To what extent would you argue that Steve Jobs is either a transformational or toxic leader?
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6.Leadership-Lecture21.pptxUnderstanding Organisations and People
Leadership
What makes leaders stand out?
(Or do (should) they even stand out?)
Dr. Selen Kars
Room: 5X219 email: [email protected]
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A Backwards Glance
Understanding some of the (often unspoken) contested areas of leader-centric perspectives
Including: traitist; style/ behaviour; situational/ contingency; transformational/ charismatic
Underlying assumptions?
An overwhelming focus on individual leaders
Romanticised and heroic conceptualisation of leadership (Alvesson and Spicer, 2010)
Some ‘have’ power, some don’t
Followers are “passive recipients” of a leaders orders and goals (Collinson, 2005: 1424)
Unitary power?
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An Overview
A recap of the leader-centric perspectives, and an introduction to post-heroic leadership
Examining three ‘themes’ within post-heroic leadership:
Followership
The ‘dark side’ of leadership
Anti-individualism
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Critical Leadership Studies (CLS): The post-heroic perspective
A relatively new school of thought, with a common preoccupation about “what is neglected, absent or deficient in mainstream leadership research” (Collinson, 2011: 181)
An over-reliance on the leader to be the main source of organisational success
Little attention paid to followers as active agents
Lack of acknowledgement of power asymmetries between leader and follower or conflict, dissent and resistance
An overly individualistic conception, with destructive potential
Leader-centric perspectives understand leadership to be an unproblematic concept, but CLS take on a more pessimistic view…
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Do great leaders stand out? Or do they stand ‘together’?
1. Where are the followers?
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Where are the followers?
Despite the oft-trotted out statement that ‘the essence of leadership is followership’, very few have taken this seriously.
Followers are either seen as ‘recipients’ or ‘moderators’ of leadership – not active agents!
2013 Amazon search: ‘Leadership’ (20,355); ‘Leader’ (13,446); ‘Follower’ (258); ‘Followership’ (104).
In a Google search, Weick (2007) found 57 items relating to the word ‘leader’ for every 1 regarding a ‘follower’
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Where are the followers?
The dominant perspective…
The follower is simply a ‘blank slate’; a passive recipient of leadership
A didactic, one-way, linear relationship
The behaviours and traits of leaders are the independent variables, and followers perceptions, attitudes and behaviours are the dependent variables
The behaviours of leaders are our main concern, and references to followers are almost coincidental
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Where are the followers?
By denying the agency of followers, leader-centric perspectives…
… assume that the leader is the only one in control and able to exercise power (and that this is always a positive thing)
… and consider resistance to this to be abnormal and irrational
Increase conformity and compliance
Suppress diversity
“My own research in organizations over the past 30 years has found a recurrent and related pattern. This is for organizational leaders to be either unaware of organizational tensions and paradoxes or, if they are informed of them, to try to deny or downplay their nature, extent, and consequences. This is especially the case with regard to leaders’ relations with followers/employees” (Collinson, 2014 :44)
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Is there a ‘dark side’ of stand-out leaders?
2. Toxic leadership
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Leadership and Toxicity
‘Toxic leadership’ (Benson and Hogan, 2008); ‘Destructive leadership’ (Einarsen et al, 2007); ‘Leadership derailment’ (Tepper, 2000); ‘Aversive leadership’ (Bligh et al, 2007)
‘Corruption, hypocrisy, sabotage, and manipulation as well as other assorted unethical illegal and criminal acts are part of the poisonous repertoire of toxic leaders’ (Lipman-Blumen, 2005, p.18)
What makes somebody a ‘toxic’ leader?
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Leadership and Narcissism
Narcissistic leaders (Thomas, 2010; Jackson and Parry, 2008):
Superficial charm
Arrogance; over-confidence; disdain; ruthlessness; self interest
Lack of empathy and remorse
Unproblematic manipulation of followers for personal gain
Might we be seduced by toxic and narcissistic leaders?
A link with psychopathy?
