Leadership and the public sector: an internationally comparative benchmarking analysis
| Author | NADA KORAC KAKABADSE,ANDREW KORAC KAKABADSE,ANDREW MYERS |
| Date | 01 October 1996 |
| Published date | 01 October 1996 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-162X(199610)16:4<377::AID-PAD889>3.0.CO;2-U |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL.
16, 377-396 (1996)
Leadership and the public sector:
an internationally comparative benchmarking analysis
ANDREW KORAC KAKABADSE
International Management Development, Cranjield University
School
of
Management
NADA KORAC KAKABADSE
Cranjield University
School
of
Management
ANDREW MYERS
Cranfield University
School of
Management
SUMMARY
In this article the
concept
of
leadership
is
explored.
Particular attention is given to examining
the
dynamics
of
individual and team leadership,
as it
is
postulated that the impact of top people
and top teams is crucial to the running
of
today’s organizations. The results
of
an
extensive
survey conducted across the departments
of
the Civil Service
of a European country government
will be presented. These results will be benchmarked against the results
of
a worldwide survey
of
business leaders, spanning
I2
countries
and the responses
of
top managers
in
National
Health Service {HNS) Trusts,
UK.
Emphasis will be given to the necessity
of
conducting
effective
team leadership
through high quality dialogue and through cabinet responsibility in
order to successfully lead and maintain the organization on its agreed path. Finally,
approaches to the development
of
leadership
for those already in top positions and for those
entering into such challenging positions, will be discussed.
INTRODUCTION
‘.
.
.
when I did the rounds
of
the Secretaries, they smiled and said yes,
that is a great idea but are we convinced? That is
OK
.
. .
Some ideas you
have to have in place. Others you don’t-but you can create a hook to
hang on what you need’.
1st Tier Secretariat
‘I don’t always operate by consensus. There are times when
I
have to go
out and say, “this must be done and it will be done and we will do it”.
Of
course, this depends on my relationship with the department’.
1st Tier Secretariat
Andrew Korac Kakabadse is Professor, International Management Development, Nada Korac
Kakabadse and Andrew Myers are Senior Research Fellows at Cranfield University School of
Management, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 OAL, UK.
Paper presented
to
CAPAM Biennial Conference,
‘The
New Public Administration: Global
Challenges-Local Solutions’, Malta,
21-24
April,
1996.
CCC
0271-2075/96/040377-20
0
1996 by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
378
A.
Korac Kakabadse,
N.
Korac Kakabadse and
A.
Myers
‘I
find the capacity to have meetings, endless meetings where they deal
with trivial detail and
I
sit there thinking about this entire waste
of
time,
not matters of importance.
So
I
get impatient.
I
think we don’t
collectively work to change what we don’t like’.
1st Tier Secretariat
Three separate comments from top civil servants employed by the central
government civil service of a European country representing different styles,
philosophies and approaches to leadership. Are such differences unusual?
Comparison with senior executives from the private sector suggests a strong no.
Equal diversity
of
style and philosophy of leadership is commonplace.
‘This guy came in January
1992.
He first attacked people. He said these
guys are accountable-pop, pop, pop, and then that sort of woke
everybody up and they thought, this guy is prepared to fire people’.
Simon Gillham, ex-Thomson Consumer Electronics, describing the
style of Alain Prestiit, the then newly appointed Chairman
of
Thomson.
‘The first thing is to say you have got to have openness before you can
have the robust dialogue ... We now give much more information right
the way through the organisation and that was a consequence
of
what we
went through in terms
of
reorganisation and of trying to change the
culture’.
Colin Shannon,
UK
Senior Partner, KPMG. (Formerly KPMG
Peak Marwick)
The comments of Simon Gillham concerning the newly appointed Alain Prestlt and
of Colin Shannon both suggest intense involvement in their organizations, but in
quite different ways.
The comments above are made by leaders, each describing the different
approaches they adopt to promoting the betterment of their organization. Their
approach is the result of the behaviour that they consider necessary to sustain a
leadership role and their interpretation
of
the requirements for leadership in their
context. The dual aspects of personal approach tempered by the requirements of
separate contexts, promote an interesting variety of contributions from managers in
the upper echelons
of
organizations. All of the five above interviewees agree that
effective leadership is crucial to the success of any organization.
‘.
. .
we have developed quite an ambitious programme, a painstaking
programme over the next couple of years to look at people who are high
users
. . .
’.
1st Tier Secretariat
LEADERSHIP
Born out of concern that changing economic conditions and the emergence of new
institutional forms are to challenge present practices of leadership, the Top
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