The Mailroom CEO: A Portrait of the Collaborative Leader; Leadership Advanced Online; November 2009
Many types of organizations have assimilated team based, cross-functional and collaborative structures. However, organizations often fail to recognize the full benefit of these models because employees in operational posts still wait for direction from executives rather than embody leadership characteristics. This article includes a parable of a contemporary Mailroom CEO who engages in leadership and leverages social connections to avert a pending competitive threat. There story illustrates that organizational structures that inspire members toward a common mission can allow the task of leadership to shift fluidly to the individual with the highest degree of efficacy at any given point in time.
Authority in the 21st Century: Likert’s System 5 Theory; Emerging Leadership Journeys Leadership Journal; April 2010
There is a paucity of research on R. Likert’s System 5 leadership theory as evidenced by only three specific articles on the topic found among several academic databases. While the field of leadership has largely ignored this theory, evidence suggests 21st-century organizational climate in many countries may be ready for this type of approach. R. Likert and Likert (1976) explained that System 5 would resemble Likert’s System 4, but with less hierarchical authority. The following summarizes the available literature on System 5 including foundational material about earlier Likert systems. Recommendations for further study include assessment of the potential viability of this approach for collaborative organizations during the postmodern era.
Closing the Deal: Influencing a Decision in Two Cultures; Leadership Advanced Online; December 2010
Complexity in the selling process increases when decision teams include individuals or groups who come from different nations or cultures. This article presents an anecdote about a salesperson who is proposing a solution to evaluators in two different countries, Brazil and Germany. The narrative illustrates how understanding decision-making models, such as the rational, emotional, political/coalitional, or garbage can models, can guide tactical decisions intended to influence decision makers across cultures more successfully. The author defines these four models as a prescriptive foundation for influencing a decision among evaluators operating in more than one culture. This article illustrates that further research into the correlation between specific national cultures and decision-making models would have valuable commercial applications.
Freedom at Work: Psychological Empowerment & Self-Leadership; International Journal of Business and Public Administration 8(1); April 2011
Prominent authors in the field of empowerment have asserted that self-leadership behaviors are the critical element for effective results in autonomous work environs described in empowerment models. In spite of much conceptual work, there is a paucity of empirical research into the relationship between these constructs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether employee psychological empowerment perceptions relate to employee engagement in behavioral and natural rewards self-leadership strategies, and whether these relationships are strengthened for employees with an internal locus of control. The findings demonstrated a significant positive relationship between psychological empowerment and both behavioral and natural rewards self-leadership strategies. Further, internal locus of control was found to moderate this relationship in regards to behavioral self-leadership strategies.