“[Psychopaths] aren’t all in jail, or in mental health facilities. You probably passed one on the street today, and it’s not like you can tell who they are. Their verbal and non-verbal clues are invisible to unsuspecting civilians. Many are very high functioning people who excel in politics and business” (Ronson, 2010: 45)
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Leadership and Cults
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gyAvRfgCvE
“...leadership that does not share the power; does not have open and fair elections, but instead hoards power and dictates to the membership”
“These theories function on the assumption that some have the power to lead, and others do not. Good leaders are authoritative, and their authority is unquestionable” (Sutherland et al, 2013: 1249)
“The leader or leaders may be considered to be divine, or righteous, or the ‘truthful ones’; those who are politically astute, correct; those that have realised the truth, or can speak no wrong”
“Charismatic leaders are seen to be endowed with ‘supernatural, superhuman or… exceptional powers’ (Weber, 1947: 358)” (Dow, 2005)
“They use the sheeple mentality to dominate”
“Followers are passive recipients of the leaders orders and goals” (Collinson, 2011: 23)
“They tell people how they should live, think and feel, all because the leader, or leaders, say it must be so; and it should be done; and it should happen like this”
“Outstanding leaders are those who can influence their people, and make them think along the same lines, maybe even change their values, so that we all can work together” – Richard Branson
Who is ‘good’? Who is ‘bad’?
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Why leadership can only be performed by single individuals?
3. Anti-individualism
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Anti-individualism
An increase in writings on shared, relational, emergent (Yoo and Alavi, 2004) co-leadership (Ponte, 2004), self-leadership (Alves et al., 2006)… and particularly: distributed leadership
Question individualistic mainstream assumptions
Leadership becomes collective, democratic, dispersed and shared
It is a process, and doesn’t belong to one person at the top
See leadership as happening at all levels, not just at the top
Emphasising ‘informal’ and ‘emergent’ leadership
“Random, unstructured and fluid” relations? (Woods and Gronn, 2009: 54)
Not compartmentalised into leaders/followers
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Anti-individualism
Based on four main premises (MacBeath, 2005)
Trust
Accepting one another's leadership potential
Formal leaders ‘letting go’ of control
Consensus
These perspectives have become increasingly common and are “fast approaching hegemonic status” (Gronn, 2011: 439). They have been praised for:
Reflecting lived experience more accurately than mainstream theories
Being a more ‘natural’ way to work?
Bringing the follower ‘back in’
Increasing democracy and participation
Benefitting organisational performance – decision making / innovation / creativity / organisational learning
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Leading Quietely
‘Bold strokes and a powerful personality are a heroic leader’s defining qualities. But far from the limelight works a more practical, circumspect type of leader, one who can transform, inspire – and win’ (Badarocco, 2002a: 17)
Three Quiet Virtues (Badarocco, 2002b)
Restraint
Pause, look around, listen an learn. Patience and restraint allow a leader time to gain insight
Modesty
Modesty is the reason quiet leader assume that people and events are complicated then they first seem
Tenacity
They act because they care, and they care because they have strong motives impel them forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk5LI_WcosQ
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In Sum…
There are many different critical perspectives, only some of which we have covered here
Others have looked in more detail at psychodynamic approaches, context and culture, power and politics, and (un)ethical practices
They each have different concerns, but are intersectional
Why are they useful?
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Some Points for Thought
Why are these points and concerns not raised throughout leader-centric perspectives?
How might post-heroic perspectives help along the study of leadership?
and… for the seminar:
Are there parallels between toxic / narcissistic leadership and transformational leadership?
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We Recommend
How would you characterize Nelson Mandela’s leadership style considering theories of leadership covered in the lecture? Provide examples from the scenes in the movie where this leadership style is portrayed?
What did Mandela and Pienaar do to drive the change successfully from a leadership and teamwork perspective?
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References
Alvesson, M. and Spicer, A. (2012) ‘Critical leadership studies: The case for critical performativity’. Human Relations, 65(3): 367-390.
