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1 – 10 of over 12000Shannon Flumerfelt and Michael Banachowski
This research article is based on the Baldrige National Quality Program Education Criteria for Performance Excellence's conceptualization of improvement as a dual cycle/three…
Abstract
Purpose
This research article is based on the Baldrige National Quality Program Education Criteria for Performance Excellence's conceptualization of improvement as a dual cycle/three element initiative of examining and bettering inputs, processes, and outputs as driven by measurement, analysis and knowledge management work. This study isolates a portion of one input element of leadership, higher education leadership paradigms of concern. These paradigms are analyzed and presented as points of improvement related to lean training for higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
This quantitative study utilized an online survey, prior to lean training, to identify leadership paradigms of concern by rank, and by significant paired association, using chi‐square tests and the Yates' correction for several higher education institutions.
Findings
The study identifies six highly ranked, and seven highly associated leadership paradigms of concern. The one paradigm that was most highly ranked and most highly associated is confronting ambiguity. The findings highlight that improving leadership paradigms is important.
Research limitations/implications
The study's implications are limited to the higher education respondents' organizations. However, the results of the study provide some insight into the impact of leadership paradigms on improvement work in these higher education settings, where an average of 5.6 paradigms of concern and 114 paired associations were selected.
Originality/value
Much has been written about the explicit elements of the improvement cycle, the processes and outputs of organizational systems. While the improvement elements of inputs are more tacit and harder to define, examining them via force field analysis can be extremely helpful in total quality management work and leadership development.
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Vuokko Pihlainen, Tuula Kivinen and Johanna Lammintakanen
The purpose of this paper is to describe how Finnish experts perceive future (year 2030) hospital management and leadership.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe how Finnish experts perceive future (year 2030) hospital management and leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 33 experts participated in a three-round Argument Delphi process. Opposing views of management and leadership in 2030 were analyzed using inductive content analysis.
Findings
The experts’ perceptions were divided into two main categories: management and leadership orientation and future organization. Perceptions relating to management and leadership orientation were classified as relating to patient-centred, clinical dominance, professionally divided and management career options. Perceptions relating to future management and leadership organization were classified as representing shared, pair, team and the individual-centered leadership. The results highlighted the most distinctive issues raised by the participants.
Research limitations/implications
This qualitative study was conducted in the context of Finnish healthcare according to the principles of the Argument Delphi Method. The panel consisted of high-level experts representing a diverse set of roles. However, as suggested in previous literature, these experts may not be the most astute in predicting the future development of hospital organizations.
Practical implications
The findings can be used to develop and renew management and leadership training and management practices in hospitals.
Social implications
The findings can be exploited in discussions, planning and decision making regarding future management and leadership in hospitals.
Originality/value
Only a few studies have investigated perceptions of future management in hospitals. This study adopted the Argument Delphi Method to identify distinct perceptions on the future orientation and organization of management and leadership in hospitals.
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Kwasi Dartey-Baah and Seth Ayisi Addo
Leaders are seen as representatives of their organisations; as such, their actions and behaviours towards their subordinates reflect on the organisations. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Leaders are seen as representatives of their organisations; as such, their actions and behaviours towards their subordinates reflect on the organisations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of some dimensions under transformational and transactional leadership styles on perceived organisational support (POS) in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 264 engineers and technicians from the country’s power transmission subsector through a survey. Covariance-based structural equation modelling was used in analysing the data with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences and AMOS.
Findings
The analysis indicated surprisingly that idealised influence predicted POS negatively while intellectual stimulation had no significant influence on employees’ POS. However, inspirational motivation, individualised consideration and contingent rewards predicted employees’ POS positively with contingent reward having the highest influence on POS.
Practical implications
The study’s findings indicate the importance that engineers and technicians in Ghana attach to support from their leaders, specifically inspiration and motivation, consideration for their needs and interests and rewards for their performance; thus, the study recommended that organisations must entreat their leaders to show such supportive behaviours towards their subordinates.
Originality/value
The study findings present fresh knowledge from a developing country perspective with regard to the importance that employees attach to these leadership dimensions.
