The old man and the sea of leadership: looking for effectiveness

Leadership has been a scientific discipline for more than one hundred years

The collapse of leadership theories

After having published an article on servant leadership and another on transformational leadership I became aware that several researchers had examined these theories in order to determine similarities and differences between them. Their purpose was to understand these theories. A theory can indeed be understood in the way in which it differs from other theories. All knowledge is conceptually mediated and thus concept-dependent. Concepts, moreover, are required to be well defined. The clarification of different concepts, their content, how they related to one another, is in itself an important task in research. Ultimately, servant leadership and transformational leadership must be based on different concepts in order to make a comparison between them a meaningful scholarly endeavour

Is leadership research betraying leaders?

If the purpose of research is to solve problems, then the question emerges of what the problem is and who has the problem. The purpose of medical research, for instance, is to provide those who practice medicine with knowledge that enables them to cure diseases, to relieve pain, and to enhance individuals’ health. Medical research thus benefits patients

Leadership studies: all bridges have been burned

Leadership has been a scientific discipline for over 100 years. The magnitude of research has increased tremendously. A variety of leadership concepts and theories has been proposed. Now, I have identified types of leadership theories in order to understand the present fissured state of leadership research

Principles of Public Management in Scandinavian Countries: A Theoretical Assessment

strengthen leadership practices in the public sector. The policy documents ”Code for Chief Executive Excellence” (Denmark) and ”Leadership in Norway’s Civil Service” pertain to how the public sector ought to be managed. This article addresses two problems concerning these documents. To what degree does New Public Management (NPM) influence them? To what degree does management and leadership theory and research support the principles proposed by these documents? This article concludes that NPM has had a significant impact on public management in the Scandinavian countries. The policy documents are based on leadership research and are in accordance with mainstream management theory. The idea of formulating a principle of management that would characterize the classical contributions is also evident in these documents

Leadership Research: Where Irrelevance Prevails

Is contemporary managerial leadership research relevant and helpful to managers? Arguably, managers’ main task and prime concern is to contribute to the attainment of organisational goals, i.e., to enhance organizational effectiveness. On the basis of this premise of relevance, a survey of 105 research articles published in two international journals year 2011 reveals that researchers did not address this question. In these articles the term ‘effectiveness’ occurred about one time for every 1000 words. In the 105 articles effectiveness was seldom defined and never measured. If managers‘ prime concern is to contribute to organizational effectiveness, then there is no surprise that several scholars have found that managers regard leadership research irrelevant and useless

Organisational Learning: Theoretical Shortcomings and Practical Challenges

This paper addresses two problems related to learning and the use of knowledge at work. The first problem is the theoretical shortcomings stemming from the controversy between three different concepts of ‘organisational learning.’ In order to enhance scholarship in this field the notion that organisations - as organisations - can learn need to be rejected for theoretical and empirical reasons. The metaphorical use of ‘organisational learning’ creates only confusion. Learning is a process and knowledge is the outcome of that process. It is argued that learning and knowledge is only related to individuals. Knowledge is thus the individual capability to draw distinctions, within a domain of action, based on an appreciation of context or theory. Consequently, knowledge becomes organisational when it is created, developed and transmitted to other individuals in the organisation. In a strict sense knowledge becomes organisational when employees use it and act based on generalisations due to the rules and procedures found in their organisation. The gravest problem is practical challenges due to the fact that the emphasis on learning, knowledge and competence of the working force do not materialize in the application of the knowledge acquired. It is evident that employees do not use their increased knowledge. However, we do not know why they do not use it. An enormous waste of money is spent on learning and knowledge in organisations which does not yield what is expected. How can managers act in order to enhance the application of increased knowledge possessed by the workforce

Seven Pitfalls in Organisation Literature

Current organisation literature is rife with several incorrect and confusing assertions which continually create problems for students and researchers alike. Seven of these unfortunate beliefs are presented here and provocatively called ‘pitfalls’. The aim of this article is to draw attention to some of these theoretically incorrect assertions and how they can be avoided in scholarly work. The implications for managers are also presented

Trust in Managers Revisited : Antecedents, Mediating Factors, and Consequences

The first purpose of this paper is to find the reasons why subordinates trust their managers in private organizations. The second purpose is related to whether there are national differences in the degree of subordinates’ trust in their managers. Studies from two European countries are presented which were based on the same instrument for measuring subordinates’ trust. These studies concluded that managers’ actions are the antecedent to trust. Managers are, however, trusted to different degrees. It appears that managers need to show by their actions that they trust their subordinates, offer help and guidance, show appreciation to the subordinates, and solve problems adequately. The antecedent was the managers’ proximity to the subordinates. Other studies found more antecedents. Additionally, a number of positive consequences of trust in managers – reported in other studies – are work performance, job satisfaction, and subordinates’ motivation. Some questions regarding trust in managers still need answers. They are formulated but not answered in this paper. This DOI cannot be found in the DOI System 10.17708/DRMJ.2019.v08n02a05</p

IT ALL STARTS WITH THE GOAL

The purpose of this article is to show that three basic concepts in the fields of organization research, corporate governance, management and leadership research come together theoretically. The concepts of goal, activity and goal-attainment constitute a commonality between them. The theoretical bounds are, however, not evident in all writings. The field of organizational research contains as basic concepts owners and goal, while corporate governance deals with the relationship between owners (shareholders), executives and stakeholders. Additionally, the management discipline pertains to an organization to be managed on behalf of the owners. Numerous leadership theories address the behaviors and activities of managers related to goal-attainment. Highlighting these common grounds could help progress in research in one field to be beneficial in the other research areas. They all come together: the fields of organization, corporate governance, management, and theories of leadership. It all starts with the goal of the owners, and it ends with goal-attainment