tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/leadership-style-30388/articlesLeadership style – The Conversation2022-06-30T02:58:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1860322022-06-30T02:58:29Z2022-06-30T02:58:29ZLuxon’s dilemma: when politics and morals don’t match in response to the overturning of Roe v Wade<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471755/original/file-20220630-18-7gm2aa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C67%2C4939%2C2772&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Phil Walter/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The US Supreme Court’s recent ruling to throw out <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade-but-for-abortion-opponents-this-is-just-the-beginning-185768">Roe v Wade</a> is an issue of relevance to political leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand. </p>
<p>The decision was met with enthusiasm by those opposed to abortion here, including opposition National MP for Tāmaki <a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/06/roe-v-wade-national-mp-simon-o-connor-removes-facebook-post-after-causing-distress.html">Simon O’Connor</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1541598661343588352"}"></div></p>
<p>Pro-choice groups such as Abortion Rights Aotearoa (ALRANZ) <a href="http://alranz.org/roe-v-wade-reversal-an-assault-on-rights/">expressed alarm</a>, not only for American women but for what this might signal for our country. </p>
<p>This has left Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon with a dilemma. He found himself caught up in questions that put a spotlight on his pro-life values, politics and integrity. </p>
<p>Luxon’s anti-abortion beliefs are not news. In the days following his election as party leader late last year, when asked to confirm if, from his point of view, abortion was tantamount to murder, he clarified “<a href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/12/full-interview-national-leader-christopher-luxon-and-deputy-leader-nicola-willis.html">that’s what a pro-life position is</a>”. </p>
<p>Yet, in recent days, Luxon has repeatedly and emphatically sought to reassure voters National would not pursue a <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/roe-v-wade-decision-luxon-uninterested-in-importing-culture-wars-into-new-zealand/OSK4D3OZCDM4BWBRWXEPH23GUA/">change to this country’s abortion laws</a> should it win government. </p>
<p>Abortion is <a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/healthy-living/sexual-health/information-abortion">legal</a> in Aotearoa, decriminalised in 2020 within the framework of the <a href="https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2020/0006/latest/LMS237550.html">Abortion Legislation Act</a>. It’s clear Luxon hopes his assurances will appease those of a pro-choice view, the position of most New Zealanders according to <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/kiwis-more-pro-choice-than-global-counterparts/3365CNPS4KDGLPC5MYPRH7YQVM/">polling in 2019</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-end-of-roe-v-wade-would-likely-embolden-global-anti-abortion-activists-and-politicians-182345">The end of Roe v. Wade would likely embolden global anti-abortion activists and politicians</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Principle and pragmatism in leadership</h2>
<p>It has long been <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle-politics/#SH9b">argued</a> good leadership is underpinned by strength of character, a clear moral compass and integrity – in other words, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984309000848">consistency</a> between one’s words and actions. </p>
<p>Whether a leader possesses the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8940566/">prudence</a> to gauge what is a practically wise course of action in a given situation that upholds important values, or simply panders to what is politically safe and expedient, offers insights into their character. </p>
<p>Over time, we can discern if they lean more strongly toward being <a href="https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/business_facpub/5/">values-based</a> or if they tend to align with what <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Niccolo-Machiavelli/The-Prince">Machiavelli</a> controversially advised: that to retain power a leader must appear to look good but be willing to do whatever it takes to maintain their position. </p>
<p>Of course both considerations have some role to play as no one is perfect. We should look for a matter of degree or emphasis. A more strongly Machiavellian orientation is associated with <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-64740-1_4">toxic leadership</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/roe-v-wade-overturned-what-abortion-access-and-reproductive-rights-look-like-around-the-world-184013">Roe v Wade overturned: what abortion access and reproductive rights look like around the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has characterised herself as a “<a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/the-country/audio/jacinda-ardern-joins-the-country-for-final-interview-of-the-year/">pragmatic idealist</a>”. Her track record indicates a willingness to accept considerable political heat in defence of key values. This is seen, for example, in her sustained advocacy of COVID-related health measures such as vaccine mandates and managed isolation, even when doing so was not the politically expedient path to follow. </p>
<p>Luxon’s leadership track record in the public domain is far less extensive. Much remains unknown or untested as to what kind of leader he is. Being leader of the opposition is, of course, a very different role to that of prime minister.</p>
<p>However, in his <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/former-air-nz-boss-christopher-luxon-explains-his-christian-faith-in-maiden-speech/RWFT54SHFJBYERYXRZBW27XJM4/">maiden speech</a> Luxon described his Christian faith as something that anchors him and shapes his values, while also arguing politicians should not seek to force their beliefs on others. </p>
<p>His response to this week’s controversy proves he is willing to set aside his personal values for what is politically expedient. This suggests he is less of an idealist and more a pragmatist. </p>
<p>This may be a relief to the pro-choice lobby, given his anti-abortion beliefs. But if the political calculus changes, what might then happen? </p>
<h2>The matter is not settled</h2>
<p>New Zealand’s constitutional and legal systems differ from those of the US, but the Supreme Court decision proves it’s possible to wind back access to abortion. </p>
<p>Even if Luxon’s current assurance is sincerely intended, it may not sustain should the broader political acceptability of his personal beliefs change. And on that front, there are grounds for concern.</p>
<p>The National Council of Women’s 2021 <a href="https://genderequal.nz/ga-survey/">gender attitudes survey</a> revealed a clear increase in more conservative, anti-egalitarian attitudes. Researchers at the <a href="https://thedisinfoproject.org/resources/">disinformation project</a> also found sexist and misogynistic themes feature strongly in the conspiracy-laden disinformation gaining influence in New Zealand. </p>
<p>If these kinds of shifts in public opinion continue to gather steam, it may become more politically tenable for Luxon to shift gear regarding New Zealand’s abortion laws. </p>
<p>In such a situation, the right to abortion may not be the only one imperilled. A 2019 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/22/a-new-poll-shows-what-really-interests-pro-lifers-controlling-women">survey in the US</a> showed a strong connection between an anti-abortion or “pro-life” stance and more general anti-egalitarian views. </p>
<p>It’s clear Luxon is aiming to reassure the public he has no intentions to advance changes to our abortion laws. But his seeming readiness to set aside personal beliefs in favour of what is politically viable also suggests that, if the political landscape changes, so too might his stance. </p>
<p>A broader question arises from this: if a leader is prepared to give up a presumably sincerely held conviction to secure more votes, what other values that matter to voters might they be willing to abandon in pursuit of political power?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suze Wilson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon’s response shows he is willing to set aside personal values for what is politically expedient, choosing pragmatism over idealism.Suze Wilson, Senior Lecturer, School of Management, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1787132022-03-08T20:09:42Z2022-03-08T20:09:42ZPutin, Zelenskyy and Biden all have unique leadership styles<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/450697/original/file-20220308-17-2afcs1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C5751%2C3216&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From left, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Joe Biden.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Associated Press and Ukraine government</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.111406">Crises</a> have the capacity to reveal who leaders really are, and how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2018.08.001">differently they operate</a>. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781351017152/extending-charismatic-ideological-pragmatic-approach-leadership-samuel-hunter-jeffrey-lovelace">research</a> over the past <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104898430200125X?via%3Dihub">20 years</a> has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.03.005">identified three primary types of leadership</a> across <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.12.008">a wide range of situations</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.10.004">circumstances</a>.</p>
<p>The current conflict in Ukraine has three key leaders, each of whom uses a different approach to the crisis.</p>
<h2>Zelenskyy, the charismatic hero</h2>
<p>In Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the world has found its charismatic hero, albeit a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/02/ukraine-russia-social-media-unseemly-war-fandom/">reluctant one</a>. </p>
<p>Charismatic leaders offer their followers hope and visions of a better future. They influence people by making emotional appeals about what that future might look like. </p>
<p>Zelenskyy personified the charismatic style of leadership in his 2019 campaign. He branded himself as an <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-comedian-who-played-a-president-on-tv-just-became-ukraines-president-115100">anti-establishment candidate</a>, seeking to provide <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/01/ukraine-president-volodymyr-zelensky-russia/">new leadership and change</a> for his nation.</p>
<p>During the present crisis, Zelenskyy’s widespread emotional appeal is on full display. He has inspired his own people but <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2020/08/the-looming-influx-of-foreign-fighters-in-sub-saharan-africa/">also</a> has <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/international/596425-budowsky-when-zelensky-speaks-we-are-all-ukrainian">become a global icon</a> nearly overnight.</p>
<h2>Putin, the ideologue</h2>
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48609643">embraces his role</a> as an ideological leader. These leaders typically seek a return to a bygone era, offering to turn back the clock to a time when followers were more satisfied with their lives. They often use negative emotions to stress what could happen if such a shift does not occur. </p>
<p>Putin most directly illustrates the ideological leadership style in his overarching desire to return Russia to the era of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/putin-invokes-soviet-heroes-lenin-stalin-says-russia-created-ukraine-1681185">Stalin and Lenin</a>. Putin once called the end of the Soviet Union “<a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/mar/06/john-bolton/did-vladimir-putin-call-breakup-ussr-greatest-geop/">the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century</a>.”</p>
<p>In recent years he has literally begun to rebuild this union by annexing portions of <a href="https://theconversation.com/russias-recent-invasions-of-ukraine-and-georgia-offer-clues-to-what-putin-might-be-thinking-now-175489">Georgia and the Crimean Peninsula</a> in Ukraine. Putin also exemplifies the ideological style of leadership by attempting to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8796659/vladimir-putin-shirtless-video">physically</a> <a href="https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/putin-exploits-the-peoples-yearning-for-past-glory/">embody</a> the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-zelenskyy-emerged-as-the-antithesis-of-putin-and-proved-you-dont-need-to-be-a-strongman-to-be-a-great-leader-178485">values he believes represent Russia</a>, including projections of strength, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2017.1313523">history</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/vladimir-putins-revisionist-history-of-russia-and-ukraine">imperialism</a>.</p>
<h2>Biden, the pragmatist</h2>
<p>U.S. President Joe Biden is the pragmatist. Pragmatic leaders seek a path forward by solving problems, attempting to achieve influence through logic and rationality rather than emotional appeals. </p>
<p>His attempts at influence have largely focused on problem-solving, using <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/amp0000715">data</a> to defend his decisions. In recent <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2022/">speeches</a>, which are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2013.752228">by design</a> <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/03/03/biden-sotu-ratings-down-from-first-addresses-by-trump-obama/">less emotional</a> than speeches by Zelenskyy or Putin, Biden has described his plan to confront Putin’s Ukraine invasion through economic sanctions and international coalition-building.</p>
<p>Pragmatic appeals lack big emotional swings. Yet even in the world’s divided – and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/23/rashida-tlaib-biden-state-of-the-union-response-working-families/">subdivided</a> – political landscape, a pragmatic approach offers a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2022/03/02/biden-state-of-the-union-unity-agenda-gop-joshua/9334536002/">pathway to unity</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="cg7Tw" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cg7Tw/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Three leaders collide</h2>
<p>Their three differing leadership approaches provide a glimpse of how they will respond to whatever happens next.</p>
<p>Pragmatic leaders are the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F107179190601200404">most flexible</a> and adaptable, shifting their approach as needed to solve the problem. Biden’s current trajectory suggests that as a pragmatic leader, he could include <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/us/politics/biden-russia-oil-ban.html">novel</a> and far-reaching economic sanctions. And though direct combat involving U.S. troops is <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/02/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html">currently off the table</a>, with pragmatic leaders, no tool is ever completely excluded.</p>
<p>Charismatic leaders like Zelenskyy can energize followers in ways other leaders cannot. This has already resulted in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/03/ukraine-cryptocurrency-donations/">massive donations</a> and other types of support from around the world – and a Ukrainian army that is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/world/europe/ukraine-beats-russia-mykolaiv.html">fighting hard</a> against a formidable enemy. But physical and emotional energy are limited, and eventually charismatic appeals may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.03.005">become less effective</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, and perhaps most notably, ideological leaders such as Putin are often unwavering and unwilling to compromise. They can encourage their followers to make sacrifices in ways that charismatics and pragmatics cannot – but only if the followers share the same values as the leader and view the leader as representative of those values.</p>
<p>Some Russians are already showing signs of rejecting Putin’s aggressive vision of a resurgent Soviet Union. Beyond <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/02/1083694848/sanctions-russia-ukraine-economy-war">everyday Russians’ frustrated reactions</a> to the world’s economic sanctions, some Russian soldiers are signaling that they feel <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/04/russian-soldiers-ukraine-anger-duped-into-war">unnecessarily pulled</a> into conflict with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/01/russia-low-morale-ukraine-invasion/">neighbors</a>. And some reports indicate a Russian attempt to assassinate Zelenskyy failed in part because Russian government officials <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/596435-ukrainian-authorities-thwart-zelensky-assassination-plot-top-official">secretly warned Ukraine</a>. </p>
<p>The math on this conflict is clear: Russia has a much larger military. If Ukraine survives the conflict, it may well be due to the disconnect between Putin’s ideological leadership and his people’s tangible <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/03/05/western-sanctions-have-rocked-russias-financial-system">practical needs</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>More than 150,000 readers get one of The Conversation’s informative newsletters.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140K">Join the list today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sam Hunter receives funding from Department of Homeland Security, Office of University Programs in the Science and Technology Directorate under Grant Award Number 20STTPC00001-02-01.
Disclaimer. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gina Scott Ligon receives funding from Department of Homeland Security, Office of University Programs in the Science and Technology Directorate under Grant Award Number 20STTPC00001-02-01.
