Leadership recent issues

Hidden Success: A Case Study of Secretary-General Dirk Stikker's Leadership at NATO

Hoogenboezem, J. A. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

This study of NATO Secretary-General Dirk Stikker analyses his leadership at NATO. Generally Stikker is seen as an unsuccessful leader because he was not able to solve the differences between European alliance members and the Unites States over nuclear strategy. However, this study argues that this would be a wrong measure of success. NATO was hopelessly deadlocked, and keeping the unity was in itself a hidden success. It shows that success and failure are not judgments that are always obvious and clear, but that interpretation is an important part of the study of leadership.

Leaders' Orientations to Diversity: Two Cases from Education

Lumby, J. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

This article explores two case colleges in England to consider how context, conceptualisation, orientation and action interact in relation to diversity issues in leadership. Focus group and individual interview data are analysed. Context is perceived as influential in shaping concepts and action. In one case, the diversity and socio-economic disadvantage of the community create a perceived imperative to address diversity, resulting in multiple conceptions of diversity and systemic action. In the second case, the context of a perceived homogeneous community interacts with an equal opportunities conceptualization of diversity to justify little or no action. A tentative theoretical model is suggested to frame further enquiry.

Leadership as Emotional Labour: The Effortful Accomplishment of Valuing Practices

Iszatt-White, M. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Within the context of an ethnographic study of leadership in the learning and skills sector, this article focuses on the role of leadership in making stafffeel valued (Iszatt-White & Mackenzie-Davey, 2003) and the‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild, 1983) through which leaders’ valuing practices are accomplished. By shadowing college leaders, observation was made of the day-to-day practices through which they sought to give staff a feeling of being valued. The article provides evidence of such‘valuing practices’ before going on to explicate the notion of emotional labour— previously researched largely in the services sector— in the professional context of educational leadership. In doing so, it differentiates professional emotional labour from‘emotional intelligence’ (Goleman, 1995), a more common theme within the management literature. It also explores the role of social identity and value congruence in moderating the‘emotional dissonance’(Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993) which can result from a requirement for prolonged emotion work.

Leadership as the Hybrid Production of Presence(s)

Fairhurst, G. T., Cooren, F. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Leadership scholars and lay actors often attribute a certain presence to great leaders in describing a commanding style or a charismatic personality. However, leadership presence and its mirror concept, absence, have been difficult concepts for researchers to study. This article proposes to redress this short coming using actor-network theory (ANT). In ANT, the focus is on human and nonhuman agents, their hybrid forms, networked socialaction, and macro acting, the latter of which enables leaders or followers to speak on behalf of their organizations. Together with ANT’s emphasis on the role of narrative, this approach directs analysts to the situated construction of actor networks in which leadership presence or absence is attributed. An emphasis on discourse also shows how various actants are imbued with meaning, enabling analysts to unravel networks andflows of power associated with leadership presence/absence. Leadership discourses involving charismatic/transformational leadership are considered as well as the disaster management networking associated with two US Governors, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kathleen Blanco, for their respective handling of the California wildfires and hurricane Katrina.

Book Review: Guido Houben and Tim Maxian Rusche (eds), Leadership as a Vocation. Nomos Publishers, 2008. 221 pp. ISBN: 9783832937478

Jepson, D. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Book Review: Steve Kempster, How Managers Have Learnt to Lead -- Exploring the Development of Leadership Practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. 253pp. ISBN: 9780230220959

Visram, K. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Call for Papers

Marturano, A. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:45:23 PDT

Leadership in Higher Education: Facts, Fictions and Futures -- Introduction to the Special Issue

Bolden, R., Petrov, G., Gosling, J., Bryman, A. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:25:54 PDT

Distributed Leadership in Higher Education: What Does It Accomplish?

