scholarly journals Being more with less: Exploring the flexible political leadership identities of government ministers

Leadership ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 460-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Lees-Marshment ◽  
Owain Smolović Jones
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Leadership Identity ◽  
Public Leadership ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
Leadership Discourses

The paper focuses on the identity work of government ministers, exploring how they experience themselves in relation to contemporary demands and discourses of leadership and democracy. We note a substantial number of studies seeking to develop theories of political and public leadership, particularly in more collaborative directions, but no studies that seek to explore how such demands are experienced by the political leaders who occupy leadership roles. We adopt a poststructuralist approach to identity as a means of empirically exploring how government ministers construct their identities. Drawing on 51 interviews with senior politicians, we propose a model of flexible political leadership identity, which argues that just as public agencies in these austere times are asked to do more with less, so political leaders seem to need to be more but with less perceived discretionary power. We propose four identities that answer quite different leadership demands: ‘the consultor’, ‘the traveller,’ ‘the adjudicator’ and ‘the master.’ These are semi-occupied identities, partial fulfilments of contemporary but contradictory leadership discourses. We conclude the paper with a reflection on how our findings might inform future research and leadership development interventions.

Images of Leadership Development From the Inside Out

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Cairns-Lee
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Implicit Leadership ◽  
Implicit Leadership Theories ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Symbolic Reality ◽  
Personalized Approach ◽  
Context Specific

The Problem With the codification of leadership into frameworks, models, and theories that can be taught, leadership, an art that is essentially subjective, symbolic, and context-specific, is “translated into” an objective, pragmatic, and universal domain. Development can be elusive when approached from this universal perspective if external models distract leaders from exploring their own views and practices of leadership. The Solution This article explores the subjective and symbolic reality of those in leadership roles to discover what leaders can learn about their leadership and its development from awareness of their own mental models. These models are illuminated by an exploration of leaders’ naturally occurring metaphors and implicit leadership theories (ILTs) using clean language to acknowledge experience exactly as described while minimizing external influence or interpretation. The Stakeholders Leadership development practitioners can benefit from the innovative personalized approach to surfacing and exploring leaders’ own metaphors facilitated by clean language, offered in this article. Examples are given of the range of leadership metaphors surfaced with this method. Researchers can appreciate a novel approach to qualitative research interviewing and identify future research in surfacing ILTs through naturally occurring metaphor facilitated by clean language.

scholarly journals Leadership, Identity and Performance: The Nature and Effect of ‘Prototypicality’ in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 201-213
Author(s):  
David Hudson ◽  
Claire Mcloughlin ◽  
Anna Margret ◽  
Yolanda Pandjaitan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Leadership Development ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Leadership Identity ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Context Specific

What makes a leader worthy of support? The article uses novel survey and experimental data from Indonesia to test the proposition that identity trumps performance for citizens perceptions of their political leaders. The results confirm theories of ‘prototypicality’—leaders that best reflect and represent the identity of the group tend to be more trusted and have a licence to fail. We argue and show that the dimensions of identity that matter most varies and is context specific. In the Indonesian context religious identity is most important. But the data also suggest that this varies across space, time, and follower identity: We show that gender matters, as women are less easily persuaded by prototypicality. We conclude by reflecting on the implications for leaders, politics and support for leadership development.

Representations of Political Leadership Qualities in News Coverage of Australian and Canadian Government Leaders

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Angelia Wagner ◽  
Linda Trimble ◽  
Jennifer Curtin ◽  
Meagan Auer ◽  
V. K. G. Woodman
Keyword(s):  
News Coverage ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Leadership Competencies ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Leadership Qualities ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Canadian Government ◽  
Subnational Government ◽  
The Media ◽  
Over Time

