- By: JOSÉ LUIS TORRES LABORDE
- Teacher of the Psychology Program at Universidad del Norte
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- I want to present these reflections to an academic audience because I am worry about
some bizarre contexts lacking of a scientific basis on the topic of leadership, contexts
that my students from higher levels of Psychology and Business Administration programs
bring to class. It seems that prating people, including famous international lecturers,
are better accepted and more heard than scientists on the topic.
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- Currently, there are many people who are researching the phenomenon in a scientific way.
They are suspiciously ignored or left aside, probably because their findings do not
satisfy some persons’ excelling needs or because of others’ business which is
based on non-convincing paradigms.
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- So, I want to present a series of reflection and discussion topics about leadership in
order to talk about them and make researches having scientific basis, seriously supported.
All this aiming at creating an open window to judge the here proposed reflections that may
be an interesting subject for elaborating monographs or creating a research line on the
topic.
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- FIRST REFLECTION: (LEADERSHIP: A MESSIANIC CONCEPT)
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- Both common people and many theoreticians manage a concept of leadership which is deeply
settled in the religious idea that every authority comes from God. As a consequence, a
leader, according to these authors, is some kind of illuminated and charismatic man/woman
who has been born to accomplish this mission or who, at least, has some special features
which enable him/her to become a leader. I have read advertisements such as
"Leadership workshops which highlight the importance of acquiring charisma". I
really do not know how they can achieve that, but they are successful and sell a lot.
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- As far as it is known in researches, no author have been able to demonstrate that exist
such a characteristic being typical of leaders, including personality characteristics. For
this reason, anybody can be a leader under any circumstance, and, actually, s/he is a
leader in some of the groups to which s/he belongs even without planning to be it. This
gives origin to the second reflection.
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- SECOND REFLECTION: ( LEADER, CHIEF, DIRECTOR, AUTHORITY, OR WHAT?)
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- It is precise to accurately define the term leadership since authors assimilate it to
formal direction, authority, commander, leadership, and influent person. In the literature
and lectures on the topic, the confusion is total. In this paper, I consider the leader as
a person to whom his/her followers assign (or give) authority over them. In general, this
leader has a informal character and rises spontaneously from a group need. In the same way
as the group gives authority to the leader even without realising it, the group takes it
away when s/he is not longer needed.
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- Legitimised directors, chiefs and the formally established authority whether by
election, nomination or delegation, could become leaders in their groups if they obtain
that this groups give them the power in a voluntary way and not because of their position.
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- THIRD REFLECTION: (THE LEADER IS A HINDRANCE RATHER THAN AN AGENT OF CHANGE)
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- The topic of leadership is one of importance because the leader is supposed to be the
producer of all the changes we want, both to social level and organisational one. So, it
is heard that many of the problems we suffer in our society are due to a lack of
leadership or to a lack of a strong leader who guide and orient us. In the organisations,
the main executive supports the divine or messianic responsibility of orientating and put
through the whole organisation.
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- Our point of view is that a group is so able as its member are. An unable group may have
the best leader but this may not serve to it in any sense because the members of the group
lack of the required talent, skills, knowledge and features for achieving what they want.
This can be best observed in sport teams. It is the coach’s responsibility to select
the players and to place them in the correct position according to their skills. S/He also
has to trace the strategies for the game. The rest of the work only can be accomplished by
the people who are actually in the game field. The coach obtains obedience from the team
in order to achieve the objectives not because of his/her position.
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- So far, the leader is more able to make the things NOT TO BE MADE, than they BE MADE.
For this to happen a simple NO is enough. Not paying attention to the initiatives of a
capable group may result in an inept leadership. This means that, in many instances, the
leader is the main drawback for the things to be done or the wanted changes to be
produced.
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- FOURTH REFLECTION: (THE LEADER IS NOT ALONE; S/HE MUST DIRECT WITH EVERYBODY)
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- Suppose you are the manager of a big enterprise and that you want to expand it. Do you
think that you as a leader will obtain immediate obedience as Atila or Napoleon could
obtain? Nowadays, you will have to make a negotiation with a Board of Directors to which
you have to present the project and convince it of its usefulness. Then, you have to sell
the idea to the shareholders who are not represented in the Board of Directors. After
that, you have to carry on some government permits to justify that no environmental damage
will occur and that all your taxes are paid.
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- You also have to meet the neighbouring community in order to guarantee that there will
be neither noise nor pollution. You have to make up an expert team which will begin to
tell you what to do for implementing the project. You have to negotiate with banks and to
convince them that your project will have an attractive return on the investment and to
guarantee to labour union there will no be a cut in the staff and that the new jobs will
have union guaranties. You will have to fight against opponents of the project who
represent other interests and who will make themselves to be heard through trade union and
communication media. You have to negotiate high rates with the international competence
which will be attentive in order to sabotage each stage of your project and which will
bring the competence product by using the dumping for your project not to be profitable.
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- In other words, you have to be a great negotiating , far-seeing and visionary person.
These two latter characteristics not for being a leader but for sustaining yourself as
such. What we want to tell is that there is no relation between being a leader and being
an effective one; and that results are achieved through other people over whom may not be
a power relation or influence.
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- FIFTH REFLECTION: (ANY STYLE IS GOOD IF PEOPLE ACCEPT IT OR REQUIRE IT)
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- Although the leader’s style has been subject of a number of researches, it seems
not to be very influential on the group productivity. It may influence on the satisfaction
of the members of the group and on the grade of pleasure or displeasure when doing tasks;
but it seems to be the followers who require a special kind of leadership from their
leader in order to feel better, not matter if they like it or not. The leader finds out
the most effective style for each one of his/her followers.
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- As a way of conclusion our reflections’ aim is to demystify the enthusiastic
attributes which have been assigned to leaders as if they were non-real characters or a
Messiah who has come to save men and women on the earth. Leadership is something more
concrete; it is a phenomenon happening in every group when they require somebody to
represent them or guide them in any circumstances. At all, when talking about direction,
it is very important to highlight the chief or director’s management capacity and
strategy to achieve results. This also depends on the group since it has been shown that a
good director of a group is not necessarily a good one for another group.
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- Here, it could be stated some attributes for a successful management, but not for
leadership. These attributes could be vision, strategy, clarity in the way of achieving
objectives, and knowing well the people who is going to be his/her subordinated. But these
features also have to be demonstrated since it is well known that persons who do not have
those attributes have been successful in their jobs as chiefs, while other persons who
were expected to be the best chief, failed. It seems that other factor of contingency such
as the nature of the task, its difficulty, the environment also influence on the success
of the administrative management.
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- Some authors who have studied the topic of leadership scientifically and who may serve
as a reference.
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- ARGYRIS
- LEAVITT
- FIEDLER
- STINGER
- BALES
- LIKT
- FUENCH
- TANNENBAUM
- BAVELAS
- LEWIN
- HALL
- VROOM
- BENNIS LIPITT
- HERSEY
- WHITE
- BASS
- MASLOW
- HOLLANDER
- WHYTE
- BLAKE
- MCGREGOR HOMANS
- WILSON
- BLANCHARD
- MOUTH HUNT
- ZANDER
- BOWERS
- NASH
- KAHN
- CAMPBELL
- ODIORNE
- KATZ
- CHEMERS
- SCHEIN KIPINS
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