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1 – 10 of over 16000
Article
Publication date: 4 February 2014

Michael Clark, Sally Denham-Vaughan and Marie-Anne Chidiac

The purpose of this paper is to discuss critical perspectives on what has become a dominant approach to public sector management and leadership in England and sets out a new…

1547

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss critical perspectives on what has become a dominant approach to public sector management and leadership in England and sets out a new conceptual perspective on leadership to improve this situation, namely a relational one.

Design/methodology/approach

A review of key literature on the topics discussed.

Findings

A new relational perspective on leadership and management is proposed, along with epistemological, ethical and practical considerations.

Research limitations/implications

The paper proposes this new approach to leadership and management in the public sector, but no empirical findings are discussed.

Practical implications

The perspective proposes that an explicit consideration of relationships and contextual factors should lie at the heart of leadership and management and all its practice.

Originality/value

This is the first time that a relational perspective on public sector management and leadership has been explicated.

Details

The International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, vol. 10 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9886

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 June 2009

Susan R. Komives, Susan D. Longerbeam, Felicia Mainella, Laura Osteen, Julie E. Owen and Wendy Wagner

The leadership identity development (LID) grounded theory (Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, & Osteen, 2005) and related LID model (Komives, Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, &…

Abstract

The leadership identity development (LID) grounded theory (Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, & Osteen, 2005) and related LID model (Komives, Longerbeam, Owen, Mainella, & Osteen, 2006) present a framework for understanding how individual college students develop the social identity of being collaborative, relational leaders interdependently engaging in leadership as a group process (Komives, Lucas, & McMahon, 1998, 2007). Challenges to applying and measuring this stage based developmental theory are discussed and recommendations are included.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 June 2012

Paige Haber

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine how college students define the concept of leadership and to identify gender, racial, and age differences within these…

Abstract

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine how college students define the concept of leadership and to identify gender, racial, and age differences within these definitions. Participants were 1100 undergraduate students drawn from a national sample. Participants were asked to detail their definitions of leadership, which were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The definitional themes served as dependent variables in determining differences by gender, race, and age. Ten leadership themes describing the relationship between the leader and followers, leader characteristics, and leadership outcomes were identified, and the frequency of themes reflected fairly hierarchical perceptions of leadership. Findings by gender, race, and age emerged for nine of the ten themes. More contemporary understandings of leadership were demonstrated by women than by men, and the interaction of gender and age for three themes suggested more contemporary understandings of leadership for traditionally-aged students than non-traditionally aged students.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. 11 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 January 2016

Valerie I. Sessa, Jillian Ploskonka, Elphys L. Alvarez, Steven Dourdis, Christopher Dixon and Jennifer D. Bragger

The purpose of our research was to use Day, Harrison, and Halpin’s, (2009) theory of leadership development as a premise to investigate how students’ constructive development is…

Abstract

The purpose of our research was to use Day, Harrison, and Halpin’s, (2009) theory of leadership development as a premise to investigate how students’ constructive development is related to their leader identity development and understanding of leadership. Baxter Magolda’s Model of Epistemological Reflection (MER, 1988, 2001) was used to understand constructive development, Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, & Osteen’s Leadership Identity Development (2005) to determine leader identity, and Drath’s principles of leadership (2001) to determine understanding of leadership. Fifty junior and senior college student leaders filled out the MER and participated in an interview about their leadership experiences. Interviews were coded according to the above constructs of leader identity development and leadership understanding. Although there was a relationship between leader identity development and understanding of leadership, no relationship was found between these two constructs and constructive development. Findings suggest that most of the student leaders still depend on others to help them construct reality. Furthermore, many believe that because they are in a leadership role, they are leaders while others are not.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

Article
Publication date: 16 August 2013

Ian Robson

The paper discusses the “narrative practices” utilised by women leading in a small sample of Early Years services in the North East of England. These Early Years settings are…

