scholarly journals Leadership malpractice: exposing the reality underpinning unleaderly behaviour

Author(s):  
Christopher M. Branson ◽  
Maureen Marra

Abstract Background A mounting body of research literature is highlighting the prevalence of serious malpractice by persons in leadership positions. Arguably, too many of those appointed to a leadership position believe that they have the right to act in any way that they choose. They believe that the title of ‘leader’ affords them the licence to act with little regard for others. But just because a person has been appointed to a leadership position, this does not automatically make them a leader. Nor does it imply that everything they do is leadership. Thus, the impetus for this article is the acknowledgement that it's time to clearly distinguish what truly constitutes leadership from that which is its antithesis – leadership malpractice. Not to do so only allows serious leadership malpractice to become normalised as acceptable leadership activity. Research Aim Therefore, the aim of this article is to first use research literature to describe the growing concern about the prevalence of malpractice by persons in leadership positions and then to illustrate how such malpractice can be naturally eradicated when leadership is seen, fundamentally, as a relational phenomenon. The purpose of this article is thus to provide a new theoretical perspective of leadership, one that will help to distinguish between that which is and is not leadership. Findings A close inspection of the extremely damaging and injurious outcomes produced by leadership malpractice shows that these mirror those caused by persons with extremely harmful psychosocial disorders. Despite any short-term gains, the research shows that leadership malpractice can ultimately cause serious and enduring poisonous effects on the individuals, families, organizations, communities, and even entire societies they lead. Furthermore, rules, regulations and policies have proven powerless. Seemingly, one cannot mandate true leadership; its manifestation must be inherent within our leadership theory. Practical implications In response, this article first explores the foundational values, principles and norms underpinning true leadership practice and then presents a new way to understand leadership from a transrelational perspective which naturally eradicates malpractice by those in leadership positions. Social implications Given that worldwide research has demonstrated how leadership malpractice causes seriously toxic personal, organisational and social outcomes, this article seeks to provide a theoretical rather than a technical or practical way of redressing this untenable situation. By inference, when leadership is practiced properly, when it is based upon apporpriate foundational values and principles, then malpractice is ended and workplaces become safe, gratifying and productive. Originality This article makes a significant contribution to the expanding area of research that is exploring the benefits to be gained by theorising leadership as a relational phenomenon.

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 15-17

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the actions that have helped Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation to reach No. 1 in this year’s DiversityInc top 50 companies for diversity. Design/methodology/approach – It examines the roles of the company’s executive diversity and inclusion council, diversity and inclusion councils, the diversity and inclusion department and employee-resource groups. Findings – It reveals that the number of women in top-level jobs at the company has more than doubled in the past five years. Today, women account for more than 50 per cent of executive-leadership positions. Practical implications – It advances the view that getting strategic about diversity and inclusion – and making these elements a natural part of the way a company does business – drives innovation and moves the business and people forward. Social implications – It demonstrates that, as the US workforce becomes more diverse, all companies face the challenge of creating new and better ways of recruiting and retaining talent from all segments of the workforce – and creating an inclusive culture where all perspectives are valued. Originality/value – It highlights the key role of diversity at a US affiliate of a multinational pharmaceutical company.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 129-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Ingham ◽  
Dave Ulrich

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide answers to four questions on building a better human resources (HR) department: why?, who?, what? and how? Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on the accumulated experience of the co-authors. Findings The paper finds that better HR departments create better organizations and will often do this by enabling better relationships between the people working in them. Developing the right relationships is also an increasingly important part of creating an effective HR organization. Research limitations/implications Much attention has been spent on developing HR professionals. The authors also want to make HR departments better. This paper steers future research on HR effectiveness in this direction. Practical implications Senior HR leaders charged with improving their HR department may do so with the roadmap offered by the authors. Originality/value For businesses to receive full value from HR, it is very important to upgrade the quality of HR professionals. It is even more important to upgrade HR departments. This paper suggests how this can be done.


2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 477-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keng‐Boon Ooi ◽  
Pei‐Lee Teh ◽  
Alain Yee‐Loong Chong

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated model of total quality management (TQM) and human resource management (HRM) to elucidate the influence of TQM and HRM practices on knowledge management (KM) activities.Design/methodology/approachThe theory of KM serves as a starting‐point to develop the integrated conceptual model linking TQM and HRM aspects. Based on an extensive review of the current literature, three practices of TQM and three practices of HRM are integrated in an organized manner to examine the influence of TQM and HRM practices on KM activities.FindingsThese findings provide a basis for developing a model to advance the HRM, TQM and KM research literature.Practical implicationsThe practical implication of this study could be useful for business managers, who want to enhance organizational KM activities through implementing HRM and TQM practices that support their organization's KM efforts.Originality/valueThis paper makes a significant contribution by developing an integrated HRM and TQM model as a methodological example which can be useful for tracking the degree of HRM and TQM effects on KM activities. Organizations could use this framework to do a pre‐test baseline measurement, and then periodically re‐assess the effects of any HRM and TQM change.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane Horgan ◽  
Ben Collier ◽  
Richard Jones ◽  
Lynsay Shepherd

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop the theorisation of cybercrime in the context of the pandemic, and to sketch out a vision of how law enforcement might respond to a transformed landscape of online crime and offending. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper draws on empirical evidence from a range of sources (including official statistics) and the existing research literature, and revisits routine activities theory to illuminate the way that cybercrime patterns are being transformed by the pandemic. Findings The pandemic is reshaping the routine activities of societies en masse, leading to changes in the ecology of risk and opportunity for cybercrime. There is evidence of a large increase in the prevalence of cybercrime as a result, yet much of this has a paradoxically “local” character. Practical implications The authors identify specific practical implications for law enforcement, namely, that the role of local police in policing cybercrime should be re-envisioned, with a democratic, community-oriented approach at its heart. Originality/value The theoretical perspective outlined is a novel and critical development of a well-established framework, opening up new paths to the theorisation of cybercrime and cybercrime policing. The authors’ suggestions for practitioners have the potential for direct impact, both at the level of practice and in terms of broader imaginaries and organisation of police and policing.


