Call for Papers: 2015 Fall Global Mindset Development in Leadership and Management Conference

Date: 11th to 13th September 2015

 Location: Los Angeles, CA, United States of America

Deadline for abstracts/proposals: 4th September 2015

The Global Conference on Leadership and Management is an international refereed conference dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practices in leadership and management. The Global Conference on Leadership and Management promotes collaborative excellence between academicians and professionals from Management and Leadership disciplines.

The aim of Global Conference on Leadership and Management is to provide an opportunity for leaders and managers from various fields to bridge the knowledge gap, promote research esteem and the evolution of administrators. The Global Conference on  Leadership and Management invites research papers that encompass conceptual analysis, design implementation and performance evaluation.

Submission of an abstract, topic of interest or proposal will be accepted for the purpose of registration. Time schedule to be determined later after all the papers have been received. 30 minute presentation per paper

Website: http://www.uofriverside.com/conferences/globalmanagementconference/2015-fall-global-management-conference/

Leadership Through Stakeholder Collaboration

Leadership is a necessary component of moving groups from one performance level to another. Leaders provide a focal point for collective action, a voice to the will of the people and decision-making capacity when problems arise. Responsible leaders are able to bring stakeholders together to accomplish some important goal. This isn’t possible without considering the multiple stakeholders in any worthwhile activity.

According to Doh & Quigley (2014) leaders are able to use psychological and knowledge-based pathways to impact micro/individual, team, organizational, and societal outcomes. Such leaders have the personal capacity to see how daily activities can impact larger groups of stakeholders to create higher levels of impact. Responsible leaders can impact organizational processes and outcomes to achieve goals.

Consider the different types of stakeholders interested in an organization and the levels by which these can be categorized. The individual worker has a stake in terms of employment, the manager in terms of impact, suppliers who earn revenue, and the general community and society who are impacted by the economic opportunities. The same organization can have multiple people interested in its functionality due to far reaching implications.

Instead of shunning this interest it is possible for responsible leaders to capitalize on stakeholders to create a better functioning organization both on the human-to-human micro level as well as the community level. Individual workers who live and exist within the organization naturally have an impact on the success of the organization and its impact on the community.

It may not seem like it is possible for one person who can have this much influence but this depends on how the leader creates proper workplace environments and open inclusive interactions that can draw interested parties. Consider for a moment how organizations that are fully engaged in the community have a  positive impression that helps their overall impression and public image.

Leadership requires the ability to see the vantage point of multiple stakeholders and how their perceptions envision and interpret organizations. By drawing in such stakeholders across multiple levels it becomes even more possible to increase the amount of collective effort but also draw new ideas from interested parties.

A large part of leadership is about opening up communication lines and developing new ways to get people involved in solutions. Leadership requires not only the ability to think strategically but also how to draw people into that strategic image. Finding a vision that most stakeholders can accept is necessary for greater collaboration and higher achievement.

Doh, J. & Quigley, N. (2014). Responsible leadership and stakeholder management: influence pathways and organizational outcomes. Academy of Management Perspectives, 28 (3).

Encouraging Stronger Leadership with the ALDS Program

Military training principles are often used in both the military and corporate world to varying degrees of success. They are intense programs designed to test the very nature and central identity of individuals. Lt. Colonel Beurskens discusses the nature and benefit of the 2013 Army Leader Development Strategy (ALDS) that develops critical and creative thinking that solves problems. 

ALDS uses training, experience, and education to create operational, institutional, and developmental spheres of leadership enhancement. Programs offer opportunities to blur the lines between these three spheres to develop something stronger. 

In 2010 the U.S. Army Combined Armed Center tested the success of the program to develop captains that have technical, tactical, knowledge, and skills to lead company size units and work within battalions and brigade staffs. 

They found that there is no substitute for a high quality leader in small group functions. Likewise, curriculum must be updated, relevant, and rigorous for the program to work well. The updating and alignment of technology to small group learning is important.

The programs are enhanced with knowledgeable instructors from diverse backgrounds, opportunities to social network, and time to recover, achieve, and rebalance after new milestones.  The components work together in a messy pathway of development to achieve their goals.

Whether one is working in the military or within the corporate center it is important to ensure that continuous improvement in training methods occur to foster the highest caliber of leaders.  People are cut from many different cloths and their development is often uniquely their own. Ensuring that the proper resources and structure are present fosters higher success rates.

 Beurkens, K. (2014) The Criticality of Captain’s Education. Military Review, 94 (2).

Developing the Next Wave of Leaders

Leadership in the military is an important concept that helps to push the envelope to achieve higher objectives. According to the author Douglas Crissman, leadership includes enhancing decision-making skills, confidence and problem solving to reach new heights. Without developing these skills leaders may have limited ability to handle difficult problems. 

The Center for Army Leadership Annual Survey of Army Leadership (CASAL) assesses the attitudes and perceptions of leadership development. The lowest rated competence for the fifth year in the row is developing others. A total of 59% of Army leaders were regarded as effective at developing their subordinates. A quarter of all units indicated a low or very low priority on leadership development activities. 

Improving consistency and ability of unit level leadership includes:

-Increased awareness about leadership development as a process versus a single event. Training should be seen as the totality of its program versus individual stand alone elements. As each element is mastered it creates a sequence of learning that leads to higher level learning. 

-Enhance current leadership at the battalion and brigade level to ensure that they are focused on developing future leaders. Each higher level position should be developing the people below to create a funnel of leadership development. 

