The formation and structure of leadership paradigms.

During the last thirty years a multitude of leadership theories have been set forth; however, evidence suggests that the existing paradigms are narrowly focused, overly complex and too esoteric to accommodate the organizational realities of the business environment. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that contribute to the formation of a business executive's personal leadership paradigm, and to explore the definitional and structural characteristics of these intuitive models. The study also identifies areas of managerial concern regarding the practice of leadership. Comprehensive interviews were conducted with twenty senior executives employed with a major international corporation. The respondents were well represented by age, race, gender, job function and educational background. For comparative purposes a select group of leadership scholars was also interviewed. In general, there was little agreement on the concept of leadership; however, the findings indicate that a business executive's personal leadership paradigm is a holistically intuitive mosaic comprised of experientially based, reality driven, easily discernable notions about what constitutes appropriate behavior. Three components emerged as important sources of influence in paradigm formation: mentoring experiences, situational work experiences, and instructional experiences; however, only limited facets of these influence sources impact future behavior. In some cases, the findings were contrary to commonly held assumptions; for example, it appears that negative mentoring has a substantial impact on future behavior. The study identified a number of barriers to executive performance including superiors with dysfunctional managerial styles, politically manipulative peers, and systemic barriers such as multi-leveled organizational structures. The study indicates that existing leadership models as well as traditional academic training have a negligible impact on future behavior. The findings imply that a new leadership paradigm would be embraced if it were perceived as congruent with the user's reality, was clear and understandable, and seemed to have application in the work environment.PhDEducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103570/1/9332048.pdfDescription of 9332048.pdf : Restricted to UM users only