Page 169 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Chapter 9 ■ Leadership in practice
■ Value system: each had a well-developed value system and clear vision and
purpose.
■ Early responsibility: development of executive careers had been facilitated by
early high-level responsibility.
■ Charismatic leadership: leadership style and charisma were unimportant for the
individuals studied.
■ Communicator: the ability to communicate was a powerful element that all
change-makers possessed, particularly the ability to be open and honest about
feelings and attitudes.
Another survey (Norburn, 1988) focused on 108 chief executives and 30 execu-
tive directors from the FTSE 500 companies. From this study key features which
distinguished chief executives from other members of the top management team
were as follows:
■ The length of tenure within their organization.
■ The early stage at which their grooming for senior management responsibility
began.
■ The variety of managerial functions they experienced.
■ The rapidity of promotion to a general management position.
■ Their exposure to overseas cultures and business.
Both studies point to early responsibility as a key feature. Perhaps the ability to
communicate and having clear vision flow from breadth of experience. There
seems little doubt that the successful leader brings wide experience and varied
knowledge to the tasks of leadership. Perhaps, then, the individualism to which
we respond is the credibility flowing from wide experience?
But if we know little enough about the individuals who are successful, what do
we know of the circumstances within which success is more likely? Are some cir-
cumstances better than others? Also, how? During the last 50 years the focus of
leadership studies shifted first from studying the traits of successful leaders to
looking at leadership style and finally to focusing on the idea of contingency.

Figure 9.1 outlines the contingency approach. In essence the approach argues
that the effectiveness of any given leadership style or behaviour will be contingent
on the situation. Various models exist. Fiedler (1967) offers one which looks at

Outcomes,
Leadership
e.g. performance,
style/behaviour
satisfaction

Situational factors,
e.g. task factors

Figure 9.1 The contingency approach to leadership in outline

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