Towards an integrated model of leadership and self regulation

Most organizations strive to recruit employees who can accommodate unpredictable changes, demonstrate adaptability, and interact effectively with a diversity of individuals. Nevertheless, recent advances in self regulation imply that leaders can instead cultivate such qualities in employees rather than merely attract individuals with these capacities. This paper delineates some of the leadership characteristics and behaviors that could diminish the fragility of employees to foster these qualities. First, a framework is developed that integrates four theories of self regulation—self discrepancy theory, personality systems interaction theory, optimal self esteem, and self salience. Second, this framework is applied to demonstrate how fragility undermines adaptive performance. Finally, this framework is used to show how many leadership constructs, such as self sacrificing, moral management, and transformational behavior, can curb this fragility and thus improve adaptive performance.     

Enacting the ‘true self’: Towards a theory of embodied authentic leadership

This paper argues that although authentic leadership may be rooted in the notion of a ‘true self’, it is through the embodiment of that ‘true self’ that leaders are perceived as authentic or not. In making this claim, we consider ways in which a somatic sense of self contributes to the felt sense of authenticity, and how through engaging with somatic cues, leadership can be performed in a way which is experienced as authentic, both to the leader and to those he or she seeks to lead. In developing our ideas further, we draw from the acting theory of Stanislavski (1936a, 1936b, 1961) to explore how authentic dramatic performances are created, focusing on the role of emotional memory, the magic ‘if’ and physical action in performances. We propose three key components of a resulting theory of how embodied authentic leadership is created: self exposure, relating, and making leaderly choices.     

Leader diffuse status and leadership outcomes: Towards an integrative framework

This review seeks to enrich our understanding of how a leader's status influences leadership outcomes such as motivation to lead, leader emergence and perceived leader effectiveness. The focus is on the leader's diffuse status, that is, status derived from demographic (e.g., gender and race) and physical (e.g., height and body shape) characteristics. Drawing insights from empirical findings and their theoretical underpinnings, we (1) highlight the need to explicitly model the leader's diffuse status as a mediator in the relationship between leader demographic and physical characteristics and leadership outcomes, (2) differentiate the effects of the leader's diffuse status as perceived by others (interpersonal level) and the leader's diffuse status as perceived by the leader (intrapersonal level) and (3) synthesize a wide range of contextual factors that influence the degree to which the leader's demographic and physical characteristics affect leadership outcomes through the leader's diffuse status. Moreover, we explain how other status types, such as status derived from the leader's position in the organizational hierarchy and status related to task-relevant leader characteristics, can moderate the effects of the leader's diffuse status. Finally, we discuss the utility of our proposed integrative framework for researchers and practitioners and outline promising future research opportunities.     

Toward a theory of spiritual leadership

A causal theory of spiritual leadership is developed within an intrinsic motivation model that incorporates vision, hope/faith, and altruistic love, theories of workplace spirituality, and spiritual survival. The purpose of spiritual leadership is to create vision and value congruence across the strategic, empowered team, and individual levels and, ultimately, to foster higher levels of organizational commitment and productivity.I first examine leadership as motivation to change and review motivation-based leadership theories. Second, I note the accelerating call for spirituality in the workplace, describe the universal human need for spiritual survival through calling and membership, and distinguish between religion and spirituality. Next, I introduce a generic definition of God as a higher power with a continuum upon which humanistic, theistic, and pantheistic definitions of God can be placed. I also review religious- and ethics-and-values-based leadership theories and conclude that, to motivate followers, leaders must get in touch with their core values and communicate them to followers through vision and personal actions to create a sense of spiritual survival through calling and membership.I then argue that spiritual leadership theory is not only inclusive of other major extant motivation-based theories of leadership, but that it is also more conceptually distinct, parsimonious, and less conceptually confounded. And, by incorporating calling and membership as two key follower needs for spiritual survival, spiritual leadership theory is inclusive of the religious- and ethics and values-based approaches to leadership. Finally, the process of organizational development and transformation through spiritual leadership is discussed. Suggestions for future research are offered.     

Towards a socio-oecotechnology

The paper will attempt to demonstrate that within the broad ambit of the socio-technical model there is scope for development and for a degree of innovation. Two aspects of the model will be progressed and to some extent integrated. Firstly, I will argue that the joint optimisation (JtO) concept has not been elaborated and emphasised as much as it deserves and it needs to be sharply differentiated from the widely used notion of maximisation. Secondly, using JtO, I will extend the two system socio-technical model to a troika model by including the impact of technology on the oecological environment.¹ To obtain the best overall results, JtO has to be achieved between three systems: the social, the technical and the oecological. In this way, the extended model will engage with the public’s rapidly growing awareness of environmental hazards for which it frequently blames technologies. This extension also raises the socio-technical model from the micro- to the meso- and macro-level which was always the intention of the early pioneers. These theoretical developments will be treated heuristically and briefly illustrated by two case examples from recent research.     

Need for leadership as a moderator of the relationships between leadership and individual outcomes

Earlier research on situational leadership theories has produced little and partly contradictory evidence about the role of situational moderator variables in explaining the relationship between leadership and outcomes. In this article, we propose to concentrate on need for leadership as a singular moderator of the relationships between leadership and employee outcomes. Using a sample of 958 Dutch employees from various organizations, the moderator hypothesis was tested. Need for leadership was paired with three leadership factors and five outcome variables, generating 15 possible moderating effects. Five of these were significant. Although the findings compare favorably with other studies using leadership moderators, the effects are weak, and there is not much evidence that leadership–outcome relations are reversed by need for leadership.     