Disclaimer. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
</span></em></p>The current conflict in Ukraine has three key leaders, each of whom uses a different approach to the crisis.Sam Hunter, Professor of Psychology, University of Nebraska OmahaGina Scott Ligon, Director the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technolology, and Education (NCITE) Center, University of Nebraska OmahaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1756252022-02-17T13:12:05Z2022-02-17T13:12:05ZWant better child care? Invest in entrepreneurial training for child care workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445730/original/file-20220210-1970-unavhe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C0%2C6689%2C4476&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Entrepreneurial leadership values expertise from providers, educators and parents. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/license/886934186?adppopup=true"> SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Christine Heer – a veteran preschool teacher – had long harbored a passion to run a nature-based preschool. So in 2015 she opened <a href="https://www.growbloomandthrive.com/">Sprouts Farm and Forest Kindergarten</a> in central Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Diana Stinson did something similar in 2018 when she co-founded <a href="https://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/long-pasture/programs-classes-activities/nature-preschool">Nature Explorers Preschool</a>, which is housed on a wildlife sanctuary on Cape Cod.</p>
<p>Five months into the COVID-19 pandemic, <a href="https://blogs.umb.edu/earlyed/2020/07/08/building-community/">Dottie Williams</a>, a Boston child care provider, was invited to testify before Massachusetts lawmakers. She spoke about how child care providers were <a href="https://www.salemnews.com/news/state_news/covid-19-forcing-innovation-at-child-care-centers/article_b608ff39-c7ef-5e78-b7fa-20f7c3b11305.html">helping children adapt</a> during the pandemic.</p>
<p>In the fall of 2021, as very young children exhibited anxiety about playing with other children without a mask – something they had previously been taught was unsafe – <a href="https://blogs.umb.edu/earlyed/2021/11/08/teaching-young-children-about-post-pandemic-social-interaction/">Emilee Johnson</a> wrote a <a href="https://blogs.umb.edu/earlyed/2021/11/08/teaching-young-children-about-post-pandemic-social-interaction/">children’s book</a> about <a href="https://eyeonearlyeducation.org/2021/07/27/a-book-for-young-children-on-the-pandemics-new-normal/">how to stay safe</a>.</p>
<p>All of these early educators have one thing in common – they were all trained in entrepreneurial leadership.</p>
<h2>A different kind of leadership</h2>
<p>As a researcher who studies <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=58-4rKcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">how to develop effective leadership skills among early childhood educators</a>, I know that <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/leading-for-change-in-early-care-and-education-9780807758359">entrepreneurial leadership training</a> is not like other kinds of leadership training. For instance, it doesn’t emphasize hierarchy. Rather than elevate the expertise of administrators and authorities, it recognizes the expertise of those who work directly with children – that is, the child care providers, educators and parents. </p>
<p>When directors and administrators of early learning centers are trained in entrepreneurial leadership, <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED593623.pdf">innovation becomes a bigger part</a> of what they do. They build relationships that <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/ccl-report-summary-508_qc.pdf">value “curiosity, questions, and reflections about current practices,”</a> according to a 2021 federal report. Staff members contribute ideas to improve teaching practices, enhance program quality, implement strategies for improving workplace culture, promote equity and welcome feedback from parents. </p>
<h2>Benefits to children</h2>
<p>Children benefit when early educators are trained in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40723-022-00095-z">entrepreneurial leadership</a>, research <a href="https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/understanding-leadership-ECE-march-2021.pdf">shows</a>. This is largely because classroom quality is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02568543.2012.739589">connected to</a> the improved workplace culture, parental engagement and support for experimentation – all things brought about by entrepreneurial leadership. The quality of leadership and the organizational climate set by early educational leaders are “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02568540709594621">critical variables</a>” for the quality of early education.</p>
<p>Entrepreneurial leadership training transforms how early educators think. It leads them to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-017-0871-9">redefine leadership</a>. They begin to see leadership as collaborative and purpose-driven rather than hierarchical.</p>
<p>Some early educators use their new skills and confidence to open new schools, as Stinson and Heer did. Some develop new resources for educators, as Johnson did. Some become highly effective advocates, as Williams has. But most early educators trained in this form of leadership return to their programs to make <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s40723-022-00095-z">seemingly small but powerful changes</a> that result in better care and education for children.</p>
<h2>Opportunities limited</h2>
<p>Despite the positive effects of entrepreneurial leadership training, it’s not widely available. One survey found only <a href="https://goffinstrategygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021-Early-Care-and-Education-Leadership-Development-Compendium.pdf">35 leadership programs</a> for early educators in the entire country. Of those, 32 focus on the “positional responsibilities” of directors and administrators.</p>
<p>As the pandemic continues to <a href="https://www.tbf.org/news-and-insights/reports/2021/dec/when-the-bough-breaks-20211213">disrupt early care and education programs</a>, with <a href="https://edpolicy.umich.edu/sites/epi/files/uploads/BPS_ECE_COVID_Policy_Brief.pdf">reduced student enrollment</a> and teachers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/19/childcare-workers-quit/">leaving the profession</a> because of fears of exposure to COVID-19, resources must be used wisely. Investing in entrepreneurial leadership training for early educators is one way to make sure that happens.</p>
<p>[<em>Interested in science headlines but not politics? Or just politics or religion?</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-interested">The Conversation has newsletters to suit your interests</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175625/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne Douglass receives funding from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, and the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Boston Foundation.
Anne Douglass designs, implements, and evaluates leadership development programs in the early care and education sector.
</span></em></p>When early childhood education providers become more entrepreneurial, the quality of their programs improves, research shows.Anne Douglass, Professor of Early Care and Education Leadership, Policy, and Practice, UMass BostonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1327612020-09-14T19:49:58Z2020-09-14T19:49:58Z3 keys to meaningful work: an employer who cares about the environment, society and you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/355965/original/file-20200902-24-50ravs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C60%2C4500%2C2930&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We spend, on average, about 90,000 hours at work. </p>
<p>Given this, most of us want work that’s more than just a source of income. We want work that’s satisfying, significant, valuable. Work, in other words, that is <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJM-08-2019-0406/full/html">meaningful</a>.</p>
<p>What makes any particular job meaningful is, of course, subjective. In the mid-1970s, though, economist Greg Oldham and psychologist J. Richard Hackman identified <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9fd2v2pd">five common factors</a>: more skill variety, task identity (doing a job from beginning to end with a visible outcome), task significance, autonomy and feedback all help make a job more meaningful.</p>
<p>But there are also organisational characteristics that “lift all boats”, contributing to everyone’s sense of meaningful work. In our research, we have investigated the role of three key factors – environmental consciousness, social responsibility and inclusive leadership.</p>
<p>We found employees who rated their employer as environmentally conscious were 25% more likely to consider their work meaningful than those who didn’t.</p>
<p>Those who believed their organisation was committed to corporate social responsibility were 59% more likely to think their work was meaningful. </p>
<p>And those who considered their supervisors to be inclusive leaders were 70% more likely to find their work meaningful.</p>
<h2>Why meaningful work matters</h2>
<p>Meaningful work outranks compensation, perks and other factors in career importance across all age groups, according to a 2019 survey of more than 3,500 workers in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Britain. </p>
<p>That <a href="https://www.workhuman.com/resources/papers/the-future-of-work-is-human">survey</a>, commissioned by software company Workhuman, found meaningful work becomes more important to us as we age. Those with sense of meaning and purpose were about four times more likely to love their jobs. </p>
<p>Our research <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJM-08-2019-0406/full/html">involved surveying 506 Australians</a> working full-time across a broad range of occupations and position levels in service and manufacturing organisations. </p>
<p>About 70% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed their work was meaningful to them. About 20% were neutral. Slightly more than 10% disagreed.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356233/original/file-20200903-16-b814dy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Responses to the question: 'The work I do in this organisation is meaningful to me.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356233/original/file-20200903-16-b814dy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356233/original/file-20200903-16-b814dy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356233/original/file-20200903-16-b814dy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356233/original/file-20200903-16-b814dy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356233/original/file-20200903-16-b814dy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356233/original/file-20200903-16-b814dy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356233/original/file-20200903-16-b814dy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>To assess the contribution of organisational-level commitments to meaningful work, we asked our respondents to rate their workplaces’ level of environmental consciousness, social responsibility and inclusive leadership. We then examined how each employee rated the meaningfulness of their own job.</p>
<h2>Environmental consciousness</h2>
<p>Respondents rated their organisations based on criteria we gave them. To assess environmental consciousness, for example, we asked employees to consider three elements of “green human resource management” as evidence of that environmental commitment:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>providing training and information that enabled employees to understand the environmental impact of their activities and decisions. This would include educating employees on how to reduce waste, water use and carbon emissions</p></li>
<li><p>including environmental impact of actions and decisions in employees’ performance assessment, with real opportunities for staff to contribute</p></li>
<li><p>recognising and rewarding employees for their contribution to environmental goals. This might be done, for example, through awards. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Among those who rated their organisations highly on environmental consciousness, 79% said they found their work meaningful. This compared with 63% of those who considered their workplace to have low environmental consciousness.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="MfX8g" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/MfX8g/7/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<h2>Corporate social responsibility</h2>
<p>We defined authentic corporate social responsibility for our respondents as not just policies but actions demonstrating a genuine interest in the welfare of all stakeholders affected by the organisation’s practices.</p>
<p>In contrast, symbolic corporate social responsibility would be done mainly as a marketing exercise. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-corporate-social-responsibility-reports-are-little-better-than-window-dressing-66037">Australian corporate social responsibility reports are little better than window dressing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Among those who rated their organisations’s commitment to corporate social responsibility highly, 79.7% said they found their work meaningful. This compared with just 50% of respondents who thought of their employer as not having genuine interest in social responsibility. </p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="P8hiK" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/P8hiK/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Those who felt their organisations were authentic about corporate social responsibility were 67% more likely to say they loved their job and more than twice (or 230%) as likely to say they felt proud to work for their employer.</p>
<h2>Inclusive leadership</h2>
<p>We defined inclusive leadership for respondents as a management style showing openness, accessibility and availability to others. Inclusive leaders value employees for their unique contributions and make them feel a sense of belonging to the organisation and team.</p>
<p>We asked employees to rate their direct supervisors or leaders using several criteria as evidence of an inclusive style, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>did they listen to employees’ requests?</li>
<li>were they available for consultation on problems?</li>
<li>were they open to hearing new ideas?</li>
<li>were they open to discuss the desired goals and new ways to achieve them?</li>
<li>did they encourage employees to access them on emerging issues?</li>
</ul>
<p>Among those who rated their leaders as being inclusive, 76.6% found their job to be meaningful. For those with non-inclusive leaders, just 45.2% found their work meaningful.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="obV3h" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/obV3h/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>Inclusive leadership was also associated with more innovative behaviour. Those working for inclusive bosses were 5.4 times more likely to say they generated original solutions to problems than those with non-inclusive bosses.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-ways-to-build-innovation-into-your-organisation-56494">Three ways to build innovation into your organisation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Work can be exciting and meaningful, and not experienced as mere work. By showing authentic commitment to social and environmental responsibilities and having inclusive leaders, organisations can create a more meaningful work for employees, enabling them to thrive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Want more meaningful work? Find an employer commited to environmental sustainability, social responsibility and most of all inclusive leadership.Mehran Nejati, Senior Lecturer in Management, Edith Cowan UniversityAzadeh Shafaei, Lecturer in Management, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1303932020-01-23T06:39:31Z2020-01-23T06:39:31ZRamaphosa’s famous negotiating skills have failed him. Here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311387/original/file-20200122-117954-l4jdak.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South African President Cyril Ramaphoa</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GCIS</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Cyril Ramaphosa took over as president of South Africa in <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2018-02-15-cyril-ramaphosa-has-been-elected-president-of-south-africa/">early 2018</a>, there was a great deal of talk about a <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-new-dawn-should-be-built-on-evidence-based-policy-118129">“new dawn”</a>. But his term in office has failed to deliver, raising the question: has the legendary deal-maker lost his touch?</p>
