Wisdom principles as a meta-theoretical basis for evaluating leadership

Investigating collective memory in the enactment of Māori leadership identities Ko te kōputu pūmahara hei whakatinana i ngā tuakiri hautū

This article is based on research investigating collective memory in the enactment of leadership identities. The context is derived from a study of Māori leadership and decision-making. The methodology is qualitative and underpinned by Kaupapa Māori research. Methods include pūrākau – Māori epistemology in the form of storytelling. Data is sourced from digital archives in the form of documentaries capturing a rich array of Māori leadership in ritual, ceremonies and interviews with leaders in multiple settings. The process of wānanga (collaborative interactive learning) was required for translation of material from Te Reo Māori into English. As a central feature of a Māori collective memory paradigm, words act as a key, unlocking insight and deeper levels of understanding inherent in Māori epistemology, mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) and ontology. We employ whakapapa, a framework for understanding cultural identity and layering of relationships to inform analysis by offering a new concept to the literature; pūmahara, a generative collective memory code. This highlights continuity in the enactment of Māori leadership identities and values which signal social affiliation, self-affirmation and belonging. In terms of contributions, first, the study confirms that as repositories for social and collective memory, digital archives offer a potent opportunity to investigate collective memory in the enactment of leadership identities. Second, a new way of analysing the data through culturally derived methods including wānanga, pūrākau and whakapapa is offered. Third, a distinctive contribution to leadership identity research via a conceptual model highlighting interactions between cognitive, affective, relational, material and cultural values is detailed. Finally, we conclude by offering further avenues of research aimed to advance leadership identity research. In summary, this article offers a distinctive contribution to leadership identity research drawing on collective memory theory.

Linking Intellectual Leadership Practices to Sustainability Outcomes: Moderated Mediation Effect of Employees’ Multifunctionality

This study aims to examine the indirect mechanism by which intellectual leadership practices influence sustainability outcomes. By using the multi-source data from 289 manufacturing firms around the world, regression and bootstrapping analysis are applied to test both the mediation and moderated mediation models. The findings show that environmental competitive advantage indirectly mediates the relationship between intellectual leadership practices and sustainability outcomes. In addition, the indirect mediating relationship is strengthened as the level of employees’ multifunctionality increases. By exploring the jointed effect of intellectual leadership practices and employees’ multifunctionality on sustainability outcomes, this study provides insights into how manufacturers effectively enhance the economic consequences of sustainability management.

Practical wisdom, the (not so) secret ingredient for responsible knowledge management

Purpose

This paper aims to stress the importance of practical wisdom (phronesis) for the knowledge management field. It is a relevant intellectual and ethical resource for responding to recent changes in the business environment and for responsibly and sustainably aligning organizations for the future. Organizations must find ways to reconcile social, environmental and economic goals and meet different and conflicting stakeholder needs. To this end, the authors challenge knowledge management researchers to feature practical wisdom as an enabler for responsible knowledge management built on solid ethical foundations.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors introduce the concept of phronesis, reaching from Aristotle’s The Nicomachean Ethics to Nonaka and Takeuchi’s The Wise Company. Based on a systematic review of the literature, the authors performed a bibliometric analysis. Moreover, the authors discuss the findings and offer avenues for future research.

Findings

The results provide an overview of the research on phronesis in the knowledge management field. It points out the leading articles and journals (e.g. Journal of Business Ethics and Journal of Knowledge Management). Likewise, it identifies thematic areas, i.e. knowledge management field, knowledge dynamics, organizational wisdom, leadership and followership, corporate social responsibility and red flags.

Originality/value

In this essay, the authors advise practical wisdom as a promising candidate for advancing the field of knowledge management towards responsible knowledge management. To pursue this, the authors propose to address instability and continuous change through practical wisdom and outline a research agenda to guide further research.

Non-naïve organizational positivity through a generative paradox pedagogy

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS), with positivity as a core conceptual component, is a major innovation in recent decades in management and organizational studies. Just as organization is an inherently paradox laden process, so too, we argue, is positivity. Yet in classrooms and in practice, POS is mostly taught in a manner that accepts only one side of the paradox, that which, at first glance, appears positive. Against such linear approaches we propose another possibility: teaching positivity through a pedagogy of generative paradoxes emergent from creatively harmonizing the energy of competing and interdependent positive and negative tensions. In the process we extend the notion of generative paradox as discussed in paradox literature by embracing the notion of generativity as discussed in POS theorizing where it is associated with organizational processes that facilitate outcomes of collective flourishing, abundance, wellbeing, and virtue. Our proposed three-part generative paradox pedagogy contributes to the literature on POS, organizational paradox, and management learning.

