imported>Jack M. Davis |
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| My students and I would like to write a text for use in a course on "Leadership". To get it started, we submit the following draft.
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| 1.1 Introduction
| | '''Leadership''' is the action of leading a group of people or an organisation, a state of position of a leader or the group of people who lead or head. The action of leadership usually consists of telling people what to do, and supervising and organising their actions. A leadership is often based on a voluntary or compulsory agreement to give the leaders the [[authority]] to lead and control others. The leadership often benefits from its position by special privileges and [[power]].[[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]] |
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| The foundation for the Odyssey Leadership model was based on the premise that for an organization to
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| compete globally, its leaders must apply leadership strategies that challenges mainstream models and
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| practices by embracing a model that transcends borders and integrates diverse groups. Effective
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| leadership is not only dependent on the leader, but the followers, the situation, or any combination
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| of these factors. The globalization phenomenon in fact, is not new but has existed for more than a | |
| decade. Globalization increasingly creates challenges for leadership and there is enough evidence
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| to support the need for a comprehensive and strategic approach to global leadership. One of the
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| lessons of cross cultural management is the role culture plays on norms and values and it is quite
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| evident that domestic leadership models from one part of the world generally do not work in other
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| parts of the world.
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| More than ever, change is constant and present in society and its organizations. Change in
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| organizations consists of new technologies, globalization, merges and acquisitions, reorganization,
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| right-sizing, reengineering, centralization, decentralization, and achieving six-sigma quality
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| standards. This is where the leaders are pressured to improve quality, be more global, better
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| utilize capital, maximize resources, improve shareholder wealth, and create new products and
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| services. To successfully lead change every organization needs to create its own unique template
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| that would correspond to its specific needs or issues.
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| Empirical research has indicated that no single leadership model is good for every organization.
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| Identifying and classifying the organization in terms of global or local business entity, a
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| governmental entity, or an educational institution is the first step in determining what leadership
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| model would be applicable. A model good in one organizational type if followed in another may turn
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| out to be a total disaster in another.
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| This paper has addressed all of the above concerns by defining a new model for leadership that works
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| for all organizations, the Odyssey Leadership Model. The Odyssey Leadership Model acknowledges that
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| there is no one “template” that fits organizations and therefore encourages an organization specific
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| approach. Our model was developed after a preliminary in depth analysis of the current leadership
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| theories including their pros and cons, comparisons, applications and case studies. The Odyssey
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| Leadership Model encompasses a combination of their merits dependant on the situation and also
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| addresses the assumptions, constraints and applications of its model.
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| Let us first examine the history of leadership models that leads to the natural evolution of the
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| Odyssey Leadership Model.
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| 1.2 The Evolution of Leadership
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| Figure 1.1 – The Evolution of Leadership Theory
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| 1.2.1 Trait Theories
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| Studies of early trait research by Stodgill (1948) Mann (1959) identified physical or personality
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| characteristics that appeared to differentiate leaders from followers and assumes these attributes
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| are keys to leadership success. This theory further assumes that Leaders are born not made.
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| The problem with the trait approach was that many traits were uncovered and although some traits | |
| were identified in a considerable number of studies:
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| 1. The results were generally inconclusive.
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| 2. Ignored situational context.
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| 3. Certain traits are more effective than some in different context or situation.
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| Later studies by the University of Michigan and Ohio State re-examined the trait theory and their
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| results each showed 2 categories of behaviors. However, the main limitations in both theories of
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| these behavioral approaches were its lack of finding a dependable quantifiable formula for effective
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| leadership. | |
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| The Odyssey Leadership Model revisited the trait theory, and found that these traits can be either
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| cultivated or simulated and although they appear not quantifiable, our model will show that they
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| were measurable, measurable in terms of importance to the leadership style, to organization and/or
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| its goals and could be used in the MCDA process. The situational context, which will be discussed
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| in detail later, is an integral part of the Odyssey Leadership Model. Our model supports the theory
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| that certain traits are more effective than some when used within different contexts. We have
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| therefore incorporated an adaptation of the trait theory into our Odyssey Leadership Model by first
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| the extracting the more common leadership traits then focusing on its importance exemplified in the
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| specific desired leadership style.