<p>When Ramaphosa replaced former president Jacob Zuma many South Africans believed he would usher in a new era after the <a href="https://www.fin24.com/Economy/South-Africa/ramaphosas-nine-lost-years-speech-impresses-old-mutual-ceo-at-davos-20190124">disastrous reign</a> of his predecessor. The country and the governing African National Congress (ANC) both urgently needed rescuing from the malaise.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa inherited an unenviable hand from Zuma – state institutions had been <a href="https://ewn.co.za/2019/03/01/zuma-to-blame-for-weakened-state-institutions-says-manuel">weakened</a>, the economy was in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/mini-budget-underscores-bad-state-of-south-africas-economy-126137">parlous condition</a>, the ANC was in internal <a href="https://theconversation.com/anc-wont-fix-internal-strife-unless-it-addresses-root-causes-of-discontent-99621">turmoil</a>, and the political elite regularly <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/project-moetapele-ace-magashules-dirty-little-gupta-secret-20190407">exposed</a> for fraudulent and corrupt activities, which culminated in <a href="https://cdn.24.co.za/files/Cms/General/d/4666/3f63a8b78d2b495d88f10ed060997f76.pdf">“state capture”</a>.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa promised to rectify the situation through a series of initiatives. These included <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-election-ramaphosa/south-africas-ramaphosa-targets-reforms-after-election-win-idUSKCN1SH0BL">reforms</a> to state owned enterprises, economic growth and job creation as well as an anti-corruption drive.</p>
<p>Yet, two years on, very little has changed. In fact, things have deteriorated markedly. Even Ramaphosa was forced to admit that any positivity he once stimulated is now <a href="http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/from-the-desk-of-the-president/desk-president%2C-30-september-2019">over</a>. </p>
<p>His legendary negotiating skills have been incapacitated in the face of South Africa’s current predicament. </p>
<h2>Public frustration</h2>
<p>South Africa’s current predicament is well documented. It is characterised by interlocking crises encompassing growing <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12689">unemployment</a>, negative <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/26/the-imf-and-sp-sound-urgent-alarms-over-south-africas-economy.html">growth</a> and unsustainable <a href="https://theconversation.com/mini-budget-underscores-bad-state-of-south-africas-economy-126137">national debt</a>. State-owned enterprises such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-african-airways-is-in-business-rescue-what-it-means-and-what-next-128409">South African Airways</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-energy-crisis-has-triggered-lots-of-ideas-why-most-are-wrong-130298">Eskom</a>, the power utility, are failing. And, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-is-close-to-junk-status-from-all-three-rating-agencies-what-could-follow-121765">“junk status”</a> rating is looming. </p>
<p>Factor into this scenario a renewed series of <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1708814/what-is-behind-south-africas-xenophobic-attacks-on-foreigners/">xenophobic</a> attacks against foreigners, the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/south-africa-violence-army-deployment-cape-town-extended-190926112751519.html">military deployment</a> in Cape Town to curb gang murders, and a half-hearted response to the <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/society/2174853/aminext-silent-protest-demands-action-from-ramaphosa/">#AmINext</a> movement protesting against gender violence.</p>
<p>Add to these the ongoing conflicts within the ANC, with leading cadres <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/politics/2227115/carl-niehaus-slams-debaucherous-anc-for-literally-being-prostituted/">taking to Twitter</a> to <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2020-01-13-anc-has-liberated-our-people-thats-why-you-are-on-twitter-fikile-mbalula/">express</a> their divergent opinions, and it is abundantly clear why there is growing public frustration with the Ramaphosa administration.</p>
<p>It was not supposed to be like this. Ramaphosa was the president who would save South Africa. Almost <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/ringside-seat-at-irish-theater-of-war-ira-sinn-fein-irish-politics/">universally revered</a>, expectations were running high that he would make use of his impressive political credentials, not least his
record of past achievements that bore testament to his success as a deal-maker.</p>
<h2>Deal-making skills</h2>
<p>Ramaphosa has a formidable political pedigree that stretches back to his struggle activities in the National Union of Mineworkers <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/cyril-matamela-ramaphosa">in the 1980s</a>, through to his contribution to the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/convention-democratic-south-africa-codesa">constitutional negotiations to end apartheid</a> in the early 1990s. </p>
<p>These different experiences forged his reputation as a wily, tough and pragmatic deal-maker. Over the last 40 years he’s shown time and again his ability to broker major deals. Just look at the wage concessions he extracted for mine workers and how he helped establish the basis for the country’s new <a href="https://www.justice.gov.za/legislation/constitution/SAConstitution-web-eng-07.pdf">Constitution</a>.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa’s negotiating style is based on debate, building trust between participants, manipulating proceedings to his advantage and reaching consensus through rounds of dialogue. Even those on the other side of the negotiating table recognised his skill. Former apartheid-era President FW De Klerk once <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/world/africa/2017/12/south-africa-s-nearly-man-sets-zuma-confrontation-anc-leadership-win?page=9">described</a> him as “coldly calculating” and silver tongue[d]).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ramaphosa-fails-to-show-leadership-as-difficult-and-decisive-year-looms-129762">Ramaphosa fails to show leadership as difficult and decisive year looms</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Compromise based on a position of strength is integral to the success of his negotiating strategy. Most notably this came to the fore during the challenging constitutional talks.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa had established a close rapport with reformist MPs from the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/national-party-np">National Party</a>, which ruled the country then, such as <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/roelof-petrus-roelf-meyer">Roelf Meyer</a>. These men were willing to negotiate with the ANC. More importantly, they were willing to make significant compromises to achieve an end to white minority rule.</p>
<p>Talks, debate, and compromise were the foundations for these negotiated outcomes.</p>
<h2>Different times</h2>
<p>Competing economic and social pressures, as well as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-anc-itself-is-the-chief-impediment-to-ramaphosas-agenda-108781">internal battles within the ANC</a>, don’t allow for Ramaphosa’s preferred style of negotiation or leadership to succeed. In retrospect the belief that he could address the challenges by finding a common position through a debate-led strategy seems naive at best.</p>
<p>A key problem is that Ramaphosa is constrained by his <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2017-12-18-cyril-ramaphosa-wins-anc-presidential-race/">tenuous control over the ANC</a>, while the party elite is locked in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/anc-power-struggle-shows-that-south-africa-is-not-exceptional-after-all-91403">factional conflict</a> for power and influence. The historic “unity” of the party is disintegrating as rivals such as Secretary-General Ace Magashule, threatened by the promised reforms and <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2019-08-28-state-capture-inquiry-hears-about-ace-magashule-and-the-asbestos-heist/">anti-corruption initiatives</a>, undermine Rampahosa’s leadership.</p>
<p>There is no room for debate in this febrile atmosphere, and definitely no appetite to seek common ground when disloyalty from within the party is so prevalent. When power and survival are at stake, compromise as a negotiating position goes out the window. </p>
<p>The upcoming <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/no-ngc-can-remove-ramaphosa-mantashe-20190510">National General Council</a> of the ANC, scheduled for June, will only threaten Ramaphosa’s position further. The conference is held halfway between the party’s national conferences, to debate the “strategic organisational and political issues” it faces. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the economic and social challenges require tough and decisive action. Yet, the ANC’s January 8 <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/442488460/President-Cyril-Ramaphosa-s-ANC-January-8-Statement#from_embed">statement</a> marking its birthday, repeated old adages of unity, growth, employment and transformation. It offered nothing new in terms of <a href="https://theconversation.com/ramaphosa-fails-to-show-leadership-as-difficult-and-decisive-year-looms-129762">vision or solutions </a>.</p>
<p>Ramaphosa’s favoured strategies continue to be through commissions and joint working groups. Yet a consultative approach is time consuming and will simply not succeed when space for debate is marginalised and vested interests are at stake.</p>
<p>Is there a solution?</p>
<h2>Tough choices</h2>
<p>Fundamentally an immediate change to his negotiating strategy and leadership is required. Although decisive action is not in his play book, Ramaphosa can no longer hope to appease everyone through consensus-based leadership. Structural reforms to prevent further economic decline are required quickly. These involve painful decisions and a stronger vision for the future, none of which are evident at the moment.</p>
<p>But, to implement economic reforms and to strengthen anti-corruption initiatives will be immensely unpopular, especially among the ANC hierarchy. Many don’t support Ramaphosa. Others fear the loss of their patronage. </p>
<p>Unless Ramaphosa can exert control over a recalcitrant ANC to make difficult decisions, he’ll stay stuck in a no-win situation, caught between the need to avert economic meltdown or keep the party intact.</p>
<p>The choice ahead for Ramaphosa lies between what is best for South Africa, or for the ANC.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130393/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Graham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ramaphosa is constrained by his tenuous control over South Africa’s governing party, the ANC.Matthew Graham, Senior Lecturer in History, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1055652019-01-02T21:05:41Z2019-01-02T21:05:41ZFive key values of strong Māori leadership<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251414/original/file-20181219-27779-1y2ze42.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=293%2C0%2C4922%2C1861&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Key values in Māori leadership include a concern for past and future generations.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the indigenous people of New Zealand/Aotearoa, Māori are facing a renaissance of culture, despite a long history of colonisation and cultural deprivation. Traditional Māori world views are central to this, and they underline a growth in Māori business and leadership.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/strong-sense-of-cultural-identity-drives-boom-in-maori-business-87500">Strong sense of cultural identity drives boom in Māori business</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Māori leaders often head up complex organisations, navigating traditional and contemporary influences. They are charged with leading (often) marginalised communities, and weaving Māori kaupapa (purpose, policy) with contemporary influences on leadership styles and practices. </p>
<p>Yet, little is understood about how these leaders bring these elements to their roles. In our kaupapa Māori-based <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-018-3869-3">research</a>, we spoke to 22 Māori leaders, both male and female, about the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1742715015626326">values that guide their leadership</a>. </p>
<h2>Key values of leadership</h2>
<p>Finding Māori leaders is no easy feat. Not because we lack leaders, but because they are reluctant to stand up and self-nominate themselves as exemplars. Those we interviewed were identified as leaders by other leaders. They come from a range of areas including politics, business, marae (gathering places and focal points of Māori communities) and community leadership.</p>
<p>We have distilled five key values that underpin Māori leadership.</p>
<h3>1. Whakaiti - humility</h3>
<p>Whakaiti is a key term in Māori leadership. The leader does not self-nominate as a leader, does not take credit for work, but enables others. There is no self promotion. Humility means that great leadership is behind the scenes.</p>
<h3>2. Ko tau rourou and manaakitanga - altruism</h3>
<p>This theme is one of generosity, giving for long-term or future benefit and taking care of others. Manaakitanga is a related concept that reflects the importance of caring for another person, doing the right thing for them, and ensuring their well-being. </p>
<p>Ko tau rourou can be described as generosity of spirit, but it also has a number of other dimensions. It can refer to offering assistance in a way that creates a sense of wealth (non-material, usually). Essentially, this is a form of cooperation that enables development through giving. </p>
<h3>3. Whanaungatanga - others</h3>
<p>This concept is central and is mentioned in almost all <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1742715015626326">literature on the importance of others in Māori leadership</a>. Broadly, it has touch points with the concept of collectivism but also refers to the span of <a href="https://natlib.govt.nz/records/20661409">relationships with current, future and past generations</a>. It also refers to the closeness (whānau means family) and depth of relationships. </p>
<h3>4. Tāria te wā and kaitiakitanga - long-term thinking, guardianship</h3>
<p>The notion of the long journey, with a clear direction but the need for patience when waiting for results, is new to the literature for Māori leadership. However, long-term orientation is also reflected in the concept of kaitiakitanga, which refers to the need for <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-018-3869-3">sustainable guardianship and protection</a>. Māori hold a great connection to past generations, environmental preservation and care for the collective future generations. </p>
<p>One leader who was interviewed for this project said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This was, and still is the longest journey … look how Māori have grown, are growing … at the number of Māori speaking te reo [Māori language], the revival of Māori tikanga [custom]… but we need to push on. It’s not a matter of achieving a goal … it’s about a life time.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>5. Tikanga Māori - cultural authenticity</h3>
<p>While not commonly discussed as a leadership value, this concept also underpins almost all literature on Māori leadership. <a href="https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Tikanga_M%C4%81ori.html?id=XXa3fXxLshMC&redir_esc=y">Tikanga Māori</a> is viewed as a fundamental guideline for how Māori leaders behave. We found that “the Māori way of doing things” was a guiding value. </p>
<p>Leadership success for Māori can be viewed as drawing on traditional principles while managing the interconnected world. </p>
<p>We also extended our findings and surveyed employees about their beliefs in these values and their importance to them. We found that these values also relate to employee well-being and their thoughts on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25075332?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">ethical leadership</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The co author received funding from The Royal Society of New Zealand, Marsden Grant number X957</span></em></p>Emerging Māori leaders successfully weave traditional practices with contemporary influences on leadership styles.Maree Roche, Senior Lecturer and Co Director - Leadership Unit, Waikato Management School, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/922202018-02-28T12:45:55Z2018-02-28T12:45:55ZRamaphosa: a performer and a politician, with buckets of charm<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207855/original/file-20180226-140178-ciar9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa's new president Cyril Ramaphosa combines easy charm with shrewdness. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cyril Ramaphosa has had to tread a fine line in moving from the role of negotiator to that of South Africa’s new president. The man who helped the country navigate a peaceful transition from apartheid to inclusive democracy now has to appear “<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-does-it-mean-to-be-presidential">presidential</a>”, as the Americans like to call it.</p>