Gosling, J., Bolden, R., Petrov, G. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:25:54 PDT

The term `distributed leadership' has been prominent in research into educational management for some time. A number of articles have recently questioned the explanatory utility of the concept; in this article we examine its rhetorical function in higher education institutions. We suggest that it has served to contain, and to some extent ameliorate, two contradictions in the experience of academics who take on managerial roles or who exert leadership of some sort. First, it may help to make sense of a contrast between their experience of leadership and their sense of what it should be; second, it helps to mediate conflicts in the identity-work of being an academic and a manager. Also, placed in the wider context of changes in the cultures of universities, `distributed leadership' masks the concentration of influence with those who have control of budgets, and simultaneous threats to traditional means of upward communication, and the predominance of academic leadership. We conclude that the term `distributed leadership' draws attention to the large number of actors involved in leadership, and the importance of organizational processes in shaping their engagements, but has limited use as an analytical heuristic. However, it has a number of rhetorical functions that make a significant contribution to the ways in which leadership is accomplished in sectors such as higher education.

Why Research Leadership in Higher Education? Exploring Contributions from the UK's Leadership Foundation for Higher Education

Middlehurst, R., Goreham, H., Woodfield, S. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:25:54 PDT

This article first presents a historical examination of leadership and leadership research in higher education, placing it in the context of increasing interest and activity in relation to leadership and leadership development across various public sector bodies in the UK. It then examines why research (on leadership, management and governance) is regarded as an important activity for the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and what role it plays in the Foundation's agenda. A brief overview of the research commissioned between 2005 and 2008 is presented and questions — `is there something special and different about leadership in higher education?' and `how has the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education research contributed to policy, practice and development?' — are discussed. The article concludes by consideration of the role of research in mediating between political and institutional perspectives on leadership in higher education.

Leadership Researchers on Leadership in Higher Education

Bryman, A., Lilley, S. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:25:54 PDT

This article reports the findings of a study in which leadership researchers were interviewed regarding their experiences and perceptions of leadership in higher education institutions. In particular, the research was concerned with the types of leadership associated with effectiveness, particularly at the Head of Department level. While several forms of leadership were identified as likely to be effective and ineffective, no single type of leadership stood out. The authors consider the implications of the findings for the development of leadership competency frameworks, noting in particular that interviewees tended to be sceptical about them because the frameworks tend to underestimate the significance of contextual factors. The authors also consider why it may be that many of the issues identified from the interview transcripts relate to well-known established themes.

The Changing Nature of the Academic Deanship

de Boer, H., Goedegebuure, L. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:25:54 PDT

The university as an organization is changing, incorporating elements of private sector management in an academic setting. In these transforming universities middle management has changed as well. In this contribution changes in the role and position of the academic deanship are analysed in more detail. On the basis of a literature review, a description of the deanship is provided, including the main challenges this position entails. It is argued that the deanship has become more demanding, more senior, more strategic, more complex and more managerial in nature, though within the overall context of academe. We illustrate both the complexity and changing nature of the deanship by drawing on two empirical studies. Since research on middle management in universities is still rather thin, more research is welcome. Therefore we conclude with some suggestions for further research to enhance our understanding of what we see as a key management position within today's universities.

`Blended Leadership': Employee Perspectives on Effective Leadership in the UK Further Education Sector

Collinson, D., Collinson, M. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:25:54 PDT

This article explores employee perspectives on effective leadership in UK Further Education (FE). Studies on leadership effectiveness typically seek either to specify the individual qualities of `heroic' leaders or, increasingly, to highlight the collective nature of `post-heroic' leadership. While these discourses are frequently seen as dichotomous and competing, our research found that FE employees often value practices that combine elements of both. They tended to prefer subtle and versatile practices that we term `blended leadership'; an approach that values, for example, both delegation and direction, both proximity and distance and both internal and external engagement. Drawing on other studies which indicate that paradoxical blends of apparently irreconcilable opposites might form the basis for effective leadership, the article considers the implications of this analysis for the study of Higher Education (HE). It concludes by highlighting the potential value of more dialectical approaches to the theory and practice of leadership.