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Shimei Yan, Yike Wu and Gang Zhang
There are mainly two viewpoints on women’s leadership effectiveness compared with that of men – the questioning view and the admiring view, two points of view that are not in…
Abstract
Purpose
There are mainly two viewpoints on women’s leadership effectiveness compared with that of men – the questioning view and the admiring view, two points of view that are not in agreement. Based on that, this study aims to find the gender difference in leadership effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses carefully matched male and female presidents (223 pairs) of Chinese listed companies and male and female chief executive officers (141 pairs) of American listed companies as samples. Analysis of variance was conducted to analyze the indicator data of the leadership effectiveness.
Findings
The findings show that women’s leadership effectiveness is not significantly inferior to that of men, and that women’s leadership effectiveness compared to that of men in the Chinese cultural context is not inferior to that in the American cultural context. The findings do not support the questioning view of women’s leadership effectiveness.
Originality/value
This study first uses the carefully matched (female/male leaders) data of Chinese listed companies and American listed companies as samples to find which viewpoint (the questioning view and the admiring view) is supported or is not supported.
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Karen L. Samuels, Glenda Reynolds and Nick Turner
The dual purpose of this paper is (1) to describe and contextualize encounters between mentors' and mentees' differing needs in a leadership development programme and (2) to posit…
Abstract
Purpose
The dual purpose of this paper is (1) to describe and contextualize encounters between mentors' and mentees' differing needs in a leadership development programme and (2) to posit that practice negotiating frictional encounters constructs “good fit” between mentors and mentees and is a potentially important skill for leadership development.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors gathered data through qualitative, semi-structured interviews of mentors, mentees and mentoring programme staff participating in a mentoring programme for leadership development offered at a mid-sized Canadian business school. Using a grounded theory, interpretive analytical approach, the authors examine the notion of “good fit” and how it emerged in encounters between participants' diverse needs.
Findings
The authors identified participants' mentoring needs by eliciting their experiences of “good fit” in the focal leadership development programme. The findings revealed that encounters between contrasting needs fell into two categories: (1) the need for career advising versus leadership development and (2) the need for structured versus free-flowing conversation. Those encounters, in turn, generated opportunities for leadership development.
Practical implications
The findings have valuable implications for designing mentoring for leadership programmes. Namely, the authors propose pairing individuals with similar deeper-level qualities but diverse educational backgrounds and experiences to allow for practice in negotiating encounters with friction and contrast.
Originality/value
As an empirical study of mentoring for leadership development in practice, this study applies a dialectical approach to encounters across contrasting mentoring needs. In doing so, it locates leadership development potential in those frictional encounters.
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The aim of this paper is to show what the leaders themselves regard as the working ingredients in their mutual work situation that help to facilitate personal development.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to show what the leaders themselves regard as the working ingredients in their mutual work situation that help to facilitate personal development.
Design/methodology/approach
In the paper data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with 14 leaders at low and middle management levels in different lines of business within the private and public sector. The analysis of the learning processes draws on the theory of transformative learning.
Findings
The paper revealed that joint leadership, according to the leaders, could provide the leaders themselves with a basis of personal development and learning. This depends on common core values, a supportive relationship and common work processes as well as complementarity, joint sense making and critical reflection.
Research limitations/implications
The implies that joint leadership provides possibilities of transformative learning through examination of different points of view, through explicitly talking about habits of mind, and through stepwise changes of existing frames of reference. The results indicate that joint leadership offers the possibility of a deepened learning process in daily work in a communicative relationship where profound values and ways of acting are openly shared and critically‐reflected upon. Joint leadership should however not be forced on to managers.
Originality/value
The paper provides insights into learning processes for leaders, based on the possibilities, which can be created through joint leadership.
