Paradox Of Leadership Research Articles

Navigating the Paradoxes of Real-Time Leadership

Abstract: This article examines the challenges of real-time leadership in today's fast-paced global business environment. Real-time leadership requires making decisions quickly with imperfect information, adapting plans on the fly, and motivating teams amid uncertainty. However, human cognition and organizational structures often inhibit real-time agility. Cognitive biases, limited working memory, and dual-processing systems make objective analysis difficult under pressure. Additionally, siloed functions, bureaucracy, and risk-averse cultures constrain flexibility and dynamism. The article explores these barriers and provides strategies for developing mental, structural, and compassionate capabilities to overcome them. It analyzes examples of effective and ineffective real-time leadership responses to COVID-19. The conclusion emphasizes that while real-time leadership will always pose difficulties, focused development in key areas can enhance adaptability during crises.

Gendered Leadership Paradox: Female Headteachers' Challenges and Resilience in the Tamale Metropolis

This study explored the challenges faced by female headteachers in managing schools in the Tamale Metropolis in the Northern Region of Ghana, grounded in the role congruity theory (2002). The target population comprised all headteachers in the Tamale Metropolis, while the accessible population comprised all female headteachers in the district. A cross-sectional research design and quantitative approach were employed, with a census method used to recruit 67 female headteachers who participated in the study. Data collection involved a closed-ended questionnaire developed by the researchers. The findings revealed that sociocultural barriers, including gender bias, stereotyping, resistance from teachers, and the balancing act of familial and professional responsibilities, significantly hindered female leadership roles in schools. However, female headteachers exhibited resilience by employing coping strategies such as assertiveness, cultivating interpersonal relationships, and embracing diverse leadership styles. Given this, the following recommendations are made, female headteachers should adopt a participative leadership style that fosters inclusivity and collaboration, and educational stakeholders should organize empowerment programs, including seminars, workshops, and mentorship schemes, to bridge the gender equality leadership gap and support aspiring female leaders, ultimately creating a more equitable and inclusive educational environment.

Leadership Paradoxes in Public Administration: A Qualitative Study

Leadership Paradoxes in Public Administration: A Qualitative Study

Политическое лидерство в условиях глобального кризиса: от запроса обществ к парадоксам методологии и уровней осуществления

A new growth of interest in political leadership, dictated by the fusion of social and scientific reactions to the onset of a global crisis, requires both individuals adequate to overcome it, and bold, honest theoretical work to rethink the tools describing the subject field of leadership. Its paradoxes outlined in the article, both using examples of them in methodology and those that reflect the state of the phenomenon at the current stage, indicate a revision of the role of a number of categories that came to us from Western (American) political science. The paradoxes of leadership in combination with the principles of its modern integrative understanding, leading to the acceleration of the process of unification of Russian society and the state, confirm the priority of the sociological interpretation of the nature of political leadership. It makes it possible to achieve greater verifiability of conclusions about its legitimacy and effectiveness, the logic of actions/relationships of transformational leaders.

The Paradox of Leadership: Toxic Education Leadership in the Learning Institutions

Leadership practice in learning institutions is a paradox and it is now of interest to scholars, the secular, and religious authorities. Unfortunately, the objectives of leadership, as a system, in the learning institutions, are the least understood by the leaders themselves. In these learning institutions, exemplary leaders are ideal, but with the magnitude of corrupt leaders in society, it is difficult to nurture exemplary leadership. Presently, the conditions that undermine teachers' effectiveness in the learning institutions must be identified and promptly rectified. These conditions include actions and behaviours of toxic education leaders. These leaders discourage teachers from performing their duties. This study aimed to document the actions and behaviours of toxic education leaders in learning institutions. The study was carried out using ethnographic, social constructivism, and pragmatic approaches between 2013 and 2023 in five learning institutions in Western Australia. It is reported that toxic cultures in learning institutions develop because of actions and behaviours of toxic education leaders. These toxic leaders are content with the status quo because their leadership capabilities are stuck in their juvenile growth stage, making them incapable of transcending the leadership scale. The leaders allow the institutions to breed incompetence and incrimination, almost always with contempt, frustrating the efforts of teachers, leading to teacher shortages. These actions and behaviours of toxic leaders lead to mistrust and discontent in learning institutions. It is concluded that by regularly moderating the actions and behaviours of toxic education leaders, there may be a reduction in incidents of out-of-value behaviours and eliminating toxic and poisonous conducts that lead to unethical actions in learning institutions

