Leadership Of The Future - CEC European Managers

2y ago
179 Views
2 Downloads
1.59 MB
41 Pages
Last View : 15d ago
Last Download : 2m ago
Upload by : Adalynn Cowell
Transcription

CEC ReportLeadership of the futureSkills and practices for better performanceSeptember 20171

ContentSummaryPART 2 - SurveyAbstract. 2Leadership in short. 3The survey in short. 4Recommendations. 51. Demographic results. 202. Skills. 213. Hypothesis testing. 234. Leadership interviews. 255. Conclusions. 276. Questionnaire. 28PART 1 - Research design1. Introduction. 72. Leadership in theory. 92.1. Leadership approaches. 92.2. Leadership definition. 102.3. Leadership vs. management?. 113. Development and performance- a difficult couple. 123.1. Leadership and organisationaldevelopment. 123.2. Performance. 133.3. Towards an integrated approach. 14PART 3 - Case studyLeadership and the culturalsector - an inspiration formanagers?. 31Bibliography. 384. Know it, do it, can it?. 154.1. Competence. 154.2. Knowledge. 164.3. Skills. 165. Research hypothesis. 171

AbstractLeadership in today’s world faces both structural challenges, such as demographic change or digitalisation,as well as a conceptual challenge related to what leadership is about.Opposed to leaders’ approaches, the notion of leadership also accounts to the situations, contexts andnetworks leaders are involved in. Therefore, the leadership research design uses a working definition ofleadership as an organisational learning and exchange process in which leaders have a particular roleas nodes or connectors.The paper and the associated survey among more than 1400 managers investigate which leadership skillsneed to be developed in order to facilitate organisational development. It is assumed that a combinationof leadership skills and organisational practices lead to higher organisational performance.Organisational practices relate to the way people work and learn together. It is more important to focus onthe quality of practices in terms of purpose, collaboration, assessment and adaptation than concreteactivities as such. In other words, the fact of companies introducing 360 degree feedbacks says nothingabout the quality and potentially beneficial consequences. On the performance side, the paper takes amulti-dimensional stance on the question by integrating economic, social and environmental performanceapproaches, among others.The survey* results confirm the assumptions that higher individual skills lead to better individual performanceand that certain organisational practices lead to better organisational performance. A continuous processof reflection, assessment, implementation and collaboration was more indicative of performancethan any other measure.The empirical part of the research is composed of a quantitative survey (Part 2); a series of follow-upinterviews (Part 3) and a case study (Part 4).Key wordsLeadership, leadership development, leaders, managers, management, human resources, organisationaldevelopment, innovation, performance, skills, competencesContactJean-Philippe Steeger, Policy and Communication Officersteeger@cec-managers.org 32 242 00 823*About this paper Published: 28.09.2017; Copyright: CEC European Managers 2017;Do not distribute without permissionThe CEC Report “Leadership of the future” reflects views of CEC European Managers and includes anon-representative survey of affiliated and non-affiliated managers in the framework of the EuropeanManagers Panel, as well as follow-up interviews and a case study. The survey comprises a selfassessment of skills, of organisational practices and of performance.2

Leadership in shortWhen speaking about leadership, it is important to be transparent about the approach which will informdiscussions about what good leadership is about.Leaders approachesLeaders approaches suggest that leaders have rather constant and clearly identifiable or limited traits,competences or behaviors that they use to assign, delegate or otherwise influence their fellowship. Theseapproaches have proved problematic in explaining the external influences on leaders in a social, cultural oreconomic context, the dynamics in the organisation and the difference between the leader and the others(for instance, workers and employers).Leadership approachesNewer leadership approaches have made helpful contributions for taking account of the situations, thenetworks that facilitate knowledge and organisational development or of the organisations’ role and itsenvironment. These approaches stress that context is important and that leadership and organisationaldevelopment are part of the same process.Leadership definedWe could define leadership as: a network of actors and knowledge in which meaning about theorganisation, the role of its leaders, members and environment is created through social exchanges andlearning processes. (own)The advantage of this definition is that it includes the procedural element of leadership, the role of leadersand capacity development as an action to pursue. This definition can be helpful when identifying factors ofinnovation, the process of knowledge acquisition and application, and the relation to the organisation’s sociopolitical environment at systemic level. An example for considering the organisation’s environment is thestakeholder approach opposed to the shareholder approach. The stakeholder approach considers the longterm benefits of the organisation and its stakeholders as opposed to focusing on short-term profits properto the shareholder model.The role of the leaderAs for the leader, an analogous definition to the one ofleadership has been proposed by Stuart D. Sidle.He defines the leader as: “a person who has learnedto see those connections and develop the networksof knowledge, information, space, and social capitalnecessary for managing and increasing organizationalor system performance. In essence, ( ) leaders havelearned to see connections and develop a level ofpersonal influence that help them serve as attractors– important nodes or connectors – in a vast array ofpotential networks in a system.” (Sidle 2003: 8)3

