Jeffery Pfeffer (1977) argues that three problems with emphasis on leadership as a concept can be posed: (1) ambiguity in definition and measurement of the concept itself; (2) the question of whether leadership has discernable effects on organizational outcomes; and (3) the selection process in succession to leadership positions, which frequently uses organizationally irrelevant criteria and which has implications for normative theories of leadership. The argument here is that leadership is of interest primarily as an phenomenological construct. Leaders serve as symbols for representing personal causation of social events. How and why are such attributions of personal effects made? Instead of focusing on leadership and its effects, how do people make inferences about and react to phenomina labeled as leadership?
Class objectives
- To consider the ambiguity of leadership's definition and measurement.
- To understand the complexity and anbiguity of the principal's role.
- To consider new strategies and criteria for selecting teachers and school leaders.
Assignments
- Read Jeffrey Pfeffer's
The Ambiguity of Leadership
- Re-read Roger Martin's Opposable Mind, Chapter 1,
Choices, Conflict, and the Creative Spark.
- Prepare a 2-5 minute presentation of your reflection and position.
- Include your thoughts on alignment of Pfeffer's position and Martin's research.
Assignments due
(1) Hard copy of Field Activity # 1 to instructor, and (2)
Peer Review submitted BY PEER REVIEWER. (note: keep electronic copies of all field activities - they will be used at the end of the semester). PEER REVIEWERS, click here:
Submit Peer Review of Field Activity #1
The books written on leadership would fill up the largest of book shelves and likely number in the 1,000s. Jeffrey Pfeffer from Stanford University and Professor in the School of Business Administration, published
The Ambiguity of Leadership in the Academy of Management Review, Volume 12, No. 1, in 1977. Though dated, it could have been written today.
Click here to access
The Ambiguity of Leadership