<p>In the US this is popularly taken to mean the twin superficialities of “<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/does-the-tallest-presidential-candidate-win-3367512">height and hair</a>” – taller and better looking candidates have fared better. But in a country like South Africa, the demands are far more diverse as well as culturally specific.</p>
<p>So what makes a successful presidential performance in South Africa?</p>
<p>I would argue that, just as performance is not limited to action on a stage, performance theory can help us critique more than simply an actor’s work. If they’re successful, politicians are consummate performers and politics is often by turn a circus, a tragedy and a spectacle. That one sees the script behind the actor’s lines, the direction strategy behind the staging, is no bad thing. Rather – in all things – we should judge Ramaphosa on his delivery.</p>
<p>Within this framework, we can see that South Africa’s past presidents have performed different styles of leadership with varying degrees of success. The late former President Nelson Mandela was known for his shuffling dancing as much as his leadership qualities; stiffly cerebral Thabo Mbeki was out in the cold, no matter how intellectual his rhetoric and policy; and Jacob Zuma was known for his trademark song, laugh and dance moves despite his manifest lack of other leadership qualities.</p>
<p>Against this standard, how has Ramaphosa fared in his first weeks as president of the country?</p>
<p>The man has easy charm: buckets of it. He’s also shrewd. He has a performer’s awareness of the room, but a politician’s understanding of the moment. That combination will serve him on the South African stage.</p>
<h2>Case in point</h2>
<p>Look at his very first parliamentary addresses. In both his initial speech after inauguration and the formal state of the nation address, Ramaphosa broke from script. He grinned. He laughed. Not a Zuma <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP4zGwe2jFg">“hehehe”</a>, but a hearty, good-natured chuckle. At once disarming but also open to (mis)interpretation, <a href="http://www.702.co.za/articles/9773/zuma-s-laughter-in-parliament-makes-headline-news">a leader’s laugh is a high stakes game</a>.</p>
<p>Yet under the easy style there was plenty of hard strategy. Ramaphosa began his first address with a <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2018/02/15/watch-ramaphosa-s-first-address-in-parliament-as-sa-president">casual but pointed observation</a> about his relationship with the Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. He laughingly suggested the latter’s position could well have been his, if not for his distaste of the onerous robing demands. </p>
<p>This reference, though framed as a joke, had two serious purposes. </p>
<p>Firstly, it demonstrated a good relationship with a Zuma-appointed Chief Justice against the backdrop of a governing party that is <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Dont-suppress-our-views-on-judiciary-Mantashe-20150709">seen as increasingly hostile towards the judiciary</a>. </p>
<p>Secondly – and more pointedly – it was a less-than-subtle reminder of Ramaphosa’s own leadership qualities and legacy that, his speech hinted, had made him a candidate for Chief Justice under a previous (his implication is, almost certainly, Mandela’s) presidency. </p>
<p>The same address – outwardly collegial, often punctuated with disarming grins – saw Ramaphosa respond individually to each opposition leader’s public comments, in nearly every case reminding them of their joint history, whether in shared university days or activist deployment. </p>
<p>In both content and delivery, then, Ramaphosa pointedly delivered a mandate for respect forged from deeply intertwined political histories.</p>
<h2>Optics</h2>
<p>Ramaphosa is also sensitive to optics. There are simply no coincidences in his presidential performance: it has proven an extremely carefully staged affair. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://twitter.com/AnnikaLarsen1/status/964001656307437569">a photograph</a> of him posing with five white women in kwik dry lycra on the Sea Point Promenade at dawn the day after Zuma’s resignation went <a href="https://www.goodthingsguy.com/fun/ramaphosa-biggest-fan/">viral</a>, his team was quick to fashion an organised event in a less affluent suburb: a Gugulethu to Athlone 5km walk at 5:30am – <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-02-20-reporters-notebook-walking-with-the-president/#.Wo6C0HyYOM8">powerwalking with the president</a>. A “man of the people” who quite literally “walks among us” is being crafted step by careful step.</p>
<p>When it comes to style, his diamond-pattern <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/2018/02/15/sona-that-ramaphosas-sworn-in-parly-is-all-systems-go-for-big-address_a_23363125/">red tie debut</a> in Parliament on his inauguration clearly gestured to Zuma’s own <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2018-02-15-in-full--zumas-resignation-speech/">blood-red tie</a> in his Valentine’s Day resignation speech. In his dark purple state of the nation tie the following evening, Ramaphosa perfectly <a href="http://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2018/02/17/ramaphosas-vow-sweep-clean/">matched the colour palette</a> of the Speaker of the House, Baleka Mbete, who walked him inside.</p>
<p>This sartorial performance meticulously played out a symbolic message: harmonious continuity in the ANC and power alliance above all. </p>
<p>Whether drawing on historical bonds or performing current alliance, Ramaphosa has employed time and tradition to work for him in these first days of office.</p>
<h2>Delivery</h2>
<p>February 2018 has seen a political performance that pulled audiences both backwards and forwards through South African timelines. Through their invocations of history’s symbolism Ramaphosa and the ANC have understandably played to almost all time periods except the precarious present. Opposition leaders who seek to meet them on those grounds may well find themselves outplayed. Rather, they would do well to resolutely bring attention to the slippages of the past month – the incongruencies and sacrifices demanded of the present transition.</p>
<p>One such slippage was manifestly on display at the announcement of the cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday night. With the press conference delayed twice after an already last-minute announcement, it was patently clear from his less ebullient demeanour at the outset that the <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1781626/anc-wants-a-new-culture-of-being-on-time-ramaphosa/">famously punctual</a> Ramaphosa was displeased. </p>
<p>Starting with a laugh and feigned surprise at the press turnout, Ramaphosa <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCHzW0ZfQ9o">initially performed</a> the same easy charm on display throughout the previous weeks. Yet once into the meat of the announcement, Ramaphosa’s delivery became stiffly formal, his eyes locked between the page and a single point in the room, his delivery at times stilted and dry-mouthed. </p>
<p>We can look forward to far more developments in the weeks to come. Time will tell how Ramaphosa and the ANC will pick up the playbook from here. </p>
<p>In the main, however, this moment is all Ramaphosa’s. He should command it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carla Lever has received past funding from the National Research Foundation for contributions to the South African national gender project and four year IPRS and APA funding from the Australian Government.</span></em></p>What makes a successful presidential performance and does South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa stack up?Carla Lever, Research Fellow at Graduate School of Development Policy and Practice, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/914032018-02-09T18:05:19Z2018-02-09T18:05:19ZANC power struggle shows that South Africa is not exceptional (after all)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205670/original/file-20180209-51719-4fuxv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nelson Mandela and his successor Thabo Mbeki presided over the halcyon days of South Africa's new democracy. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>South Africa has been gripped in political uncertainty. But the inevitable has happened and President Jacob Zuma <a href="https://theconversation.com/zuma-finally-falls-on-his-sword-but-not-before-threatening-to-take-the-house-down-with-him-91910">has gone</a> before the official end of his tenure which was only due after <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/newsmaker-2019-elections-results-will-be-credible-20171015-2">national elections</a> next year. But at what cost to the ANC and the country?</p>
<p>The current crisis is being framed as one of internal party politics – or the immorality of Zuma and his supporters. In fact, the impact is much bigger and wider, affecting South Africa’s standing in Africa, and in the world.</p>
<p>In 1994 the world, and particularly African countries, looked to South Africa to provide ethical leadership after the <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/collapse-apartheid-grade-12">end of apartheid</a>. This was boldly depicted in the <a href="http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/mbeki.html">“African Renaissance”</a> – the cultural, scientific and economic renewal of the continent championed by former President Thabo Mbeki.</p>
<p>For a short time, South Africa occupied the moral high ground and was able to influence the agenda of intergovernmental organisations like the United Nations, the African Union and the South African Development Community. </p>
<p>South Africans were called on to play a key role in a number of areas. Two stand out: conflict management in, for example, Burundi, DRC, Lesotho, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe. And as the <a href="http://osf.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/South-Africas-Foreign-Policy-An-Assessment-of-the-Draft-White-Paper-and-the-ANCs-Policy-Document-on-International-Relations.pdf">“bridge-builder”</a> between the West and Africa.</p>
<p>It also twice <a href="http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/08166.pdf">took a seat</a> on the United Nations Security Council and was part of initiatives such as the India Brazil South Africa Dialogue <a href="http://www.ibsa-trilateral.org/">Forum</a>. It also became part of the Brazil Russia India China and South Africa <a href="https://www.brics2017.org/English/AboutBRICS/BRICS/">(BRICS) association</a> among other international bodies.</p>
<p>But from around 2010 South Africa’s leadership role began to slip. It has now arrived at a point where it can no longer claim to be leading any renaissance. The new reality is that it’s beset with governance challenges similar to many other <a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Paper293.pdf">African states</a>. </p>
<p>The rest of the continent watches and sees yet another example of a dream deferred. The expectations that the country would lead the continent have gone. It, too, is in the throes of regime survival. The <a href="https://www.biznews.com/africa/2016/12/22/south-africa-will-finally-be-an-african-country/?utm_content=buffer8bc42&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer">lament is</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>South Africa has become just another African country.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The beginning of the end</h2>
<p>The meltdown of the ANC should not have come as much of a surprise given events over the past 20 years, and the inevitable decline of liberation parties. Pointers to the inglorious direction the country was headed in were evident in the corruption around the <a href="http://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/the-arms-deal-what-you-need-to-know-2/">arms deal</a> (1999), the fight over Mbeki’s refusal to roll out <a href="https://www.escr-net.org/caselaw/2006/minister-health-v-treatment-action-campaign-tac-2002-5-sa-721-cc">antiretroviral treatment</a> (1990s), the decline in the economy on the back of a <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/business-repor%5Bt/recession-south-african-economy-shrinks-by-07-9585516">global crisis</a> (2008-2009) and <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2017-06-01-sas-unemployment-rate-hits-a-13-year-high/">rising unemployment</a> (from 2008). To this should be added the growing appetite of an emerging black elite, whose <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/general/77737/south-africa-unemployment-1994-2015/">acquisition of wealth</a> was closely tied to state resources <a href="https://www.gov.za/tenderpreneurship-stuff-crooked-cadres-fighters">tenderpreneurs</a>.</p>
<p>Then in 2007, <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2007-12-18-zuma-is-new-anc-president">buoyed by populist appeal</a> for a change of the guard, Zuma rose to power as president of the ANC. The following year the ANC’s National Executive Committee <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/thabo-mbeki-resigns-south-africa%E2%80%99s-second-democratic-president">forced Mbeki to resign</a>. Mbeki had lost the support of the committee over a range of issues including <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/publications/other/gear/chapters.pdf">economic policy</a>, his style of leadership, and a focus on continental and international affairs rather than domestic issues.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/zuma-axed-243733">Mbeki sacked Zuma</a> in June 2005, after the court findings of a corrupt relationship with <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2005-06-01-shaik-zuma-relationship-corrupt">Schabir Shaik</a>, his friend and financial advisor at the time. The political contestation between the Mbeki and Zuma factions set in, leading to Mbeki’s political demise. </p>
<p>The deepening of the structural roots of the malaise in South Africa has therefore been long in the making. </p>
<p>Conflation of the <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/madonsela-calls-for-clear-separation-between-state-and-party-20160505">state and the party</a>, state capture, and <a href="https://pari.org.za/betrayal-promise-report/">patronage politics</a> became the defining features of Zuma’s presidency. And ultimately they became the factors that led to his dethroning. South Africa began to display the stereotypical symptoms of the typical African state:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>elite decadence in the <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/news/latestnews/2015/rhodesvicechancellorslamsmoraldecadenceofsaspoliticalelite.html">midst of poverty</a>, </p></li>
<li><p>accumulation of wealth through proximity to state resources and <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/FULL-TEXT-Statement-by-Public-Protector-on-Nkandla-Report-20140319">state capture</a>,</p></li>
<li><p>challenges in the <a href="https://www.urbanafrica.net/urban-voices/the-two-faces-of-service-delivery-in-south-africa/">delivery of services</a>, and an inability to provide human security. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>South Africa’s exceptionalism claim is dead</h2>
<p>South Africa’s claim to exceptionalism in Africa has been dispelled. Two decades ago Ugandan academic and author Mahmood Mamdani pointed to the myth of <a href="http://citizenshiprightsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/1998/05/mamdani-1998-inaugural-lecture.pdf">South Africa’s exceptionalism</a> and that it shares the legacies of colonialism and the bifurcated nature of the state that colonialism had bequeathed other African states too. This meant that South Africa was no different in its political and development outcomes. </p>
<p>Leadership is an important mediator for the direction of any country. Visionary and principled leadership led the continent – and South Africa – to liberation. It’s what is sorely needed now across the continent, and in South Africa.</p>
<p>South Africa finds itself in its current situation because the country has succumbed to <a href="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/opinion/2016-10-19-ethnic-nationalism-zumas-style-of/">nationalist, chauvinist</a>, patriarchal and elite interests. But changing the president, though necessary, won’t be sufficient to get South Africans out of this quagmire. South Africans needs new leaders as well as new forms of leadership that understand the driving forces of post-colonial states and their proclivity towards non-democratic forms of governance.</p>
<p>South Africa needs leadership that places it once again in the political and socio-economic trajectory of Africa and fosters a collective responsibility to develop and share its wealth among all who call it home. It must also develop the governance structures that will lead it to that goal. To do this requires moving beyond regime survival towards reinvigorating a visionary pan-African leadership that once again begins to set an agenda of unity, prosperity and dignity.</p>
<p>South Africa is no longer the beacon of hope for the continent it once was. But South Africans needn’t despair. The recognition of its banality finally presents the opportunity for its people to sit as equals at the table with other Africans and engage in much needed dialogue on the kind of leadership and governance that would take them forward on the journey to an African Renaissance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheryl Hendricks is affiliated with organisation.
