Fostering Innovation Through Humble Leadership and Humble Organizational Culture

Companies understand they need to innovate to stay competitive, but innovation is not as simple as thinking of a great idea and then implementing it. Successful innovation requires supportive actions from leaders and the firm especially when the innovation is complex. In order to foster complex technological innovations, such as robotic process automation (“RPA”), we propose that firms benefit from having (1) humble leadership actions and (2) a humble organizational culture. We share what we learned about our propositions after reviewing the Finance Controllership division within a major multinational technology organization that develops hardware and other computer-related support items.

Critical Leadership Style Actions for Improving Construction Personnel Performance in South Africa

The successful performance of any enterprise is connected to adequate leadership. For construction, leadership is much needed to effectively manage the project team towards achieving the set goals. Hence, certain leadership actions are conducive for boosting the performance of the relevant stakeholders and personnel in any project undertaking of which will, in turn, contribute to timeous project delivery. This paper aims to investigate the critical leadership style actions essential for the enhancement of personnel performance in the South African construction industry. The primary and secondary research data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The survey was conducted in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Respondents were construction professionals selected using heterogeneity and convenience sampling techniques. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25.0 software. Mean values and standard deviation were computed, and the ranks of the outputs were established. Findings from the study revealed that by giving proper instructions and clarifying procedures jobs are completed on time. Additionally, the involvement of team members in decision-making helps build trust and facilitates a good relationship in the work environment. Furthermore, the study revealed that recognizing personnel contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence is vital for optimum performance. Other notable findings include the provision of necessary resources while letting them do the work, and the ability to make quick decisions. The study findings add to literature particularly on certain style actions to be adopted which will aid effective leadership in construction project delivery in South Africa.

We need to work differently in a crisis: peer-professional leadership to redesign physicians’ work

BackgroundUnderstanding physician leadership is critical during pandemics and other health crises when formal organisational leaders may be unable to respond expeditiously. This study examined how physician leaders managed to quickly design a new model for acute-care physicians’ work, adopted across four large hospitals in a public health authority in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThe research employed a qualitative case study methodology, with inductive analysis of interview transcripts and documents. Shortly after a physician work model redesign, we interviewed key informants: the physician leaders and others who participated in or supported the model’s development. Participants were chosen based on their leadership role and through snowballing. All those who were approached agreed to participate.ResultsA process model describes leadership actions during four phases of work model development (priming, early planning, readying for operations and transition). These actions were: (1) recognising the threat, (2) committing to action, (3) forming and organising, (4) building and relying on relationships, (5) developing supporting processes and (6) designing functions and structure. We offer three additional contributions to knowledge about leadership in a time of crisis: (1) leveraging peer-professional leadership to initiate, formalise and organise change processes, (2) designing a new work model on existing and emerging evidence and (3) building and relying on relationships to unify various actors.ConclusionsThe model of peer-professional leadership can deepen understanding of how to lead professionals. Our findings could assist peer-professional and organisational leaders to encourage quick redesign of professionals’ work in response to new phases of the COVID-19 pandemic or other crises.

Women Leaders Transcending the Demands of Covid-19: A Positive Psychology 2.0 Perspective

This article explores selected speeches of three global women leaders during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic from positive psychology perspectives. It focuses on speeches to address and manage the pandemic of global women leaders, such as Angela Merkel (Germany), Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), and Tsai Ing-Wen (Taiwan). This study explores the question what global women leaders' leadership actions and responses are and how they address their nations with regard to the four pillars of PP2.0 and the PURE model during Covid-19. The study uses a post-modernist qualitative research design. It is anchored in the hermeneutical-phenomenological research paradigm, using leadership theories and PP2.0 as a lens to explore and understand their strengths with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors use thematic analysis to analyse the selected speeches made by the three women leaders at the onset of the pandemic in Germany, New Zealand and Taiwan. The study contributes to improve the understanding of global women leadership during Covid-19. Conclusions are drawn. Recommendations will be made accordingly.