Navigating paradoxes of identity and leadership in the age of digital transformation of construction industry: architects’ experiences and perceptions

The ability of architects to adapt to diverse identities and effectively manage the paradoxical challenges posed by digital transformation is critical to their role as innovative leaders in the dynamic digital construction landscape. However, existing research has yet to fully explore the complex experiences of paradoxical leadership and identity adaptation among architects in this context. Addressing this gap, the study aims to explore the types of conflicting identities and paradoxical leadership behaviour experienced by architects in response to the paradoxical challenges inherent to this phenomenon. Employing an interpretive phenomenological approach, the study engaged ten individuals practicing in architectural consultancy practices (ACPs) settings in Malaysia for in-depth, semi-structured interviews and a written account exercise to uncover their experiences. Thematic structural analysis yielded five key themes: “designer and technologist,” “technical-oriented and social-oriented individuals,” “collaborator and independent thinker,” “expert and lifelong learner,” and “reductionist and holistic thinking.” This comprehensive research strategy offers a more in-depth understanding of architects’ experiences and provides novel insights for enhancing leadership and identity development. Additionally, the newly developed paradoxical leadership and identity-based framework can serve as a platform for practitioners to nurture future-ready architects, upskill and reskill the existing workforce, and potentially reduce the industry’s reliance on foreign talent.

Leadership Paradox and Efforts to Handle It in Organizational Change

This research explores the leadership paradoxes that arise when managing organizational change along with leaders' efforts in dealing with these paradoxes. This research uses a library study method, by analyzing various relevant literature sources from books, journal articles and other scientific sources. The results of this research reveal that there are four main challenges identified as paradoxes, namely resistance to change, uncertainty and complexity, risk and leader communication. In overcoming this paradox, this research shows that Kurt Lewin's model provides relevant guidance for leaders in facing the challenges of organizational change. This research provides practical and theoretical contributions to the development of effective leadership in facing the challenges of ongoing change

Leaders' Machiavellian traits and servant leadership behaviors – A gender perspective

PurposeTwo studies are designed to address the research questions including an experimental study and a field study. The experimental study manipulated Servant Leadership (SL vs. non-SL), leaders' Machiavellianism (H-Mach vs L-Mach), and leaders' gender (male vs. female), and measured leadership effectiveness. The second study is a survey study that collected data from employees regarding their interaction with supervisors and their perceptions of supervisors' leadership behaviors.Design/methodology/approachLeadership behaviors can correspond to or deviate from leaders' personality traits. This study aims to study the interplay of two seemingly opposite constructs in leadership – a power-pursuing and manipulation-oriented trait (i.e. Machiavellianism) and an other-oriented leadership style (i.e. servant leadership behaviors) by examining whether the effect of servant leadership behaviors on perceived leadership effectiveness varies across high and low levels of Machiavellian traits. Furthermore, built upon gender role congruency theory, the researchers pay particular attention to the (leader) gender's role in the paradox of Machiavellian traits and servant leadership behaviors.FindingsResults from the two studies show that the relationship between servant leadership behaviors and followers' ratings of leaders' effectiveness varies with leaders' Machiavellian traits. More engagement in servant leadership behaviors serves as a remedy for high-Mach leaders to achieve leadership effectiveness, and this remedy effect tends to be greater for women leaders.Originality/valueTo the authors' best knowledge, this is one of the first attempts that examine the interplay of servant leadership behaviors and Machiavellianism on perceived leader effectiveness. The authors also contribute to the gender leadership literature by providing evidence for the contingencies of leaders' genders when employees evaluate leadership effectiveness with consideration for the dual demands for agency and communion from women leaders.

When narcissists exemplify ethics: Contingent consequences of ethical leadership.