Leadership Configurations

Gronn, P. — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 08:25:54 PDT

In this article I argue for a revised unit of analysis in leadership. I refer to this unit as a configuration. The need for this revision arises out of a reconsideration of `distributed' as a valid and accurate means of representing leadership. While aggregated, rather than holistic, understandings of distributed leadership have assumed prominence in educational circles and the public sector, aggregation is an indiscriminate approach to demonopolizing the idea of solo leadership and decentring `the' leader. By treating pluralities of leaders as numerically equivalent or all-of-a-piece, for example, an aggregated understanding makes little allowance for different levels of leadership and for qualitative differences among leading units. In a number of empirical accounts of distributed leadership, however, individual leaders still figure prominently as agents of influence, although they frequently do so in company with a variety of emergent `small number' formations. For this reason, the totality of such arrangements represents a time-, space-, context- and membership-bound configuration of influence-based relationships, the dynamics of which, due to the mixed patterning of the formations, are most accurately characterized as `hybrid'. Some suggestions are made concerning the significance of this proposed unit revision along with their implications for research into leadership practice.

Erratum

Fri, 01 May 2009 10:45:34 PDT

Weaving Color Lines: Race, Ethnicity, and the Work of Leadership in Social Change Organizations

Ospina, S., Su, C. — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:45:34 PDT

For social change organizations working to address intractable social problems throughou the US tackling race may not only be unavoidable, it may also represent away to fully engage stakeholders in social change work. We argue that illuminating the relationship between race and leaders hip can advance our understanding of how social change leadership happens in practice. We build upon scholarship that emphasizes the ways in which seemingly essentialist, intractable racial categories are actually mutable, and the simultaneous emergence of academic research calling attention to the constructed and collective dimensions of leadership. Using a constructionist lens to analyze narratives from 22 social change organizations and building six of these as in-depth cases, we document three distinct means of understanding race, explore how they help to do the work of leadership, and suggest ways in which they seem to move their work forward.

Representations of Change within Dyadic Relationships between Leader and Follower: Discourses of Pregnant Followers

Makela, L. — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:45:34 PDT

This study explores the different discourses of change within dyadic leader—follower relationships due to the followers' pregnancy. The research draws on qualitative interviews with 20 pregnant working women in Finland The discourses of change were produced in tal through the participants' subjective emotional experiences about the direction of development (both positive and negative). Therefore, each of the discourses is presented here using representations of emotions. In this study, three different discourses were identified that represent change within the leader—member exchange (LMX) relationship. These were `practical discourse', `future orientation discourse', and `individual attention discourse'. The contribution of the article is threefold. First, the discursive approach applied in this study is rarely used in conjunction with LMX studies or studies concerning pregnant working women. Second, considering the accounts about change within relationships between pregnant followers and their leaders deepens our understanding about working women. Third, the findings challenge the traditional view that leader—member exchange relationships are stable.

Developing Leaders in Cyber-space: The Paradoxical Possibilities of On-line Learning

Ladkin, D., Case, P., Gaya Wicks, P., Kinsella, K. — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:45:34 PDT

Whereas `distance learning' has often been seen as the poor relation of face-to- face educational encounters, this article suggests that paradoxically, this mode of delivery can offer significant advantages to those aiming to develop highly situated practices, such as leadership capability. In particular, the `distance' from the delivering educational establishment becomes `proximity' or an affordance in terms of where the learning is actually applied, and the constraints of the programme's structure enable greater freedom on the part of participants as they choose which aspects of theory they focus on. The argument presented here is based on research conducted to gain insight into participants' experience of a two-year Masters in Leadership Studies delivered primarily through on-line, web-based technology. We conclude that despite appearing to be a `transmission'-based learning intervention, the on-line mechanism fosters an experience similar to action learning in its engagement with participants' contexts, and also enables a more `constructivist' approach to learning about the practice, as well as the theory, of leadership.

Emerging from Ethical Scandal: Can Corruption Really Have a Happy Ending?