Organization Leadership in the Automobile Industry: Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital

Background: Currently, the issue of a company’s innovative and competitive development is relevant in all areas of activity. The automobile industry, having innovative component as one of the development vectors, is faced with the task of achieving high competitiveness through active innovative learnings. This direction is influenced by Knowledge Management (KM) factors, which have a strong impact on the organizational leadership actions of automobile corporations. The automobile industry in Thailand is considered successful due to fast-driven KM and technology transfer activities. Unfortunately, the growth of the Thai auto industry is directly dependent on the performance of the offices of large international leading corporations; therefore, whether the Thai auto industry will be able to maintain the same marketing position through its own knowledge and technological capabilities is a question. This study analyzes the impact of KM-based organizational leadership in the automotive industry in Thailand using a Korean case study. Our research analyzed the knowledge-driven aspects of the automobile industry of Thailand and South Korea to identify the key factors that have a direct impact on competitiveness through the organizational leadership actions in these two countries. Objective: The study aims at investigating KM factors that influence the organizational leadership development of Korean and Thai automotive companies and evaluating their interdependence using the Cronbach alpha test. Methods: This research is based on statistical data and considers the specifics of the studied industry. It has limitations and uses quantitative data to generate results. The main source of data collection is open source. The test results for each component are organized according to the Cronbach alpha test. Results: Two automobile corporations from the Asian region were investigated. The application of organizational leadership in the technological field of automobile companies and knowledge transferring processes was found; an interdependence between the KM and organizational leadership was discovered as a result. Conclusion: Organization leadership could be used as an application for KM process development within the technological area of automobile companies. These findings can be used by managers to develop strategic programs to improve the knowledge transferring process and the organizational leadership in Asian automobile companies.

Neglected influences of wisdom of Sun Zi’s Art of War on corporate leadership

The prevailing perspectives on Sun Zi’s Art of War are predominantly strategic and limit leadership to implemented actions. This study seeks to examine the framework of an understanding of leadership actions and wisdom of Sun Zi’s Art of War, including the values, ethics and morals. The qualitative design was used and semi-structured interviews were used in this study to answer the research questions. The inductive analysis on the participants’ responses shows that their wisdom or deep knowledge and understanding are dependent on moral influences (Dao) such as being patient, doing away with inner greed, honesty and fairness, morality and a strategic mindset. Specifically, the themes of the influences are pointed primarily to the ethics and moral dimensions and secondly to the strategic dimension. This study has implications for extending research of roles of ethics and morality of Sun Zi’s Art of War on leadership effectiveness. Keywords: Sun-Zi’s Art of War, ethics and morality, corporate leadership and inductive analysis.

Ações de lideranças da Enfermagem na organização do atendimento hospitalar a pacientes com COVID-19

Introdução: A prática assistencial do país passa por processo de revisão e análise diante da pandemia Covid-19. Objetivo: Descrever ações desenvolvidas por lideranças da equipe de enfermagem para a organização do atendimento de pacientes com Covid-19 no contexto hospitalar. Metodologia: Estudo descritivo, abordagem qualitativa, tipo relato de experiência realizado no Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz durante os meses de março e abril de 2020. Descrição da Experiência: Estabelecemos inicialmente um comitê multiprofissional de enfrentamento para definir direcionamentos estratificando as ações para atendimento de pacientes em algumas frentes. As principais diretrizes foram relacionadas à estrutura e aos protocolos de cuidado. Outra ação realizada foram os treinamentos para a equipe assistencial. Resultado: Implementação de fluxo para atendimento aos pacientes no Pronto Atendimento; ampliação de leitos para atendimento a pacientes em Unidades de Internação e Intensiva; contratação e treinamentos de profissionais da equipe de enfermagem em tempo reduzido; otimização da equipe de enfermagem com redirecionamento de profissionais conforme a taxa de ocupação dos setores; fortalecimento da atuação multiprofissional. Considerações finais: A experiência obtida nesta vivência nos mostrou que o trabalho em equipe e o estabelecimento de vínculo de confiança entre os profissionais é ponto crucial para o sucesso na implantação de mudanças relevantes e para um cuidado seguro e de qualidade.Descritores: Covid-19; Pandemia; Assistência Hospitalar; Cuidados de Enfermagem. NURSING LEADERSHIP ACTIONS IN THE ORGANIZATION OF HOSPITAL CARE TO PATIENTS WITH COVID-19 Introduction: The country's health care practice goes through a review and analysis process in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Objective: To describe actions taken by the leadership of the nursing team to meet the demand of patients with Covid-19. Methodology: Descriptive study, qualitative approach, experience report carried out at Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz during the months of March and April 2020. Experience Description: We initially established a multidisciplinary committee to define guidelines of actions to take care of the patients. The main guidelines were related to the care structure and protocols. Another action was training the nursing team. Results: Implementation of a new flow for patient care in the Emergency Room; Expansion of beds for patient care in inpatient and Intensive Care Units; Hiring and training nursing team professionals in a reduced time; optimization of the nursing team with redirection of professionals according to the occupancy rate of the units; strengthening of multidisciplinary performance. Final considerations: The experience obtained in this experience showed us that teamwork and the establishment of a bond of trust between professionals is a crucial point for the successful implementation of relevant changes and for a safe and quality care.Descriptors: Coronavirus Infection; Pandemic; Hospital Care; Nursing Care. ACCIONES DE LIDERAZGO EN ENFERMERÍA EN LA ORGANIZACIÓN DE LA ATENCIÓN HOSPITALARIA A PACIENTES CON COVID-19Introducción: La práctica de los profesionales del país pasa por un proceso de revisión y análisis debido al nuevo escenario por la pandemia del Covid-19. Objetivo: Describir las acciones tomadas por los liderazgos del equipo de enfermería para atender a la demanda de los pacientes de Covid-19. Metodología: Estudio descriptivo, con abordaje cualitativa, del tipo relato de experiencia realizado en el Hospital Alemão Oswaldo Cruz durante los meses de marzo y abril de 2020. Descripción de la Experiencia: Establecimos inicialmente un comité multiprofesional de enfrentamiento para definir direccionamientos estratificando las acciones para asistir a pacientes en algunas frentes. Las principales directrices fueron relacionadas a la estructura y a protocolos de cuidado. Otra acción realizada fueron los entrenamientos constantes para el equipo asistencial. Resultado: Implementación de un nuevo flujo para asistir a pacientes en Urgencias; Ampliación de camas para la atención de pacientes en unidades de ingreso e intensiva; Contratación y entrenamientos de profesionales del equipo de enfermería en tiempo reducido; Optimización del equipo de enfermería con redireccionamiento de profesionales conforme a la tasa de ocupación de los sectores; Fortalecimiento de la actuación multiprofesional. Consideraciones finales: La experiencia obtenida en esta vivencia nos ha enseñado que el trabajo en equipo y el establecimiento del vínculo de confianza entre los profesionales es punto crucial para el éxito en la implantación de cambios relevantes y para un cuidado seguro y de calidad para la población asistida.Descriptores: Coronavirus; Pandemia; Atención Hospitalaria; Atencion de Enfermeria.

