Prelims

Half Title Page

BREAKING THE ZERO-SUM GAME

Transforming Societies through Inclusive Leadership

Building Leadership Bridges

The International Leadership Association (ILA) series, Building Leadership Bridges, brings together leadership coaches and consultants, educators and students, scholars and researchers, and public leaders and executives working around the globe to create unique topical volumes on contemporary leadership issues. This cross-sector, cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary series contributes to more integrated leadership thinking, practices, and solutions that can positively impact our complex local and global environments. The world needs better leadership and ILA's mission of promoting a deeper understanding of leadership knowledge and practice for the greater good aims to make a difference. Learn more at www.ila-net.org.

Forthcoming Titles:

Global and Culturally Diverse Leaders and Leadership: New Dimensions and Challenges for Business, Education and Society, edited by Jean Lau Chin, Joseph E. Trimble, Joseph E. Garcia (2017), ISBN: 978-1787434967

Recent Titles:

Grassroots Leadership and the Arts for Social Change, edited by Susan J. Erenrich and Jon F. Wergin (2017), ISBN: 978-1786356888

Creative Social Change: Leadership for a Healthy World, edited by Kathryn Goldman Schuyler, John Eric Baugher, Karin Jironet (2016), ISBN: 978-1786351463

Leadership 2050: Critical Challenges, Key Contexts, and Emerging Trends, edited by Matthew Sowcik, Anthony C. Andenoro, Mindy McNutt, and Susan Elaine Murphy (2015), ISBN: 978-1785603495

Title Page

BREAKING THE ZERO-SUM GAME

Transforming Societies through Inclusive Leadership

Edited by

Aldo Boitano de Moras

Executive Development, ILA, Santiago, Chile

Raúl Lagomarsino Dutra

ESE Business School, Universidad de Los Andes, Santiago, Chile

H. Eric Schockman

Department of Leadership and Center for Leadership, Woodbury University, Burbank, CA, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2017

Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78743-186-7 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78743-185-0 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78743-237-6 (Epub)

ISSN: 2058-8801 (Series)

List of Contributors

Preface

This book was intended to create a dialogue around the question: What does an inclusive society look like, and more specifically, how do future leaders and followers personify inclusiveness?

We live in a fractured world: from widening income disparities, to religious zealots, to the polarization resulting from elections and campaigning in developed democracies across the planet. The idea that for some to “win,” others must “lose” is prevalent. We too often today glorify victors as “heroes” relegating the opposition as the “other” which we then demonize. Events such as: the Occupy Wall Street or Black Lives Matter movements; Arab Spring; the political tide from left to right in Europe; the throngs of refugees fleeing from war-torn societies; and racial strife in the United States …. all are signs that people are tired of living in a zero-sum world. This book provides a powerful antidote, revolving around new cutting-edge theories and best practices, which can be applied to transform societies into more inclusive, diverse, and democratic entities.

Every chapter in this volume is a journey into a different type of society, one with alternative paradigms and thinking, inspired by our commonalities, rather than forces that divide us. This volume is an attempt to build symbolic and real bridges to inclusion by understanding ourselves and the “other.” Instead of competition, selfishness, and control (which have supported suprastructures of racism, inequality, and xenophobia), this volume is a living testimony that a functioning alternative reality does exist. Each author contributing to this volume insightfully probes the relationship between leaders and followers as positive change agents whom together can solve the “wicked” problems facing us today and bring forth a more inclusive society. Using the lens of inclusiveness, this volume also brings a global perspective that transcends cultures, disciplines, nation states, and other artificial boundaries.

Inclusive leadership may or may not be the silver bullet to get us to a Maslowian state of self-actualization, but it definitely can be viewed and studied as a transformative formula that can drive catalytic positive change. Edwin P. Hollander (2009) posits that inclusive leadership should be seen as an interpersonal process that entails mutual relationships with share goals and a common vision of the future. Hollander’s true genius was to shift away from leader-centric analysis to a persistent focus on followership. From that perspective, he argues we need to build an inclusive culture of legitimacy through the ethical nourishing of “idiosyncrasy credits” as a basis by which followers are able to evaluate the leader’s performance. For Hollander “leadership is doing things with people, not to people.” As Donald Hantula (2009) summarizes Hollander’s work, “inclusive leadership is for every man and every woman. Along a leader’s thorny journey, beauty, strength and other traits depart quickly and knowledge can fade, leaving only the leader’s good deeds, building idiosyncrasy credits among the followers and gaining their support.”