O'Connell, W., Bligh, M. — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:45:34 PDT

Prior research suggests that companies with ethical leadership, a climate characterized by ethical values, and a formal ethics program have employees who engage in less misconduct. In this study, we examine one company's journey to develop these three elements and successfully emerge from scandal to eventually be hailed as a model of organizational ethics. A qualitative analysis of newspaper articles across three periods from scandal exposure to scandal emergence is used to explore the media's role in framing and reframing the perceptions of (un)ethical leadership actions and eventually changing the reputation of one organization. Results sugges that the leaders in this case study helped move beyond the scandal by avoiding even the appearance of impropriety, making ethics visibly stand out from the everyday business environment, and working to symbolically create perceptions of an ethical climate both inside and outside of the organization. Leadership lessons and limitations of the study are discussed.

Are the Best Leaders Both Transformational and Transactional? A Pattern-oriented Analysis

Gavan O'Shea, P., Foti, R. J., Hauenstein, N. M. A., Bycio, P. — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:45:34 PDT

Research exploring transformational and transactional leader behaviors has focused largely on bivarite relations among these behaviors and relevant criteria. This has limited the extent to which Bass's (1985) argument that optimally effective leaders engage in both types of behavior can be directly assessed. Pattern-oriented analyses were used here to discern which behavioral pattern was associated with the highest levels of subordinate satisfaction and commitment. In general, optimally effective leaders used a combination of transformational and contingent reward (e.g. exchange-based transactional leadership) behaviors, coupled with a low level of passive management-by-exception behavior (e.g. remaining uninvolved until problems emerge).

Leadership Development: Insights from a Careers Perspective

Parker, P., Carroll, B. — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:45:34 PDT

This article reports on an exploratory empirical investigation into the resonance between two developmental processes to see if any insights into leadership development could be gained from using a careers lens. Career and leadership development both share contemporary shifts in emphasis: leadership from hero to distributed models ,and career from objective to subjective explorations of progress and success. Twenty-two participants on a leadership development program used a career card sort which was then processed with a peer partner to support personal meaning making . A constructivist-orientated content analysis of the resultant peer dialogues revealed four themes: challenge, ownership, sponsorship and work—life balance, which showed different aspects of the nexus between leadership and career. This nexus is characterized by a resonance in thesense of echoing that suggests that a careers lens used by peer partners provides additional insight into leadership and leadership development.

Book Review: Barbara Kellerman, Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Changing Leaders. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press, 2008. ISBN: 978--1--4221--0368--5

Harle, T. — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:45:34 PDT

Erratum

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:17:07 PST

Toward a `New' Strategic Leadership of Place for the Knowledge-based Economy

Gibney, J., Copeland, S., Murie, A. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:17:07 PST

This paper addresses the changing leadership task associated with a new agenda about the leadership of place. The shifting development context for cities and regions — including the emergence of the creative city and the knowledge-based region — places a renewed emphasis on the importance of interdisciplinary processes that stimulate the creation and the exploitation of knowledge. Consequently there is a requirement for an approach to the leadership of processes of collaborative learning and `associational'working. There is, however, a general lack of alignment of the literature on leadership, place-shaping and the stimulation of the knowledge-based economy. This article refers to the existing leadership literature and draws upon research related to economic development policy to initiate a discussion about the new leadership of place. It presents a rationale and outlines an initial argument for a more comprehensive approach to the leadership of place that takes account of the paradigm shift occurring in urban and regional studies.

Performing Leadership: Towards a New Research Agenda in Leadership Studies?

Peck, E., Freeman, T., Six, P., Dickinson, H. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:17:07 PST

The notion that leadership involves performance is not new, but there has been little detailed exploration of the implications of theories of performance for contemporary leadership practice. This article differentiates between leadership `is' performance and leadership `as 'performance as one means of investigating contemporary leadership. We suggest that this distinction allows for more sustainable accounts of the relationships between leaders, followers and the institutional settings within which they are generated and, consequently, the spaces in which there is potential for change to occur. The article argues that such insights may be made by combining ideas derived from writers on performance studies and performativity with new-institutionalist theory, the latter emphasising the crucial role of context in shaping the behaviour of leaders, so that their agency is always situated in specific settings.

