Maturing Leadership

How Adult Development Impacts Leadership

Jonathan Reams

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781789734041, 9781789734027
• eBook ISBN: 9781789734034
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

We've known for years now that demands on leaders are only increasing. Yet we have lacked widely understood, empirically grounded and rigorous ways to support the development of adequate maturity of heart, complexity of mind and skilful practice for leaders to meet these demands.

Over the past three decades, a growing number of scholars and practitioners have explored the value of a developmental approach to these issues. In Maturing Leadership, Jonathan Reams brings together a cast of expert contributors to introduce this work to a wider audience. While this approach has previously been on the margins of mainstream leadership development research, Reams brings it to the centre, moving beyond the clichéd characterizations of 'inner work' to bring a finer granularity, precision and rigor to the subjective workings of leaders. The chapters explore how applying insights from the field of constructivist cognitive development can be a key driver for supporting improvements in how we approach leadership development.

For researchers and students of leadership, this is an essential addition to the leading theories of developmental approaches to leadership. Increasing complexity in the world is not a passing fad, and the need for leaders to grow in the maturity and sophistication of their responses is a long-term need.

If you are interested in hearing a series of conversations with the editor and chapter authors of this book, look up the podcast Phronesis: Practical Wisdom for Leaders. There, episodes 154- 163 are all about the topics in this book.

Chapter 1

Leadership 4.0

Marianne Roux

Introduction

Digitalization is often seen as the most essential factor in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (World Economic Forum, 2016) and is powerful enough to have implications on current and future leadership practices. A study by Artley (2018) also warns that we continue to underestimate the scale and speed of change leaders have to navigate and lead in in an integrated, positive, human and impactful way in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Schwab, 2016). For the purpose of this chapter, I will talk about new world of work as 4.0 (Kreutzer, Neugebauer, & Pattloch, 2018; Lund, Manyika, & Ramaswamy, 2012) and about the concept of leadership for this as Leadership 4.0 (Kelly, 2019).

Leadership scholars have certainly noted this significant increase in the challenges leaders face in the new world of work 4.0 (Gratton, 2010, 2011; Lund et al., 2012). The question is whether our thinking as scholars and practitioners have significantly evolved to ensure we present models and practices of leadership that truly address the complexity leaders face. It seems not.

The Confédération Européenne des Cadres (CEC) Report (2017) notes that despite of, or even partly due to a growing leadership industry with an estimated $130–$356 billion spent per year on leadership development alone, there seems to be a profound conceptual confusion about what leadership and leadership development is about. According to a Harvard Business School survey, only 19% of business-line managers believe the programs they are taking are relevant to the issues they face.

Bormann and Rowold (2018) also call out the continued increase in new leadership models and approaches and suggest in their paper that “newly” designed constructs are too similar to those that already exist and consequently lack discriminant validity. Veldsman and Johnson (2016) describe the dilemma we find ourselves in as such:

Leadership is in an overheating crucible of a reframed world in the throes of fundamental and radical transformation. The search is on for better and different leadership. Without any doubt leadership is the critical strategic capability of nations, communities and organisations, making them sustainably future-fit. To the best of our knowledge, no overall, systemic, integrated and holistic view of leadership exists, and few organisations adopt a systemic, integrated approach to leadership. (pp. 1 and 2)

I propose that, instead of further proliferation and confusion, time is better spent integrating models and discerning appropriateness of concepts for the new context leaders lead in, otherwise we will suffer further from conceptual redundancy and fragmented approaches. This chapter therefore considers the changing nature of organizations, work and leadership in the new world of work (4.0). It calls out the disparity in leadership theories and analyzes recent attempts to develop integrated and holistic leadership models. In reviewing these, we then attempt to create an updated and holistic model of leadership in the new world of work or what we call Leadership 4.0 (Kelly, 2019).

Research Questions and Methodology

In order to make sense of the new way of leadership required in the 4.0 context, we will work through three main research questions. I have researched and I will explain how leadership has evolved alongside the evolution of organizations and work. I will then identify some criticisms of the suitability and effectiveness of previous and current approaches as it is applied in the 4.0 context and look for emerging themes and solutions in the new context of 4.0. Finally, I will propose an integrated and updated model of Leadership 4.0 to answer some of the criticisms of redundancy and proliferation and bring some of the newer concepts into the mainstream discussion about leadership.

Research Questions

Q1. How has leadership evolved in the context of the evolution of organizations and work, what are the major themes relating to the context of the time/era they were developed and used in and what are criticisms or research outcomes of the application of these earlier concepts of leadership against the requirements of the new world of work 4.0?

Q2. What are the emerging themes of research and practice of leadership in the new world of work 4.0 and how do these research and practice themes help us to assess and develop Leadership 4.0?

Q3. What would an updated and integrated model of leadership look like that takes into account the complexity of the environment leaders lead in and how can current attempts to be enhanced with new concepts or research to update these models to a Leadership 4.0 model of leadership?

