Managerial Leadership and the Ethical Importance of Legacy
International Public Management Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 225-246, 2005
22 Pages Posted: 25 Mar 2012
Date Written: March, 23 2012
Abstract
This article expands the self-understanding and approaches leaders possess in framing their actions. It unites moral, psychological and institutional dimensions in one powerful frame of assessment and judgment. Leaders lead in many ways and styles deploying authority, coercion, persuasion, deliberation and community that need to be integrated into long-term assessments. They deploy frames to evaluate and judge as well as working to create common frames of understanding and purpose among individuals. Leading turns out to be acting with imagination to help the leader and others envision and act upon new possibilities.
The idea of leaving a legacy provides this frame. Understanding leading as a legacy-leaving emphasizes the personal responsibility of leaders and links leading with personal commitments and institutional mission. This approach identifies and connects the entire range of a leader’s impact. The book identifies nine metaphors to map the full range of leader’s influence - monument building, web weaving, incubating, seed planting and soil cultivating, foundation laying, ripples, reef building, lenses and dreams. These were developed from research using interviews, memoirs, biographies and case studies of leaders at all levels of groups and organizations.
Keywords: Leadership, ethics, legacy, frames, metaphors, foundations, webs, seeds, coral reefs,lenses, dreams, frame change, institutional impact
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