Organizations increasingly encourage, recognize, and reward ethical leadership to preempt the economic and reputational risks associated with ethical failures. At the same time, organizational leadership positions are disproportionately occupied by individuals higher in narcissism. We highlight how the combination of these two phenomena carries important organizational implications by examining how ethical leadership behaviors differentially impact leaders based on their level of narcissism. Building upon self-concordance theory, we introduce a model of contingent consequences of ethical leadership. Our model identifies motivational (i.e., self-efficacy of the leader) and social (i.e., admiration of the leader) mechanisms that explain why ethical leadership positively predicts leadership effectiveness for some leaders, but not for others. We test our model using a field study and two experiments. Findings from these three studies point to a problematic leadership paradox: When leaders higher in narcissism behave more ethically, they incur higher motivational costs and reap fewer social benefits compared to their peers who are lower in narcissism. Results reveal risks to leadership effectiveness for narcissistic leaders who attempt to lead more ethically. We discuss implications for ethical leadership research and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The paradox of paradoxical leadership: A multi-level conceptualization

Organizational systems are drenched in tensions and paradoxes. For a leader, addressing and engaging those tensions in constructive ways may unlock greater benefits for the followers, teams and the organization at large. A leader with a paradox mindset successfully deals with contradictory yet interdependent demands with their paradoxical thinking. While embracing these tensions leverages performance and innovation, experiencing these tensions may also lead to frustration and defensiveness, resulting in negative consequences. Considering the burgeoning importance of paradoxical leader behavior in paradox management and leadership literature, we conduct a systematic review of paradox theory of leadership. Based on the review we propose a multi-level conceptual model stating the dual effect of being a paradoxical leader. To do so, we unveil the individual and contextual factors influencing paradoxical leader behavior on the individual followers, teams and the organization. We present future research avenues and discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Paradoxes of Multi-Level Leadership: Insights from an Integrated Care System

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we draw on systems leadership, complexity and paradox theory to elucidate the tensions that organizational actors experience when practising multi-level leadership. We explore these issues through a study of the perceptions and experiences of stakeholders within an Integrated Care System (ICS) in England. Employing a collaborative inquiry approach, data were collected via 19 narrative interviews with participants in key leadership roles across ICS partners and nine co-creation workshops with a total of 86 participants from different parts of the ICS. Findings highlight that in developing multi-level leadership practice, leaders experience contradictory expectations and outcomes, including paradoxes of identity, place, purpose and change. We conclude by suggesting that leadership in multi-level contexts requires oscillating between competing polarities in a dynamic equilibrium with attention to localized interactions.MAD statementIntegrated Care Systems were enacted across England in July 2022 to enhance the capacity for statutory, voluntary and community organizations to work in partnership to improve health outcomes across diverse populations. Multi-level systems leadership, however, poses significant challenges around navigating the inevitable tensions that arise when working with complexity. Through qualitative research in a vanguard ICS, this paper highlights a range of paradoxes faced by leaders and organizations and proposes implications for policy and practice in enabling dynamic equilibrium and working in contexts of uncertainty and change.

Putting Oneself Ahead of the Group: The Liability of Narcissistic Leadership.

Integrating insights from interdependence theory with the narcissistic admiration and rivalry concept, we propose that a pivotal obstacle for narcissistic leaders is their inability to sustain benevolent perceptions over time. As people strive to interpret social behavior in terms of self- or other-interest, the narcissistic tendency of prioritizing self-interests over the collective may become apparent and eventually taint their reputation as a leader. We examined how interpersonal motive perceptions-based on attributions of self- and other-interest-would clarify the leadership paradox of narcissism. We tracked 472 participants in 119 teams across four time-points. Narcissistic rivalry (but not admiration) corresponded to increasingly negative leader effectiveness ratings. The extent to which individuals were perceived as self-maximizing and lacking concern for other interests was tightly connected to declines in leader effectiveness across time. Altogether, these results offer insight into how perceived interpersonal motives may explain the downfall of narcissistic leadership.