ABSTRACT How do the media depict the leadership abilities of government leaders, and in what ways are these depictions gendered? Does the focus of leadership evaluations change over time, reflecting the increased presence of women in top leadership roles? To answer these questions, we examined news coverage of 22 subnational government leaders in Australia and Canada, countries in which a significant number of women have achieved the premiership at the state or provincial level since 2007. Analysis demonstrates that newly elected women and men leaders receive approximately the same number of leadership evaluations. Women are assessed based on the same criteria as men. All subnational political leaders are expected to be competent, intelligent, and levelheaded. That journalists prioritize experience and strength while downplaying honesty and compassion indicates a continued emphasis on “masculine” leadership norms in politics. Yet evaluations of new premiers have emphasized the traditionally “feminine” trait of collaboration as key to effective leadership and, over time, have given more attention to likability and emotions when covering male premiers. As our analysis reveals, media conceptualizations of political leadership competencies are slowly expanding in ways that make it easier for women to be seen as effective political leaders.

scholarly journals Leadership Discourses on Bureaucracy: Continuity over a Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-133
Author(s):  
Tim Jäkel ◽  
George Alexander Borshchevskiy
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Political Instability ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Survival Strategy ◽  
Public Officials ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
History Of ◽  
Leadership Discourses ◽  
Soviet Russia

Abstract Politicians in all types of regimes require bureaucracy to extend their rule over society. To prevent administrators from becoming too powerful and publicly signal independence, they seemingly arbitrarily criticize public officials. But when and how do political leaders blame bureaucracy – and when do they praise it ? This study uses Russia as a case to illustrate the complex and ambiguous politics-administration relationship in non-Western regimes. We argue that public statements about bureaucracy accommodate two different legitimation strategies. We provide a content analysis of 311 public statements, from 1917 – 2017, on the role of administration in the country’s development. We find that attention to administrative affairs coincides with major political changes and periods of political instability in the history of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia. Over a century, the rhetoric of Russian leaders oscillated between blaming and praising bureaucracy to secure stability and overcome obstacles in implementing governing strategies. The strategic interplay between assertive rhetoric and praising bureaucracy is part of an effective political leadership survival strategy.

Leadership development in governments of the United Arab Emirates

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Megan Mathias
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Government Employees ◽  
Public Leadership ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Development Interventions ◽  
National Importance ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
Current Leadership ◽  
Potential Impact

Developing the next generation of leaders in government is seen as a strategic challenge of national importance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This article examines the wicked nature of the UAE’s leadership development challenge, identifying patterns of complexity, uncertainty, and divergence in the strategic intentions underlying current leadership development efforts. It then explores the potential impact of re-framing leadership development programmes for government employees using the concept of ‘public leadership’. Responding to calls in the literature for situated and context-sensitive explorations of leadership, it draws upon recent empirical research and literature to conceptualise public leadership for the UAE before identifying three potential contributions: an orientation towards collective, public values; a connection into needed skills frameworks; and access to innovations in the design of public leadership development interventions. The article concludes that the re-framing of ‘public leadership’ has the potential to help make substantial progress on the UAE’s strategic leadership development challenge, but is not a silver bullet. Further research on both the concept, and its impact if adopted for leadership development programmes, will be required.

“I think Canadians look like all sorts of people”: ethnicity, political leadership, and the case of Jagmeet Singh

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
Joanie Bouchard
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Party Leader ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Sociodemographic Profile ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Voting Intentions

Abstract Research into the impact of a politician's sociodemographic profile on vote choice in Westminster-style systems has been hindered by the relative sociodemographic homogeneity of party leaders. Past research has focused mainly on the evaluation of local candidates in the American context, but given that elections in plurality systems are far less candidate-oriented , the evaluation of local candidates tells us little about the prevalence of affinity or discrimination in other contexts. This article investigates the effect of political leaders' ethnicity on political behavior by looking at the case of Jagmeet Singh in Canada, the first federal party leader of color in the country's history. While the literature has shown that the gender of leaders in Canada can matter, little is known about the attitudes of Canadians toward party leaders of color specifically. We are interested in the evaluations of Singh and his party, as well as the shifts in voting intentions between elections in 2015 and 2019. We uncover affinity-based behaviors from individuals who identify as Sikh, as well as a negative reception of Singh's candidacy in Quebec.