44

Public nge starts with yourself: practice the cycle of assessment, reflection, planning, andaction yourself to show and live the example to follow. And continues with what you have: consider your human resources (skills, motivation,ideas, initiatives, networks.) and non-human resources (space, time, money.) before startingan initiative. Too often, plans start with wrong assumptions or biased documentation (e.g. tofit certain targets). When you do it, do it right: focus on few(er) good quality activities - quality in terms ofpurpose, collaboration, plan and evaluation. Facilitate leadership development and learning throughout the organisation by combining individualskills development with the development of organisational practices, which are shown to increaseperformance significatively. Leadership development comprises following factors:Knowledge: acquiring the knowledge necessary for developing a new competencyRelationships: incorporating relationships with others for obtaining the feedback, coaching,and often, the vehicle for practice Vision: identifying a plan of action for applying and practicing new skills Action: taking action on the plan through practicing and experiencing the new behavior Personal Mastery: reflecting on the experience to understand the lessons of experience andrevising the learning plan for the next cycle. Creating policy frameworks for continuous learning, experimenting and for more exchanges in Europeand beyond is key to tackle the challenges of the 21st century.Promoting a holistic set of skills: emotional, social, action-oriented and cognitiveto account to an increasingly complex world, where transversal skills are a must Facilitate learning throughout life: support personal development by providingcustomised learning opportunities. Create education systems where personal potential isat the centre. Exchange programmes, multi-lingualism and other tools to foster thinking indifferent perspectives can help build personality and knowledge by new experiences. Support organisational development in the information society: provide accessibleand relevant knowledge databases with best practices accessible to companies, provide“learning to learn” trainings for employees and managers to help them set up their ownorganisational learning schemes Encourage new policy model experimenting: evidence-based policies should more oftenbe tested in experiments to encourage innovation, effectiveness and efficiency in public policymaking. 5

CEC ReportLeadership of the futureSkills and practices for better performancePART 1Research designPART 2Leadership surveyPART 3Leadership case studySeptember 20176

1. IntroductionThe rise of artificial intelligence, the automation of production processes and numerous other factors areinfluencing both the way we discuss the role of work and the work itself.In an increasingly complex and fast-paced world where changes become the norm and where orientationbecomes a scarce resource, we need competent leaders able to structure and create a shared meaningof the current developments. Furthermore, there seems to be a growing demand for redesigningorganisations around employees’ competences, company’s resources and innovation potential.1 Investingin skills and competences has also become a question of value in the sense that they have to accountto more sustainable and inclusive outputs and processes. This is the reason why the Europe 2020strategy has put a strong emphasis on investing in skills that can build more inclusive labour markets,increase social cohesion and well-being as well as promote smart and sustainable economic growth.The question today is how we can conceive leadership in an increasingly interconnected world, whichrole education plays in that regard and which role leaders play in this process and in favour of a moresustainable and inclusive future.The first type of challenge relates to structural factors. Besides macro-trends such as demographicchange and digitalisation, other factors can be relevant to innovation. Traditional structuresand hierarchies, inflexible mind-sets in some countries, cultural and linguistic insularities,as well as innovation barriers are some of the issues leadership in Europe has to face.2The second type of challenges is of conceptual nature. Despite of, or even partly due to agrowing leadership industry with an estimated 130 - 356 billion spent per year on leadershipdevelopment alone3, there seems to be a profound conceptual confusion about what leadershipis about and can do. A lot of leadership development programmes seem to fail and not contributeto the desired changes4. According to a Harvard Business School survey, only 19% of businessline managers believe the programmes they are taking are relevant to the issues they face5.Paradoxically, the more leadership is promoted, the more it becomes clear that most approachesdon’t work. On the one hand, the diversity of approaches to leadership promoted by these actorsincreases the value of leadership development at big scale. On the other hand, this diversityoften hides underlying assumptions and conceptions about what leadership is about, leavingmanagers and companies disoriented. This ultimately leads to low increases in performance,or, worse, to strategical inconsistencies of companies. Often, these leadership developers haveinexplicit functional assumptions, hindering new ways to think about leading (Mabey 2013: 359).1 Mercer 2017: hr-trends.html?utm source linkedin&utm medium social&utm campaign global talenttrends 2017&utm content NONE&sf68526206 12 DDI World 2016, p.29: igh-resolution-leadership-2015-2016 tr ddi.pdf?ext .pdf3Forbes 2014 and HBR 2016: ockets/#10e84e2ac5a7 ; ils-and-what-to-do-about-it4 HBR 2016: ils-and-what-to-do-about-it5 HBSP 2016: s/19770 CL StateOfLeadership Report July2016.pdf7

