A new sciences outline for leadership development

Abstract

The Newtonian physics that formed the foundation of physical and social science for centuries is unwinding in the face of the new sciences. The principles of the new sciences shed needed light on the technologies of leadership in modern organizations. This paper links specific leadership technologies to four general principles taken from the new sciences. Together, these technologies and principles provide a new metaphor for organizational life and the work of leadership. This metaphor offers an alternative explanation of the leadership phenomenon generally, helps organizational actors ground their leadership activity in terms of the new sciences theory, and points to better ways to prepare ourselves for the demands of leadership in organizations. This, in turn, provides a way for leaders to better understand their organizational environment and links that understanding to an outline of skills, behaviors, and attitudes that can be used in practical leadership development programs.

Transformational, Transactional or Laissez-Faire: What Styles do University Librarians Practice?

“…Judge, Bono, Ilies and Gerhardt (2002) state that skill also plays a vital role in determining leader effectiveness and that to be effective, leaders must behave differently in different situations. Meanwhile, Fairholm (2004) suggests that as people begin to think of visions and values as organisational attractors, it helps leaders to understand the power of vision and values in setting and altering organisational contexts and cultures.…”

Leadership, Spirituality and Complexity: Wilberforce and the Abolition of the Slave Trade

“…Unlike approaches to complexity that employ systems thinking (Fairholm 2004, Styhre 2002), the individual is not the prime agent of emergent change in the theory of complex responsive processes. Narrative themes, not individuals, are the basis of emergent self-organization, for it is not people but "…themes organizing conversations, communication and power relations.…”

Leadership for knowledge organizations

“…Interactions and connectivity among heterogeneous agents and across agent networks in these organizations lead to creative emergence, and the leaders provide linkages to the emergent structures without the control of a central coordinator (Cilliers, 2001;Chiles, Meyer & Hench, 2004;Fairholm, 2004;Guastello, 2007;Hazy, Goldstein & Lichtenstein, 2007;Keene, 2000;McKelvey, 2007;McKelvey, Marion, & Uhl-Bien, 2003;Scott, 2004;Uhl-Bien et al, 2004;Yoo & Alavi, 2004). This view of diffused power is supported by Weick, Sutcliffe, and Obstfeld, (2005) and Uhl-Bien et al, (2004), who claim that leadership focuses on the dynamics of leadership as it emerges over time in all areas of an organizational system, where each interchange and interaction provides opportunities for leading, learning, growing and managing change.…”

“…They should also be comfortable leading with a hands-off approach, which needs to be monitored and adjusted according to the situation (Lewin & Regine, 1999;Osborn & Hunt, 2007;Sidle, 2007). Having their followers organize themselves and work in harmony towards mutual objectives and vision is the ideal way to lead (Fairholm, 2004).…”