scholarly journals Can Ethical Political Leadership Restore Public Trust in Political Leaders?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. A. Mozumder
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Leadership ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Moral Person ◽  
Tone At The Top ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractThis article presents findings from a qualitative study (via in-depth interviews with 121 local political leaders from 65 local authorities in the UK) that aims to understand how ethical leadership practices can restore public trust in political leaders. The study finds that being a moral person, an ethical political leader sets good examples of behaviour, sets the tone at the top and challenges those who do not behave ethically, as well as encourages, supports and rewards those who perform and conduct themselves well. As a result, the level of public trust in political leaders is likely to increase gradually.

scholarly journals Singapore: Reflections and Implications of Another Smart State

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Development Strategy ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Michael Porter ◽  
State Initiatives ◽  
The Development Strategy

The objective of this paper is to analyse key elements of the development strategy of Singapore since the mid–1960s. The paper describes the economic challenge faced by Singapore in the mid–1960s, overviews contemporary world trends in foreign direct investment, and uses competitiveness constructs developed by Michael Porter (1985) to clarify key stages in the evolution of Singapore's development strategy. The paper argues that the strategy has been successful because of unremitting top priority given to it by Singapore's political leadership and because the political leaders charged a single organisation, the Economic Development Board (EDB), with absolute authority to develop and implement the strategy. The paper concludes with implications for Queensland's Smart State initiatives.

Features of foreign policy birds: Israeli prime ministers as hawks and doves

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baris Kesgin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Leadership Approaches

Scholars and policymakers have long used the shorthand of hawks and doves to characterize leader personalities that correspond to a particular political inclination, whereby hawks are considered right-wing and more aggressive in foreign policy, and doves are left-wing and more peaceful. This article posits that a sound discussion of who hawks and doves in foreign policy are requires an engagement with research on political leadership. It promises a less superficial understanding of the dichotomy of hawks and doves, and uses leadership trait analysis to explore hawkish and dovish leaders’ qualities. The article profiles Israel’s prime ministers since the end of the Cold War, where in a high security environment, these words are most often used to describe its domestic and foreign matters and its cooperative and conflictual actions. This article’s findings encourage an unpacking of these commonly used shorthand labels with political leadership approaches. They are also useful to highlight, most notably, the significance of complexity and distrust in understanding hawkish and dovish leaders. Hawks think simpler and are more doubtful of others than doves, this article finds. Future research, the article suggests, will benefit from looking deeper than simple, dichotomous use of this analogy, and exploring ways to operationalize individual-level measurements of hawks and doves in foreign policy.

Assistant principal leadership development: a narrative capture study

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Petrides ◽  
Cynthia Jimes ◽  
Anastasia Karaglani
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Principal Leadership ◽  
Assistant Principals ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Assistant Principal ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
Teacher Professional

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the knowledge base on the ways in which assistant principals view their roles, and on the potential challenges involved in a distributed leadership model. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a narrative capture method, in which assistant principals from two large urban school districts were asked to relate and self-interpret two leadership stories through a web-based narrative capture form. A total of 90 stories were collected from 45 assistant principals. Participants rated their stories based on a set of leadership indicators (including method of decision making and type of teacher interaction present in the story, among others); the results were analyzed statistically. Findings – Overall, participants tended to view their roles in terms of instructionally focussed leadership. However, leadership challenges emerged in several areas of leadership practice, including operational management and teacher professional development (PD). Demographic factors were found to influence leadership perceptions and practices. Research limitations/implications – This study begins to fill the empirical gap on assistant principal leadership roles, practices, and perceptions. Further research, using other methods (e.g. observation), is needed to collect evidence of in situ leadership practices of assistant principals, and how those practices impact and relate to school objectives for teaching and learning. Practical implications – The study sheds light on the leadership development needs of assistant principals and on the importance of ongoing, tailored PD, based on factors including where leaders are in their careers and how they envision their roles. Originality/value – This paper contributes to nascent scholarship regarding assistant principal school leadership.

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