RESEARCH ON LEADERSHIP IS VITAL
RESEARCH ON LEADERSHIP FOR INSTITUTIONAL PERFORMANCE
Leadership is a challenging issue in most institutions, organizations, Government offices, and Churches. Most institutions have come up with structures to be observed in leadership but the performance has not been achieved. For example, in churches membership is decreasing due to uncaring leadership. Many questions and cries have been asked why leadership is a problem in societies, institutions. The blame somehow goes to institutions that train leaders in various fields. Nohira and Khurani affirm some of the questions:
At a time when societies around the world are crying out for more and better leadership… have lost legitimacy, questions are being asked, sometimes angrily, of the institutions that school these leaders: What kinds of leaders are these institutions developing that have caused so much hardship for so many? Are these institutions developing leaders who have the competence and character necessary to lead the web of complex institutions that have become so vital to the collective health of modern societies? What is the vision or model of leadership that animates the curriculum and developmental models in these institutions? If there is such a model, does it need to be revisited, reexamined, and revised in light of the widespread failures in leadership? Do we really understand what it takes to develop better leaders? What advice can scholars give leaders who are entrusted with the challenges of leading organizations and ensuring their continued viability and prosperity?[1]
Leadership covers a range of different areas within the society. The problem that exists is how the same leadership can be effective within different disciplines for organizational behaviour and performance hence results. The book is providing methods on how scholars can develop a program on Leadership that can enable the students have skills in producing benefits to the society.
The book written by Nohira and Khurana emphasizes why the book was written,
Has one primary purpose—to stimulate serious scholarly research on leadership. The current state of scholarly research on leadership doesn’t allow us to answer these questions with confidence. Indeed, despite leadership being central to the mission and purpose of most institutions of higher education, there is little serious scholarship and research on leadership in these same schools…. If society expects us to develop better knowledge about leadership and a better ability to develop leaders who will benefit society, we must meet that call or risk. (Page 135-140)
We see many institutions and companies are collapsing due to poor leadership and its performance in the society leaves many questions to be asked. We need to do some research to find out what is on the ground and the kind of training the leaders go through. The systems used to have leaders in position is a big challenge because leaders are chosen without finding out the area of study the leader has knowledge with. In addition the identity of the leader within the society and his or her training calls for checkup.
Nohira and Khurana quote other sources as saying,
For example, Harvard Business School’s formal mission statement is “to educate leaders who make a difference in the world.” Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business defines its primary educational goal as preparing “students for leadership positions in the world’s foremost organizations.” Stanford’s business school aims to “develop innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world,” and MIT’s Sloan School of Management aims to “develop principled, (Page149-152)
As we develop leaders we need to identify the kind of leadership as per the need within the institution and the person (trainees) going through training, the trainers and the venue of training. Choosing leaders randomly has faulted so many institutions in my country. Some leaders have ended up being corrupt, implementation of the vision, creation of work relationships and management of finances becoming the major problems. In addition, production has reduced and poor performance which has resulted to closure of most companies and institutions due to lack of finances to run it. This is in relation to choosing the leader who has a different professional training and leading a company or institution which is different to the training achieved so far. For example a leader who has trained in information computer technology to be in charge of a hospital as a director. This is misplacement of professionalism and thus why Nohira and Khurana are saying identifying the right training is vital.
It also calls for institutions in providing the right curriculum development for the trainees. Institutions should come up with the right ways of imparting skills to the leaders in various disciplines. Provision of theories in training institutions is limiting the trainees in that discovering the practical part of the training leads to misinterpretation of the need training.
In Kenyan system of education Curriculum based competency is being introduced. The belief is that the child will be developed from early classes, through identifying the skills and the area of interest. Hope this will instill good skills of leadership in the right person and right position. It also deals with the person becoming relevant to the community within his or her identity and while working in any institutions then production should be experienced.
Nohira and Khurana show the origin of the problem and suggest the remedy to be looking at leadership from another point of view in our institutions
Yet, the reality is still that research on leadership is at best at the periphery rather than the center of most schools that profess to educate the leaders of the future. There are many signs of this intellectual neglect: adjunct rather than tenure track faculty teach most leadership courses; there are few papers on leadership published in the most prominent academic journals; and there are virtually no doctoral courses on leadership. (Page 159-160)
Intellectuals should come together and look for way forward in improving on leadership training and participation. The courses should be developed up to PhD level. all the disciplines should develop its area of study so as to produce leaders who will impact the society
[1][1] Nohira, Khurana. Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice. Harvard press Review Press, 2010.
About the Author
Simon Bulimo
Born 1961 May 29th Went through High School Diploma in theology Degree in Bible and Theology Masters in Biblical Studies A pastor with Friends Church3 responses to “RESEARCH ON LEADERSHIP IS VITAL”
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Simon, your post made me curious as to what leadership characteristics are most praised in your context?
Honesty, Relational, Visionary, able to influence. leadership is inclusive for you need people
Thanks for being curious. Some of the characteristics are questionable in leadership within my context