Academic Perspectives on Leadership Orla Kelleher … · 2018-06-26 · •Describing ‘leadership...

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Academic Perspectives on Leadership

Orla KelleherLoughborough University


What is leadership?

–To an extent leadership is like beauty; it’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it’ (Bennis, 1989)


What do academics ‘think’ leaders do..?


What are the differences between

leadership and management?

Leadership Management

• Deal with complexity

• Organize staffing

• Control the day to day

organization

• Solve problems

Adapted from (Kotter 1990)

• Instigate change

• Sets direction/vision

• Strategically align people

• Motivate people


Academic views on leadership….

• 1900’s - ‘Great Man’ – natural ‘heroes’ born, not made..

• 1920’s - Trait theories - ‘leadership characteristics/traits’

• 1930’s - Style - behaviour approach – ‘its not who a leader is but what they do and how they do it’

• 1960’s Contingency Theories – ‘its not what a leader does but how they respond to the situation/context..

• 1980’s onwards: New leadership theories – leadership as a process affecting individuals and organisations (e.g. transformational)

• 1980’s Influence Theories – ‘charismatic, visionary leader’

• 1990’s Relational Approach - ‘quality of the relationship between the leader and person’


Academic views on leadership

21st Centrury - Emerging Leadership approaches

•Authentic Leadership – ‘authenticity and passion’

•Ethical Leadership – ‘core values, vision with service’

•Servant Leadership – ‘Servant first vs leader first’

•Spiritual leadership – ‘values and calling’


Trait Theories (popular until 1900-1940’s)

• Developed out of personnel testing movement in the period following WW1

• ‘Great Man’ model

– Leaders are born, not made

– Possess innate traits

• Assumes cannot train people to be leaders

• Focuses on personal characteristics of leaders

– Personality traits, intelligence, motivation


Style approach

• In 1930’s leadership research began to focus on behaviour

• It is not who/what you are - it is how you do it that matters• Autocratic - power rests with the leader for decision-making, arbitration,

control and reward or punishment, who alone exercises this authority

• Democratic - these powers and responsibilities are shared with the group (also known as participative leadership)

•Laizzey Faire – ‘hands off’ approach

(Lewin, 1939)


Style - behavioural approach

• How managers use task and relationship behaviours in the organisational setting (Blake and Moulton, 1964)


Situational Approach (1960’s - ..)

Contingency theory focuses on the match between the leader’s style and specific situational factors

Hershey & Blanchard, 1969


New Leadership in 21st Century

• Appeared in mid-1980’s ‘new leadership approaches’ (Bryman, 1992)

• Describing ‘leadership as a process that changes people and organisations’

• Growing recognition of the role of informal leadership at all levels

• Leadership studies focusing on ‘Visionary or Charismatic’ leadership theory

• Transactional vs Transformational leadership (Burns, 1978, Bass & Avolio, 1994-2004)


• Charismatic leadership – a charismatic inspirational figure motivating followers to superlative levels of achievement

• Framing: defining the ‘vision’ or ‘situation’ in a way which produces excitement

• Rhetorical crafting: using metaphors, language, emotions

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=jSw_FyUyFMg&NR=1

Visionary or Charismatic Leadership

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=jSw_FyUyFMg&NR=1


Transactional Leadership

• Clarify employees’ roles, responsibilities and task requirements,

• Initiate structure, provide rewards and display consideration for employees

• Excel at management functions and emphasise aspects of performance, such as plans and schedules and budgets

• They have a sense of commitment to the organisation and take pride in keeping things run smoothly and efficiently

• Q. Is this leadership or management?


Transformational Leadership

• Able to inspire and motivate people to do more than they would normally do, despite obstacles and personal sacrifices

• Have an inspiring vision of an imagined future that people identify with

• Ability to empathise and understand, empower and trust people to accomplish results

• Special ability to bring about innovation and change by recognising people’s needs and concerns, bring meaning,

• Challenging people to look at old problems in new ways, and act as role models for new values and behaviours

• Typically, emotionally stable and positively engaged with the world


Super leadership (Manz and Sims, 2001)

Is a leader who leads others to lead themselves


Authentic Leadership (George, 2003)

• Leaders who know and understand themselves

• Who espouse and act consistent with higher order ethical values

• Who empower and inspire others with their openness and authenticity.

• Key characteristics of authentic leaders

• Pursue their purpose with passion

• Practice solid values

• Lead with their heart as well as their hearts

• Establish connected relationships

• Demonstrate self-discipline


Ethical Leadership (Northouse, 2013)


Harvard Business 2016 Review of 195 global leaders in 15 countries over 30 global organisations.

https://hbr.org/2014/12/research-10-traits-of-innovative-leaders

Competencies of Leadership?

https://hbr.org/2014/12/research-10-traits-of-innovative-leaders


Servant Leadership (Greenleaf, 1970)

• A servant leader transcends self-interest to serve others and the organisation

• Servant leaders operate on two levels;

• for the fulfilment of their staff goals and need

• for the realisation of the larger purpose or mission of their organisation

• Servant leaders give things away – power, ideas, information, recognition, credit for accomplishments, even money (eg. Bonuses)


Other trends in leadership research

• Distributed or collaborative leadership (Harris 2012, Gronn, 2002-9 , Kempster et al., 2014)

• 5 Key attributes • Empathy

• Patience

• Tenacity

• Skill in holding difficult conversations

• Coalition building

(Archer & Cameron, 2009)

Team

Organisaton

Sector

Society


Other trends in leadership research

• Leadership and gender – a growing area of literature and debate


21st Century - Emerging Leadership approaches

Spiritual leadership – ‘values and calling’

Malala YousufzaiMother Teresa Shirin Ebadi

Christina Noble Halla Tomasdottir


The New Reality for Leaders

Daft, 2015


https://www.ted.com/talks/halla_tomasdottir

https://www.ted.com/talks/halla_tomasdottir

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

Warren Bennis


incandescentthe light of unstoppable fire

when the fires of passion are so strong,

nothing can stand in your way!

only you…can really know

the unique leader you can become….

True to yourself…

True to your gender….

the light of uniqueness


References

• Bernard M. Bass (1999) Two Decades of Research and Development inTransformational Leadership, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 8:1, 9-32

• Bass, B.M.; & Avolio, B.J. (1994). Improving organisational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

• Bass, B.M.; & Steidlmeier, P. (2006). Transformational leadership (2nd ed). Mahawah, NJ:Lawrence Erlbaum

• Daft, R. (2015) The Leadership Experience. 6th Edition. US Cengage Learning

• George, B., (2013) Defining the Authenticity in Authentic Leadership. Journal of Values-Based Leadership, Vol 6, Issue 1. Article 7

• Kotter, J.P., (1990). A Force for Change: How leadership differs from management. New York: Free Press.

• Northouse, J.P, (2013) Leadership: theory and practice (6th ed) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage


Any questions?

Thank you

Orla Kelleher

Academic Perspectives on Leadership Orla Kelleher … · 2018-06-26 · •Describing ‘leadership...

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