Methodology

Broadly, I have integrated practice in the field with academic insights to build up the model presented here. To do this, I used thematic analysis and word clouds to identify themes in relevant literature and from expert interviews. I combined this with 25 years of direct work in the field where I have identified an integrative set of themes of leadership based on my experience developing leadership architecture and executive development courses and through my training as an executive, consultant and academic in the areas of: adaptive leadership (Heifetz, 1994), levels of work (Jaques, 1989, 1990), adult development theory (Cook-Greuter, 1985, 2004; Dawson, 2016; Fischer & Immordio-Yan, 2002; Loevinger, 1976), behavioral theory (Maslanka, 2004; McGregor, 1960), trait theory (Bennis, 1998; Gardner, 1989; Mann, 1959; Stogdill, 1948), contingency theory (Blake, Shepard, & Mouton, 1964; Fiedler, 1997; Fiedler & Garcia, 1987; Hersey & Blanchard, 1977), and competence-based development (Chomsky, 1969, 2010; Mansfield, 2004; Raven, 2002; White, 1959).

A set of themes was developed based on an analysis of literature on the evolution, criticisms and emerging practices in the theories of leadership as well as the reasons our theories and practices of leadership have failed to deliver the kind of leaders we need in the new world of work.

I further identified 22 thought leaders from a variety of backgrounds in my network ranging from Academic Leadership Researchers to CEOs that are successful in the new world of work 4.0 and Heads of Leadership Development in large multinational organizations facing significant challenges in their industries. The semi-structured interviews were used to test both my own insights and themes emerging from the literature.

To assess the themes from the interviews, I used WorditOut word cloud software available on the internet to identify key themes in the literature and in the interviews. McNaught and Lam (2010) recommend using word cloud tools as a supplementary research tool. Word clouds can identify trends and patterns that would otherwise be unclear or difficult to see in a tabular format and are therefore useful when attempting to define a holistic concept. Maguire and Delahunt (2017) describe thematic analysis as “the process of identifying patterns or themes within qualitative data” (p. 3352). They describe as a method rather than a methodology and that it is therefore not tied to a particular theoretical perspective making it a very flexible method.

Overall, they describe the goal of thematic analysis as identifying themes to address or say something about a specific issue. At the end of the analysis, broad themes are identified and reviewed in terms of whether they make sense overall before being written up.

Finally, I identify current models from the literature that address the emergent issues and themes and use them as a base to build an updated and integrated leadership model suited to the new world of work.

Literature Review

In reading through the literature, I looked at patterns of organizational evolution, then the evolution of work and finally, the evolution of leadership theory and practice.

Organizational and Work Evolution

Laloux (2015) provides one explanation of the patterns of organizational evolution using developmental theory which assumes humans and organizations develop in stages of increasing maturity, consciousness and complexity. The evolution started with the division of labor with command by authority. At this time, there was a need for formal roles and hierarchies with stable, replicable processes. The management breakthroughs in this phase were innovation (R&D and product development), accountability and meritocracy (achievement through qualifications and skills).

Post-modern societies and organizations brought a new world view. This stage stresses cooperation over competition and is based on more equality and empowerment. It assumes all stakeholders need to be served. More focus is given to organizational culture, coaching and teamwork.

Today, organizations are moving beyond this stage to become more careful about their overall impact and develop deeper ethics. They support self-management; the wholeness of people and purpose. Heerwagen (2016) provides a simple summary of the nature of organizations today. These organizations are:

• leaner and more agile;
• more focused on identifying value from the customer perspective ;
• more tuned to dynamic competitive requirements and strategy;
• less hierarchical in structure and decision authority;
• less likely to provide lifelong careers and job security; and
• continually reorganizing to maintain or gain competitive advantage.

Alongside the evolution of organizations, came the evolution of work and the people (and machines) delivering the work. Mobius and Schoenle (2006) write that labor was first divided into narrow tasks and to detailed job descriptions during industrialization and then decreased again after 1970 as job roles expanded. This happened at first because machines required standardization. Customers, however, wanted customization. Today, job roles are expanding horizontally, and roles are merging. We have entered the era of flat structures and autonomous work teams as well as the era of eco systemic workforces.

The rise of artificial intelligence, the automation of production processes and numerous other factors ar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Leadership 4.0
• Chapter 2. Leadership Development Laboratory
• Chapter 3. The Art and Science of Vertical Development
• Chapter 4. The Implications of Developmental Diversity for Leadership Education
• Chapter 5. I’ll Only Follow if I Trust You: Using Adult Development to Accelerate Trust
• Chapter 6. The Complex Choreography of Becoming a Coach
• Chapter 7. Transforming in Relationship: When Leader–Member Exchange Theory Meets Adult Development Theory
• Chapter 8. The Aware Leader: Supporting Post-Autonomous Leadership Development
• Chapter 9. The Meaning-making Structures of Outstanding Leaders: An Examination of Conative Capability at Postconventional Ego Development Levels
• Chapter 10. Dialectical Thinking, Adult Development and Leadership
• Chapter 11. Playing in the Sandbox: A Reflective Journey on the Development and Implementation of a Leadership Development Program within a Doctoral Program
• Chapter 12. Creating Scalable Leadership Development at a Large Company
• Author Biographies
• Index