Badaracco, Joseph L. (2002a) ‘The Anything-But Unremarkable Lessons of the Quiet Leader’. Ivey Business Journal (May–June): 16–21.
Badaracco, J. L. (2002b) Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Benson, M. and Hogan, R. (2008) ‘How Dark Side Leadership personality destroys trust and degrades organisational effectiveness’. Organisations and People, 15(3): 10-18.
Bligh, M., Pillai, R. And Uhl-Bien, M. (2007) ‘The social construction of a legacy: Summarising and extending follower-centred perspectives on leadership’. In: Shamir, B., Pillai, R. and Bligh, M. (Eds.) ‘Follower-centred perspectives on leadership: A tribute to the memory of James R. Meindl’. Charlotte, NC: Information Age: 265-287.
Bolden, R. (2007) ‘Distributed Leadership’. Available online https://business-school.exeter.ac.uk/documents/papers/management/2007/0702.pdf [accessed 12th May 2014]
Buchanan, D. Addicott, R. Fitzgerald, L. Ferlie, E. and Baeza, J. (2007) ‘Nobody in charge: Distributed change agency in healthcare’. Human Relations, 60: 1065-1090.
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References
Collinson, D. (2006) ‘Rethinking Followership: A post-structuralist analysis of follower identities’. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(2): 172-189.
Collinson, D. (2011) ‘Critical leadership studies’. In: Bryman, A., Collinson, D., Grint, K., Jackson, B. and Uhl-Bien, M. (Eds.) ‘The Sage Handbook of Leadership’. London: Sage: 179-192.
Collinson, D. (2014). ‘Dichotomies, dialectics and dilemmas: New directions for critical leadership studies?’. Leadership, 10(1): 36-55.
Einarsen, S. Aasland, M. and Skogstad, A. (2007) ‘Destructive Leadership behaviour: A definition and conceptual model’. The Leadership Quarterly, 18: 207-216.
Fiedler, F. (1967) ‘A theory of leadership effectiveness’. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.
Foucault, M. (1979) ‘Discipline and Punish’. London: Sage.
Gronn, P. (2011) ‘Hybrid configurations of leadership’. In: Bryman, A. Collinson, D. Grint, K. Jackson, B. and Uhl-Bien, M. (Eds) ‘Sage Handbook of Leadership’. London: Sage: 435-452.
Heifetz, R. (1994) ‘Leadership without easy answers’. Harvard, CT: Harvard University Press.
Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. (1977) ‘Management of Organisational Behaviour’. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
House, R. (1971) ‘A path-goal theory of leader effectiveness’. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16: 321-338.
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References
Jackson, B. and Parry, K. (2008) ‘A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about Studying Leadership’, 2nd ed, London: Sage.
Lipman-Blumen, J. (2005) ‘The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why we follow destructive bosses and corrupt politicians, and how we can survive them’. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
MacBeath, J. (2005) ‘Leadership as distributed: A matter of practice’. School Leadership and Management, 25(4): 349-366
Ronson, J. (2010) ‘The Psychopath Test’. London: Picador.
Sutherland, N. Land, C. and Bohm, S. (2013) ‘Anti-leadership in social movement organisations: The case of autonomous grassroots groups’. Organisation, 0(0): 1-23.
Tepper, B. (2000) ‘Consequences of abusive supervision’. Academy of Management Journal, 43(2): 178-190.
Thomas, D. (2010) ‘Narcissism: Behind the Mask’. New York, NY: Book Guild Publishing.
Weick, K. (2007) ‘Romancing, following and sensemaking: James Meindl’s legacy’. In: Shamir, B., Pillai, R. and Bligh, M. (Eds.) ‘Follower-centred perspectives on leadership: A tribute to the memory of James R. Meindl’. Charlotte, NC: Information Age: 287-301.
Woods, P. and Gronn, P. (2009) ‘Nurturing democracy: The contribution of distributed leadership to a democratic organizational landscape’. Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, 37(4): 430-451.
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