Connecting to Power: Political Connections, Innovation, and Firm Dynamics

How do political connections affect firm dynamics, innovation, and creative destruction? We extend a Schumpeterian growth model with political connections that help firms ease bureaucratic and regulatory burden. The model highlights how political connections influence an economy's business dynamism and innovation, and generates a number of implications guiding our empirical analysis. We construct a new large‐scale data set for the period 1993–2014, on the universe of firms, workers, and politicians, complemented with corporate financial statements, patent data, and election data, so as to define connected firms as those employing local politicians. We identify a leadership paradox: market leaders are much more likely to be politically connected, but much less likely to innovate. Political connections relate to a higher rate of survival, as well as growth in employment and revenues, but not in productivity—a result that we also confirm using the regression discontinuity design. At the aggregate level, gains from political connections do not offset losses stemming from lower reallocation and growth.

Paradoxes and Paradoxical Leadership at Multiple Levels of Analysis.

In this presenter symposium, we introduce the Paradox Theory of Leadership, a leadership model for dealing with complexity and paradox in organizations. Four researchers from four different disciplines and cultures will present their research linking concepts at the individual level (vertical development, cultural intelligence), inter-individual level (paradoxical leadership and political skills), team level (team paradoxes and motivation), and the cross-cultural level (cultural paradoxical dimensions) with leadership paradoxes. In the first paper, Mo Chaara looks at the stages of vertical development in humans and A.I. that would allow dialectic cognition, necessary for paradoxical reasoning. Second, Tiffany Taylor presents her research of political skills in managers and how they relate with paradoxical leadership behaviors. Third, Lluís Rosés looks at the influence of multiple paradoxes in teams on team meetings behaviors and motivation. Fourth, Sabrina Duijnisveld (NL), analyzes cultural intelligence and paradoxical leadership as a way to navigate different cross-cultural dimensions when collaborating internationally. Finally, Wendy Smith, professor and widely cited author on organizational paradoxes will discuss the different presentations and open for interaction with the audience. PARADOXES AND PARADOXICAL LEADERSHIP AT MULTIPLE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS Presenter: Steven Poelmans; U. of Antwerp/ Antwerp Management School

Paradoxical Leadership: An Episodic-Circadian Approach

Paradoxical leadership, the integration of leadership behaviors that are seemingly contradictory, but nevertheless interdependent, is becoming increasingly important in today’s complex and turbulent business environments. Despite evidence for the positive consequences of paradoxical leadership, little research has examined how and when leaders can effectively integrate opposing leadership behaviors. Two of the most fundamental paradoxical challenges that leaders face include the need to integrate control and empowerment, as well as reconciling collective rules with followers’ individual needs. In this article, we advance a circadian theory of paradoxical leadership that outlines how leaders can combine episodic thinking with circadian principles to achieve a dynamic equilibrium between the opposing poles of these two leadership paradoxes. Our temporal framework explains how leaders can effectively structure paradoxical leadership episodes that leverage their own and their followers’ circadian processes within a broader framework of situation-driven leadership. In doing so, we contribute to future research by providing a novel circadian perspective on how paradoxical tensions in organizations can be reconciled within the constraints of situational demands.

A Circadian Theory of Paradoxical Leadership

Paradoxical leadership, the integration of leadership behaviors that are seemingly contradictory, but nevertheless interdependent, is becoming increasingly important in today’s complex and turbulent business environments. Despite evidence for the positive consequences of paradoxical leadership, little research has examined how and when leaders can effectively integrate or reconcile opposing leadership behaviors. Two of the most fundamental paradoxical challenges that leaders face include the need to integrate control and empowerment, as well as reconciling collective rules with followers’ individual needs. In this article, we advance a circadian theory of paradoxical leadership that outlines how leaders can combine episodic thinking with circadian principles to achieve a dynamic equilibrium between the opposing poles of these two leadership paradoxes. Our temporal framework explains how leaders can effectively structure paradoxical leadership episodes that leverage their own and their followers’ circadian processes within a broader framework of situation-driven leadership. In doing so, we contribute to future research by providing a novel circadian perspective on how paradoxical tensions in organizations can be reconciled within the constraints of situational demands.

