Leadership: Man and Function

Bavelas, Alex

doi:10.2307/2390770

Cited by 49 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…The first of these themes is drawn from the work and insights of Bavalas (Bavelas 1950;Bavelas 1951;Bavelas 1960), who, in terms of the relational structures, described an understanding of how an organization can communicate with itself. One of Bavelas's main insights is the paradox of peripherality (autonomy) versus centrality(control) of actors in an organization (Bavelas 1950;Bavelas 1951).…”

Section: Recent Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to operational research and management science

Mingers

White

2010

European Journal of Operational Research

361

229

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The systems approach, or systems thinking, has been intimately connected with the development of OR and management science initially through the work of founders such as Churchman and Ackoff and latterly through innovations such as soft systems. In this paper we have undertaken a review of the contribution that systems thinking has been making more recently, especially to the practice of OR. Systems thinking is a discipline in its own right, with many theoretical and methodological developments, but it is also applicable to almost any problem area because of its generality, and so such a review must always be selective. We have looked at the literature from both a theoretical and an applications orientation. In the first part we consider the main systems theories and methodologies in terms of their recent developments and also their applications. This covers: the systems approach, complexity theory, cybernetics, system dynamics, soft OR and PSMs, critical systems and multimethodology. In the second part we review the main domains of application: strategy, information systems, organisations, production and operations, ecology and agriculture, and medicine and health. Our overall conclusion is that while systems may not be well established institutionally, in terms of academic departments, it is incredibly healthy in terms of the quantity and variety of its applications.

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Section: Recent Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to operational research and management science

Mingers

White

2010

European Journal of Operational Research

361

229

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“…Leadership is a role, a job, a calling -something continuous (Bavelas, 1960;Denis et al, 2001;Sherif and Sherif, 1956). Leadership can also be an act or an event.…”

Section: Conceptions That Seem Too Narrowmentioning

confidence: 99%

A concept of leadership for strategic organization

Miller

Sardais

2011

Strategic Organization

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Leaders' efforts at shaping people's convictions are vital to the effectiveness of formal and informal organizations (Hambrick, 2004;Whittington, 2003). Unfortunately, the domains of strategy and organization theory have been ignoring the critical role of leadership -a concept that may both enlighten and help bridge the two domains. In strategy, the emphasis has been largely on economically rational behaviour, competitive positioning, and resources and capabilities. In organization theory, the focus has been on macro-social levels of analysis and on structural parameters. In each domain there has been too little attention paid to the micro-processes of individual human interaction in which beliefs and values -indeed convictions -are transferred among people within an organization: a process that is at the heart of developing and implementing strategy, and a central contributor to, and outcome of organization design. We shall argue this process to be, in essence, leadership.One possible reason for the neglect of leadership in strategic organization is that we lack a robust concept of it that would be useful to scholars in this domain. Certainly, there have been thousands of studies of leadership, and the term has enjoyed a wide range of definitions and conceptions (Bass, 2008;Yukl, 2006). In fact, Bass's Handbook of Leadership contains about 10,000 references! However, the concept of leadership is sometimes cast too broadly to have clear implications for organizational behaviour, or too narrowly to do it justice in the many management situations in which it occurs (Podolny et al., 2010). That may limit its usefulness.The objective of this essay is to provide an appropriate concept of leadership for scholars of strategy and organization and to suggest its research implications. First we relate why most current notions of leadership are unable to capture fully its significance for the study of strategic organization. Then we propose a baseline conception of leadership whose parameters are promising for that purpose. We also investigate the boundaries of the term to appreciate its varieties. We conclude with the implications our conception of leadership has for addressing gaps in the literature on strategy and organization, and suggest several research directions.

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“…The importance of the characteristics of the group for effective leadership was also evident in the early work by Bavelas (1969). According to Bavelas, By a mechanism of role differentiation, groups use the differential characteristics of members to the advantage of all by assigning group tasks to those best qualified to perform them.…”

Section: Factors Influencing Leadership Effectivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leadership Effectiveness and Personality Characteristics of Group Members

Sogunro

1999

Journal of Leadership Studies

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Perceptions of leadership appear to be changing. Research has shown a shift in emphasis in regard to the factors influencing leadership effectiveness in a group. Whereas early scholars focused on leaders personality characteristics as key to leadership effectiveness in group situations, today, there has been a turning toward a concern for group members' characteristics and a parallel concern for the ensuing influence on leadership behavior. The old belief that only the leader has the inherent ability to make things happen has been found wanting. Emphasis is fast shifting away from the idea that leadership effectiveness is unilaterally influenced by the leader's personality characteristics toward the notion that leadership effectiveness is bilaterally influenced by the dynamics of both the leader and the group members' personality characteristics. This paper presents some findings of research on leadership to support the critical influence of group members' characteristics on leadership effectiveness. Implications are noted for leaders, trainers, and researchers.

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Leadership: Man and Function

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

A review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to operational research and management science

A review of the recent contribution of systems thinking to operational research and management science

A concept of leadership for strategic organization

Leadership Effectiveness and Personality Characteristics of Group Members

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