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| 1.2.2 Behavioral Theories
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| Between the 1950’s to the early 1960’s researchers shifted their focus from trait theories to
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| leadership behavior, especially toward followers. The study of leadership patterns of behavior
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| grouped together and labeled as styles. Regardless of its names the styles fit into four basic
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| categories.
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| • Concern for task – A focus on productivity.
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| • Concern for people – A people centric approach.
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| • Directive Leadership – Leaders make all the decisions.
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| • Participative Leadership – Shared decision making.
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| Initially it was believed that people centered leadership created greater satisfaction amongst
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| followers, however Sadler (1997) reported inconsistencies between studies. Although the people
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| factor is an important element to the Odyssey Leadership Model, the model did not just stop there
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| but takes all other factors into account.
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| Beyond this limitation, the main problem with behavioral theories in the past is that researchers
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| did not consider the context or environment in which the style was used. The Odyssey Leadership
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| Model has recognized that leadership styles are affected by the followers and other environmental
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| factors and suggests a particular style of Leadership based on its situational context by verifying
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| and validating the chosen style against its extensive OLS Knowledge Base.
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| 1.2.3 Situational Theories
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| Situational theories propose that effectiveness of a particular style of leadership behavior depends
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| on the situation. The most well known situational theory is Fiedler’s contingency model. Fiedler
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| argued that leadership was dependent on a mix of factors. Effectiveness depended on two interacting
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| factors: leadership style and the degree to which the situation gives the leader control and
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| influence. The premise is that leader effectiveness is contingent upon an appropriate match between
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| the leader’s style and the degree to which the leader controls the situation.
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| There are three important factors that constitute this theory.
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| • The Leader-follower Relationship – the more well-liked and respected they are the more likely
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| they’ll have the support of their followers.
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| • The Task Structure – If the task is clearly spelt out as goals, methods and standards of
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| performance then is more likely that leaders will be able to exert influence.
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| • Position Power – If an organization or group confers powers on the leader for the purpose of
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| getting the job done, then this may increase the influence of the leader.
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| Theories like these helped us to construct our Odyssey Model. There was a lot of evidence to
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| support the theory that cultural factors (situations), influence the way that people carry out and
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| respond to different leadership styles. For example, some cultures are more individualistic, or
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| value family against bureaucratic models, or have different expectations about how people interact
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| with each other. These are all factors that affect the leadership approach. However our analysis
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| of the current situational models implied that they were more of a task management approach than a
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| leadership style.
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| The Odyssey Leadership Model has piggybacked on the basic situational model by expanding the basic
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| three situational factors to include situational attributes from all People, Group and Organization
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| (PGO) levels of the Organization.
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| 1.3 The Odyssey Leadership Model
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| The Odyssey Leadership Model is a Multi-Criteria, Case Based Reasoning, and Interactive Approach to
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| effective Leadership.
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| It has been mathematically proved using binary vectors that if in a team environment every member of
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| the team is assigned a job that he does best, with the assumption that one of the team members plays
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| the lead role, the team should produce the best results. However the success story unfortunately did
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| not move along those lines. It was observed when the team leader role in the team was rotated and
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| given to different members the performance of the team fluctuated, conclusively proving that it is
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| not enough to just have people do jobs they are best at, other variables need to be accounted for.
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| The idea of our model of Leadership was taken from a (2004) publication in the Leadership Quarterly | |
| on team leadership cycle called the I-P-O model. Contrary to this model which focuses only on team
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| leadership our model will incorporate most of the current leadership models and represents
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| “Input-Process-Output” [I-P-O].
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| To validate our Odyssey Leadership Model theory we utilized a grounded theory research strategy that
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| included a preliminary a leadership survey. The purpose of the survey was to measure attitudes
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| towards current leadership styles in the global arena and to validate the need for a new Leadership
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| Model through primary research. Our target audience represented twenty six individuals either
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| already in a leadership role or individuals aspiring to be part of the leadership process.
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| For the preliminary baseline survey, focus was placed on justifying the need for a new OLM and less
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| on the actual design of the OLS. Additional and subsequent in-depth surveys will be conducted
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| after we have established a stable prototype of our Odyssey Leadership System to measure its
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| usefulness in its application.
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| Method
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| Our anonymous web-based survey included managers and non-managers of fortune 500 companies, medium
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| sized business, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and graduate students in
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| leadership programs.
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