Examining the Role of Contextual Conditions and Leadership Status of School Principals from Multiple Perspectives

Context and leadership actions are closely related, and international research still contains little knowledge about which contextual conditions lead to which type of leadership action. In this study, school administrators’ leadership was evaluated through multiple perspectives. The experiences of teachers, vice principals, supervisors, and school principals were examined by means of external, internal, and self-evaluations. We collected data from 25 participants using a semi-structured interview method and examined it with open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. As a result of the study, the contextual factors formed by national and local factors as obstacles and facilitators of school principals’ leadership were revealed. We discussed the leadership actions regarding the theoretical, operational, and functional dimensions of school leadership.

Exploring the Process Toward Corporate Sustainability at a Thai SME

Given that corporate leaders seek to ensure the long-term sustainability of their organization, this study explores how a business adopting a Thai Sufficiency Economy philosophy improves its sustainability performance. Adopting the Sufficiency Thinking model as the research framework, this study uses a qualitative research approach with a set of different data collection techniques to explore a sample Small–Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) called Plan Creation. Collected data are identified as themes, according to the Sufficiency Thinking model. Our findings reveal that there is a close fit between the collected data and the Sufficiency Thinking model. Virtuous attributes, individual and shared knowledge and the decision-making framework of Sufficiency Mindset are observed through the sustainable leadership actions, leading to, among other things, social and environmental innovation. Implications for practicing managers and directions for future research are also discussed.

Voluntary leadership and the emergence of institutions for self-governance

Strong local institutions are important for the successful governance of common-pool resources (CPRs), but why do such institutions emerge in the first place and why do they sometimes not emerge at all? We argue that voluntary local leaders play an important role in the initiation of self-governance institutions because such leaders can directly affect local users’ perceived costs and benefits associated with self-rule. Drawing on recent work on leadership in organizational behavior, we propose that voluntary leaders can facilitate a cooperative process of local rule creation by exhibiting unselfish behavior and leading by example. We posit that such forms of leadership are particularly important when resource users are weakly motivated to act collectively, such as when confronted with “creeping” environmental problems. We test these ideas by using observations from a laboratory-in-the-field experiment with 128 users of forest commons in Bolivia and Uganda. We find that participants’ agreement to create new rules was significantly stronger in group rounds where voluntary, unselfish leaders were present. We show that unselfish leadership actions make the biggest difference for rule creation under high levels of uncertainty, such as when the resource is in subtle decline and intragroup communication sparse.