The aim of the present research is to investigate what leadership means in the light of these developments.If upskilling of workers is certainly worthy, it seems of utmost importance to also invest in the skillsof the people who are conceiving organisational change and the development of competences and skillsin a differentiated and integrated manner.Adequate and innovative management and leadership practices are key to increasing the competitivenessof the European economy. Targeting managers in a knowledge-based economy means to investin their skills at the benefit of organisational effectiveness. Four reasons for this investment havebeen identified by leadership researcher and Professor Christopher Mabey (2004: 405):1.Organisational capability at management level is essential to improve internationalcompetitiveness;2.Managers are typically the decision makers with regard to knowledge diffusion and seizingopportunities afforded by information and communication technologies;3.Managers are pivotal in how proactively and effectively change is managed;4.Managers are particularly instrumental in creating an organisational ethos of learning for allgroups of employees.As a European social partner and organisation representing professionals, managers and executives, CECEuropean Managers is interested in knowing more about the way leadership is understood, valued andpracticed across Europe. Furthermore, we would like to investigate the link between managerialpractices of individuals and organisations on the one hand and performance, as a tool to increaseinclusive and sustainable growth, on the other.The research design starts with a discussion and clarification of central leadership frameworks in theory (3.),continues with the presentation of the notions of leadership and organisational development (4.), beforeturning to frameworks encompassing skills, competences, knowledge and behaviour (5.). The researchdesign part ends with a presentation of the empirical research methodology and the hypothesis (6.).8

2. Leadership in theoryThe theoretical discussion about leadership, competences and skills has seen a very broad rangeof approaches both in academic circles and amongst private leadership development actors.The sometimes confusing amount of definitions can certainly be an obstacle to many readersfor the comprehension of central concepts. In the words of James MacGregor Burns (1978: 2)“Leadership is one of the most often studied yet least understood phenomena on earth”.2.1. Leadership approachesWhat is leadership and what it is notBroadly speaking, there has been a significant shift from what we can call approaches that focus on leaderstowards leadership approaches focusing on situations, networks or systems of actors andknowledge.In a very schematic way, “traditional” leaders approaches suggest that leaders have ratherconstant and clearly identifiable or limited traits (e.g. Stogdil), competences (competencytheories) or behaviors (e.g. McGregor) that they use to assign, delegate or otherwise influencetheir fellowship. These approaches have proved problematic in explaining the external influenceson leaders in a social, cultural or economic context (c.f. Korzynski 2004: 31); the dynamics in theorganisation (to facilitate innovation or the way knowledge provided by leaders is made useof ) and the difference between the leader and the others (for instance, workers and employers).Newer leadership approaches have made helpful contributions for taking account of the situations (E.g.Fiedler), the networks that facilitate knowledge and organizational development (e.g. Sidle) or sensemaking of the organisations’ role and environment (e.g. Raelin). These approaches stress that contextis important and that leadership and organisational development are part of the same process (Bolden2010).IN DEPTHAn important paradigm shift hadbecome visible with the publication of„leadership“ by James MacGregor Burnsin 1978 in which he defined leadership as„the reciprocal process of mobilising, bypersons with certain motives and values,various economic, political, and otherresources, in a context of competitionand conflict, in order to realize goalsindependently or mutually held by bothleaders and followers.” He differentiatedbetweentransactionalleadershipand transformational leadership. Theformer is bargaining between differentinterests, whereas the latter describesthe transformation of different interestsinto a higher goal by achieving significantchanges in order to pool collectiveinterests (Burns 1978: 425).If his definition has certainly been helpfulto integrate the collective aspect, the roleof values and the process of power, it wasnevertheless insufficient to account to theevolving multidirectional, non-coerciveand post-industrial way of leading asidentified by Rost (1991: 102, 103).Going further than that, Greenleaf invertedthe relation of leaders and followers bycharacterising leadership as serving theinterests of the followers helping them to“become healthier, wiser, freer, moreautonomous, more likely to becomeservants themselves” (Wren 2004: XVI).Following these approaches of powerrelations, Howard Gardner broughtin a new dimension: the cognitiveaspect of leader-follower relations,describing how leaders need to embodyfollowers in an incorporating storyor narrative (1995: 290, 291).Finally, Peter Senge opened up yet anotherhorizon by applying systems thinking tothe dynamics of organisations. In his view,only learning organisations can providethe right framework for developingindividual and collective potentials. Forhim, leaders are designers, stewards andteachers rather than heroes (Senge 1990:6-8).9

