Neo Institutional Theory and Leading Change

Currie, Lockett, and Suhomlinova have completed research that underscores the role of environment upon our leadership. In their article, "Leadership and Institutional Change in the Public Sector: The Case of Secondary Schools in England" (The Leadership Quarterly, 20, (2009), 664-679), they make the case that rather than being isolated to either personal characteristics or situation, leadership can be an amalgam of these but with another added: the environment in which the leader serves.

Their work is grounded in neo-institutional theory, a theory that posits the practices of our organizations are affected by the institutions within society. Among these are institutions with power to regulate and thus manipulate conformance and those that reify values and define what is normal. The use of the word "institutions" doesn't refer first to buildings or organizations but to an idea or ideal through which the accumulation of permissions to wield influence over human agency has become a structure of power over that agency. Examples of two such can be government and culture.

In a study that tracked the work of school principles tasked with introducing a "results oriented" leadership to their schools, they noted that the preferred and commonly accepted form of leadership for principles was a "moral" leadership that valued "wider social goals" over test scores. These two, results oriented leadership and moral leadership, in effect, reflected the public face of two institutions: the former representing the government and the latter the educational culture. Though the principle's had good reason to conform to the government's demands - such as sanctions against their schools - in those settings where students were socially deprived, principles chose to express leadership in support of the environment that fostered them: the educational culture and its insistence upon a moral approach to education.

It should not be concluded that the principles sole reason for rejecting the government legitimating their leadership was an unconscious need for acceptance by their faculties. Yet it does underscore the importance of environment upon our leadership and as importantly what we believe about the ultimate goal of that leadership. Further, it suggests that not only are we are a product of the environment that shaped our beliefs but also of the one in which we serve and from which we take cues regarding that service.

For those leading organizational change the implications can be sobering. In this instance, the principles were to counter the culture of their organization and in the process effectively negate decades of permissions that had come to govern human agency. Not all organizational change is so dramatic yet leading people to create a new story about themselves and the organization that defines them can be. To say it requires sensitivity of the leader is not fair to the tremendous strain s/he is placed under. Rather, it is essential for the leader to know themselves and in that knowing be fully aware of their values and what animates them.

Robin Dunbar's "Grooming and Gossip: The Evolution of Language" is an informative read about the dynamics of social interaction. It's helpful for the narrative leader by providing insight into language and its power to form social networks - issues that are key to Narrative Leadership.

Narrative and Implicit Leadership Theory

People are narrative beings. We express this in a number of ways but one that is poignant is how we make sense of activity and thought. The human way, our way, is to do so by the story line of past and immediate experience and the greater story of permissions and identity that culture provides. This makes the derivation of meaning and the experience that grounds it contextual. The necessity then is that if we are to derive meaning from stimuli it must have some comparable in experience.

This makes it essential that the leader have understanding of the stories that give shape to the lives of those s/he purports to lead. It also requires that the narrative undertaking be entered into aware that leadership will mean something different to each member. There is acknowledgement of this possibility in Implicit Leadership Theory where members determine the effectiveness of leadership by comparing the leader’s effort against their own internal model of what an effective leader is. Keller (1999) held that such models of leadership likely arise in the family unit where as a child we observe the first instances of leading and following.

The stories of our life do produce memories but also templates by which we know and understand. Learning them before attempting change, while slowing our effort to “get there,” helps make the transition a more humane affair.
William Salyards Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved.

Keller, T. (1999). Images of the familiar: Individual differences and implicit leadership theories. Leadership Quarterly, 10(4), 590-607.

Paul Cobley gives an excellent survey of narrative and provides a basis for understanding why narrative is critical for leadership. For the person interested in narrative and its integration with sociality this is the place to start.

Storytelling in Organizations

In the debate between organizations as rational or relational, Yiannis Gabriel shows the role of stories in organizational culture. His work is helpful for those who seek to lead while sensitive to the influence of story in and upon our everyday life and living.

Making Decisions

While leading change I have found that having guidelines for the decision process to be helpful. Among them is that the effects of a decision can last much longer than the time it takes to make it. This is especially true when the decision involves people as opposed to things simply because people are connected to other people. So a first good rule is to “slow up” the decision process by the number of relationships the decision is likely to affect. It is key that you not see this as an inability at or hindrance to being decisive but the opportunity to bring more people into your way of thinking about the proposed decision.

I have had moments when, on the spot, I’ve made the decision to terminate the role a person is fulfilling knowing that my action would affect the individual and that their friends and co-workers would question my judgment. However, advance work in listening and discussion, while not removing every obstacle, at least gave others the rationale behind what I was doing. So again, a first good guideline for decision making during change: the more relationships that are involved the greater that deliberation is in order.

Discourse and Identity

Bethan Benwell and Elizabeth Stokoe give an excellent overview and discussion of the formation of human identity in their book, "Discourse and Identity." Beginning with understandings prevalent in the Enlightenment to the social constructivist approach of Post-modern thought, their work is a necessary read for those who seek to lead narratively.