Exploring Leadership in Modern Organizations

1. 7775 Leadership in Contemporary OrganisationsSemester 2, 2016 Dr Heba Batainah

2. Introduction • Overview • Unit outline • Textbook • Daft, R. & Pirola-Merlo, A. (2009). The Leadership Experience. Asia Pacific Edition, South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia

3. What is Leadership? Why should we Care?

4. Objectives After this session, you should be able to: • Understand the meaning of leadership. • Identify the primary reasons for leadership derailment and the new paradigm skills that can help you avoid it. • Recognise the traditional functions of management and the fundamental differences between leadership and management.

5. Objectives • Appreciate the crucial importance of providing direction, alignment, relationships, personal qualities and outcomes. • Realise how historical leadership approaches apply to the practice of leadership today.

6. The nature of leadership • Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and outcomes that reflect their shared purposes. - Joseph Rost (2003: pp4) • People activity. • Same qualities required for good leaders as needed for good followers.

7. The new reality for today’s organisations • World is changing • Scandals and insecurity • War and terrorism • Needs strong leaders in these circumstances • New paradigm

9. What leadership involves

10. The new reality for leadership Source: Daft and Pirola-Merlo (2009) The Leadership Experience

11. Comparing management and leadership

12. Comparing management and leadership • Managers need to become effective leaders. • Move to leadership valuing change. • Empowerment and relationships. • Leadership cannot replace management.

13. Comparing management and leadership The ‘soft’ skills of leadership complement the ‘hard’ skills of management, and both are needed to guide organisations effectively.

14. Discussion • Can somebody be a good leader and a good manager? • Do today’s leaders have to be good managers and vice versa? • Is it easy to distinguish leadership from management? • Is leadership more concerned with people than is management? (Think about your own workplace experience when answering these questions)

15. Evolving theories of leadership • ‘Great Man’ • Trait theories • Behaviour theories • Contingency theories • Influence theories • Relational theories • Authentic leadership

16. Leadership Theories • We will cover a range of leadership theories in this unit. • The following is a very quick over-view of some of the theories and how they relate to each other: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKUPDUDOBVo

17. Leadership is not automatic • New paradigm of leadership is the ability to use human skills to build a culture of performance, trust and integrity.

18. The need for followers • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ

19. Reasons for executive derailment • Acting in a bullying style. • Being cold, aloof and arrogant. • Betraying personal trust. • Being too ambitious and playing politics. • Performance problems with the business. • Unable to delegate. • Poor selection.

20. Learning the art and science of leadership • Leadership as an art • leadership skills and qualities cannot be learned from a textbook • takes practice and hands-on experience • personal exploration and development • Leadership as a science • knowledge and facts describe the process • how to use leadership skills to attain organisational goals

21. The Study of Leadership • ‘Leadership is both the most studied and least understood topic’ (Bennis and Nanus 1985). • ‘This is a book about the future…and the leadership required to move us into the exciting unknown’ (Hesselbein et al 1996). • ‘…suggests that leaders are mere figureheads, propelled by events which are beyond their control, even if it appears that events are controlled by them’ (Grint 1997).

22. The Study of Leadership • ‘Leadership is widely seen as both the problem and solution to all manner of contemporary issues: from ending world poverty to addressing global warming’ (Jackson and Parry 2007). • ‘Of all China’s challenges, none is more critical—or more daunting—than that of nurturing a new generation of leaders who are skilled, honest, committed to public service, and accountable to the Chinese people as a whole’ (Thornton 2006).

23. Discussion • Identify a leader who you admire • Explain why you admire this particular leader • How did your chosen leader acquire their leadership capability? • Your chosen leader can be from any field – politics, business, public service, voluntary organisation, sport, military, freedom fighter – and can be from any level – CEO, middle management, local politician, a country’s president.

24. The Rise and Rise of Leadership • Enormous growth of interest in leadership • Google 376 million items • Amazon 107,161 references • Google Scholar 2,370,000 references • Estimated that US$36-60 billion was annual global expenditure on management and leadership development (at least until the financial crisis). • Institutes or Centres of Leadership established around the world.

25. Why is the study of leadership so popular? • Leadership seen to be a vital element for performance improvement. • Considerable hype about leadership eg ‘Organizations and nations prosper or decline based solely on the vision and capability of their leaders’ (Krause 1997). • If you want to be successful it now seems you need to develop your leadership skills.

