Andrew Korac-Kakabadse

Demographics and Leadership Philosophy: Exploring Gender Differences.

Leadership philosophy is explored through gender and other demographic characteristics in the Australian Public Service (APS), at the federal government level. Leadership philosophy is conceptualised as the leader’s attitudes, values and behaviour. Gender differences in characteristics of leaders (executives and middle managers) are examined in terms of strategic behaviour, management style, work‐related values, adoption of information technology, perceived organisational morale, family/work conflict and personal, work and family satisfaction. The gender differences are investigated using questionnaire responses from a sample of 750 respondents, of which 569 were male and 145 female. The APS findings are compared with a Cranfield study conducted in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), where gender differences are explored in terms of management and strategic orientation. A sample of 515 chief executives, medical, clinical, HR and financial directors, chairpersons and other non‐executive directors, consists of 406 male and 108 female respondents. The APS study reveals that there are no significant gender differences in the majority of measured characteristics. Similarly in the NHS Trusts study, no significant gender differences are found in terms of management and strategic orientation. The conclusion reached is that other demographic characteristics are influential in forming leadership philosophies, namely job and organisational tenure and experience of senior management responsibilities, thus highlighting the importance of organisational demographics and their impact on leadership attitudes and practice.

Low‐ and high‐context communication patterns: towards mapping cross‐cultural encounters

States that the major reasons for difficulties in cross‐cultural communication stem from the fact that actors from different cultures have different understandings regarding the interaction process and different styles of dialogue. Suggests that better understanding of communication within other cultures is the key to success. Uses past literature to suggest a number of cultural variability constructs concerning preferred interaction behaviours and the common themes they share. Presents three case studies to illustrate this.

Leadership Renewal: Towards the Philosophy of Wisdom

Introduction Leadership belongs more to moral philosophy than to scientific theory. If one analyses Plato’s central problems of the character of a well-governed city; the formation of its leaders; the pedagogy of their sensibility and vision; and the disposition of Callicles and Thrasymachus, it becomes evident that moral values are the central theme. Burns’ (1978) comprehensive study of leadership establishes that there is a difference in kind between the exercise of power and the exercise of leadership and that the difference is a moral one. Burns (1978: 46) concludes that ‘the ultimate test of moral leadership is its capacity to transcend the claims of the multiplicity of everyday needs and expectations, to respond to the higher levels of moral development and to relate leadership behaviour — its roles, choices, style and commitments, to a set of reasoned, relatively explicit, conscious values’. As early as 386 bc, Plato initiated one of the first leadership training centres in the world, an institute he called the Academy, in an attempt to create a new type of statesman, a person who would be able to withstand the unwieldy pressures of office. In the Apology, Plato (1956b) details the origins of Socrates’ humility in defence against the charge of impiety and corruption of the youth of Athens at his trial in 399 bc. In response to this puzzle, at the declaration of the Delphi oracle that none is wiser than he, Socrates replies that he visited a wise man and that after conversing with him, he went away thinking ‘I am wiser than this man: neither of us knows anything that is really worth knowing, but he thinks that he has knowledge when he has not, while I have no knowledge and do not think that I have’ (Plato, 1956b: 36). The Socratic ‘ignorance’ paradox serves as the basis for an understanding of philosophy as the search for wisdom. As a living absolute, the Socratic message is a continual movement of a freeing

Information technology and development: creating ‘IT harems’, fostering new colonialism or solving ‘wicked’ policy problems?

