Inga Minelgaite

The Desired Managerial Leader Behavior: Leader Profile in the Education Sector in Iceland Examined From a Follower-Centric Perspective

This article presents a study of desired leadership behavior in the educational sector in Iceland. This sector has been undergoing major challenges during recent years, including restructuring and mergers of schools, strikes of teachers’ professional unions, and increasing dropout rates. This situation requires exceptional leadership together with the understanding that leadership is a culture and context contingent phenomenon. However, research on managerial leadership in the education sector in Iceland is virtually nonexistent, presenting a gap in literature as well as failure to contribute to solving issues in practice. This article contributes to closing this gap by investigating the desired leader profile from a follower-centric perspective. The results indicate that the most desired leader behaviors in this sector tend to be relationship orientated, suggesting a need to focus on the “soft” side of leadership and reconsider overemphasis on bureaucracy. Effects of gender and demographic differences are minimal, suggesting coherence with structural theory. Managerial leadership implications and future research directions are discussed.

Before and After: Effect of Gender Quota on Icelandic Landscape of the Boards of Directors

Women and men do not participate in the national or global economy to the same extent. One of the critical factors in gender equality is access to the boards of directors in both private and public companies, as this is where the highest levels of power are concentrated. Sometimes the result of this historical tendency to exclude women is accompanied by an allusion to “smoke-filled rooms,” where important decisions are made by powerful people. However, with a release of a law to establish gender quotas in Icelandic boards of directors, both the smoke and the men-only corporate boards vanished away in the largest corporations.

A Comedian Who Changed the Leadership Script in Reykjavik: The Case of Jón Gnarr

This chapter is a case study of the leadership exercised by Jon Gnarr, a famous comedian who later served as the mayor of Reykjavik through 2010–2014. This profile is based on the reflections and insights shared during seven open-ended interviews with official city leaders who had closely worked with Jon Gnarr in the political arena. Evidence suggests that Jon Gnarr emerged as a leader due to extreme social and economic factors, which led to the election of the Best Party and thus shaped an unorthodox leader. At the same time, the descriptions provided by his followers portray an image of a leader that closely matches the theories of authentic leadership and has made a lasting impact. When Jon Gnarr stepped into the role of the mayor of Reykjavik, he used new tactics that had not been seen before with trust, respect, and care as the underlying values, out-of-the-box behavior patterns, original communication style, and intuition. Thus, he inspired his followers to change their own communication style. Finally, the case laid out in this chapter contributes to our understanding of authentic and unconventional leadership as an efficient vehicle in unusual circumstances.

Societal Culture in Iceland: From the Past to the Present

The societal culture of a nation is embedded in its history. The Saga Age or Soguold represents the first century of modern-day Iceland’s history and through narratives captures the determination, strong-mindedness, adaptability, and the inclination to explore new horizons and resources. These societal characteristics, along the line of continuous, challenging events, shape the core of leadership in Iceland and are further summarized in this chapter.

Leadership in Iceland: A Historical Context

The purpose of this chapter is to frame the circumstances that affected the development of leadership in Iceland. Leadership is a result of different societal and economic processes, whereas in the case of Iceland, it is a relatively young phenomenon and it is strongly associated with the economic development of the country. Throughout the nineteenth century and in the 1900s, the quality of socioeconomic conditions in Iceland was among the lowest in Europe. This chapter recollects the development of organizational leadership traditions in Iceland.

Gender and Leadership in Iceland: The Journey to the Top of the Global Gender Gap Index

The fact that Iceland has been acknowledged at the top of the Global Gender Gap Index for 7 consecutive years has raised interest not only among scholars and practitioners but also the media. A range of documentaries has been produced, and international periodicals such as the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Reuters, BBC, Washington Post, and others have covered the story on why this is the case. In this chapter, Icelandic society’s impressive journey to the top of the Global Gender Gap Index is described.

Beyond the Daily Catch: Desired Leader Profile in Iceland

Scholars and practitioners univocally agree that leadership affects performance and the effectiveness of organizational outcomes (Uhl-Bien et al., Leadersh Q 25(1):83–104, 2014). Interestingly, it was the context of Iceland that emerged in one of the seminal studies confirming the direct relationship between leadership and performance. Through a 3-year analysis of fishing industry and ship performance in particular, Thorlindsson revealed that leadership attributes of different captains could account for 35–49% of the variation in performance (i.e., the catch in this particular case). However, up-to-date discussion on leadership performance has extended beyond the daily catch, and today there is a general consensus that leadership effectiveness depends on the leader’s identity and the extent of the schemes and prototypes that he or she holds matches those of his or her followers. The following chapter is an attempt to formulate the desired leader profiles in Iceland.

What’s Next? From Tourism Bubble to the Future of Business Leadership in Iceland

Just about the time when Iceland’s future could not have been more obscure and tenuous, a series of unplanned and unprecedented events brought a constellation of economic revival opportunities. As it is quite common for Iceland, given the proper context, the threats have turned into chances. The low-cost flight options from Europe and the United States, the immediate downfall of Icelandic krona in 2008, and the Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in 2010 all made Iceland a destination spot on the maps of many world travelers. These events gave rise to the tourism in Iceland that for decades was mainly considered to be only a secondary socioeconomic activity. In the aftermath of the crisis of 2008, tourism became an industry that gave new roots to economic revival and growth of the country. Nowadays, the ultimate arising question is, “What will be the next economic boom for Iceland?” This chapter synthesizes the insights of 13 experts on the tourism industry in Iceland, its role in the economy and in society in general, and the future possibilities it sets for leadership.

Born to Enterprise? Entrepreneurial Intent Among Icelanders

In recent years, researchers and political figures have increasingly focused on entrepreneurship, emphasizing its role on economic and social growth and development, as well they have discussed how entrepreneurs can improve economies and people’s lives by creating jobs, developing new solutions to problems, and creating technology that improves efficiency (NaudO, World Dev 39(1):33–44, 2011, Entrepreneurship and economic development. In: Currie-Alder B, Kanbur R, Malone DM, Medhor R (eds) International development ideas, experiences and prospects. Oxford University Press, 2014; ecs et al. Small Bus Econ 31(3):219–234, 2008, Global entrepreneurship index (GEDI). The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute, Washington D.C., 2018; ecs and Szerb, Found TrendsU Entrep 5 (5):341–435, 2009; Van Praag and Versloot, Small Bus Econ 29(4):351–382, 2007; Audretsch et al., Entrepreneurship and economic growth. Oxford University Press, New York, 2006; Van Stel et al., Small Bus Econ 24(3):311–321, 2005; Parker, The economics of self-employment and entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004; Carree and Thurik, The impact of entrepreneurship on economic growth. In: Handbook of entrepreneurship research. Springer, 2003; Storey, Understanding the small firm sector. Routledge, London, 1994; Leibenstein, Am Econ Rev 58(2):72–83, 1968). In light of this discourse, this chapter covers the case of Iceland that is a matter of great relevance to the cultural characteristics as well as the economic turmoil that took place in the late 2008.

Moving Icelandic Companies Global Through Visionary Leadership: The Case of Alvogen

In his article published in the MIT Sloan Magazine, Harvard Business School professor William R. Kerr (2016, p. 62) notes: “Innovators such as Airbnb, Upwork, Alvogen, Rocket Internet, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance have more in common with one another than they have with traditional players in their own industries.” The linking factor among these organizations is their global approach. On this list, the Iceland-based company Alvogen, a rapidly growing generic pharmaceutical company operating in 35 countries, is now producing over 350 pharmaceutical products for global markets and has an annual turnover that exceeds