Valence Image and the Standardisation of Democratic Political Leadership

Barisione, M. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:17:07 PST

The principles of selection of national candidates and contenders for political leadership are becoming increasingly standardised in Western contemporary democracies, which have been affected by two widespread processes: first, the growth of mass political communication via the electronic media; and second, the increasing deficit of perceived legitimacy of traditional representative institutions. After analysing such processes, this article draws attention to their standardising effects on the images of contemporary leaders. These are analysed in terms of three main elements: image traits, image types, and `vision'. Presenting and developing the notion of `valence image'as the most important dimension of a political leader's image, the article posits that two sets of `valence' image traits (`effectiveness' and `trustworthiness'), four image ideal-types (the `Outsider', the `Strong Leader', the `Everyday Man', the `Post-ideological'), as well as the presence of a consensual `vision' of the country have become the essential and standard prerequisites for access to contemporary political leadership.

Studying Leadership at Cross-Country Level: A Critical Analysis

Jepson, D. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:17:07 PST

This article critically evaluates the GLOBE project as an example of existing cross-cultural studies into leadership, recognising the project's value in communicating leadership differences across countries and summarising its methodological limitations. It is suggested that a dynamic and interactive approach is needed to overcome the shortfalls of the GLOBE project. Ailon-Souday and Kunda's (2003) work points the way towards such an approach, and it is the contribution of this article to apply this approach to the relationship between cultural context and leadership in the German and UK chemical industry. Analyses of a mixed methods data set support the theoretical arguments for the dynamic nature of different contexts such as national, organisational, hierarchical and departmental and the importance of this interaction for individual participants'understanding of leadership. Implications are drawn for the development of global managers in light of these new perspectives on the interaction of cultural context and leadership.

Exploring the Role of Leader--Subordinate Interactions in the Construction of Organizational Positivity

Pina e Cunha, M., Campos e Cunha, R., Rego, A. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:17:07 PST

In this article we discuss individual implicit theories of how positive and negative organizing unfold. The discussion is grounded in data collected from 89 individuals working in different organizational contexts. An inductive logic was followed, based on critical incidents of positive and negative processes and outcomes presented by participants, according to how they viewed their professional situation. Through a dialectical process of analysis, we extracted six dimensions that were present in different combinations among narratives provided by the participants: recognition/indifference, communication/silence, interaction/separation, confidence/ distrust, loyalty/betrayal, and organizational transparency/organizational secrecy. We then analysed how these dimensions fit together and discovered that they could be organized around four major patterns combining the clarity/secrecy of organizational rules and the considerate/detached behavior of leaders. We assert that positive leaders are essential in the creation of patterns of organizing, regardless of the features of the external context.

From Ineffectiveness to Destruction: A Qualitative Study on the Meaning of Negative Leadership

Schilling, J. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:17:07 PST

This article aims at analyzing the content and structure of managers' conceptions of negative leadership. Using semi-structured interviews, 42 managers were asked about their conceptions of negative leadership, its antecedents and consequences. Results show that the concept of negative leadership is associated with eight behavioural categories: insincere, despotic, exploitative, restrictive, failed, laissez-faire, and active- and passive-avoiding leadership. Negative leadership was causally attributed to the environment of the leader, especially the followers, the immediate working field, as well as organizational processes, structures, and resources were seen as potential sources for negative leadership. The main factors regarded as its consequences included negative follower feelings and attitudes, destructive follower behaviour, and devastating organizational results. An analysis of the relationship between the leadership categories revealed two underlying dimensions of human- versus task-orientation and passive versus active behaviour. Limitations of the present approach, implications for future research and organizational practice are discussed.