26. Why is the study of leadership so popular? • Storey puts forward four explanations: • Conventional explanation: Increasing complexity and rapid pace of modern society • Institutional explanation: Pressure on individuals and organisations to emulate others • Sociological explanation: legitimises authority, power, and privileges of élites • Strategic advantage explanation: leadership needs to be cultivated to secure competitive advantage

27. So what is leadership? • ‘There are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define it’ (Bass 1990). • ‘The ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organisational goals’ • ‘The process of influencing others towards organisational goal achievement’ • ‘Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it’ • ‘leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and outcomes that reflect their shared purposes’

28. Defining Leadership 2 • Many definitions incorporate the following: • Leadership is a process • Leadership involves influence • Leadership occurs in groups • Leadership involves vision • Leadership includes attention to goals

29. Defining Leadership 3 • The text adds a few more generalizations: • Leadership is about change • Leadership is non-coercive • Leadership is multi-directional • Leadership is not ‘done’ to people • And ‘the qualities needed for effective leadership are the same as those needed to be an effective follower’ • What does this mean? Do you agree?

30. Key elements of leadership Lussier and Achua (2007) Leadership Influence Leadership Leaders-Followers Organizational Objectives Change People

31. Key elements of leadership R. Daft (2008) The Leadership Experience

32. Discussion • Do you think leadership can be learned? • Do you think you can change yourself to become a better leader? • What do you see as the most difficult aspect of leadership for you?

33. Towards a definition of leadership 1 • Avery makes the following general points about the meaning of leadership • Leadership not a concrete entity • Cultural variation in concept of leadership • Temporal variation in concept of leadership • Leadership studies replete with myths • Heroic leader no longer possible

34. Towards a definition of leadership 2 • Grint (2005) four quite different ways of understanding what leadership is: • Person: is it WHO ‘leaders’ are that makes them leaders? • Result: is it WHAT ‘leaders’ achieve that makes them leaders? • Position: is it WHERE ‘leaders’ operate that makes them leaders? • Process: is it HOW ‘leaders’ get things done that makes them leaders?

35. Should we abandon leadership? • Argument that leadership • Highly romanticised • Unnecessary • Process of selection imposes limited range of leadership styles • Discretion and behaviour of leadership constrained • Leader can’t affect many of the variables in the environment • Counter-argument that • ‘leave people without a term to describe the factor that provides direction and cohesion to a group’

36. Should we abandon leadership? • Counter-argument includes academics who see • Importance of ‘top team’ in organisations • Direct and indirect effects of leadership • Empirical studies that show leadership ‘does make a difference’ to organisational performance

37. What does a leader do? • This approach to defining leadership looks at functions • Task functions • Cultural functions • Symbolic functions • Political functions • Relational functions • What do you think are the most important tasks of leadership?

38. Roles of leaders • Figurehead • Spokesperson • Negotiator • Coach • Team-builder • Team player • Technical problem solver • Entrepreneur • Strategic planner

39. Discussion • For the list of roles on the previous slide, give an example of each role? • Have you performed any of these leadership roles? • Which roles do you find • Easiest? • Hardest?

40. The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership (Kouzes and Posner) • Model the way • Inspire a shared vision • Challenge the process • Enable others to act • Encourage the heart • What are these and why are they important? • How do Lindsay and Alan demonstrate these practices? • Do you think that these are exemplary practices for all cultures?

41. Learning from the past • There are many examples of contemporary writers who analyse successful leaders from history to identify their ‘secrets’ for success • These ingredients for success are particular behaviours and characteristics • They are seen to be generic and hence timeless and can be applied to the present

42. Who is this leader? Revered by some, Mass murderer to others

43. Genghis Khan’s empire at his death in 1227

44. Case Study: Genghis Khan • John Man (also written on Attila) has analysed Genghis’s leadership and identified the following ‘secrets’: • Control the message • Accept criticism • Get a vision • Keep promises • Share hardship • Know your own limitations • Make loyalty the prime virtue, and reward it

45. Case Study: Genghis Khan • Make firm rules and make them clear • Get real • In peace train for war • Make your interests the state’s interests • Choose an heir, allow debate • Employ the best • Surprise + Terror + Magnaminity = Victory • Philosophize (or at least pretend to) • Cultivate humility • Plan for eternity • Know your limits

46. Case Study: Genghis Khan • John Man does make the proviso that ‘Ghengis’s life story does not contain a recipe for successful leadership’ • ‘At best , among his responses to the challenges he faced, some leaders may spot some things which may suggest skills that may apply in the world today.’ • John Man then passes the task of selecting from Ghengis’s skills over to us.

47. Self-esteem and leadership

48. Locus of Control

49. Perception and leadership • https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/12/10/study-finds-gender-perception-affects-evaluations • Why have some countries embraced female leaders and others have not?

50. Accoutrements of leadership • How important are signs and symbols for leadership? • http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x156uvg_patton-s-opening-speech-to-the-troops-george-c-scott_shortfilms • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV9kyocogKo