The proliferation of information technology o}ers challenges to developing countries which struggle with basic human needs[ Yet the key to their survival may lie in information which is inaccessible to them[ Facing these challenges developing nations start from a position of frailty based on low levels of capital^ a limited information infrastructure^ dependencies on foreign aid and multinationals^ and an ever!increasing population growth[ It is essential that foreign technology in~ow is adopted strategically within the pre!existing framework of national policies for technological development and with an emphasis on technology transfer[ The broad policy direction needs to be towards the establishment of an information infrastructure and a contingent perspective for the meta!policy process of designing appropriate information technology infrastructures[ Copyright 1999 John Wiley + Sons Ltd[

Best practice in the Australian Public Service (APS): an examination of discretionary leadership

Following an overview of the leadership arena, examines completely the lesser explored concept of discretionary leadership with the view that the phenomenon of downsized, delayered organizations will demand even greater discretionary choices and behaviour from the executives and thereby testing the togetherness concept of co‐operation, sharing and working together. A benchmarking survey of the Australian Public Service (benchmarked against a private sector and health management sector database) emphasizes the point of creeping fragmentation in organizations and highlights that the capabilities of cohesion, quality dialogue and cabinet responsibility will be demanded even more from the leadership of today’s organization. Gives attention to understanding, practising and developing today’s private and public sector leaders in the capabilities of discretionary leadership.

Globalization and information technology: vanishing social contracts, the “pink collar” workforce and public policy challenges

This paper critically examines the influence of information technology (IT) on women’s career structures. Globalization is forcing an increasing inter‐dependence of radically re‐engineered labour forces and the further “internal” exploitation of the internationalization of the dual labour market many women have endured. The global trend is towards further fragmenting a shrinking, gender‐based set of career opportunities and creating an increasingly marginalized, part‐time, “pink collar” labour force, associated with the putative revolution of the tertiary sector transforming out of industrial, manufacturing economies. The implications of the emergence of a “pink collar” labour force largely go unexamined. The much heralded argument that IT will transform “coercive” organizational structures and work practices needs, yet again, to be critically examined in the context of the further destruction of professional opportunities for women in radically re‐engineered public sectors, aggressively “micro‐economized” labour forces and rapidly dissipating organizational and social contracts.

Dysfunctionality in “citizenship” behaviour in decentralized organizations

Emerging in the literature on organizational design is the question of the efficacy of self‐managed work groups. From task‐forces and matrix prescriptions of the 1970s, imperatives towards de‐centralization, networked capabilities and self‐managed teams seem to be part of the IT‐driven prescriptions emanating from contemporary re‐structuring and social re‐engineering of workplaces. This article explores some interesting dysfunctionality dynamics of corporate “citizenship” behaviour in de‐centralized contexts and suggests the necessity to study, in some further depth, the unquestioned virtues of self‐regulated and de‐centralized teams. As the article implies, cultural engineering, leadership dynamics and complex motivation/citizenship behaviour within such organized settings also require critical re‐examination.

Information Technology-Enabled Communication and Organizational Effectiveness

The paper explores the current understanding of IT-enabled communication in organizations and IT-media choice. It examines the central concerns and ideas in the field addressed by theories drawing from rational and interpretativist perspectives. Thus, theoretical fragmentation is recognized and the controversial views of the effects of communication are presented. Characteristics of IT-mediated communication are identified, positive and negative impacts on organizational effectiveness examined, as is the IT-mediated communication effect on group behaviour. It is concluded that the effective choice of communication media depends on organizational understanding of the message the organization is trying to communicate to internal as well as external stakeholders and what specific behaviour an organization is trying to promote.

Towards Electronic Service Delivery: Canadian, Australian and United Kingdom Government Initiatives

Like industrialization, IT implies a progressive economic and administrative realization and differentiation of the social world. The adoption of new IT continually (re)defines work related and social roles, contributing to a significant shift in the international pattern of specialization and competitiveness at a rate often faster than related organizational and socio-economic theories can address (OECD, 1992; Tushman and Nelson, 1990). Moreover, the social restructuring trend has been further propelled by the increasingly sophisticated demands of prosperous customers (consumerism, changing actor profiles, de-differentiation); the accelerated rate of development of newly industrialized societies with lower labour costs; and the erosion of protectionism which was, itself, fueled by the greater mobility of actors, capital and information (punctuated by spectacular advances in information technology eluding the sovereign powers of any one nation) (Korac-Kakabadse, et al., 1996).