We leave the reader with some profound questions the book raises: How do leaders and followers find new collaborations to supplant or improve upon top-down or bottom-up change? How does the next generation of inclusive leaders bring better tools and new technologies to move beyond hatred and division into forgiveness and reconciliation? In the era of post-globalization, how does inclusiveness work in bringing poor and underprivileged people into the development process? Have global organizations been able to maximize diversity to create a unified and inclusive global culture? Do the effects of governmental policy outputs include all stakeholders of society vis-à-vis race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability status?

These questions are just some lingering thoughts the editors and authors of this volume wish to leave the reader not only to ponder but activate upon.

References

Hollander, E. P. (2009). Inclusive leaders: The essential leader-follower relationship. New York: NY: Routledge.

Hantula, D. A. (2009). Book review: Hollander’s inclusive leadership. Psychological Record, 59, 701–704.

Dedication

Dr. Edwin P. Hollander, a pioneering visionary of inclusive leadership

Acknowledgements from the Editors

An endeavor such as this can only be created with the participation and support of many individuals all rowing in the same direction.

We deeply appreciate the nourishment and hard work from all those who contributed chapters to this volume. The editors have collectively learned much from each author in this journey and we thank you for your openness to dig deeper intellectually and envision with us the end goal of inclusiveness as a dynamic process.

The editors also owe a huge debt of eternal gratitude to Debra DeRuyver, Communications Director of the International Leadership Association (ILA). Debra was with us every step of the way – offering sound advice, unconditional accessibility day or night (hopefully without too much stress on her family life), and overall a consummate professional cheerleader for the editorial team, that coincidentally she managed to assemble. We also thank the staff of ILA for their faith in us and support for our work. Kudos goes out particular to Cynthia Cherry, CEO; Shelly Wilsey, COO; and Bridget Chisholm, Director of Conferences. They and the rest of the ILA staff were the cementing blocks and foundation that enabled us to build an architecture of this book.

The editors would also like to thank our readers who are making the real difference daily in a myriad of ways towards a more holistic and inclusive world. We hope in our own small way that we have prepared you with the pragmatic tools, best practices, and theoretical justifications to continue to strive for justice and diversity in your own finite orbits. Taken together, we can transform societies and break the chains of zero-sum scenarios that lay before us.

Additionally, Eric would like to thank his co-editors, Aldo and Raúl for providing the intellectual comradeship, plus plenty of beers, long Skype sessions, and a pending trip to Patagonia that sustained my enthusiasm for the gestation of this endeavor. Thank you as well to: Dean Douglas Cremer, Marlene Noonan, Steven Henry Crithfield, Michael Brett Mason, Elizabeth “Lisa” Cooper, Dr. Ariane David, Dr. Elizabeth Trebow, my chocolate lab Brixton who was my comfort partner always at my side, and our research assistants: Kevin Tamaki and Cody Thompson. And, Raúl would like to thank everyone at ESE Business School for their continuous support, and especially his wife Mariana, for everything, every day.

About the Editors

Aldo Boitano is the founder/Executive Director of Executive Development. He serves on the boards of ILA and Electra, a renewable energy company. He currently teaches on international business, leadership and building high performance teams at ESE-Universidad Los Andes and at the School of Business Universidad de Chile both at corporate programs and at post-graduate and MBA level. He normally lectures and consults on leadership, teamwork, business models, and technology topics. He is a former Associate Professor on international business at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte Belk School. Aldo is a world-class mountaineer and active philanthropist as well as a seasoned lecturer and consultant to companies and world forums. He has 20 years of experience in senior level leadership positions including CEO of Vertical Chile and CEO of El-Colorado/Farellones Ski resorts.

Raúl Lagomarsino Dutra is Professor and Department Head, Organizational Behavior/Human Resources Management at ESE Business School, Universidad de Los Andes, Chile. He has almost 20 years of experience in executive education in some of the most prestigious business schools in Latin America. He has an MBA and a PhD from IESE Business School and is the co-founder of Emergap, a business consulting firm specialized in cultural transformation and innovation in emerging markets. He has collaborated with more than 100 companies in consulting projects and is a guest speaker at several leadership, strategy, and innovation forums.

