David McClelland Quotes

13 Sourced Quotes

The entrepreneurial role appears to call for decision-making under uncertainty.

David McClelland
Practically all theorists agree that entrepreneurship involves, by definition, taking risks of some kind.

David McClelland
At any rate that is precisely what happens: the means oriented stories come from countries which have managed to overcome the obstacles to economic achievement more successfully than other countries… These results serve to direct our attention as social scientists away from an exclusive concern with the external events in history to the internal psychological concerns that in the long run determine what happens in history

David McClelland
Understanding human motivation ought to be a good thing. It should help us to find out what we really want so that we can avoid chasing rainbows that are not for us. It should open up opportunities for self-development if we apply motivational principles to pursuing our goals in life.

David McClelland
Outstanding American men seem to see power as something you use in order to correct someone who's wrong, to change them, to show them you see more in this situation than the boss does. Outstanding American women, on the other hand, see power as a resource, something you can use to get people together, to gain commitment.

David McClelland
The outstanding people realised that the job involved more than just writing a good strategic plan. It was also important that top management should understand the plan and be prepared to adopt it. Consequently, the best strategists made sure that executives were involved in decisions at an early stage. The less outstanding people didn't see this, and it had been overlooked by the experts. But, as soon as we showed them our findings, they could see that it made sense.

David McClelland
Whatever the source of the leader's ideas, he cannot inspire his people unless he expresses vivid goals which in some sense they want. Of course, the more closely he meets their needs, the less "persuasive" he has to be, but in no case does it make sense to speak as if his role is force submission. Rather it is to strengthen and uplift, to make people feel that they are the origins, not the pawns, of the socio-political system.

David McClelland
Dynamic restlessness and concern with time would appear to go with high w Achievement and static "classicism" with low n Achievement, but on closer examination many flaws in the analogy are evident.

David McClelland
The modern economist has become even more insistent in his belief that the ultimate forces underlying economic development lie, strictly speaking, outside the economic sphere. As Meir and Baldwin put it, half humorously, economic development is much too serious to be left to economists.

David McClelland
Explaining economic growth - The achievement motive : how it is measured and its economics effects - Achieving societies in the modern world - Achieving societies in the past - Other psychological factors in economic development - Entrepreneurial behavior - Characteristics of entrepreneurs - The spirit of Hermes - Sources of n achievement - Accelerating economic growth.

David McClelland
One study suggests that the most effective way to increase n Achievement may be to try simply and directly to alter the nature of an individual's fantasies.

David McClelland
It is important, therefore, to understand at the outset the simplicity of this book - what it can accomplish and what it cannot. What it does try to do is to isolate certain psychological factors and to demonstrate rigorously by quantitative scientific methods that these factors are generally important in economic development.

David McClelland
This book will not take as its province all kinds of cultural growth — artistic, philosophical, military — but will try to shed some light on a narrower problem, namely, the reasons for economic growth and decline. The way wealth is distributed is a matter of special interest, partly because it may well be basic to growth in other cultural areas and partly because it has become so uneven in the past century that curiosity has been aroused.

David McClelland