Romanticism ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-254
Author(s):  
Jan Mieszkowski
Keyword(s):  

This essay explores the conceptualization of warfare in Romanticism. The focus is on two plays by Heinrich von Kleist, Penthesilea and Prince Friedrich von Homburg. I begin by discussing Carl von Clausewitz's influential understanding of conflict and the problems that arise when he attempts to explain the interdependence of warring parties. I go on to argue that in Kleist's dramas war is a competition between different languages of authority. When no coherent paradigm of agency emerges from this contest, the right to wage war is revealed to be anything but a guarantee that one knows how to do so.


Author(s):  
Andrew McNeillie
Keyword(s):  

It is now widely acknowledged, and far beyond Ireland, that Tim Robinson’s two volumes jointly known as Stones of Aran (‘Pilgrimage’ and ‘Labyrinth’) are modern classics, exemplary in every way of how to write about place and to do so with a formal, literary accomplishment that more than earns the right to nod at Ruskin’s own classic. In 2012, Robinson went back to Árainn, the largest of the three islands, for the first time in nearly ten years. He did so at the urging of Andrew McNeillie, with whom he spent two and a half days revisiting old haunts. This chapter makes account of the occasion and uses, in the process, a unique document provided by Robinson as an experiment in annotating his work. This prompts McNeillie to investigate some of his own annotations and footnotes to Aran.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Kholoud Al-Ajarma

The Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj) is one of the five pillars of Islam and a duty which Muslims must perform—once in a lifetime—if they are physically and financially able to do so. In Morocco, from where thousands of pilgrims travel to Mecca every year, the Hajj often represents the culmination of years of preparation and planning, both spiritual and logistical. Pilgrims often describe their journey to Mecca as a transformative experience. Upon successfully completing the pilgrimage and returning home, pilgrims must negotiate their new status—and the expectations that come with it—within the mundane and complex reality of everyday life. There are many ambivalences and tensions to be dealt with, including managing the community expectations of piety and moral behavior. On a personal level, pilgrims struggle between staying on the right path, faithful to their pilgrimage experience, and straying from that path as a result of human imperfection and the inability to sustain the ideals inspired by pilgrimage. By ethnographically studying the everyday lives of Moroccans after their return from Mecca, this article seeks to answer the questions: how do pilgrims encounter a variety of competing expectations and demands following their pilgrimage and how are their efforts received by members of their community? How do they shape their social and religious behavior as returned pilgrims? How do they deal with the tensions between the ideals of Hajj and the realities of daily life? In short, this article scrutinizes the religious, social and personal ramifications for pilgrims after the completion of Hajj and return to their community. My research illustrates that pilgrimage contributes to a process of self-formation among pilgrims, with religious and non-religious dimensions, which continues long after Hajj is over and which operates within, and interacts with, specific social contexts.


Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 60
Author(s):  
Anna Miglietta ◽  
Barbara Loera

We analyzed the relationship between modern forms of populism and citizen support for exclusive welfare policies and proposals, and we focused on support for left-wing- and right-wing-oriented welfare policies enacted or proposed during the Lega Nord (LN)–Five Star Movement (FSM) government in Italy (2018–2019). In light of the theoretical perspective of political ideology as motivated by social cognition, we examined citizens’ support for the two policies considering adherence to populist attitudes, agreement on the criteria useful to define ingroup membership, and personal values. We also took into account the role of cognitive sophistication in populism avoidance. A total of 785 Italian adults (F = 56.6; mean age = 35.8) completed an online survey in the summer of 2019 based on the following: support for populist policies and proposals, political ideologies and positioning, personal values, and ingroup boundaries. We used correlation and regression analyses. The results highlight the relationships between populism and political conservatism. Populism was related to the vertical and horizontal borders defining the “people”; cognitive sophistication was not a relevant driver. We identified some facilitating factors that could promote adherence to and support for public policies inspired by the values of the right or of the left, without a true ideological connotation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 82-84
Author(s):  
Gareth Hughes ◽  
James Comber

Purpose To remind sponsors to adopt an attitude of “professional skepticism” in Hong Kong IPOs. Design/methodology/approach Explains the Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”)'s sanction on BOCOM International (Asia) Limited (“BIAL”) as a sign of determination to hold sponsors to account as gatekeepers to the Hong Kong capital markets. Findings The SFC has reprimanded and fined BIAL HK$15 million for failing to discharge its duties as a sole sponsor in a listing application for China Huinong Capital Group Company Limited (“China Huinong”), a company established in the PRC. This substantial fine reinforces the need for sponsors to ensure that they fully and properly discharge all of their duties, and that they will be held responsible for any failure to do so, even if the listing is not ultimately approved. Practical implications If sponsors fail to fulfil the requirements required under the sponsors’ regulatory regime, the SFC will be proactive and impose tough sanctions, even if the listing application is eventually withdrawn or returned by the SEHK. Originality/value Practical guidance from experienced regulatory, financial and commercial dispute resolution lawyers.


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