-Expand current senior administration accountability to include leadership development programs. Refocusing on leadership development in each of the unit level positions creates better grooming grounds. 

The goal is to create instructional operated leadership that develops a lifelong synthesis of education, training and experience.  It is helpful to connect all the leadership development activities together to create a flowing and ongoing process of development that allows people to reach their highest state of development.  Experiences can be linked and reinforced to create developmental opportunities that eventually impact behavior. Training occurs primarily on the job and should ensure leadership learning occurs simultaneously with skill development. Leaders should learn more about how to think rather than indoctrination into what to think. Future leaders will need these abilities to overcome new challenges that are yet unseen.

Crissman, D. (2013). Improving the leader development experience in army units. Military Review, 93 (3)

Developing Socio-Cultural Awareness in the Military

Sociocultural awareness is becoming more important in the military. At present there appears to be sociocultural gaps in military leadership development. The researcher Janice Lawrence believes that leaders will be called upon to engage socially across many different cultures and to build trust, create alliances, read intentions, and influence and understand people and their motivations (2011). This type of learning is fundamentally different and higher than previous learning. 

For decades the military has been at the helm of leadership development. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have highlighted some gaps. The development of higher sociocultural awareness helps leaders understand the local population, their needs, and their motivations. To create greater cross-cultural awareness requires skills in empathy, respect, genuine interest in others, flexible behavior, tolerance for ambiguity, open-mindedness, sociability, and initiative (Early & Ang, 2003). 

A failure to be culturally aware means that leaders may not be aware of the deeper issues at play. As all language contains a coding, transference and decoding process of signals it is necessary for leaders to understand the non-verbal cues of the local population to understand their emotions such as anger, happiness, disgust and many other facets to get a deeper picture of the local population. 

Situational awareness is important to military leaders but so is cultural awareness. It cannot be easily documented in a photograph or satellite picture. It requires an understanding of interests, habits, intentions, beliefs, social structure, and political systems (McFate, 2005). It is a subtle skill that should be rewarded in military training. 

There is a natural blending between military and social science. Leadership exists within a medium of culture. Culture is not finite or immobile and doesn’t exist by the same standard rules one might find in other sciences. The author indicates that sociocultural competence should be rewarded in the military as its impact in saving lives may be more profound than other methods.  To understand the situation and the people that have a natural impact on that situation can do much in being more effective strategically, socially, and militarily.

Comment: The subtle tones and non-verbal expressions can give an indication of how a person is receiving, interpreting, and adjusting to new information. When engaged in cross-cultural communications the specific nuances of human expression may be more important in determining intention than the words themselves. Understanding the local population, how they view the situation, and their likely actions, will help in improving upon effectiveness. Social skill at a deep neurological level that creates awareness is difficult to train but can be fostered. 

The same process applies to business leaders that may not have a strong grasp of the culture and the associated cognitive models within their workplace. It is possible to find workplaces where there are 2 or 3 different cultures that interpret information differently. Strategic changes will naturally have a different impact and interpretation to each of the different cultures. Understanding how a new strategic plan will be interpreted will impact its business effectiveness and the success of the organization.

Earley, P. & Ange, S. (2003). Cultural intelligence: individual interactions across cultures. Stanford, CA: Stanford Business Books. 

Laurence, J. (2011). Military leadership and the complexity of combat and culture. Military Psychology, 23

McFate, M. (2005). The military utility of understanding adversary culture.  Joint Forces Quarterly, 38.

Methods of Leadership Selection in Military Colleges

Developing leadership in military colleges has been a major focus of such institutions. Leadership extends beyond military service and into government, business, civics, and many other arenas. Understanding how leadership is developed in military colleges can help other universities learn how to select and develop those for advanced leadership development. The researchers Shepherd & Horner (2010) assessed the metrics used in undergraduate military schools to determine their effectiveness in evaluation.

Leadership in the business world and military service has been around for a long time. Fredrick Taylor introduced leadership in the scientific management field (1916). It wasn’t long after that the Hawthorne studies of the 1920’s and 1930’s discussed the linkages between environment and employee output (Roethlisberger, 1941). Leadership is then a conception of self within a wider environment.

Military colleges seek to develop leadership for later military usage by offering increasing levels of responsibility, chain-of-command socialization, and theoretical work on leadership. Each helps to put into practice experience, learning, and structure to develop a stronger personal conception of leadership among graduates. It is hoped they will put this to strong use in securing the country’s interests.

Leadership is seen as a continuum of development that includes a number of stages within broader aspects of understanding. Leadership is first seen in a dependent state (stages 1–3) where people follow others but recognize leadership appointments. It then moves onto continued development (stages 3–4) where they recognize the interdependence of leadership with others. In the final development, concepts of leadership responsibility (stages 5-6) emerge where leaders develop their followers while developing themselves.

The study found that not all measures are beneficial for finding leaders within a particular environment. They believe that multiple measurements such as peer ranking, cumulative grade point average, and leadership knowledge appear to be valid approaches. This provides an assessment of intelligence, awareness, and peer perception. Heavy reliance on a single measure may not only ignore the other aspects of leadership but may also cut out minority leaders that do not have the same cultural backgrounds.

Shepherd, R. & Horner, D. (2010). Indicators of leadership development in undergraduate military education.  Journal of Leadership Studies, 4 (2).