The loci and mechanisms of leadership: Exploring a more comprehensive view of leadership theory

Through a qualitative review of the leadership literature, we derive two fundamental principles for codifying the last century of leadership theory and research: the locus and mechanism of leadership. Our systematic review and categorization of past theories suggests that further development of the follower, collective and context loci, and the affect mechanism is needed. Building on these insights, we propose that by simultaneously considering all five loci and four mechanisms in their theories, leadership scholars can advance a more comprehensive and integrative understanding of the leadership phenomenon. We then demonstrate the potential of using the locus and mechanism framework for examining and expanding current and future leadership theory including work on shared and strategic leadership.     

Business leadership as a spiritual discipline

What motivates organizational leaders in their search for spirituality? They seek to integrate their inner journey with their day-to-day professional roles. This article describes how a course in spirituality for executives has provided tools to analyze and clarify intentions, avoid the traps of excessive greed and power, and make decisions that are both compassionate and effective. André L. Delbecq, DBA, the Thomas J. and Kathleen L. McCarthy Professor at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University in California, offers seminars in spirituality for organizational leadership through the MBA program and the Center for Executive Development. Delbecq is the first to admit his surprise at the number of executives who have repeatedly asked for courses in spirituality. He talks about how his seminars have helped CEOs and other top executives achieve greater effectiveness in leading organizations.     

Effective design of a global leadership programme

The purpose of this paper is to report level 3 evaluation findings from a leadership development programme. This paper comprises a case study, quantitative data analysis, and results from critical incident semi-structured interviews. A unique research model was developed from a literature review. There are many problems associated with the design and delivery of leadership development programmes. Senior executive-taught workshops, 360° feedback, and action learning were deliberately employed to increase the adoption and application of specific behaviours after the programme. The results substantiate previous findings on the impact of these elements by demonstrating concrete behavioural changes rather than perceived enhancement in leadership capabilities as often cited in other studies. The model should be further tested, applied and refined as necessary.

Organizations wishing to develop leaders could be guided by the model and findings of this research. A novel and innovative design model was developed from a literature review, tested against a leadership programme in a large well-known multi-national organization, and later refined based on the empirical results. It will be of value to HRD managers and researchers.     

Towards defining leadership competence around the world: What mid-level managers need to know in twelve countries

To further understand the roots of leadership success in the global marketplace, this study compares the importance placed on specific mid-level leadership skills across twelve countries. Supervisors' importance ratings were compared and contrasted. Overall, results showed that two leadership competencies have similar amounts of importance placed upon them regardless of managerial location. However, canonical discriminant functional analysis demonstrated variation. Depending on the country, leadership competence is conceptualized differently. Regional groupings do not accurately measure cultural effects on expectations of mid-level managers. Implications of the findings for HRD are discussed.     

Ecosystem leadership as a dynamic capability

We analyze the role and effect of ecosystem leadership understood as the exercise of effort towards others with the purpose of establishing and maintaining an ecosystem around a focal systemic innovation. While there has been much attention to the firms that sponsor ecosystems in the ecosystem literature, ecosystem leaders are usually characterized in an atheoretical manner, and the emphasis is on, leadership in existing ecosystems, thus neglecting the role leadership might play in ecosystem emergence. We clarify and provide theoretical grounding for the important role of leadership in emerging and maturing ecosystems. Building on transaction cost economics, we conceptualize an ecosystem as a governance structure that enables and sustains coordination and cooperation among multiple economic agents towards a focal innovative value proposition. Our basic argument is that the emergence of such an ecosystems is hampered by coordination and cooperation problems which markets and the price system cannot solve by itself. Resolving these problems requires assistance, and such assistance is what we call ecosystem leadership. To further characterize the exercise of leadership we use Teece's tripartite dynamic capabilities scheme. Leadership enables ecosystem emergence through three externally-oriented dynamic capabilities: facilitating the formation of a shared vision (sensing), inducing others to make ecosystem-specific investments (seizing) and engaging in ad hoc problem solving to create and maintain stability (reconfiguring/transforming). The latter capability in particular often continues to be important in a mature ecosystem. We provide a characterization of these capabilities and argue that the ecosystem leader role in a mature ecosystem likely stems from having successfully exercised these capabilities and that their exercise also puts the leader in a prime position for value capture. We discuss implications of our arguments for ecosystem theories, for managers and for policy makers.     

Towards a global economy

The author, a well known consultant on planning for technology, argues cogently for planning on a global scale. The alternative to widespread recognition and acceptance of the need for global planning is, he says: “the choice of which of the weapons existing we, as a species, shall use to commit suigenicide.”     

Physician leadership. An emerging leadership position

Demand is growing for Vice Presidents for Medical Management. This is a new physician executive position that enhances the ability of hospitals and health systems to more fully integrate delivery of care and thus attract managed care contracts. Located at a hospital, a health system's headquarters, or at a hospital's MSO, this position complements the traditional role of a hospital Vice President for Medical Affairs (or Medical Director), as well as the role generally played by the Medical Director in a managed care organization, linking them via a continuum of responsibilities. Compensation and prospects are high for qualified candidates.