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Joseph E. Mroz, Emanuel Schreiner and Joseph A. Allen
Meetings are an integral function in organizations where interaction between leaders and their employees and thus, leadership, happens. A small but growing area of research within…
Abstract
Meetings are an integral function in organizations where interaction between leaders and their employees and thus, leadership, happens. A small but growing area of research within the larger workplace meetings domain has started to focus on the role of leaders in promoting effective and satisfying meetings. This chapter provides an overview of research to date on workplace meetings and leadership, and the authors identified seven studies that paired the two areas. The number of publications focusing on meetings and leadership is increasing, with the older papers largely dedicated to qualitative investigations of leader behaviors associated with successful meetings, whereas the more recent papers take a more theoretical and quantitative approach, yet are nonetheless largely isolated from one another. Next, the authors review five theories of leadership (full range of leadership, charismatic leadership, servant leadership, exploitative leadership, and followership), and relate each of the theories to workplace meetings, with a key focus on how the theory may impact subordinates’ perceptions of meetings as well as the utility of meetings for team and organizational functioning. The authors propose seven areas throughout the chapter that future research could explore to extend knowledge about how leadership operates in meetings and how meetings are an important aspect to consider with respect to leadership theories. Primary theoretical contributions are the integration of existing work on leadership and meetings and theoretically based propositions for future research.
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Mary Lacity and Leslie Willcocks
This paper aims to answer the question: how do clients and BPO service providers work together to foster dynamic innovation? Dynamic innovation is a process by which clients…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to answer the question: how do clients and BPO service providers work together to foster dynamic innovation? Dynamic innovation is a process by which clients incent providers to deliver many innovations each year that improve the client's performance in terms of operational efficiency, process effectiveness and/or strategic impact.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on research conducted in 2011 and 2012 and includes 202 survey responses and 48 in-depth interviews in 24 client organizations.
Findings
The most effective innovation incentives are mandatory productivity targets, innovation days, and gain-sharing at the project level. Threat of competition and special governance arrangements for innovation also positively influence innovation. The least successful incentives for innovations were found to be innovation funds, gainsharing at the relationship level, what has been called “pain-sharing”, and benchmarking.
Research limitations/implications
The 24 BPO relationships do not represent a random sample, but rather a convenience sample. The authors aimed to understand emerging best practices from high-performing BPO relationships, thus the paired interview samples are purposefully biased towards higher-performing relationships.
Practical implications
Delivering innovations requires a process the authors call AIFI – acculturating, inspiring, funding, and injecting. The research finds that leadership pairs are key drivers of the dynamic innovation process. Leadership pairs jumpstart the dynamic innovation process by starting with innovation incentives. Even so, just having one right leader makes a positive difference. The positive difference is stronger if that leader is on the client side rather than the provider side. With no right leaders, the practices that the authors describe are less efficacious but still have positive impacts on the levels of innovation experienced.
Originality/value
In the ITO and BPO literatures, researchers have under-examined the more strategic drivers of outsourcing, including innovation. This research examines the process and practices that deliver dynamic innovation in client organizations.
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Adam S. Maiga and Fred A. Jacobs
This study extends prior research on the relation between information technology (IT) and firm performance by using both univariate and multivariate econometric models to assess…
Abstract
This study extends prior research on the relation between information technology (IT) and firm performance by using both univariate and multivariate econometric models to assess the hypothesized relationships. Additionally, sample selection bias and endogeneity are examined to determine their effect, if any, on the results. The univariate results indicate that, on average, IT leaders outperform non-IT leaders. After controlling for sample selection bias and endogeneity, using Wooldridge (2002) 2SLS-IV, the coefficient of the endogenous variable is higher than suggested by ordinary least squares estimation and the Hausman F-Test is significant, indicating that the relationship between IT and firm performance is endogenous. Thus, it is important to control for sample selection bias and endogeneity to properly estimate the relationship between IT and firm performance.
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What behaviour is induced in leaders/managers when subordinates areunco‐operative? In this Nigerian study 25 managers were divided intothree groups, each with a leader appointed…
Abstract
What behaviour is induced in leaders/managers when subordinates are unco‐operative? In this Nigerian study 25 managers were divided into three groups, each with a leader appointed from the members – who were then secretly briefed to be troublesome. Leaders exhibited the behaviours of coercive autocracy, dependence, flight/fight, pairing, passivity/laissez‐faire, confusion and anomie. In assessing a leader′s performance, the impact of the followers on the leader deserves attention.
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