Searching for Practical Wisdom in Higher Education with Logos, Pathos and Ethos. Case: Finnish Universities of Sciences

In our complex and highly connected world, educating for life—that is, educating students with knowledge, skills, and competences infused with practical wisdom (PW) and ethical and moral values—is essential. The paper seeks to answer the question: how could university education facilitate the progress to a wiser and better world? The methodology involves case study research (CSR) based on both secondary and primary data. The missions, visions, and values of fourteen public Finnish universities are analyzed for PW. The findings demonstrate that universities, by becoming more open, unbounded, and enacting organizations, and by enhancing collaboration with businesses, could foster the cultivation of PW in higher education (HE). The novelty of this paper is the creative communication of the case study, where kairos, logos, pathos, and ethos are used to explore a new reality for HE. The article contributes to the contemporary discourses in the literature on the future of HE. Educators in HE need to transform from knowledge workers to wise leaders, wisdom workers, creators, empathizers, pattern recognizers, and meaning makers. The context of the case study research makes it difficult to generalize. Therefore, international, comparative research is used to complement the findings. The eight-stage change process applied to universities and HE could help in solving the urgent problems of society and facilitating progress to a wiser and better world.

Interrelations among Leadership Competencies of BIM Leaders: A Fuzzy DEMATEL-ANP Approach

The use of new, digitally enabled innovations, such as building information modeling (BIM), raises issues such as the delineation of a competent leader. Even though BIM-based competency assessment models have become essential tools for maximizing the potential values of BIM implementation, the current competency models provide limited focus on leadership aspects that facilitate and enhance the BIM implementation efforts. This paper seeks to identify the specific competencies required for BIM implementation and examines the relationships between these competencies. Thirty-two experts from around the globe investigated a total of 15 leadership competencies under three categories pertaining to intellectual, managerial, and emotional leadership. Fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) was implemented to examine the cause-and-effect relationships among the BIM leadership competencies and fuzzy analytic network process (ANP) was performed to weigh those competencies. Findings show that the intellectual competencies act as the cause group, while managerial and emotional competencies are the effect groups. Moreover, the involving leadership is found to be the more suitable leadership style for BIM professionals, given the current capability and maturity levels of BIM implementation, in order to deal with the required changes throughout the BIM implementation process. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the BIM domain to examine the associated leadership competencies by using the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique. The results of this research show the relative importance of criteria and sub-criteria, which contributes to further improvement of BIM leadership.

Exploring managers’ conceptions of wisdom as management practice

This paper reports on an exploratory investigation into the concept of managerial wisdom. Six senior managers from diverse and large organisations in New Zealand were interviewed about their conception of managerial wisdom. The findings show that senior managers have a practical and positive conception of wisdom consisting of four factors: experience and knowledge, emotional intelligence, mentorship, and deliberation and consultation. The findings show that concepts of ‘spirituality’, ‘religiosity’, and, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, ‘ethics’, are all absent from the participants’ descriptions of wise managers. A tentative definition of managerial wisdom is proposed based on these findings as well as an explanation for the absence of ethics. As interest in wisdom and management continues to grow, this exploratory empirical research serves as a base for further research on the understanding and place of wisdom in management.

Traditional midwifery or ‘wise women’ models of leadership: Learning from Indigenous cultures

This article originated in a leadership program for Indigenous 1 Australian researchers, where a participant who had worked with traditional midwives in South Sudan reflected on her experiences. While there is increasing interest in how leadership studies can learn from Indigenous leadership experiences, much of this work has focused on men’s experiences or has not paid particular attention to women’s leadership. In this article, we suggest that women’s experience as traditional midwives or ‘wise women’ has been a crucial domain of leadership over millennia. We begin by describing the features of traditional women’s leadership through midwifery before reviewing Indigenous and non-Indigenous leadership theories. Drawing on published and unpublished sources, four principles of midwifery leadership are identified: being a leader who empowers and frees others with ‘no one person wiser than the other’; embodying wisdom and ethical practice which nurtures social, cultural and spiritual needs of women and mentors the next generation by ‘walking together’; being competent and skilled as well as emotionally attuned (‘feeling the job’) to engender trust and calm which is crucial to birth, ‘depending on each other but looking to her to be in charge’ and paying attention and being responsive to emergent change and unfolding present reality rather than being prescriptive, ‘using her knowledge to adjust the situation’. While these emphases are recognisable as part of several ancient wisdom traditions, we suggest that they connect to, and have relevance for, emerging leadership thinking and practice beyond the midwifery or medical context, for men as well as women and for non-Indigenous and Indigenous leadership alike.