To sum it up in a schematic way, theoretical discussions about leadership have highlightedfollowing main dimensions on which the different approaches situate themselves:the procedural aspect of leadership: conflict versus collaborationthe power-dynamics of leadership: top-down versus bottom-upthe relations between the individual, the organization and society at large: individualisticapproaches, organisational approaches, systems approaches the role of knowledge: rational choice versus social construction the formal position: assigned (status) versus emergent (real) leadership 2.2. Leadership definitionThe way leadership is effectively put in practice strongly depends on the constellation, thepower dynamics of actors and their knowledge and perception of the world and workingenvironment. Consequently, a non-normative and independent definition of leadership needsto account to the process of how ideas of good leadership are generated and institutionalisedthrough social processes. Following the precedent discussion, we could define leadership as:a network of actors and knowledge in which meaning about the organisation, the role of itsleaders, members and environment is created through social exchanges and learning processes(own definition)The advantage of this definition is that it includes the procedural element of leadership, as an interactiveevent available to everyone in the group or organisation (cf. Hunt, 1999; Mackenzie, 2006, Northouse2007: 3). Furthermore, the definition explicitly mentions the role of leaders and capacity development, forinstance through developing skills, as an action to pursue.This definition can be helpful when identifying factors of innovation (knowledge networks), the process ofknowledge acquisition and application, and the relation to the organisation’s socio-political environmentat systemic level. An example for considering the organisation’s environment is the stakeholder approachopposed to the shareholder approach. The stakeholder approach considers the

growing leadership industry with an estimated 130 - 356 billion spent per year on leadership development alone3, there seems to be a profound conceptual confusion about what leadership is about and can do. A lot of leadership development programmes seem to fail and not contribute to the desired changes4. According to a Harvard Business School .

Related Documents:

May 02, 2018 · D. Program Evaluation ͟The organization has provided a description of the framework for how each program will be evaluated. The framework should include all the elements below: ͟The evaluation methods are cost-effective for the organization ͟Quantitative and qualitative data is being collected (at Basics tier, data collection must have begun)

Silat is a combative art of self-defense and survival rooted from Matay archipelago. It was traced at thé early of Langkasuka Kingdom (2nd century CE) till thé reign of Melaka (Malaysia) Sultanate era (13th century). Silat has now evolved to become part of social culture and tradition with thé appearance of a fine physical and spiritual .

On an exceptional basis, Member States may request UNESCO to provide thé candidates with access to thé platform so they can complète thé form by themselves. Thèse requests must be addressed to esd rize unesco. or by 15 A ril 2021 UNESCO will provide thé nomineewith accessto thé platform via their émail address.

̶The leading indicator of employee engagement is based on the quality of the relationship between employee and supervisor Empower your managers! ̶Help them understand the impact on the organization ̶Share important changes, plan options, tasks, and deadlines ̶Provide key messages and talking points ̶Prepare them to answer employee questions

Dr. Sunita Bharatwal** Dr. Pawan Garga*** Abstract Customer satisfaction is derived from thè functionalities and values, a product or Service can provide. The current study aims to segregate thè dimensions of ordine Service quality and gather insights on its impact on web shopping. The trends of purchases have

Chính Văn.- Còn đức Thế tôn thì tuệ giác cực kỳ trong sạch 8: hiện hành bất nhị 9, đạt đến vô tướng 10, đứng vào chỗ đứng của các đức Thế tôn 11, thể hiện tính bình đẳng của các Ngài, đến chỗ không còn chướng ngại 12, giáo pháp không thể khuynh đảo, tâm thức không bị cản trở, cái được

Le genou de Lucy. Odile Jacob. 1999. Coppens Y. Pré-textes. L’homme préhistorique en morceaux. Eds Odile Jacob. 2011. Costentin J., Delaveau P. Café, thé, chocolat, les bons effets sur le cerveau et pour le corps. Editions Odile Jacob. 2010. Crawford M., Marsh D. The driving force : food in human evolution and the future.

Le genou de Lucy. Odile Jacob. 1999. Coppens Y. Pré-textes. L’homme préhistorique en morceaux. Eds Odile Jacob. 2011. Costentin J., Delaveau P. Café, thé, chocolat, les bons effets sur le cerveau et pour le corps. Editions Odile Jacob. 2010. 3 Crawford M., Marsh D. The driving force : food in human evolution and the future.