ISIS-WICCE, UNWomen,SADC Gender Alliance, SA Political Science Association, CODESRIA</span></em></p>South Africa, following its peaceful transition, occupied the moral high ground and could influence the agenda of intergovernmental bodies like the United Nations. Not anymore.Cheryl Hendricks, Professor of Political Science, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/735032018-02-06T15:58:24Z2018-02-06T15:58:24ZDon’t know what a leader looks like? Nor do they – until they look in a mirror<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204853/original/file-20180205-19929-1byvwm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leaders often don't notice how much they base their idea of leadership on themselves.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/513835603">Dean Drobot/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Few people have many good words to say about our leaders at the moment, it seems, and faced with the absence of leadership we might think that we should heed those frequent calls to <a href="http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0857083910.html">develop our leadership potential</a>. Taking on leadership can sound daunting, as the people who generally come to mind when we think of leaders are heroes, very rare examples of humankind – think of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Boudicca, or Winston Churchill. To say these are tough acts to follow is an understatement. </p>
<p>Very few people want to think of themselves as followers (except on Twitter), so how do we as potential leaders persuade others to follow us? It could be that leaders should be charismatic, the sort of people behind which others should fall in to help them achieve an organisation’s vision. But how do we know if we’re charismatic? Perhaps if we knew what a leader looked like, we could model ourselves on them?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, we don’t. Leadership is a very vague concept. It is notoriously difficult to define and very difficult to see in practice. But <a href="https://bradscholars.brad.ac.uk/handle/10454/8963">our research</a> suggests that in fact the role model we most often follow is much closer to home than we might imagine: graduates of leadership courses tend to unknowingly focus on becoming better versions of themselves. </p>
<h2>The hidden leader within</h2>
<p>We studied people who had been charged with the task of being leaders – everyday, normal, middle-managerial leaders. We started our interviews with some general questions about the person’s working life history, the sort of easy discussion that researchers do when using interviews to gather data. In the formal part of the interview we asked them to describe excellent, average and mediocre leaders they had worked with. We then asked them to choose photos of people they thought looked like excellent, average and mediocre leaders so that we could find out if appearance had any influence on the assessment of leadership qualities. </p>
<p>When we analysed the interview data we were flummoxed by the contradictions between what people said they felt about leadership, and their experiences of working with leaders. They each had clear ideas of what an ideal or a poor leader would look like, but when they drew on leaders from real life, the examples they chose were very different to their earlier descriptions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161826/original/image-20170321-5401-otvhmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/161826/original/image-20170321-5401-otvhmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161826/original/image-20170321-5401-otvhmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161826/original/image-20170321-5401-otvhmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161826/original/image-20170321-5401-otvhmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161826/original/image-20170321-5401-otvhmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/161826/original/image-20170321-5401-otvhmu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://imgur.com/gallery/cA5QK5i">imgur</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, someone who thought excellent leaders were stylish had previously worked with an Armani-suited despot. Another who thought leaders should be calm and sober chose a purple-haired extrovert as an example of an excellent leader she had worked with. Someone who thought an ideal leader would be “a good communicator” regardless of looks went on to make judgements based on looks, describing two candidates as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Boring sort of men, who probably vote Conservative and probably think they’re gods. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Someone who thought ideal leaders would be secure in themselves, without needing to proclaim who they were and what they’d done, forgot this when he described what he considered was exemplary, actions that had involved:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Effective delegation where you put the onus on the individual … with a healthy dose of discipline thrown in.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s worth noting – and somewhat worrying – that most people have great difficulty in thinking of excellent leaders they have worked with. </p>
<p>Looking for hints in the data that would explain these contradictions, we pored over the transcripts and found the clue in the casual, opening parts of the interviews. When we looked at how people described themselves and compared it with how they described leaders, we found that their “ideal” or “excellent” leader was actually a mirror image of themselves, and their idea of an appalling leader was their exact opposite. </p>
<p>For the masculine female the ideal leader is masculine; for the feminine wearer of lipstick and nail varnish the ideal leader is feminine; for the androgyne who wore no signifiers of their gender the excellent leader is androgyne; for the enthusiast the ideal leader is enthusiastic; for the person who needs discipline and command the ideal leader is a disciplined commander.</p>
<p>In other words, in the absence of any clear idea of what a leader should look like and what personality they should express, people unknowingly draw on their own self-image as the ideal leader on which they model themselves. So what our research suggests is that the answer to the question of how to become an excellent leader is: be yourself, albeit a well-scrubbed, well-dressed version.</p>
<p>
<section class="inline-content">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275743/original/file-20190521-23817-1fnbziu.png?w=128&h=128">
<div>
<header></header>
<p><a href="http://aom.org/">Nancy Harding is a member of the Academy of Management</a></p>
<footer>The academy is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy Harding is an Academy of Management scholar.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jackie Ford and Sarah Gilmore do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We may often criticise our lack of leaders. But leadership is not easy to define – even by leaders themselves.Nancy Harding, Professor of Organisation Theory, University of BathJackie Ford, Professor of Leadership and Organisation Studies, Durham UniversitySarah Gilmore, Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies, Director of Research Impact, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/827242017-08-24T22:49:08Z2017-08-24T22:49:08ZIn the Trump age, is the word ‘leadership’ meaningless?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183338/original/file-20170824-18734-1hjbltw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Donald Trump reacts before speaking at a recent rally in Arizona. Trump, a politician who came from the business world, is facing intense criticism about his leadership abilities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Years ago, Mrs. Bartlett, my third grade teacher, put a moratorium on the word <em>nice</em> in her classroom.</p>
<p>“It’s a feel-good, hollow word that’s easy to swallow and hard to contest — and probably something we wouldn’t want to contest anyway,” she said.</p>
<p>Mrs. Bartlett and George Orwell would agree.</p>
<p>In his essay <a href="http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit/">Politics and the English Language</a>, Orwell wrote that meaningless words “do not point to any discoverable object, but are hardly even expected to do so by the reader.”</p>
<p>Mrs. Bartlett’s lesson that day was the importance of clear and precise language to say what we mean and to take responsibility for the words we use.</p>
<p>Thirty-five years later, I would like to apply the same moratorium on the word <em>leadership</em> — at least until we are willing to say what we mean by leadership, and take responsibility for doing so.</p>
<p>At a point in history in which <a href="http://time.com/4902502/donald-trump-charlottesville-press-conference/">U.S. President Donald Trump’s leadership abilities</a> are being questioned <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/21/politics/paul-ryan-trump-charlottesville/index.html">on an almost daily basis,</a> maybe it’s just as Orwell once said: there can be benefits to meaningless language, in politics but particularly in business circles.</p>
<p>“Joan is a true leader.”</p>
<p>“John led the change initiative.”</p>
<p>“We’re leaders in public accounting.”</p>
<p>“The senior leadership team has decided…”</p>
<h2>Means nothing</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, the word leadership in the business world has become a pliable form of praise that can stand for everything and nothing all at the same time. And perhaps this haziness, as Orwell suggests, is powerful.</p>
<p>For some reason, leadership in business circles has reduced managing to something more formulaic and generally less worthy, although it certainly sounds better. Who would want to be called a manager when you can be called a leader?</p>
<p>“Joan is a true manager,” after all, lacks the same sparkle. </p>
<p>According to researchers Mats Alvesson and Stefan Sveningsson, attaching leadership caché to everyday behaviours like acknowledging others, listening well and generally just chatting <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00187267035612001">“extraordinarizes the mundane.”</a> When active listening happens in the pub, for example, we call it friendship; when done by our executives or even commanders-in-chief, we call it leadership.</p>
<p>Automatically granting leadership status to job titles may highlight a manager’s authority over others and his or her profile within an organization, but it also reflects how unquestioning we are about what leadership is.</p>
<p>Why is it so difficult to define leadership — and perhaps also desirable for businesses to disguise what they mean by it?</p>
<h2>How to define ‘real’ leadership?</h2>
<p>As a leadership scholar I contend, first, that we confuse interpersonal influence — at the core of any theory of leadership —with what we believe its outcomes are.</p>
<p>Defining leadership in terms of the innovation it produces, the profitability it claims to yield or how it ignites progress muddies the waters between cause and effect.</p>
<p>And when we believe we’ve determined the effect, who cares about the cause? But with this type of thinking, what a leader is or does is almost beside the point.</p>
<p>In fact, it’s well-documented that we overestimate how much influence a particular person’s behaviours have on successful and unsuccessful outcomes.</p>
<p>This is known as <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2392813?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">the romance of leadership</a>: for example, our assertion that a CEO leads her company to record earnings disregards the social influence and decisions of thousands of other people, along with a host of salient industry or market factors and just plain old good timing. </p>
<p>Romanticizing the effects of leadership gives us a way of, as <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Leadership-BS-Fixing-Workplaces-Careers/dp/0062383167">Jeffrey Pfeffer</a> writes in his book <em>Leadership BS</em>, assigning an apparently clear cause to a clear effect.</p>
<h2>Failure isn’t so compelling</h2>
<p>In addition, we like the dependent variable: we feast on stories of apparent leadership success and starve ourselves of stories about failures associated with the same type of leadership. A detailed recounting of how someone failed to overcome his or her difficult upbringing or experienced serial insolvencies isn’t exactly the stuff of best-selling leadership books.</p>
<p>Second, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2F0021-9010.89.5.755">many studies</a> show a robust correlation between interpersonal influence characterized as “good leadership” and positive outcomes for followers.</p>
<p>But our research methods may not allow us to paint a complete picture. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182850/original/file-20170821-8916-13e10cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182850/original/file-20170821-8916-13e10cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182850/original/file-20170821-8916-13e10cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182850/original/file-20170821-8916-13e10cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182850/original/file-20170821-8916-13e10cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182850/original/file-20170821-8916-13e10cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182850/original/file-20170821-8916-13e10cp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The word ‘leadership’ is all but meaningless, often used to describe routine managerial tasks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just like everyone else, we leadership researchers have not explored causality with the same fervour as we have correlations. </p>
<p>We study executives in organizations as our “leaders;” we under-specify our scientific models by assuming these “leaders” are the major source of influence, and rarely include any substitutes for leadership or other possible forces as comparisons to test our hunches fairly.</p>
<p>And the way we teach leadership may be no better.</p>
<p>We often build leadership courses around vague (“leadership culture”) and outcome-driven (“high-performance leadership”) language, and we rarely measure prior levels of what we mean by leadership before we begin the course to know if there has been any behavioural change. </p>
<p>We largely hope for the best, capitalize on successful cases in marketing our leadership development programs and attribute those same cases of success to leaders exhibiting leadership — and conveniently forget about the non-success stories.</p>
<p>Amid this alchemy, U.S. management scholar <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984310000925">Bruce Avolio and colleagues</a> have actually shown there’s a decent return on investment to be had from well-designed and well-measured leadership skills training.</p>
<h2>Confusing leaders with leadership</h2>
<p>And yet it’s often in our best interests not to embrace such measurement.</p>
<p>Keeping the notion of leadership ambiguous but positively loaded means that we can use it however we like. We can simultaneously attribute positive outcomes to Joan’s leadership without being sure she actually influenced anything, and also attribute a lack of success to a failure in Joan’s leadership when it’s convenient.</p>
<p>Third, we focus on “the leader” — and often forget that social influence, by definition, involves at the very least two people. </p>
<p>Much leadership development focuses on personal insight (e.g., “what is my leadership style?”), rather than sorting through the many situations or conditions under which particular leadership behaviours might thrive. We’re fixed on leadership as a person rather than leadership as a process.</p>
<p>In fact, leadership researchers <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=e7iIAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Leadership+and+Information+Processing:+Linking+Perceptions+and+Performance&ots=p4Dm4WFPZM&sig=tbhyuPMJL1RffNIQkikWsmVzAoI#v=onepage&q=Leadership%20and%20Information%20Processing%3A%20Linking%20Perceptions%20and%20Performance&f=false">Robert Lord and Karen Maher</a> defined leadership as the process of being perceived by others as a leader — something Trump himself <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-behavior-not-presidential-poll/">seems to be grappling with.</a> </p>
<p>Their definition highlights the futility of claiming to be a leader in the absence of others granting you that status, and the importance of understanding how we influence one another.</p>
<p>It’s also sufficiently vague enough about what that process actually entails, and how to achieve it, that the label of leader and the meaning of leadership remains, surely much to Mrs. Bartlett’s chagrin, conveniently nice and murky.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nick Turner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is it time to put a moratorium on the meaningless word ‘leadership?’ In the business world, leadership now often simply means performing mundane managerial duties.Nick Turner, Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Distinguished Chair in Leadership, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/826782017-08-22T01:59:29Z2017-08-22T01:59:29ZCan corporate America afford to walk away from President Trump?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182858/original/file-20170821-4964-mcbfge.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Merck CEO Ken Frazier, seated next to Trump, was first to resign from his manufacturing council.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After campaigning as the candidate <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-09-30/does-donald-trumps-business-background-matter">best able to work with business</a>, President Donald Trump has shown he is anything but. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/16/jj-and-united-tech-ceos-resign-as-trump-dissolves-2-major-business-councils.html">stream of resignations</a> from high-level business counsels hit a crescendo recently when Trump <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-dissolves-business-advisory-councils-after-ceos-depart-n793216">was forced to disband</a> two executive councils. The widespread and public defections were in protest over his unwillingness to unequivocally condemn racism and intolerance over the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/us/charlottesville-virginia-overview.html?_r=0">violence in Charlottesville, Virginia</a>. </p>
<p>As an expert in organizational communication and leadership, I saw the dismissal of the councils as a dramatic and important moment in the relationship between top business leaders and the president. But does it spell the demise of the often difficult partnership between President Trump and corporate America? </p>
<h2>A permanent breach?</h2>
<p>CEOs like Merck’s Ken Frazier <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2017/08/14/what-you-should-know-about-ken-frazier-the-ceo-who-just-resigned-from-trumps-council">rightly voted their conscience</a> when they began to abandon Trump’s American Manufacturing Council and the Strategic and Policy Forum. Frazier, the <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2017/08/14/business/merck-executive-resigns-presidents-council-and-trump-lashes-out">first to resign</a>, said he felt “a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”</p>
<p>The Wall Street Journal, however, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-business-advisory-council-to-disband-1502904005">was quick to point out</a> that many companies have stopped short of saying they would refuse to work with the White House in the future. </p>
<p>Indeed, despite the heated rhetoric, one thing is clear: Corporate America wants and needs to work with the administration, while the president benefits from a healthy relationship with America’s CEOs.</p>
