TY - JOUR
T1 - Henceforth, We Will Never Walk Alone
T2 - Empirical Study on the Benefits of Participatory Governance and Leadership
AU - Yeboah-Assiamah, Emmanuel
AU - Gyekye-Jandoh, Maame Adwoa A.
AU - Asamoah, Kwame
AU - Adams, Samuel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - Moving beyond the ‘great man’ view of the organization which had regarded leaders as all-knowing and repository of knowledge and tactics, this study empirically examines how a flexible system of management (networked approach) provides benefits for organizations in terms of decisional breakthroughs and practical problem resolution in society. The study is underpinned by the system approach to leadership and a transdisciplinary framework which, strives for a flexible management system through greater interaction between leaders and their relevant stakeholders in organizational decision processes. Seventeen (17) cases were drawn from diverse organizational settings within public and private sectors of Ghana (Africa) to empirically demonstrate how networks in leadership proffer solutions to “ill-structured” and “moderately structured” challenges that confront organizations. The study observes that wicked problems are inevitable in organizations. We conclude that efforts at building bridges between leaders and their environment are not only good for human relations per se but remain the “lifeblood” for organizational breakthroughs, especially, in situations of critical challenges that involve complex decisions. The study concludes that although leaders may be well endowed in knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), organizational issues in most cases go beyond familiar issues and from the ‘ordinary’ to ones that are subtle, complex, extraordinary, and sophisticated in nature and in most cases requiring social capital to liaise between the organization and other actors for successful negotiations and resolutions, not ‘quick-fix solutions’.
AB - Moving beyond the ‘great man’ view of the organization which had regarded leaders as all-knowing and repository of knowledge and tactics, this study empirically examines how a flexible system of management (networked approach) provides benefits for organizations in terms of decisional breakthroughs and practical problem resolution in society. The study is underpinned by the system approach to leadership and a transdisciplinary framework which, strives for a flexible management system through greater interaction between leaders and their relevant stakeholders in organizational decision processes. Seventeen (17) cases were drawn from diverse organizational settings within public and private sectors of Ghana (Africa) to empirically demonstrate how networks in leadership proffer solutions to “ill-structured” and “moderately structured” challenges that confront organizations. The study observes that wicked problems are inevitable in organizations. We conclude that efforts at building bridges between leaders and their environment are not only good for human relations per se but remain the “lifeblood” for organizational breakthroughs, especially, in situations of critical challenges that involve complex decisions. The study concludes that although leaders may be well endowed in knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), organizational issues in most cases go beyond familiar issues and from the ‘ordinary’ to ones that are subtle, complex, extraordinary, and sophisticated in nature and in most cases requiring social capital to liaise between the organization and other actors for successful negotiations and resolutions, not ‘quick-fix solutions’.
KW - Cases
KW - Flexibility
KW - Leadership
KW - Networks
KW - Transdisciplinary
KW - Wicked problems
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107792056&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11213-021-09572-x
DO - 10.1007/s11213-021-09572-x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85107792056
SN - 1094-429X
VL - 35
SP - 303
EP - 326
JO - Systemic Practice and Action Research
JF - Systemic Practice and Action Research
IS - 3
ER -