Then analogy breaks down in the face of macroeconomic conditions? The shock absorber simply acts as a router/switch in these situations. Or acts as a large hadron collider fusing market conditions and employees to creat free energy that they store/pocket.
Work is continuous and pay is discrete. At the very least a leader runs a company that pays for continuous labor with discrete paychecks in the hopes of seeing discrete revenue events (selling a cup of coffee, signing up a new subscriber). Even reduced to absurdity I think the analogy holds up pretty well.
Force absorption requires space and resources to manoeuvre, a condition of austerity is a lack of space and resources, so I agree to that extent with your comment. The author talks about "leaders" though - leadership (giving direction, inspiration, solving big problems) is complementary to management (administration, communication, task allocation). Especially in tough times it's leaders who make the difference. The author says that "shock absorbers push back in both directions" - a leader will find new opportunities of optimising work by involving both the team and the organisation.