<p>So if they both need each other, the question becomes how this increasingly tenuous relationship will play out.</p>
<h2>Managing a tense relationship</h2>
<p>CEOs from companies as diverse as <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/7day-business/article/GE-s-Immelt-others-won-t-have-to-worry-about-11823697.php">General Electric</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/14/543384974/merck-ceo-resigns-from-a-trump-business-council-citing-his-conscience">Under Armour</a> resigned their positions on the councils and condemned the president. Despite this, their companies will continue to need to press their vast legislative and regulatory agendas with the White House. </p>
<p>Pretty much every U.S. company has a vested interest in economic and global affairs and the policy choices of the U.S. government. In recent days, some CEOs have <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-business-advisory-council-to-disband-1502904005">told reporters</a> that they regret – now that the councils have disbanded – not having a direct role to play and a collective voice in policy matters. </p>
<p>Others, such as Apple’s Tim Cook, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/17/apples-tim-cook-disagrees-with-donald-trumps-take-on-neo-nazi-violence-in-charlottesville.html">show how it’s possible</a> to publicly disagree with the president over some issues, such as equality, immigration and climate change, yet continue to influence the course of areas like tax reform and LGBTQ rights in private.</p>
<p>This may well be the new way of doing business with Washington.</p>
<p>In general, it is generally not in the best interests of the country to have a schism between the president and corporate America. <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21711500-tradition-politicians-intervening-business-corporatisms-long-history-america">History shows</a> that there have often been tensions between government and business, yet both sides have generally been able to work collaboratively during critical times. </p>
<p>During Barack Obama’s first term, for example, <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/12/15/obama-ceo-white-house/">there was tension</a> between the White House and corporate America over issues such as regulation and his response to the financial crisis. Later in Obama’s presidency, however, business leaders worked closely with him to goad Congress into dealing with fiscal issues like the debt ceiling more responsibly to avoid hurting American’s credit rating or the stock market. </p>
<h2>Learning the value of corporate values</h2>
<p>What Trump – and perhaps his party as well – needs to learn is that values such as diversity and inclusion are very important to companies and their customers. </p>
<p>CNBC’s John Harwood <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/17/3-ways-trumps-gop-could-be-bad-for-us-business.html">recently identified</a> three issues that hinder the Republican Party’s relationship with U.S businesses: economic policy, GOP competence and values. On the last point, Harwood argues the “GOP’s embrace of cultural conservatism conflicts with corporate America’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-did-che-guevara-become-ceo-the-roots-of-the-new-corporate-activism-64203">embrace of diversity</a> and tolerance.”</p>
<p>American companies <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/12/05/diversity-inclusion-workplaces/">have found that promoting these values</a>, both internally and externally, increases revenue, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/">motivates employees</a> and fosters innovation. </p>
<p>That’s not something companies want to walk away from, nor should they. It is incumbent on this president, who has touted his ability to understand business, to not only face this fact but also to take it to heart. </p>
<p>Americans expect their president to be the moral leader of the United States, and as such, he must stand firmly for American values. When he fails to do so, CEOs have a responsibility to stand up for those values and to call out the president’s failures, as they just did.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182861/original/file-20170821-26863-12wr16n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182861/original/file-20170821-26863-12wr16n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182861/original/file-20170821-26863-12wr16n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182861/original/file-20170821-26863-12wr16n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182861/original/file-20170821-26863-12wr16n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182861/original/file-20170821-26863-12wr16n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/182861/original/file-20170821-26863-12wr16n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A notes and flowers form a memorial in Charlottesville, Virigina, where Heather Heyer was killed during a white nationalist rally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Cliff Owen</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is there hope after Charlottesville?</h2>
<p>So how will this historic and dramatic breach between a Republican president and the business community be closed?</p>
<p>In a word: carefully. </p>
<p>Businesses will have little choice but to continue to interact with the White House on some level but in a way that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2017/08/15/in-trumps-white-house-a-plum-appointment-for-ceos-has-become-a-reputation-risk?utm_term=.c20652ed0621">acknowledges how devastating and dangerous</a> dancing with this administration can be. It won’t be business as usual. In the short term, look for most of the engagement to happen on the staff level and through intermediaries such as lobbyists and lawyers. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the president would be wise to remember that good leaders are often good listeners. Kevin Sharer, the former CEO of Amgen, for example, identified listening as <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/why-im-a-listener-amgen-ceo-kevin-sharer">the most critical skill</a> for effective leadership, a sentiment I hear echoed continually from business leaders in my ongoing work on identifying the most critical skills for successful leadership.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/03/can-donald-trump-grow-up-in-office/?utm_term=.7273f4df7231">Pundits suggest</a> that Donald Trump will always be Donald Trump, without change. Yet doing so has consequences, as the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-members-of-a-white-house-panel-on-arts-1503065476-htmlstory.html">recent defections</a> of CEOs and members of the Council of Arts and Humanities, established in 1982 under President Ronald Reagan, clearly show. </p>
<p>As these decisions show, principled business (and other) leaders will not turn their back on the values they have embedded into their organizations. They will continue to speak out when those values are challenged. </p>
<p>President Trump must now recognize and embrace the values of diversity, equality and inclusion and work collaboratively with leaders from business and government.</p>
<p>This is imperative if he hopes to be effective. CEOs, lawmakers and the American public – including myself – will be watching with keen interest.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82678/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neal Hartman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Trump’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, prompted business leaders to sever ties with two White House councils.Neal Hartman, Senior Lecturer in Managerial Communication, MIT Sloan School of ManagementLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/769722017-06-02T19:22:25Z2017-06-02T19:22:25ZScandals at Uber and Fox show dangers of letting macho cultures run wild<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171894/original/file-20170601-25689-81pb22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Macho men?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us have probably seen the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB0A3KkmY-s">video</a> of Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick scolding one of his own drivers, cursing and lamenting that “some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own shit.”</p>
<p>Fox News, meanwhile, continues to reel from a cascade of <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/20/media/fox-news-sex-harassment">sexual harassment</a> allegations and charges that its corporate culture demeans women, leading to the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/07/21/ailes-steps-down-fox-news-ceo-after-sexual-harassment-lawsuit/87402864/">ouster</a> of founder Roger Ailes and star <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/business/media/bill-oreilly-fox-news-allegations.html?_r=0">Bill O’Reilly</a> following an exodus of advertisers.</p>
<p>What do these anecdotes have in common? These are more than just manifestations of men behaving badly. They are expressions of hyper-masculine values emanating from the top and shaping the culture down to the bottom.</p>
<p>I have studied gendered, macho cultures and the role <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Discourse-Leadership-Appraisal-Bert-Spector/dp/1107049784/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496345925&sr=8-1&keywords=bert+spector">top leaders</a> play in imposing and perpetuating them. Such cultures are harmful to organizations and their employees in many significant ways. </p>
<h2>Importance of culture</h2>
<p>Corporate culture has been recognized by <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Culture-Performance-John-Kotter-ebook/dp/B0033C58EU/ref=la_B001H6NM1K_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496408598&sr=1-11">scholars</a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Elephants-Dance-Inside-Historic-Turnaround/dp/0060523794/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=">executives</a> as a powerful force for shaping the behaviors of employees at all levels. “Culture is not the most important thing,” observed Jim Sinegal, Costco’s co-founder, “<a href="https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/08/21/costco-leader-culture-is-not-the-most-important-th.aspx">it’s the only thing</a>.” </p>
<p>Indeed, high-performance organizational cultures can help propel companies to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriscancialosi/2015/06/15/how-exceptional-companies-create-high-performance-cultures/#2ebc70515fd1">great heights</a>. A solid strategy and superior products are required, of <a href="https://www.inc.com/magazine/201210/leigh-buchanan/why-strategy-matters-most.html">course</a>. But cultural attributes such as trust, respect and openness to diverse opinions are also important for long-term <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Culture-Performance-John-Kotter/dp/1451655320/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493237015&sr=1-1&keywords=corporate+culture+and+performance">effectiveness</a>. </p>
<p>Companies as diverse as <a href="https://www.officevibe.com/blog/7-secrets-of-googles-epic-organizational-culture">Google</a>, <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/1657030/happiness-culture-zappos-isnt-company-its-mission">Zappos</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/04/30/another-workplace-of-the-future-sun-hydraulics/#ce3057573f44">Sun Hydraulics</a> show it can provide significant <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/258317?&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">competitive advantage</a>.</p>
<p>But not all cultures are benevolent. Some can hurt and even destroy a company. <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/enron-what-went-wrong/id456958031?mt=11">Enron</a>, for example, collapsed in 2001 <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/10878570710745794">under the weight of a culture</a> that prized “making numbers” over long-term performance, with a kind of ruthless lawlessness that emanated from the very top.</p>
<p>A faulty corporate culture can <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/06/the-bp-cultures-role-in-the-gu">encourage short-term advantage</a> at the cost of looming catastrophes, <a href="https://knowledge.insead.edu/strategy/who-killed-nokia-nokia-did-4268">stifle innovation</a>, <a href="https://www.inc.com/erik-sherman/sears-ceo-eddie-lampert-should-stop-reading-ayn-rand.html">foster distrust</a> or <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/10/the-leadership-blind-spots-at-wells-fargo">fuel excessive risk-taking</a>.</p>
<p>In summary: “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q1Z65UM/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1">Culture</a> trumps everything.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171895/original/file-20170601-25673-1mj3ouj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171895/original/file-20170601-25673-1mj3ouj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171895/original/file-20170601-25673-1mj3ouj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171895/original/file-20170601-25673-1mj3ouj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171895/original/file-20170601-25673-1mj3ouj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171895/original/file-20170601-25673-1mj3ouj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/171895/original/file-20170601-25673-1mj3ouj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protest-fueled backlash over sexual harassment allegations prompted advertisers to flee Bill O'Reilly’s show and eventually his firing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Who wants to be a macho man?</h2>
<p>An especially damaging subset of corporate culture relates to the over-emphasis on macho values.</p>
<p>It wasn’t too long ago that <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/03/17/the-data-on-women-leaders/#ceos">every CEO of a Fortune 500 company was a man</a>. While things have improved a lot since the era depicted so dramatically in “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804503/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Mad Men</a>,” the macho cultures on display at Uber and Fox powerfully illustrate that it’s still a “man’s world” in some companies. </p>
<p>In such environments, stereotypically masculine <a href="https://is.muni.cz/el/1421/jaro2009/PSB_516/6390561/the_leadership_styles_of_women_and_men.pdf">characteristics</a> such as assertiveness, top-down control, overconfidence, daring and competitiveness are held to be attributes of top performance, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191308500220042">valued above all others</a>. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Baseball-Preadolescent-Original-Paperback/dp/0226249379/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496409014&sr=1-1&keywords=With+the+Boys%3A+Little+League+Baseball+and+Preadolescent+Culture">Winning</a> is pursued as its own end rather than as an outcome of effectiveness.</p>
<p>Conversely, stereotypically feminine characteristics – such as being helpful, kind, sympathetic and nurturing – are diminished as less effective. Despite their powerful <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/08/research-male-leaders-should-think-more-like-women">contribution</a> to the implementation of a company’s strategy, these values tend to be <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Her-Place-Table-Negotiating-Challenges/dp/0470633751/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496349261&sr=1-1&keywords=her+place+at+the+table">unrecognized and unrewarded</a> in a macho culture.</p>
<p><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1744935912444357">Extensive research</a> into hyper-masculine culture has uncovered unsurprising but nonetheless disturbing patterns of discrimination against women. Uber’s culture provides a dramatic example of this. Offensive sexual references by the boss, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/21/uber-sexual-harassment-discrimination-scandal">reports of sexual harassment</a> within the company and <a href="https://qz.com/966908/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-is-the-kind-of-boss-who-works-on-his-laptop-at-a-strip-club/">meetings at strip clubs</a> forced Uber to <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/03/21/uber-internal-investigation/">engage an external investigator</a> to uncover just how widespread this macho dysfunction has spread.</p>
<p>In such cultures, the contribution made by women to the strategic functioning of the company is devalued as “soft,” and promotions become systematically more <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Disappearing-Acts-Gender-Relational-Practice/dp/0262062054/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=">unlikely</a>. </p>
<p>Denied equal opportunity, women with options may simply <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cjas.111/pdf">leave</a>. Those who stay often <a href="https://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2015/10/02/beware-a-macho-corporate-culture-that-demoralizes-women/">curtail their ambitions</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Business-Management-Original-Reference/dp/1848441762/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496350116&sr=1-1&keywords=Handbook+on+Women+in+Business+and+Management">depriving</a> organizations of an indispensable resource, particularly at the higher levels of the executive hierarchy. Men may also flee such a macho culture, as a recent <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/03/20/uber-brian-mcclendon-quits/">string of executive departures</a> from Uber suggests.</p>
<p>The paternalistic, rigid nature of macho cultures can manifest itself in a more general intolerance of differences and a rejection of groups labeled as “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Outsiders-Sociology-Deviance-Howard-Becker/dp/0684836351/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=">outsiders</a>” by the white males who dominate. For example, they are more likely to target both sexual <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.neu.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/02610150510788060">orientation</a> and <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&doi=10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.637">racial minorities</a>, something that <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/25/media/fox-news-racial-discrimination-lawsuit/">appeared to be the case</a> at Fox as well. </p>
<p>Beyond damaging morale and leading to the departure of talent, such a reckless disregard for boundaries also threatens the long-term viability of a company, placing it at financial and legal risk.</p>
<h2>Where culture comes from</h2>
<p>Those of us who study leadership and culture have long recognized that the values, behaviors and decisions of an organization’s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Organizational-Leadership-Jossey-Bass-Business-Management/dp/1119212049/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493232723&sr=1-1&keywords=edgar+schein+organizational+culture+and+leadership">leaders</a> exert the most powerful force in shaping cultural values – that is, what behaviors they reward and punish; where they assign the company’s financial assets; and, perhaps most importantly, how they <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/10/leaders-can-shape-company-culture-through-their-behaviors">behave</a> themselves.</p>
<p>When our leaders are running around berating and sexually harassing their employees, we clearly have a problem. But what can we do about it when the man at the very top of our society <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/09/10/trump-fiorina-look-face/71992454/">dismisses women opponents based on their looks</a>, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/">rates women on their sexual attractiveness</a> and <a href="http://www.npr.org/2016/10/07/497087141">brags about assaulting them</a>?</p>