1661

Abstract

Purpose

The paper discusses the “narrative practices” utilised by women leading in a small sample of Early Years services in the North East of England. These Early Years settings are presented as an alternative site for studying women's experiences of leadership. It examines the way in which these women use narrative strategies and approaches to work in collaborative, community based services for young children and their families.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is drawn from a larger study into narratives of professional identity and their relation to interactional contexts. The study follows an interpretive paradigm, and used narrative and participative methodology and methods to work with a small number of participants purposively sampled from cohorts of the National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL). Participants were involved in reflective conversations about their leadership supported by interactive, visual methods in five extended sessions over the course of twelve months. Data from the larger study which related to the theme of “narrative practices” was subsequently coded and interpreted to inform this study.

Findings

Data coded as “narrative practices” led to the establishment of three high level categories of narrative practice found in the study. These are summarised in the metaphors of “tent making” (creating and using symbolic and narrative space with others), “skilled dancing” (improvising, and remembering with others) and “orchestration” (reflexive attuning). Data suggests that women involved in the study drew on their experience and values to develop sophisticated narrative practices that were particularly adaptive, ethically sensitive and sustainable – often in spite of “official” masculine leadership cultures.

Research limitations/implications

This specific study only draws on narrative accounts of three women leaders in Early Years services and as such is not intended to generate generalizable theory. The intention of the study is to conceptualise women's leadership as narrative practice, and in so doing to direct further study into these practices as aspects of effective leadership.

Practical implications

The study develops new ways of conceptualising and interpreting women's leadership practices and opens up opportunities for further study in this field. Access to this material also provides individuals (including women leading in UK Early Years services) and opportunity for reflection on their own leadership practice.

Originality/value

This study is unique in using a form of highly participative, reflective methodology to consider women's use of narrative in leadership interactions in the UK Early Years sector. The study is the first in this sector to look at this specific topic using aspects of Ricoeur's (1984) narrative hermeneutics and in so doing generates new questions about women's narrative practices.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 October 2019

Betty Onyura, Sara Crann, Risa Freeman, Mary-Kay Whittaker and David Tannenbaum

This paper aims to review a decade of evidence on physician participation in health system leadership with the view to better understand the current state of scholarship on…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to review a decade of evidence on physician participation in health system leadership with the view to better understand the current state of scholarship on physician leadership activity in health systems. This includes examining the available evidence on both physicians’ experiences of health systems leadership (HSL) and the impact of physician leadership on health system reform.

Design/methodology/approach

A state-of-the-art review of studies (between 2007 and 2017); 51 papers were identified, analyzed thematically and synthesized narratively.

Findings

Six main themes were identified in the literature as follows: (De)motivation for leadership, leadership readiness and career development, work demands and rewards, identity matters: acceptance of self (and other) as leader, leadership processes and relationships across health systems and leadership in relation to health system outcomes. There were seemingly contradictory findings across some studies, pointing to the influence of regional and cultural contextual variation on leadership practices as well entrenched paradoxical tensions in health system organizations.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should examine the influence of varying structural and psychological empowerment on physician leadership practices. Empirical attention to paradoxical tensions (e.g. between empowerment and control) in HSL is needed, with specific attention to questions on how such tensions influence leaders’ decision-making about system reform.

Originality/value

This review provides a broad synthesis of diverse papers about physician participation in health system leadership. Thus, it offers a comprehensive empirical synthesis of contemporary concerns and identifies important avenues for future research.