Transformational leadership and teamwork improvement: the case of construction firms

Purpose

– A need for effective leadership and adequate managing the personnel is vital for every construction organization. Meanwhile, the dynamic and complex environments of the industry may be caused that not much research has been conducted on leadership practices in the industry. The purpose of this paper is to study the leadership style of the construction leaders in Iran and explore the correlation of transformational leadership practices with teamwork improvement in the construction companies.

Design/methodology/approach

– The research analysis was completed on a sample population of 107 managers within nominated construction firms in Iran. The analysis methods in this research were mainly descriptive and regression-based analyses and the type of investigation was a co-relational study.

Findings

– The research found the level of the leaders’ orientation for people and task in their leadership style, their transformational leadership qualities, and the relationship of transformational leadership with teamwork improvement in the respondents’ companies.

Originality/value

– The study is the first to investigate the leadership style of the construction leaders in Iran, and weather transformational leadership practices effects on teamwork improvement in the industry.

Wisdom and narcissism as predictors of transformational leadership

Purpose

– Although leadership and organizational scholars have suggested that the virtue of wisdom may promote outstanding leadership behavior, this proposition has rarely been empirically tested. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships between transformational leadership, narcissism, and five dimensions of wisdom as conceptualized by the well-established Berlin wisdom paradigm. General mental ability and emotional intelligence were considered relevant control variables.

Design/methodology/approach

– Interview, test, and questionnaire data were obtained from 77 employees of a high school and from two or three colleagues of each employee. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression analyses.

Findings

– After controlling for general mental ability and emotional intelligence, narcissism and the wisdom dimension relativism of values and life priorities were negatively related to transformational leadership, and the wisdom dimension recognition and management of uncertainty was positively related to transformational leadership. The other three wisdom dimensions, rich factual knowledge about life, rich procedural knowledge about life, and lifespan contextualism, were not significantly related to transformational leadership.

Research limitations/implications

– Limitations to be addressed in future studies include the cross-sectional design and the relatively small and specialized sample.

Practical implications

– Tentative implications for leadership training and development are outlined.

Originality/value

– This multi-method and multi-source study represents the first empirical investigation that examines links between well-established wisdom and leadership constructs in the work context.

Understanding the elements and outcomes of executive wisdom: A strategic approach

The purpose of this paper is to: (a) offer rationale for the importance of an increasingly important organizational management topic – the wisdom of top managers – what we call executive wisdom; (b) develop a theoretical framework for the construct, including core components and outcomes, and (c) provide implications for practice. The research in several related literatures is reviewed and synthesized to provide the foundation for the development of this theoretical framework. Applying the extant literature on wisdom to the specific context of a top-level business manager, we argue that there are four foundational characteristics of executive wisdom: (1) Knowledge, developed by prior learning and experience, (2) moral maturity, (3) reflective strategic decision-making, and (4) ability to manage uncertainty. Executives possessing such characteristics are: (a) able to make enlightened strategic judgments that are (b) implemented as principled actions. The effectiveness of such implementation is contingent upon, among other moderators, the executive's leadership skills. We view each of the characteristics as necessary but not sufficient to possess and benefit from executive wisdom. The principled actions undertaken by those possessing executive wisdom will, when compared to other executives, have a greater likelihood of leading to valued outcomes indicative of organizational effectiveness, including enhanced stakeholder trust and loyalty, reputational capital, and stronger financial and social performance. We believe that the main arguments developed in this paper will help improve managers’ understanding of how to become a wise executive and to realize the benefits of doing so. From a theory perspective, this paper adds to the growing body of literature in a new and increasingly valued area of research.

Embodied inter-practices of leadership – Phenomenological perspectives on relational and responsive leading and following

This paper offers phenomenological perspectives on leadership as an embodied material and relational practice. Based on Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of embodiment and practice, leadership is interpreted as an emergent process of the inter-practice of leading and following. For showing the enactment of this embodied inter-practicing as a creative one, improvisation is explored as an exemplary media. Finally, some practical, political, theoretical and methodological implications and perspectives on embodied inter-practices of leadership will be outlined.