<p>This is what begins to normalize such abhorrent behaviors in our business organizations and broader society. Everyone must be held accountable, of course, but we can start by acknowledging the special role and particular responsibility of those who sit at the top.</p>
<p>
<section class="inline-content">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/275743/original/file-20190521-23817-1fnbziu.png?w=128&h=128">
<div>
<header></header>
<p><a href="http://aom.org/">Bert Spector is an Academy of Management Scholar</a></p>
<footer>The academy is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76972/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bert Spector is an Academy of Management scholar.</span></em></p>Recent incidents reveal more than just men behaving badly. They show the consequences when corporate cultures are driven by hyper-masculine personalities at the top.Bert Spector, Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy at the D'Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/726682017-02-27T03:50:32Z2017-02-27T03:50:32ZHow to manage self-motivated, intelligent workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/158461/original/image-20170227-27389-1cpre0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Knowledge workers hate being micromanaged.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s an emerging type of worker who usually knows more about their job than anyone else in the organisation and is not likely to suffer fools gladly. This type of worker is difficult to manage as they don’t consider themselves to be subordinates in the traditional sense. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.druckerinstitute.com/peter-druckers-life-and-legacy/druckers-career-timeline-and-bibliography/">Professor Peter Drucker</a> called these employees “knowledge workers”, in a book on future management challenges, published in 1959, titled Landmarks of Tomorrow. Knowledge workers are skilled, motivated, challenge-seeking people who convert ideas and raw data into valuable knowledge. </p>
<p>The proportion of these workers in the total workforce in Australia is <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/A46E142F20B029A9CA25719600166DFF?opendocument">rising</a> consistently over time. So one of the problems for managers today is how to lead these workers to be more productive. This means knowing how to get people to want to do, what you want them to. </p>
<p>A broad <a href="https://www120.secure.griffith.edu.au/rch/file/f244b6cf-8ed1-d430-6360-6c726a1fe990/1/Tuffley_2010_02Thesis.pdf">review</a> of the literature reveals there is a common set of leadership principles that can be applied to these workers. These factors are moderately consistent across culture and time. If managers can emulate them, they are more likely to be perceived as someone to follow by knowledge workers and others. </p>
<h2>Vision</h2>
<p>At the very heart of leadership is the ability to articulate a vision of the future that inspires people and makes them want to get on board. With knowledge workers, it is necessary to first find out what their beliefs are and include these in your vision. </p>
<p>The collective views of the knowledge workers should be aggregated into a consistent theme that must broadly align with the organisation’s priorities. There is no room for people wanting to go in different directions. </p>
<p>Warren Bennis and Patricia Beiderman explore the dynamics of knowledge worker leadership in their 1998 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Organizing-Genius-Secrets-Creative-Collaboration/dp/0201339897">Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration</a>. They examine six of the 20th century’s most extraordinary teams, including the Manhattan Project and Lockheed’s Skunkworks. </p>
<p>The Manhattan team described their leader <a href="http://www.atomicarchive.com/Bios/Oppenheimer.shtml">J. Robert Oppenheimer</a> as having an “intense presence” and a “poetic vision”. One otherwise pragmatic scientist commented that in Oppenheimer’s presence “I became more intelligent, more vocal, more intense, more prescient, more poetic….”. Oppenheimer clearly knew how to realise the potential of his knowledge workers. </p>
<p>Moreover, a leader skilfully uses multiple channels of communication to convey a consistent message that makes people feel good about working for the organisation. </p>
<h2>Integrity</h2>
<p>A leader is like the “first citizen” of an organisation, the embodiment of its values. They should be perceived by everyone to act consistently over time, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-traits-of-an-ethical-leader-51181">integrity</a> and competence, in pursuit of the organisation’s mission. </p>
<p>There should not be any disparity between what a manager says and what they do. Integrity leads to the gradual accumulation of trust that can be destroyed in a moment if a lack of integrity is evident. </p>
<p>Examples of leaders who fail the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-tell-if-your-boss-is-a-psychopath-and-what-to-do-about-it-62665">integrity</a> test are not hard to find. Recent scandals like those at <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-could-vw-be-so-dumb-blame-the-unethical-culture-endemic-in-business-48137">Volkswagen</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=1">Turing Pharmaceuticals</a> are examples. Both point to a lack of integrity at the top that creates a business culture in which the end justifies the means. </p>
<p>In addition to trustworthiness, it also helps if a manager is highly competent with well-developed technical and interpersonal skills. These skills include being open to the truth, treating everyone fairly and equally and sticking to their principles. </p>
<h2>Action-orientation and resilience</h2>
<p>A manager should be seen to take direct action in pursuit of objectives. They should recover quickly from setbacks. They set a good example by maintaining forward momentum and don’t necessarily blame competitors, the government or the universe when things go wrong. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.biography.com/people/richard-branson-9224520">Sir Richard Branson</a> displayed these qualities in the now historic “dirty tricks” <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/battle-of-the-airlines-how-the-dirty-tricks-campaign-was-run-martyn-gregory-reports-on-bas-dirty-1478010.html">battle</a> with British Airways in the 1990’s. This is where British Airways sought to drive the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QimPIjWhPN4">smaller</a> Virgin Atlantic out of business by mounting an campaign to poach passengers and undermine public confidence. </p>
<p>Branson was hard-pressed to survive the attack from his much larger rival but with resilient leadership and support from loyal staff, Virgin <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/12/business/british-air-tells-virgin-air-it-s-sorry-and-pays-945000.html">survived</a> and ultimately prospered. </p>
<h2>Considering workers as individuals</h2>
<p>Knowledge workers need to know that they are understood and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/200903/are-you-transformational-leader">valued</a> as a whole person and not an expendable unit of production valued only for certain skills.</p>
<p>The best course of action for managers in dealing with this is to encourage the worker to achieve goals with empathy and positive reinforcement. Negative reinforcement should only used as a last resort as it can create resentment.</p>
<p>Intelligent adults tend to resent being treated like naughty children. The absence of positive reinforcement could also function in place of negative reinforcement. </p>
<h2>Management-by-exception</h2>
<p>Knowledge workers dislike being <a href="https://hbr.org/2011/09/stop-being-micromanaged">micro-managed</a>. They value independence and work best when given the tools they need, the authority to make decisions and the space to get on with the job. </p>
<p>This means leaders should manage by exception, only stepping in when there is noncompliance with standards or more generally when the knowledge worker is not achieving the goals set out for them. </p>
<p>In the end, it is the steady force of the manager’s attitude that trickles down over time and establishes the organisation’s culture. To gain the confidence of knowledge workers, they take ultimate responsibility for what happens in the organisation, understanding that blame shifting is a failure of leadership as we saw in the VW case when the CEO put the blame on the engineers and technicians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Tuffley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The number of “knowledge workers” in Australia is rising but they present a unique challenge to managers.David Tuffley, Senior Lecturer in Applied Ethics and Socio-Technical Studies, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/663082016-11-05T15:57:10Z2016-11-05T15:57:10ZTrump vs Clinton is a chance to think more clearly about gender and leadership<p>With a woman closer than ever to the presidency of the United States, the 2016 campaign has become a fierce arena for negotiating gender perceptions – and it’s been a revealing spectacle, especially in the campaign’s final months and weeks.</p>
<p>Trump’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxuFcfrlVMo">now notorious lament</a> that Clinton has neither the right “look” nor the “stamina” of a leader implies not only that she isn’t masculine enough to be president, but in fact not male enough. Such gender-charged statements demonstrate the cultural norm that leadership is considered primarily – if not exclusively – a male role.</p>
<p>This is not speculation; statistics illustrate how gender bias affects leader appointments across sectors. A gender gap in positions of power endures in business and politics, despite evidence that the gender of individual corporate officers <a href="http://pepperdine.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15093coll2/id/35">makes no difference</a> to the financial performance of major companies, but <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/media/companies-more-women-board-directors-experience-higher-financial-performance-according-latest">including women on boards</a> improves performance, and that leaders’ individual behaviour differs <a href="http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=chip_docs">only minimally</a> between the genders. </p>
<p>According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-databook-2013.pdf">more than three times</a> as many women with college degrees in the labor force as there were in 1970 – and yet the number of women in the most powerful (and top earning) executive ranks has remained low. According to the non-profit organisation <a href="https://youtu.be/dgr_alDP6h0?t=4m42s">Catalyst</a>, in 2011 women occupied only 14.1% of executive officer positions, 16.1% of board seats, 7.6% of top earner positions and 3.8% of CEO positions. </p>
<p>The picture is marginally better but nonetheless similar when it comes to political leadership. Women currently hold <a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-us-senate-2016">20 of 100 seats</a> in the US Senate, and <a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-us-house-representatives-2015">84 of 435</a> in the US House of Representatives. The disproportional underrepresentation of women in these ranks is further evidence of the enduring power of unconscious gender bias and an unwillingness among the wider public to acknowledge the systemic nature of the glass ceiling.</p>
<p>Indeed the Clinton–Trump election has forced the issue of gender in leadership and stirred up heated opinions. Many onlookers are now questioning why these symbolic systems endure. </p>
<h2>Mistaken assumptions</h2>
<p>One rather oversimplified way to explore this question is to look at the traits attributed to women and men through gender socialization. An example is the <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.472.2882&rep=rep1&type=pdf">Bem Sex Role Inventory</a> (BSRI), a tool developed by Sandra Lipsitz Bem in the 1970s to measure “androgyny”, or the balance of masculine and female traits. It assesses subjects against traits classified as stereotypically feminine, masculine, or neutral. While the BSRI has some serious theoretical and psychometric flaws, it’s still widely used to measure gender traits as defined by our predominant cultural expectations. </p>
<p>Traits the BSRI assigns as measures of masculinity help demonstrate how the choices in language used by the media in fact reinforces gender expectations, and how this sort of talk helps perpetuate the gendered perceptions of leadership that keep women lower down the ladder. </p>
<p>Two of the items the BSRI assigns to the masculine category are “acts as a leader” and “has leadership abilities”. Further items include traits such as ambitious, assertive, autonomous, bold, charismatic, competitive, confident, decisive, independent, influential and resilient. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TxuFcfrlVMo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Any female candidate who adopts these qualities would be breaching gender expectations, meaning she may be widely rejected as a leader, even though her <em>behaviour</em> matched expectations of good leadership. Her deviating from traditionally feminine attributed behavior means voters might well be subconsciously put off by the incongruence. </p>
<p>Conversely, any candidate (female or male) described with BSRI items associated with femininity – affectionate, childlike, gentle, gullible, romantic, sensitive, shy, or yielding – would certainly not fit the trait expectations of a president.</p>
<p>Clinton has long been attacked for being not feminine enough (<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/is-she-likable-enough/2016/09/23/5c8fd252-80e0-11e6-a52d-9a865a0ed0d4_story.html">unlikeable</a>) and simultaneously too feminine (<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/493814/the-science-behind-hating-hillarys-voice/">shrill</a>), not masculine enough (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGpqkRqXq1U">too cautious</a>) and simultaneously too masculine (provocative). Trump has been criticised mainly for his supposedly hypermasculine qualities – for being ruthless, bullying, dastardly, macho, even misogynistic.</p>
<p>But encouragingly, the potential for change is there. </p>
<p>In the more than 100 interviews they cite in their book <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-gerzema/the-athena-doctrine-the-r_b_3132416.html">The Athena Doctrine</a>, John Gerzema and Michael D'Antonio explored which socially desirable traits of femininity and masculinity were most strongly associated with leadership. </p>
<p>They found that ten of the top leadership-related attributes were considered feminine, six masculine, and one gender-neutral. On the feminine side, a leader should be, for example: expressive, reasonable, loyal, flexible, patient, passionate, empathetic, and selfless, and on the masculine side decisive, resilient, analytic, independent, aggressive, proud.</p>
<h2>Both womanly and manly</h2>
<p>One of the major problems with these trait approaches is the implication that, once attributes have been labelled as either feminine or masculine, they become mutually exclusive. This is wrongheaded; the point should be that if expectations of female and male leaders are really going to change, both women and men need to develop a balanced approach to leadership, one that combines and integrates “feminine” and “masculine” behaviors. </p>
<p>In my own research, I talk about to the phenomenon of “<a href="http://www.journalofleadershiped.org/attachments/article/111/Reynolds.pdf">gender-integrative leadership behaviour</a>”. My theory is that leaders who can authentically integrate traditionally “feminine” and “masculine” leader behaviors are perceived as the most competent and desirable, regardless of their gender. Communication expert Sabrina Pasztor <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/a--integrgender-communication-expert-pronounces-932800">agrees</a>, arguing that effective leaders must switch between feminine and masculine styles of communicating.</p>
<p>Some of the reporting of Clinton and Trump’s debate performances shows this “blending” of attributes at work. Much of the media praised Clinton for her “appropriately feminine” comportment: <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/10/who-won-and-lost-the-second-presidential-tv-debate-donald-trump/">patience, empathy, composure</a>. But she also won some praise for displaying some “masculine” traits – she was “<a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-daum-second-debate-clinton-cool-20161012-snap-story.html">resilient</a>”, “<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/09/media-forecast-trump-wins-2nd-debate-clinton-delivers-brave-comeback-3rd">brave</a>”, “<a href="http://time.com/4509046/presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-won/">tough and disciplined</a>”. </p>
<p>The language used to evaluate Trump, on the other hand, tended far more towards the masculine end of the spectrum, with sympathetic reviews lauding his <a href="http://yournewswire.com/debate-night-donald-trump-new-world-order/">boldness</a> and <a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-clash-at-hofstra-debate-1.12372266">assertiveness</a> – and critical ones condemning his <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trump-clinton-debate-updates-trump-s-aggressive-posture-toward-1474942056-htmlstory.html">aggressiveness</a>.</p>
<p>Trump with his over-the-top masculinity and over-emotionality (overly feminine!) has given a voice to many voters’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/whether-trump-wins-or-not-americas-brexit-moment-is-coming-65386">deep anger</a> at their presumably corrupt, entrenched government. Clinton, with her tempered femininity, has attempted to meld the caring reasoning of an involved government with the assertive strength of a world power. Although she has received scant credit and still faces quite damning accusations, this integrative style will serve her well should she be elected, whereas Trump’s hypermasculine style could alienate him. </p>
<p>Whichever candidate becomes the most powerful person in the world will inevitably be measured against predominantly masculine expectations. But there are also signs that we are slowly starting to accept the idea that leadership is not the automatic province of men – and that some traditionally “feminine” qualities might make our leaders a lot better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66308/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kae Reynolds does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The words we use to describe male and female leaders are a good guide to our deeply held sexist assumptions.Kae Reynolds, Senior Lecturer in Leadership, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/644952016-08-29T14:39:36Z2016-08-29T14:39:36ZGlobal leadership is in crisis – it’s time to stop the rot<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135627/original/image-20160826-17876-jb7xyr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C260%2C1000%2C601&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bad leaders are bad news – for their followers and for the world as a whole.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>People around the world are <a href="http://qz.com/768342/robert-mugabe-will-not-allow-an-arab-spring-in-zimbabwe-as-police-crush-another-anti-government-protest/">angry</a> and frustrated with those who “lead” them. Increasingly, leaders and leadership generate <a href="http://reports.weforum.org/outlook-global-agenda-2015/top-10-trends-of-2015/3-lack-of-leadership/">scepticism</a> and, in some cases, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-burundi-politics-idUSKBN0OI1FK20150602">open revolt</a>. </p>
