Distributing Leadership

{Excerpt} The prevailing view of leadership is that it is concentrated or focused. In organizations, this makes it an input to business processes and performance—dependent on the attributes, behaviors, experience, knowledge, skills, and potential of the individuals chosen to impact these. The theory of distributed leadership thinks it best considered as an outcome. Leadership is defined by what one does, not who one is. Leadership at all levels matters and must be drawn from, not just be added to, individuals and groups in organizations

Adapting leadership to a different cultural context : Finnish business leaders in China

Several studies have shown that when leadership is taken to a different cultural context, its verbal and non-verbal communications may disrupt partly due the incorrect leadership style; therefore, achieving commonly shared objectives becomes difficult. Despite the multitude of theories examining leadership styles and generally approved explanatory models introducing cultural differences, it is yet understudied how culture influences leadership style when a leader is adapting to a different culture. This thesis aims to study the impact of cultural elements on leadership styles and the concurrent adaptation of leadership styles to match the conditions of different cultural elements. The theoretical framework of this study consists of two main chapters on leadership and culture, that provide the theoretical standpoints needed for carrying out the research and further analysis of the findings. Specifically, the theoretical part of this thesis introduces the history of leadership styles to present, discusses on the role of communicating leadership, and examines how the motivation of employees can be observed. Further, it presents different cultural dimensions that can be used to conceptualize and compare cultural differences, heading into special characteristics of Chinese culture. The research methodology selected for this study is qualitative, as it provides suitable tools for grasping highly contextual features of the studied phenomenon. This study has found that the most prominent cultural elements influencing leadership styles were the strong hierarchy, high competition, the importance of status and social recognition, and fear of failure. Also, the communication between Finnish business leaders and Chinese employees was found to be difficult due its complex nature, difficulty of Chinese language, and the need for highly specific instruction giving. This thesis proposes the Contextual leadership adaptation model, which covers the adaptation mechanisms of leadership style into a different culture that can be applied and studied also in different contexts. The practical implications of this study are aimed especially to future Finnish business leaders who can benefit from the specific knowledge from this thesis. Also, scholars studying leadership styles in different contexts can benefit from the derived model

Social-Cognitive, Relational, and Identity-Based Approaches to Leadership

We review the leadership literature published in this journal during the 50 years since its inception. Our focus is on three major contributions to leadership theory – social-cognitive, leader–member exchange, and social identity theories – as well as the role in advancing leadership theory of seminal theories published in this journal. During this period, the conceptualization of leadership has become more inclusive and dynamic, expanding to include both leaders and followers, and their team and organizational context. Dynamics pertain not only to the development over time in leader–member relationship, but also to within-person changes in active identities and behavioral styles that repeatedly occur. This complexity creates sensemaking challenges for all parties, as they both create and experience leadership processes