H. Eric Schockman is Associate Professor, Chair of the Department of Leadership and Director for the Center for Leadership at Woodbury University. He also teaches in the PhD program in global leadership and change at Pepperdine University and previously served as Associate Dean and Associate Adjunct Professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He is president and founder of the Global Hunger Foundation, dedicated to helping women in the developing world. He was a top consultant to the California State Assembly and the Los Angeles City Council. He served in the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and taught agricultural and sustainable development. Eric holds a PhD in political science and international relations from the University of California.

Foreword

It is a pleasure to introduce this volume of Breaking the Zero-sum Game: Transforming Societies Through Inclusive Leadership. The chapters in this volume reflect contemporary applications of inclusive leadership. They point to ways that inclusiveness can be significant in contributing to leadership research and practice.

Over 60 years ago, I began studying what was known about desirable qualities of leader–follower relations. Those of participation, support, and information flow showed greater overall benefits than traditional top-down forms. After many decades of research, I arrived at inclusive leadership as the best way to meet most criteria for effective leadership. It is opposed to authoritarian rule, as summed up in my phrase “doing things with people, not to people” (2009, 2013–2014). The emphasis is on listening in each role. It is conceptually derived from Mary Parker Follett’s 1930s (Graham, 1996) advocacy of “power with.” It is essential to processes of emergent leadership and intended social change.

Contemplating my personal history, as I approach age 90, I delight in recalling how new concepts challenged old “leader-centric” ones, like having “charisma” that actually depends on follower perceptions. The “situational view” of leadership arrived in the 1950s. The work and views of Hemphill (1949), Gouldner (1950), and Sanford (1950), among others, engaged me. I wanted to study and understand the leader–follower relationships. Among the research techniques I used are experiments, peer nominations, and “critical incidents” obtained in writing from respondents with work experience.

In my 1978 book, Leadership Dynamics, I offered a practical guide drawn from what I’d learned as a leader–follower, including as a Provost. I brought out essentials of leader–follower interdependence that are distinctly “relational,” such as followers accepting a leader’s legitimacy, an essential matter, to my advocacy of inclusive leadership.

Looking back 70 years, at age 19 I served as an Army private in 1946–1947 doing diagnostic testing in a psychiatric unit. I had completed 2 years of courses at Western Reserve, then given up a draft deferment. I returned to finish, and graduated in 1948 with Calvin Hall, and Daniel Levinson as mentors. Back on duty in the Korean War, I served for 3 years as a Naval Aviation Psychologist starting early in 1951, after earning a Master’s degree in 1950 at Columbia in psychological measurement, assisting Robert Thorndike. He and four other professors named here made lasting, and appreciated, impressions on my values, and career.

Conceptually, inclusive leadership drew on the work of George Homans (1961, 1974), whom I enjoyed when on a sabbatical at Harvard, with my wife and son, in 1969–1970. I was congenial with Homans’ view of leadership through the “social exchange theory” that he propounded, stressing the “norm of reciprocity.” Also, I used “systems theory” concepts, from contact with Herbert Simon, when working on his decision-making project at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) leading to his Nobel Economics Prize two decades later. In 1954–1957 I taught there. I went on leave to teach at Istanbul University as a Fulbright Professor in 1957–1958.

While at Carnegie Tech, I also started doing small-group leadership experiments, with support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR). That led to the 20-year leadership research program I directed at SUNY-Buffalo, while serving in academic and professional leadership roles, including provost of social sciences and administration and earlier, as long-time director of the PhD program in social and organizational psychology, with National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) support. Raymond Hunt and I began it in 1962, with two other faculty members, when I arrived. With a core faculty of six, and leadership well-covered, we had 72 doctoral graduates when I retired 27 years later to join the CUNY doctoral faculty. The SUNY-Buffalo program alumni include a former State University President, Dean of Social Work at another public one, consulting firm heads, and a deceased Past-President of the Australian Psychological Society among others who have had productive academic careers.

As a leadership researcher in the early 1950s, studying training “sections” of Naval Aviation Cadets, I primarily used peer nominations. Among the findings using this sociometric technique was how well even early nominations predicted future leader performance. In addition to high validity, and reliability, nominations for leader and follower were highly correlated, and not significantly affected by friendship. In this study I did with Webb (1955), we first introduced “followership” as a term in the research literature. It was a reminder that leaders originate as followers, who showed such qualities as communications skills and dependability. I earned my PhD from Columbia in 1952, having done my courses before, and taking those in social psychology from Otto Klineberg and Goodwin Watson, both of whom were on my dissertation committee, with Thorndike. The main finding was that cadets nominated highest on leadership were not high on authoritarianism (F Scale), even in this military setting. Similar result was found with emergent college student leaders who were “moderates” on the Machiavellianism Scale (Psychological Reports, 1979).