<p>People’s trust and faith in leadership and the institutions they represent is evaporating at an alarming rate. There’s a deepening, widening crisis in the legitimacy and credibility of leadership. This crisis can be attributed to five primary sources: unable; unintelligent; immature; immoral and/or destructive leaders.</p>
<p>I estimate that at least 30% – and rising – of the world’s current leadership is virally infected by one or more of these sources. It is crucial that this crisis is tackled, and leadership is reimagined to fit the new world order. </p>
<p>Without this process of reimagining, the world’s very future may be at stake. Bad leaders will destroy people, <a href="http://qz.com/576459/jacob-zumas-erratic-leadership-has-done-long-term-harm-to-south-africas-economic-future/">wreck economies</a> and tear societies apart – irreparably.</p>
<h2>Unable leadership</h2>
<p>More and more leaders are emerging without the abilities and qualities needed to lead effectively in a changing world. This is typified by variety, interdependency, complexity, change, ambiguity, seamlessness and sustainability. </p>
<p>Today’s leaders often have obsolete abilities for this new world. They appear unable to reinvent themselves fast enough to adapt to the ongoing shifts. They lack the required levels of, for instance, resilience, responsiveness, agility, risk-taking, creativity and innovation. Simply put, many leaders have reached their “sell-by date”.</p>
<p>There is a rapid increase in leadership <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287394318_When_leaders_burn_out_The_causes_costs_and_prevention_of_burnout_among_leaders">burnout</a> and leaders being rejected by their organisations. </p>
<p>This is driven by the constant stress they’re under, which mercilessly exposes <a href="http://www.hogandarkside.com/">their hidden weaknesses</a>. And because they are constantly under pressure, leaders are unable – or don’t make – time to build and maintain the essential qualities of hope, passion, confidence, efficacy, courage and perseverance in their followers. They don’t equip their followers with the <a href="http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=leadershipfacpub">psycho-social capital</a> they need to deal with the world.</p>
<h2>Unintelligent leadership</h2>
<p>Unintelligent leaders either overemphasise one or lack in some of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-world-needs-intelligent-leaders-and-what-it-takes-to-be-one-59277">five interdependent intelligence modes</a>: intra- and interpersonal; systemic; ideation; action and contextual.</p>
<p>They fall short on the insight and wisdom needed to deal effectively with the new world. Leaders are are dumbing down. </p>
<p>They have poorly crystallised identities. They don’t understand themselves, others and their reciprocal impact. They tend to get trapped and overwhelmed by detail instead of seeing the big picture. </p>
<p>They’re also are unable to be big dreamers who look constantly ahead: they’re stuck in the here-and-now. They do not have the insight to affect lasting, large-scale change and constructively engage with the new world.</p>
<h2>Immature leadership</h2>
<p>Many leaders are stuck at earlier <a href="https://theconversation.com/maturity-makes-great-leaders-the-journey-from-dwarf-to-giant-61417">maturity stages</a> and struggle to migrate to higher levels.</p>
<p>Some seek constant approval from others because their self-worth has not been affirmed. They have no confidence in their own ability. Others strive to satisfy their egocentric interests and needs single-mindedly. </p>
<p>Some proclaim ad nauseam to be the one and only, indispensable saviour of the world. Others push in an uncompromising manner for the realisation of narrow organisation specific goals to the detriment of the common good. </p>
<p>Because such leaders are stuck at earlier maturity stages they are unable to graduate to maturity stage five, the highest level. Those who have reached this stage <a href="https://theconversation.com/maturity-makes-great-leaders-the-journey-from-dwarf-to-giant-61417">have embraced</a> their role as a servant and steward who is in service to humanity, and drive commonly shared pursuits.</p>
<h2>Immoral leadership</h2>
<p>Ethical leaders do the right thing for the right reasons in the right way in the right place and at the right time with the right people.</p>
<p>But a growing number of leaders lack a moral conscience, compass and courage. They are arrogant, cowardly and secretive. They have little or no integrity, and pursue their own personal interests and needs. They shy away from any accountability for their own decisions, actions and the consequences of these.</p>
<p>Immoral leaders’ followers are very rarely <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104898430600110X">empowered and enabled</a> to do their jobs well. These leaders feel threatened by their followers and tend to actively block their development.</p>
<h2>Destructive leadership</h2>
<p>The previous four sources I’ve described pertain to a “lack of”. </p>
<p>This fifth source relates to the “presence of” something: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-toxic-leaders-destroy-people-as-well-as-organisations-51951">toxicity</a>. Toxicity manifests in leaders’ ongoing, deliberate actions to undermine their followers’ sense of dignity, self-worth and efficacy. </p>
<p>These destructive actions may be physical, psychosocial, spiritual or all three. </p>
<h2>The imperative of reimagining leadership</h2>
<p>What can be done to deal with these sources of the world’s leadership crisis?</p>
<p>The first, knee-jerk response is to embark on a frantic search for a silver bullet. But such missions often cause more damage than the existing crisis. A supposedly new and “better” form of leadership is posited. This lulls people into a false sense of security. The hard reality? There is no magic wand.</p>
<p>It’s imperative not to start with answers to given questions, but rather up front to identify the right questions about future-fit leadership and then seek answers. It’s time to reimagine leadership anew, both in terms of new questions and answers that will have lasting benefits. Here are six possible questions to help us find useful answers:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><em>Where?</em> It’s important to choose an appropriate leadership vantage point from which to look at leadership. I contend this entails taking a complexity, long term perspective of leadership. This will allow organisations and societies to reimagine leaders as holistic, organic, integrated and dynamic whole persons. </p></li>
<li><p><em>Where to?</em> This involves crafting a leadership excellence model that is matched to the leadership challenges, demands and requirements of the new world.</p></li>
<li><p><em>What?</em> This encompasses systemically reinventing and reprogramming the five leadership facets of ability, intelligence, maturity, morality and authenticity at a much deeper level in order to match leaders closer to the new world.</p></li>
<li><p><em>How?</em> Continuous lifelong, blended leadership development across all leadership facets must occur and form part of leaders’ key performance areas. Leadership capacity, and its development, must be set as a national priority by countries’ governments, and by organisations.</p></li>
<li><p><em>Who?</em> Everyone must be enabled and empowered to be a leader. All leaders must be encouraged to take a leadership oath in which they’d publicly commit to leadership excellence and being held accountable accordingly.</p></li>
<li><p><em>When?</em> The identification, growth and development of leadership must start in early childhood at school level already, and continue throughout a person’s whole life.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>There is much to do if we’re to tackle the world’s deepening, widening leadership crisis. Without better leaders, the future of the world is truly at stake with the growing risk of a world implosion. We need to reimagine and nurture leadership for this new world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64495/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theo Veldsman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s a widening global crisis in the legitimacy and credibility of leadership. It can be attributed to five sources: unable; unintelligent; immature; immoral and/or destructive leadership.Theo Veldsman, Professor and Head, Department of Industrial Psychology and People Management, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/612552016-08-19T02:12:57Z2016-08-19T02:12:57ZWhat does social science say about how a female president might lead?<p>In this year’s unorthodox presidential election season, the latest campaign foibles can sometimes obscure the unprecedented fact that one major-party candidate for highest office in the United States is a woman. In a country where women have held the right to vote since 1920, it would be a major step to join the approximately 50 percent of world nations that already have or have had a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2015">female head of state</a>. That club includes Germany, the United Kingdom, Chile and South Korea.</p>
<p>Beyond the historical import, though, does it really matter if a woman is the commander in chief? Do women lead differently than men do, by virtue of their gender? Hillary Clinton seems to believe so, as shown <a href="http://time.com/4166539/hillary-clinton-woman-governing-campaigning/">by her own words</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I just think women in general are better listeners, are more collegial, more open to new ideas and how to make things work in a way that looks for win-win outcomes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is feminine leadership style a real phenomenon? That’s a question social science has attempted to answer by studying typical differences in how men and women lead.</p>
<h2>On the average, studies say….</h2>
<p>Clinton’s statement can be checked against the many studies that have examined leadership styles. Conducted over many years, the research is based on people’s ratings of individual leaders’ typical behaviors in a wide range of settings – mainly business, educational and governmental.</p>
<p>Presented with many studies, researchers typically average their findings to determine general trends. Such projects, known as <a href="http://digitalcommons.uconn.edu/chip_docs/35">meta-analyses</a>, have found that female leaders, on average, are somewhat more likely to be <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.2.233">democratic, collaborative and participative</a> than their male counterparts – that is, they invite input from others and attempt to build consensus. Men, in contrast, are more likely to be <a href="http://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.94.1.3-18">autocratic and directive</a> in their approach. Women are thus more likely to take others’ views into account and less likely to impose solutions without consultation. </p>
<p>Women leaders also place more emphasis on <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.569">developing positive relationships</a> with others and tend to use more positive incentives than men and fewer threats, or negative incentives. Women are also less likely than men to <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(03)00030-4">avoid making decisions or exercising authority</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, these are generalizations based on leaders of many different types of groups and organizations, ranging from middle managers in business to department chairs and deans in universities. These broad-stroke characterizations do not hold true for every man and woman who heads a group or for every situation an individual might find him- or herself in.</p>
<p>Consider, for example, that the greater average height of men than women is a valid generalization. But obviously there are some women who are taller than most men and some men who are shorter than most women.</p>
<p>And in fact, the leadership styles of women and men are much more similar than their heights, because these behaviors are influenced by many factors other than gender. Clearly, some women and men have been atypical of their sex. For example, <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/04/thatchers-greatest-strength-was">Margaret Thatcher was famous</a> for her highly assertive, autocratic leadership style. <a href="http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032515/what-tim-cooks-managerial-style.asp">Apple CEO Tim Cook</a> is known for the relatively collaborative and team-oriented style that he has encouraged in the company. Yet, on the average it is men who more often proceed in a more top-down fashion and women who work to build positive relations and find consensus.</p>
<h2>If there are differences, why?</h2>
<p>It’s a lot trickier to figure out the reasons for these differences than it is to simply identify them. But evidence suggests that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.109.3.573">norms about how men and women should act are relevant</a>. In general, women are expected to be pleasant, caring and nice. Men are expected to be strong and assertive, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00235">as are leaders in general</a>.</p>
<p>In these ways, some expectations for women are at odds with those for leaders. This inconsistency makes leadership challenging for women because they face a double bind: pressure to be warm and pleasant as a woman, yet assertive and even tough as a leader.</p>
<p>When women clearly <a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-394286-9.00004-4">violate social expectations</a> about what women do and how they behave, they often <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000039">receive backlash in the form of dislike and sharp disapproval</a>. Some of the vehement and sometimes obscene anti-Hillary signs and chants at Trump rallies could be interpreted as examples.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"765778956016574464"}"></div></p>
<p>Yet, the leader role itself exerts similar pressures on women and men. A president, for example, is expected to “act presidential” — proceed with a certain dignity and competence, a norm that applies to men and women alike. </p>
<h2>Beyond how they lead to where they lead</h2>
<p>There is another way in which women lead differently from men: They tend to have somewhat different priorities for what they want to accomplish. Here’s how Hillary Clinton suggested her <a href="http://time.com/4166539/hillary-clinton-woman-governing-campaigning/">own life would influence her understanding</a> of Americans’ concerns and how to address them:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My life experiences, what I care about, what I’ve been through just make me perhaps more aware of and responsive to a lot of the family issues that people are struggling with whether it’s affording child care or looking to get their incomes up because everything is increasing in cost. I really do feel that my preparation for being president puts me very strongly on the side of helping American families and that’s at the core of my campaign.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.6.998">Studies of people’s attitudes and values</a> have shown, on average, women tend to be <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.87.6.796">more compassionate and other-oriented</a> than men and generally have a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511790621.005">more egalitarian ideology</a>. Men, in contrast, tend to be more oriented than women to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.1010">personal power</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0015546">achievement</a>. On numerous social policy issues, <a href="http://swer.wtamu.edu/sites/default/files/Data/75-89-304-1103-1-PB.pdf">women favor helping disadvantaged groups</a> more than men do, and these groups include not only women but children, racial minorities and the poor. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00569.x">In legislatures, women, especially women of color</a>, are more likely than their white male counterparts to advocate for compassionate policies that promote the interests of women, minorities, children, families and the poor, and that support the public good in areas such as health care and education. </p>
<p>These <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0160323X14542441">trends in legislative behavior</a> are weaker among Republican than Democratic legislators in the U.S. Most elected women align with the Democratic Party (76 of the 104 women now serving in Congress are Democrats, while 28 are Republican); and <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442252615/The-Politics-of-Congressional-Elections-Ninth-Edition">recently elected Republicans tend to be very conservative</a>, be they women or men. </p>
<p>Other studies have looked at the gender composition of corporate boards in relation to companies’ efforts to enhance social outcomes – things such as good community relations and environmental sustainability. A large meta-analysis of this research found that <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/corg.12165">companies with a greater share of female directors</a> demonstrate more corporate social responsibility and engage in more activities that build a positive social reputation.</p>
<p>Women as corporate directors and company owners are also associated with <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/001979391406700206">fewer worker layoffs</a> <a href="http://doi.org/10.1257/app.5.3.136">during economic downturns</a>. Women’s business leadership thus appears to be less single-mindedly concerned with shareholder value and more attentive to a wider range of stakeholders – especially employees and communities. These priorities are consistent with women’s relatively other-oriented and compassionate attitudes and values. </p>
<h2>Madam versus Mister President</h2>
<p>All in all, what do social scientific studies tell us about how the nation – and the world – would be different if women were equitably represented in leadership? It’s difficult to predict given that we are such a long way from women holding 50 percent of the positions of power – in Congress or in C-suites. Today, women are only <a href="http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-sp-500-companies">4 percent of the CEOs in the Fortune 500</a>, though they account for <a href="http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm">more than a quarter of all chief executive officers</a> in the U.S.</p>
<p>There’s no guarantee that decision-making would quickly become more effective by incorporating more women into the process. <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-good-intentions-arent-supported-by-social-science-evidence-diversity-research-and-policy-54875">Reaping the benefits of diversity</a> requires learning to <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12163">work well with people who are different</a>. The most likely outcome as women gradually gain more power is a shift in priorities toward more social equality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61255/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice H. Eagly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Studies can’t predict an individual’s behavior. But meta-analyses of social science research turn up differences in men’s versus women’s leadership styles, on average.Alice H. Eagly, Professor of Psychology; Faculty Fellow Institute for Policy Research; Professor of Management and Organizations, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.