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This paper aims to look at how the word “leadership” is often used too casually and too carelessly.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to look at how the word “leadership” is often used too casually and too carelessly.
Design/methodology/approach
Attention is drawn to the importance of understanding the nature of the organisation where leadership occurs.
Findings
The paper illustrates why leadership is not a matter of personal qualities but a “function of the organisation” in which the overriding consideration is context and organisational purpose.
Originality/value
The paper provides a useful explanation of leadership.
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We all tend to think of older people as being about 15 years older than we are – whatever our age is – and yet it is now generally true that old people are a lot younger than they…
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We all tend to think of older people as being about 15 years older than we are – whatever our age is – and yet it is now generally true that old people are a lot younger than they ever were. This means that almost everything that has been said and written about – for example – the over 50s no longer applies. Because of the demographic changes that are increasing healthy longevity, there has to be a reappraisal of the nature of work and the organization of employment, but unhappily there is little sign of this either on the part of governments or HRD managers and there has been little lead from the UK Employers Forum on Age which was supposed to address these issues.
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ARTHUR E. SMITH has been appointed chairman of United Aircraft on the retirement of William P. Gwinn, and HARRY J. GRAY to be chief executive officer. EDWARD L. HENNESY Jr has…
Abstract
ARTHUR E. SMITH has been appointed chairman of United Aircraft on the retirement of William P. Gwinn, and HARRY J. GRAY to be chief executive officer. EDWARD L. HENNESY Jr has been appointed senior vice‐president, finance and administration.
The chapter describes an approach to teaching people how to understand organisations by focussing on observing what is going on in the group itself and the experiences of the…
Abstract
The chapter describes an approach to teaching people how to understand organisations by focussing on observing what is going on in the group itself and the experiences of the members individually and collectively. This mode of learning does not use descriptions or theories about organisations but sees each group as unique in its particularities not as generalisable behaviour. The approach is called subjective theory and provides a basis for a general theory of organisations which has eluded most writers but is epitomised in the work of Carl Rogers and Encounter Groups.
The method fits well with the concept of the reflective practitioner and has a long tradition dating from the 1930s and the work of the Tavistock Institute and Elliot Jaques, and the Glacier Papers. The approach has been poplar in the UK, Canada, the USA, Western Europe, South Africa and Australia. Subjective theory provides a way of counterbalancing the currently dominant objective approaches used in artificial intelligence which often becomes reductionist and simplistic.
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A theoretical framework is proposed based on the events within a study group, “Management Development in Areas where the Concern is Recent”. Using a phenomenological perspective a…
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A theoretical framework is proposed based on the events within a study group, “Management Development in Areas where the Concern is Recent”. Using a phenomenological perspective a theoretical framework from the process of development of the group is derived. The group found it difficult to agree a definition of “area of recent concern” as it applies to types of actual or potential client system where management development is a relatively new concept or practice. Cautionary restraint is provided to anyone about to embark on management development in new areas who has not considered that fundamentally new issues and problems may be encountered.
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Anne Gimson, Harry Gray and Ian Cunningham
This chapter forms the introduction to the book and offers an overview on the main aspects of leadership development that require explanation and further consideration. The…
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This chapter forms the introduction to the book and offers an overview on the main aspects of leadership development that require explanation and further consideration. The current poor state of much development is considered and evidence provided of the deficiency in our understanding of organisations and how they function in actuality.
The misunderstandings about how people behave and how they really manage or lead are explored. One of the most important of these is the assumption of transferability, not just between national and regional cultures but within societal cultures, sectors, industries and organisations. This assumption applies equally to learning interventions which can have contradictory forms by being based on criteria external to the company and the individual leaders within it. The dominance of university business schools is also questioned.
The introduction concludes with an overview of the two-part format of the book and provides a pen picture of each chapter.
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Ian Cunningham, Anne Gimson and Harry Gray
This concluding chapter identifies where we might place our attention going forward and confirms the principles on which we should base our work. We do not mandate what should…
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This concluding chapter identifies where we might place our attention going forward and confirms the principles on which we should base our work. We do not mandate what should form best practice in leadership development, nor is there an attempt to forecast what might happen globally. We both encourage readers to base their efforts on evidence and point to arenas where there is a particular or pressing need for change, such as in the development of political leaders.
This chapter addresses the continuing lack of systemic thinking and identifies ways in which pressures on leaders are increasing. It also shows how problems of mindset require consideration. The call for diversity will be unsurprising and ways leadership development can and should support this are offered; demand not supply-led, learning as a social process and a call to consider ‘teams’ in a far broader way than its metaphorical origins of ‘teams in competitions with winners and losers’.
We could not end the book without addressing the virtual world into which leaders have been further catapulted recently due to Covid-19. We do not explore this creative landscape in all its exciting detail – that would be a book on its own. We more challenge the idea that the kind of person-centred, open, deeply-reflective and other-connected leadership development the organisational world needs will not be found solely online.
This chapter concludes with a final call to action for all of us to base our work on research, theory and evidenced practice.
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