Ton,
I'd love to have a reference :) Do you remember the journal name?

It was the Jan. 30th (#1, 2004) issue of Management Team, a Dutch magazine. A summary of the interview is on their website. (Ton)

Maybe as a powerless employee, a Pizza guy sees a lot that could be done but he is restricted from doing.

This is probably why some very successful businesses have started from employees of similar companies. ;-)

A corollary of that: I have known for years that I can be led (ie, given a purpose) but I can't be managed. But it's possible to teach something called management while leadership is more elusive. So we have lots of managers and very little leadership.

Spot on Paul.

Managing the mechanics is the easy, but ineffective, bit. Leading people is altogether less tangible, but much more significant.

Too many managers waste time on the easy, but irrelevant bits of the job.

See Seb's post on this here.
See Seb's post on this here.

Stephen Covey has gone Frankfurt School (or perhaps he always was...).

The question is, why is it that "in most organisations there is a lack of trust, and most employees are powerless." This is simply because the system is set up this way, and the current workplace 'system' stems from our current definition(s) of leadership. I recommend you read this brilliant paper, "why your boss is programmed to be a dictator" (http://www.changethis.com/19.bossdictator) - it analyzes leadership from a systems framework...the results are startling!