first law of thermodynamics says that the internal energy of a system must change as heat flows into or out of it. The second law tells us that the entropy (i.e., randomness or “disorder”) of an isolated system (one where nothing, not even energy, flows in or out) never decreases and that all such systems tend spontaneously toward the state of maximum entropy or disorder. The third law requires that the entropy of a system approaches a constant value as temperature approaches absolute zero. The question posed in this commentary is whether Kilburg and Donohue (2014) use these and related ideas to offer an elaborate metaphor about leadership and organization behavior or perhaps have uncovered something more.