Creating Organisational Integrity Through Personal Leadership

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Creating Organisational Integrity
ThroughPersonal Leadership
Alison FeldmanSenior Lecturer in Public
RelationsUniversity of Southern
Queenslandfeldman_at_usq.edu.au
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The Given

• Since their inception, Universities have
  undergone significant transformation.

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The recent past

• Efficiency - flatten structures, reduce hierarchy
• Profitability - economic imperatives
• Competitiveness

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The rhetoric

• Rapid growth in student participation.
• Growth not commensurate with funding increases.
• Doing more with less - eg. use large classes,
  reduce contact time, absorb administrative loads,
  address equity issues, maintain research output,
  develop innovative modes of delivery, establish
  stronger links with community and industry, etc.
• Student disconnection - students not connected
  (socially or academically) to their university
  reduced influence of undergraduate experience on
  student population.
• Reduced interaction - between student-instructor,
  and student-student.

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• McConnell Sosin 1984
• Gleason 1986
• Gray, Buerkel-Rothfuss Yerby 1986
• Pearson 1986 1990
• Nightingale, Andresen, Magin Boud 1990
• McInnis, James McNaught 1995
• McInnis 2000

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Todays emphasis

• Diversity
• Transnationalism
• Cross-disciplinary offerings
• Flexibility
• Innovation

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The rhetoric more of the same

• Still have high growth - mainly in international
  student participation.
• Still not funded appropriately.
• Still doing more with less.
• Still have disconnected students.
• Still have reduced interaction.
• New niche areas - engagement, communities of
  learners,

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So, where do we go from here?

• Time for a fundamental shift - to go deep
• Move away from management orientation - find a
  different focus from looking at what we do
• Move towards a leadership orientation - keen
  awareness of what we are holding in trust,
  integrity, ethics, moral organisational
  character, core values that drive our University
  culture

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My hypothesis

• Each individual in the university is a source
  through which significant organisational change
  will occur.
• This requires that each individual respond to the
  call to leadership
• A quantum shift in leadership model/approach is
  required

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Where to start?

• Servant-Leadership approach
• Term coined by Robert K. Greenleaf
• Began with self-published essay The Servant as
  Leader in 1970
• Significant global movement
• Connection with community of scholars - Covey,
  Block, Senge, DePree, Wheatley, Blanchard, Autry,
  
• Is a model in many of the top ten great places
  to work in USA, UK, Australia

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Describing the approach

• The servant-leader is servant first.
• Leadership is a conscious choice which is a
  natural progression from serving.
• Leadership is the opportunity for serving more
  broadly
• The objective enhance the growth of
  individuals.
• Not about achieving personal gain, personal
  power, etc.

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The Best Test

• Do those who are served grow as persons. Do
  they, while being served, become wiser, freer,
  more autonomous, more likely to become servants

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Premises of Servant-Leadership

• Personal change and organisational change are
  inherently linked.
• Service to individuals represents one of the most
  liberating vehicles.
• Transformation does not rest with, nor is the
  responsibility of, one individual, but rather is
  a collective and mutual responsibility.
• Serving establishes the platform from which the
  caring (genuine caring for others) and quality of
  institutions may be developed and nurtured.

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Difference in the approach?

• Transformational approach to life and work
• Reminds us that we are all stewards of the
  organisations resources
• Is still results-oriented - but in line with
  organisations values and integrity
• Everyone is a trustee of the organisation - past,
  present and future

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Eg. Jim Blanchard, CEO Synovus

• You have to wake up in the morning wanting to
  create a place where people love to work, and you
  have to care about that as much as you care about
  all the other things a leader must focus on.

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My research

• Explore if there are ways to bring individual
  servant approaches together to influence
  organisational cultural change.
• Ethnographic -
• Examine my University environment
• Case Study Approach -
• Use the University Student Evaluations of
  Teaching, and the Awards for Excellence in
  Teaching, to identify lecturers who demonstrate
  service through their teaching/learning
  approaches.

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Some initial trends

• Much less concern with status and ego
• Deep sense of the power of personal influence vs.
  building feifdoms
• Willingly work cooperatively on projects for the
  common good of the university
• Clear commitment to growth of students.
• Influential in developing community
• Collectively find ways to influence senior
  leadership of the university to adopt more
  service-first orientation

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How it has changed my thinking

• Who I am precedes what I do -
• People are impacted by who I am
• 2. Personal leadership precedes corporate
  leadership -
• I cant possibly be effective in my organisation
  if I am not leading my own life well.
• 3. Reshaping my personal mental infrastructures
  impacts the rewiring of the corporate brain.

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Plant your own garden, decorate your own soul,
instead of waiting for someone to bring you
flowers. Veronica A Shoffstall