Administrative Leadership in the Public Sector by Montgomery van Wart & Lisa A. Dicke

Author:Montgomery van Wart & Lisa A. Dicke [Wart, Montgomery van & Dicke, Lisa A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Management, Leadership, Political Science, Public Affairs & Administration
ISBN: 9780765613486
Google: i0QvAAAAYAAJ
Goodreads: 6135950
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
Published: 2008-01-15T06:12:49+00:00

PART 5

WHAT ARE THE BEST STYLES FOR PUBLIC-SECTOR LEADERS TO USE?

Leader style refers to the dominant and defining behavioral patterns of the leader. For simplicity one can talk of a single, overall style for a leader, but in reality very few effective leaders have a single style that they use all of the time. Effective leaders vary their styles from situation to situation. Leaders may use styles consciously, but just as often they are unconscious in their use of style. Some leaders are oblivious to the fact that many of their actions belie their espoused style. Followers attribute styles to leaders from the behaviors they observe; but these observations may or may not be consistent with each other because of different observations and perceptions about the leader. Effective leaders know what styles to adopt in given situations, know what their preferred and alternate styles are, and are able to self-consciously adapt their style (Hersey and Blanchard 1969) or the situation (Fiedler, Chemers, and Mahar 1976) for maximum success. In other words, effective leaders tend to be more conscious of the style they use, have better alignment between their self-conception and the perceptions of others, and have a philosophy of leadership that assists them to act and speak coherently about what they do (Bass 1990).

Many factors impinge upon leader styles: follower characteristics, environmental contingencies, and power structures are chief among them. A leader generally should not use the same style with a group of new employees as with a group of twenty-five-year veteran employees. Nor would one use the same style with an employee about to be suspended as with an award-winning employee. In terms of environmental contingencies, the most prominent is the crisis, in which more directive modes and greater decisiveness are generally called for. Even the culture of the organization or unit will affect the style used. For example, it is common in larger organizations, where the CEO has substantial external contacts, for her/him to focus almost exclusively on those external affairs, and for the chief deputy to handle internal operations, thereby resulting in a dual leadership model substantially affecting their styles.

Just as all people have inherent personality characteristics that define their preferred and secondary personality modes, people have preferred and secondary leadership styles too. The preferred mode is the one with which a leader feels most comfortable and on which a leader will tend to rely most heavily in ambiguous situations. Secondary styles are those that the leader can employ, but generally it is a more conscious activity. The style range is the degree to which the leader can use multiple styles. Style capacity is the ability of a leader to employ a style effectively, no matter whether it is a preferred or secondary style. It is quite possible for one leader to have great capacity in one style, and rarely use any secondary styles, and for another to have a relatively comprehensive range, use all of them poorly, and be less effective overall. Of course highly effective

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