The role of personality in leadership: an application of the five-factor model in the Australian military

This study investigated the relation between the five-factor model (FFM) of personality trait domains and leadership effectiveness. Ninety-nine Australian Army commissioned officers completed the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) and were rated by their superior officer on the Australian Army annual leadership effectiveness evaluation schedule. Participants indicated whether they had been selected to attend a leadership promotion course at the Army Command and Staff College, widely regarded within the Army as indicative of an officer's effectiveness. It was hypothesized that leadership effectiveness would be predicted by the personality trait domains of high Conscientiousness, Openness, Agreeableness, and Extraversion and by low Neuroticism. High Conscientiousness and low Extraversion scores predicted high leadership effectiveness and the likelihood of attending the leadership promotion course. High Openness scores also predicted the likelihood of attending the promotion course. The results support the utility of the FFM in exploring the role of personality in leadership effectiveness among military leaders.

Restructuring educational leadership in changing contexts: a local/global account of restructuring in Australia

The 1990s saw considerable structural reform in school education in many Anglophone nation states, marked by trends towards school-based, site-based, self-managing and self-governing schools. This article illustrates through a case study of educational restructuring in Victoria, Australia, how leadership, as a discursive practice, is redefined in the context of spatial and cultural restructuring. Restructuring produced a spatial redistribution of educational provision and individual opportunities as a result of structural adjustment reforms. These same policy moves towards post-welfarism also produced cultural shifts in attitudes to education with the rise of the new instrumentalism and entrepeneurialism. For school principals at the forefront of self managing schools, this meant shifts in resource distribution through new policy mechanisms of managerial and market accountability, and also new priorities impacting on leadership practices with a move from dialogic to decisional modes of management. The question is how recent policy moves towards learning networks and reinventing systematic support with a focus on locational disadvantage are addressing what were increased educational disparities between schools and students. Does this provide scope for more equity-driven leadership practices?

Entrepreneurship, marketing and leadership in non-profit performing arts organisations

This paper argues that the entrepreneurial leader in non-profit PAOs has received too little attention in literature pertaining to these organisations. This criticism also applies to museums. The paper explores how leaders in non-profit performing arts organisations balance the interests of the various funding sources and market opportunities to service their revenue requirements. It reviews a tension in non-profit performing arts organisations: the relationship between limited funding and the subsequent need to act entrepreneurially and innovatively among the various funding sources. Using longitudinal analysis of annual reports, the paper uncovers interplay essential to entrepreneurship. Hence, strategies and tensions are highlighted that non-profit leaders have used. Comparisons are made with non-profit art museums which previous research has shown have the same funding tensions.

The role of arts education in advancing leadership life skills for young people

This paper contends that the arts provide a foundation for the intensifying effort that leadership, creative aptitude and expertise are making to existing and emerging professions. Participation in arts-based (school and/or community) programs 'have proven to be educational, developmentally rich, and cost-effective ways to provide students the skills they need to be productive participants in today's economy' (Psilos, 2002, p. 2). In particular, this paper explores the relationship between leadership development in young people through their engagement with arts education experiences, specifically the capacity of the arts to develop the generic skills of communication, team work, problem-solving and creative interpretation-skills considered essential for productive participation in today's economy and skills that augment leadership potential.

Deconstructing diversity discourses in the fields of educationnal management and leadership

Discourses of diversity have supplanted those of equal opportunity or social justice in many Western democratic societies. While the notion of diversity is seemingly empowering through its recognition of cultural, religious, racial and gender difference within nation states, the emergence of this discourse during the 1990s has been in the context of neoliberal managerialist discourses that assume social action is fully explicable through theories of maximizing self interest. Thus notions of diversity, while originating in collective demands of social movements of feminism, anti racism and multiculturalism of the 1970s and 1980s, have in recent times privileged learning and leadership as an individual accomplishment and not a collective practice. Thus the dominant discourse of diversity is more in alignment with the deregulatory aspects of the increasingly managerial and market orientation of schooling, decentring earlier discourses of more transformatory notions premised upon reducing inequality and discrimination and developing ‘inclusivity’ in and through schooling. This paper provides a contextual and conceptual framework through which to explore the intersections and divergences of discourses of diversity in schools and their practical application.

A clinical nursing leadership model for enhancing continence care for older adults in a subacute inpatient care setting

This article describes the application and evaluation of a clinical nursing leadership model to enhance continence care in an inpatient rehabilitation setting for older adults. Multiple strategies were employed to optimize the uptake and sustainability of 3 practice initiatives: (1)  establishment of an enhanced role for wardbased nurses to provide clinical support to patients and other staff for the management of incontinence, (2) a new method for nursing assessment and management of bowel elimination, and (3) a framework for improved discharge care of patients with incontinence. Evaluation data indicated a high level of acceptance of the role of the ward-based continence resource nurses, improved assessment and management of bowel elimination, and enhanced discharge care for patients with incontinence. These initiatives were sustainable during a 2-year period after their introduction, despite the gradual withdrawal of the clinical leader.

Culture and leadership in educational administration: a historical study of what was and what might have been

This paper examines the consequences for school leadership of the abandonment of Waller's insights into the school as a social organism and the embracing of the cult of efficiency as the foundation for the analysis of school culture. Tracing the separation of conception from execution, leadership from teaching, administration from education through the cult of professionalism and functionalist sociology, the paper argues that a more appropriate basis for understanding both leadership and the culture of the school can be derived from ethnographies of schooling which show the complex interactions of internal and external cultures in the construction of leadership and the culture of the school.