Prior research of mine found nominations made after early contact among cadets, three weeks, highly predictive of later performance ratings as an officer. These and many other findings, with emergent leadership implications, are presented in my 1964 book. My comparable follow-up study at the Newport Officer Candidate School (OCS) found similar validity and reliability (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1968).

My interest continued in gathering and analyzing good and bad leadership from the perspective of the followers’ experiences, and their written accounts provided an abundance of findings about them (2013, 2014a, 2014b).

Eventually, other colleagues, such as notable scholars James Burns and John Gardner, came to state more about followers and their perceptions of leaders. That came about 20 years after what I termed “Idiosyncrasy Credit” (1958). That is a follower-oriented concept of what leaders can and cannot do, as a result of follower perceptions of the leader. It becomes essential in understanding a deeper sense of this symbiotic relationship. Credits can provide a leader with greater latitude for expression, including flagrant deviation.

Credits are also based upon formal legitimacy of holding an office, but can impose restraint on latitude. Gaining credits that could allow one to be a bold leader may bring about change, but not always in followers’ interests. Alternatively, failing to use one’s credits can deplete them and, it becomes a test of a leader’s legitimacy with his or hers’ followers.

Lao Tzu, in 6th Century B.C. China, wrote, “The wise leader settles for good work, then lets others have the floor… and does not take all the credit for what happens.” Trust and loyalty regarding a leader arise from the needs and expectations of followers, and their views of a leader’s actions, attitudes, and motives.

As the field of leadership has developed, it is still dominated by leader centrism. This appeal reveals the continuing attraction of the major actor. But it reveals a failure to recognize the importance of follower perceptions and demands, as interdependent feedback operating between leaders and followers.

While “transformational leadership” also implicates system relations, it is with less follower feedback on the leader. But, Burns does allude to participative leadership, in a gesture toward inclusiveness that brings the maximum number of individuals to the common table. Top-down, non-participative leadership still prevails, perpetuating the dichotomy of those who hold power and those who do not. Transformational and inclusive leadership styles both involve moral and ethical concerns (2015), which allow for future leaders to emerge. Leader attention to democratic practice, and collective interests, is essential, without marginalizing any of the populace. A “servant” commitment, as in Greenleaf’s concept, could bring leaders and followers to a higher plane.

As the field of inclusive leadership evolved, it has gained acceptance as a standard of conduct. For example, in higher educational institutions, student participation in a share of decision processes has occurred as they serve as elected representatives, with faculty and staff, on all committees, with benefits achieved.

Taking account of diversity is another ethical responsibility. Inclusion applies as well in such practices as with “employee stock ownership programs,” board membership, constituents as voters and advocates, indeed, all entitled as “stakeholders.” Autocrats who rule with absolute authority have shown their ability to crush aspirations of social movements like Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street. Eventually, greater political legitimacy can flow from inclusive leadership, as it has evolved from age, gender, immigration status and everywhere different cultures and arenas exist.

In conclusion, seen in a larger perspective, various streams of thought have converged on the concept of leadership as a process rather than a person or state. This process is essentially a shared experience, a voyage through time, with benefits to be gained and hazards to be surmounted by the parties involved. A leader is not a sole voyager, but a key figure whose actions or inactions can determine others’ well-being and the broader good. It is not too much to say that communal social health, as well as achieving a desired destination, is largely influenced by a leader’s decisions and the information and values upon which based, so as to “perform and inform” at both ends. When pressed on the leader’s “accountability,” consider that participative decision-making is not “weaker” for taking in information and views, in contrast to just the leader doing it alone (2013–2015).

New York, New York, October, 2016

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to H. Eric Schockman and Debra DeRuyver who provided the impetus to do this and to Cynthia Cherry for her encouragement and support. I am also grateful to our son, Peter Hollander, for his aid in processing this section, and thankful to be asked and able to contribute to this important book.

Edwin P. Hollander

Distinguished Professor of Psychology Emeritus, College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York