Details

Leadership in Health Services, vol. 32 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1879

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 15 October 2022

Lauren N. Irwin and Julie R. Posselt

Developing leaders for a diverse democracy is an increasingly important aim of higher education and social justice is ever more a goal of leadership education efforts…

Abstract

Developing leaders for a diverse democracy is an increasingly important aim of higher education and social justice is ever more a goal of leadership education efforts. Accordingly, it is important to explore how dominant leadership models, as blueprints for student leadership development, account for and may unwittingly reinforce systems of domination, like racism. This critical discourse analysis, rooted in racialization and color-evasiveness, examines three prominent college student leadership development models to examine how leaders and leadership are racialized. We find that all three leadership texts frame leaders and leadership in color-evasive ways. Specifically, the texts’ discourses reveal three mechanisms for evading race in leadership: focusing on individual identities, emphasizing universality, and centering collaboration. Implications for race in leadership development, the social construction of leadership more broadly, and future scholarship are discussed.

Details

Journal of Leadership Education, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1552-9045

Article
Publication date: 5 February 2018

Brad Jackson, Matthew Nicoll and Michael J. Roy

The purpose of this study is to present a systematic assessment of the distinctive challenges and opportunities associated with creating leadership within the realm of social…

1867

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to present a systematic assessment of the distinctive challenges and opportunities associated with creating leadership within the realm of social enterprise. A modified and expanded form of Grint’s leadership lenses heuristic framework (i.e. person, position, process, performance, purpose and place) is used to examine and highlight what is particular about creating leadership in social enterprises by virtue of their distinctive missions, strategic contexts, legal forms and organisational structures and cultures. Based on this initial exploration, five research priorities are identified to better understand and then develop leadership practice in the social enterprise realm.

Design/methodology/approach

An enhanced heuristic framework for systematically examining leadership within the social enterprise research literature has been applied, drawing on the leadership practice literature. The application is illustrated through six instrumental case studies.

Findings

While there are a number of similarities between leading in the social enterprise realm and leading within the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, the levels of complexity, ambiguity and the lack of an established theoretical and practical knowledge base makes creating leadership in the social enterprise sector that much more challenging. On the positive side of the ledger, the fact that the purpose is at the core of social enterprise means that it is relatively easier to use the purpose to create a basis for common meaningful action, compared to leadership within the private and public sectors. Related to this, given the strongly local or “glocal” nature of social enterprise, a ready opportunity exists for leaders to draw upon a place as a strategic resource in mobilising followers and other stakeholders. The novel, uncertain and pioneering nature of a social enterprise is also arguably more tolerant and accommodating of a leadership mindset that focuses on posing questions regarding “wicked” problems compared to public, private for-profit and, indeed, traditional not-for-profit sector organisations.

Originality/value

As far as we can ascertain, this is the first systematic attempt to examine the distinctive challenges and opportunities associated with creating leadership within the social enterprise realm. The application of the heuristic framework leads to the identification of five key inter-related lines of empirical research into leadership practices within social enterprises.

Details

Social Enterprise Journal, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-8614

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 February 2021

Leila Afshari

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between the idealized influence component of transformational leadership (TL) and employee organizational commitment…

3443

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between the idealized influence component of transformational leadership (TL) and employee organizational commitment in two different cultural contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from the members of two manufacturing organizations, one in Australia and one in Iran. Questionnaires were distributed to all levels of the two organizations. In total, 189 completed questionnaires were returned from the two countries, representing a response rate of 56.7%. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results demonstrated statistically significant relationships between two forms of idealized influence –attributed and behavior – and the employees' organizational commitment in the Iranian sample. However, in the Australian sample, only idealized influence behavior showed a significant impact on employee commitment. Furthermore, the findings showed that identified motivation mediates the relationship between idealized influence behavior and organizational commitment.

Practical implications

The findings of the current research point to additional ways of increasing identified motivation that, in turn, enhances organizational commitment through leadership practices that are culturally informed. These findings are especially salient in culturally diverse and multinational organizations.

Originality/value

This paper has arrived at a deeper explanation of the processes through which leader behavior can produce employee commitment by clarifying the mediation role of identified motivation between idealized influence behavior and organizational commitment.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 51 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 25 November 2013

Dino Ruta and Paolo Guenzi

7093

Abstract

Details

Strategic HR Review, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1475-4398

1 – 10 of over 16000