Unpacking Bangladesh’s ‘women’s leadership paradox’ through the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act of 2010

ABSTRACT This article unpacks the ‘women’s leadership paradox’ through the case of the adoption and implementation of the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) (DVPP) Act 2010 of Bangladesh. It looks at two forms of women’s leadership, one at the civil society/women’s movement level and the other at the female elected representatives at the parliament and executive level, and analyses under what circumstances female leadership can play a role in policy adoption. The case of the DVPP Act provides an interesting example of the ‘leadership paradox’ as women in leadership positions (both in the civil society/women’s movement level and the parliamentary and executive level) successfully strategised to gain access to key decision makers and move forward their agenda during the DVPP Act’s adoption. However, this efficiency did not translate into implementation, showing that female leadership did play a role in policy adoption, but they do not have the same strength in policy implementation.

An Evolutionary Explanation for the Female Leadership Paradox

Social influence is distributed unequally between males and females in many mammalian societies. In human societies, gender inequality is particularly evident in access to leadership positions. Understanding why women historically and cross-culturally have tended to be under-represented as leaders within human groups and organizations represents a paradox because we lack evidence that women leaders consistently perform worse than men. We also know that women exercise overt influence in collective group-decisions within small-scale human societies, and that female leadership is pervasive in particular contexts across non-human mammalian societies. Here, we offer a transdisciplinary perspective on this female leadership paradox. Synthesis of social science and biological literatures suggests that females and males, on average, differ in why and how they compete for access to political leadership in mixed-gender groups. These differences are influenced by sexual selection and are moderated by socioecological variation across development and, particularly in human societies, by culturally transmitted norms and institutions. The interplay of these forces contributes to the emergence of female leaders within and across species. Furthermore, females may regularly exercise influence on group decisions in less conspicuous ways and different domains than males, and these underappreciated forms of leadership require more study. We offer a comprehensive framework for studying inequality between females and males in access to leadership positions, and we discuss the implications of this approach for understanding the female leadership paradox and for redressing gender inequality in leadership in humans.

A paradox rarely comes alone a quantitative approach to investigating knotted leadership paradoxes in SMEs

This article uses a paradox knotting perspective to study key leadership challenges among Danish manufacturing and crafting SMEs. As part of an action-learning development programme, 55 middle managers from 11 companies were asked to rate the topicality of 10 leadership paradoxes. Using exploratory factor analysis, three clusters of knotted paradoxes were identified concerning the management of 1) managing organisational flexibility, 2) balancing engagement and control, and 3) dealing with dispersion. Each identified knot consists of two paradoxes and shows how managers involved in one element of a knotted paradox are also likely to be involved in the tensions of the other.The article contributes to a better understanding of the complexity and interrelatedness of select management paradoxes by demonstrating that paradoxes appear knotted in practice. Furthermore, the empirical and quantitative approach to studying paradoxes and their interrelatedness serves as an important methodological contribution to a field characterised by a high reliance on indirect, qualitative studies.

COVID-19 and Cloud Computing, the Leadership Paradoxes of Decision Making Acceleration and Data Regulation

During Covid-19, decision makers realized the stressing need to transform their businesses in challenging setups characterized by urgency and need of rapid innovation and adaptation. Moreover, and specifically in emerging markets, leaders face challenges that are paradoxical in nature; those challenges affect society and businesses. As a consequence, reaching the level of a data driven and technology enabled high performance organization becomes critical and urgent. In this context, the leadership decision making to quickly adopt cloud paradigm while considering paradoxical factors becomes a flagship to survive businesses during Covid-19. Based on an inductive qualitative research, we try to clarify what do decision makers do to accept cloud computing in light of data sovereignty, and in contexts characterized by paradoxical factors. We try to identify what are these factors and how they relate to each other; and we try to answer the question of how Covid-19 effect the decision-making process. The research is relevant because we don't know much about the relationship among decision making, data and technology (Chaara et al 2019) and how they relate to pandemic challenges. Additionally, the research will help organizations accelerate their digital transformation during Covid-19 in light of the current policies and regulation about data sovereignty.