Papers by Hester Duursema
ERIM Ph.D. Series Research in Management, 2013
Contemporary organizations operate in an increasingly complex environment and organize themselves... more Contemporary organizations operate in an increasingly complex environment and organize themselves more and more horizontally, across organizational boundaries. Yet the leadership literature remains focused on the internal organization, largely neglecting the organizational context. There is a need for a leadership answer that suits the current context; a need for the conceptualization, operationalization and application of strategic leadership. This dissertation develops a multidimensional measure for strategic leadership behavior. Strategic leadership is set apart from supervisory, face-to-face leadership behavior and is conceptualized as dealing with two organizational paradoxes (i.e. External Environment versus Internal Organization and Exploitation versus Exploration), resulting in a model of four dimensions: 1)organizational creativity, 2) business development, 3) client centricity and 4) operational efficiency. The methodology consists of an elaborate and sophisticated statistical analysis, consisting of exploratory, confirmatory and discriminant analyses in order to establish the new 20-item, four-dimensional measure. Moreover the model was tested in terms of effectiveness on subordinate’ job satisfaction and on team performance. The strategic leadership concept is shown to be distinct from the mainstream supervisory leadership concept proven by the empirical statistical data. Moreover, this dissertation provides evidence for the differential manifestation and impact of supervisory and strategic leadership behavior across organizational levels. It equally demonstrates that the strategic leadership model holds promising value when considering the team as a source of leadership, having a positive impact on environment-oriented team effectiveness. The latter finding is especially interesting in the light of the societal trend, where organizations need to tailor their leadership endeavours much more to what happens outside of the organization.
textabstractContemporary organizations operate in an increasingly complex environment and organiz... more textabstractContemporary organizations operate in an increasingly complex environment and organize themselves more and more horizontally, across organizational boundaries. Yet the leadership literature remains focused on the internal organization, largely neglecting the organizational context. There is a need for a leadership answer that suits the current context; a need for the conceptualization, operationalization and application of strategic leadership. This dissertation develops a multidimensional measure for strategic leadership behavior. Strategic leadership is set apart from supervisory, face-to-face leadership behavior and is conceptualized as dealing with two organizational paradoxes (i.e. External Environment versus Internal Organization and Exploitation versus Exploration), resulting in a model of four dimensions: 1)organizational creativity, 2) business development, 3) client centricity and 4) operational efficiency. The methodology consists of an elaborate and sophistic...
Design: B&T Ontwerp en advies www.b-en-t.nl This publication (cover and interior) is printed by h... more Design: B&T Ontwerp en advies www.b-en-t.nl This publication (cover and interior) is printed by haveka.nl on recycled paper, Revive®. The ink used is produced from renewable resources and alcohol free fountain solution. Certifications for the paper and the printing production process: Recycle, EU Flower, FSC, ISO14001. More info: http://www.haveka.nl/greening All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author. vi an inspiration to me by being such an attentive and caring person. Even with the busy life she has, she will always express a token of appreciation or warmth at any occasion. In this regard, I would also like to mention my best friend Flor Avelino, who is one of my paranymphs. Next to utterly grateful for having her as my close friend. Her curiosity, authenticity, warmth and passion are just a few things I love about her. Consider for instance the following: at one point in time, she made me a PhD discovery box, with all kinds of treats inside be it chocolate, bathing oil, Groupon tickets for a Japanese restaurant. These things have kept me going , when the going got rough. Many more friends have supported me, inspiring me by being such great personalities and friends. You know who you are, and I hope you realize how grateful I am for having each one of you in my life. The same holds for family members of myself and Marcel whom I have not mentioned. Thank you very much for giving me space to work on my PhD (even during family gatherings) and supporting me along the way. This PhD endeavor actually started out as part of my job as a consultant at Strategy Works/Strategy Academy. My former colleagues have inspired me to set off on this route and introduced me to the notion of paradoxical thinking in strategic management. I would especially like to mention Wolter Lemstra, who worked closely with Strategy Works/Strategy Academy. I came to know him as a person with utter integrity. Without asking anything in return he stood by me out of pure interest and out of the wish to help his younger colleagues. He is the manifestation of what it means to be humankind ! I would also like to thank my current employer, Rebel. I have started to work for Rebel in June 2010. Although the job switch was somewhat unlucky in terms of the phase of the PhD trajectory I was in, the environment and the people have been most inspiring and refreshing. Working with such a bunch of entrepreneurial and intrinsically motivated Rebels brings joy to every day of work. Next to that, they have supported me and offered a very flexible environment which was essential in order to finish this dissertation. And lastly, many other organizations and individuals have supported me in gathering more data or referring me to the right person to talk to. Thank you all very much! And yet, a reflection on myself. People sometimes ask me, in hindsight would you do it all over again? And I would say: yes, definitely Writing a PhD is such a multifaceted challenge, that it provides a stretch in all kinds of different directions. At many points in time you are confronted with your own personality. In a sense, writing this PhD has allowed me deep insights in my own behavior and thoughts. Not only insights, but writing this PhD has contributed to the very acceptance of myself. It allowed me to become more and more myself. As you may realize writing this PhD has been quite a memorable experience for me. I hope you will enjoy it! vii TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Papers by Hester Duursema