Social justice and the study and practice of leadership in education : a feminist history

This historical sociology deconstructs the interrelationship between the theory and practice of the troublesome notions of leadership, social justice and feminism. First, it tracks marginalised groups' relationship to the field of educational administration and their claims upon the state. Mainstream approaches have been informed by theories, practices and politics that do not focus on the core educational work of teaching and learning, therefore sidelining social justice issues. Second, it maps feminist and critical theorists' alternative conceptualisations, for example, of democratic leadership, which dissolve artificial binaries between formal and informal leadership. Finally, it considers what this means for re-theorising leadership for social justice.

From the comforts of print to the possibilities of digital media: leading the way in teaching political leadership in a faculty of arts

Since it inception, Deakin University has been committed to the delivery of innovative, high quality course materials to its off campus students. Until recently these packages were predominantly print based, although augmented with audio-visual materials delivered in cassette format. Ironically, with the advent of information and communications technologies (ICT), and some select computer assisted learning and multimedia packages, there was an overall decline in the use of audio and video as important means of enhancing learning. Like many other universities, Deakin has moved to a strong, centralised approach to the provision of its digital and online corporate technology environment. With investment in these technologies has come a renewed interest in the ways in which text and audio-visual materials in digital form can enhance students' learning experiences. Moreover, the ways in which a variety of digital media supported by online developments can create new models and approaches to teaching/learning has figured prominently. This paper presents a case study of how this challenge has been taken up in a unit, Political Leadership, in the Faculty of Arts. The academic teacher's intentions in moving to a completely digital approach are examined along with students' experiences of learning in the subject. Issues are considered from the experience.

An audit of leadership styles in E-commerce

Inevitably the adoption of any new technology brings about change but e-commerce is significantly different in that it completely shifts global business into a fast-paced electronic environment. The old notions of management are totally ineffective and a new style, focused on "leadership”, is required – but what style of leadership? The findings of an audit on leadership styles indicate that organisations that have successfully integrated e-commerce have exhibited a unique approach. Using a change management matrix, which determines the impact of change versus leadership style within an organisation, 182 Australian managers were audited and positioned within this matrix. It was found that within the most successful organisations, leaders had a distinctive style that facilitated the appropriate change and established a conducive e-commerce environment.

Leadership, culture and employee deceit : the case of the National Australia Bank

The National Australia Bank (NAB), one of Australia's largest banks, announced losses in 2004 of AUD$360 million due to unauthorised foreign currency trading activities by four employees who incurred and deceptively concealed the losses. The NAB had in place risk limits and supervision to prevent trading desks ever reaching positions of this magnitude. However, the risk management policies and procedures proved ineffective. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the deceit, via a content analysis of official investigative reports and other published documents, to determine the extent to which the Bank's culture and leadership may have influenced the rogue traders' behaviour. The findings suggest that cultural issues, and the role played by the Bank's leaders, were influential in creating a profit-driven culture that ultimately impacted the Bank's foreign exchange operating activities.

Leadership and learning: facilitating self-directed learning in enterprises

Purpose - To show that a key aspect of learning and development of individual employees is that of self-directedness. This paper will consider the role of the leader in facilitating workforce development in terms of employees' self-directedness for learning. The research was designed to investigate the views that 'learning leaders' in organizations have towards the development of self-directedness in employees; and to identify strategies that are feasible in developing self-directedness in operating organizations.

Design/methodology/approach - Draws on a national research project undertaken in 12 organizations in Australia, representing a range of sizes and a number of industry sectors. Data collection involved interviewing learning and development managers in each organization to gauge the relative feasibility of the implementation of a number of pre-identified strategies designed to develop self-directedness among employees within operating work environments.

Findings - Showed that: learning managers and leaders were generally well disposed towards the development of self-directedness, and some had already moved to do so; and identified a number of possible strategies for implementation of varying degrees of feasibility. The paper will consider these findings in relation to the concept of a 'learning leader'.

Research limitations/implications - Although the research was conducted in a diverse set of 12 enterprises, applicability of the results across an even wider set of enterprises would need to be tested.

Originality/value - The findings of this research provide guidance to learning and development personnel on feasible strategies to use within their own organization to assist with the development of self-directed learning among employees.

The 'V' factor: thinking about values as the epicentre of leadership, learning and life

This paper places the ‘V’ factor at the epicentre of meaningful and productive living, learning and leadership endeavour. It explores the authors’ reflections upon their own professional experiences, research studies and review of the literature as they work towards establishing ‘working with’ leadership practices appropriate for a knowledge era. This paper also reports on Nanschild’s preliminary PhD research findings of “A Values-Based Approach to Leadership Development: Implications for Organisational Change”.

Leadership in e-business

Inevitably, the adoption of any new technology brings about change, but e-business is significantly different in that it completely shifts global business into a fast-paced electronic environment. The old notions of management are totally ineffective and a new style,focused on 'leadership', is required-but what style of leadership? To determine the most appropriate leadership style, senior managers from the top 250 e-commerce companies in Australia were selected and surveyed. Using a change management matrix, each manager was positioned within this framework. This model consists of a four-by-four matrix encompassing the scales of change and the styles of change management. The model covers the broad spectrum of levels of change that an organisation can go through. The authors found that within the most successful organisations, leaders had a distinctive style that facilitated. The appropriate change and established a conducive e-business environment. The data highlights those qualities such as visionary, consultative, ability to listen to others opinions, inclusive, risk taking, approachable, forward thinking, open to change, committed, determined, and the ability to communicate are required in leaders to lead an e-business transition.