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“Leadership is one of the most significant predictors that determines the success of organizations” – Alex Koohang, Joanna Paliszkiewicz and Jerzy Goluchowski –
Effective leadership. Not a particularly ‘sexy’ term. It suggests notions of being solid and reliable. It doesn’t necessarily invoke the heroic, rock star status that blog posts across many online magazines advocate. And in an increasingly volatile world, mainly stemming from political leadership styles, surely solidity and dependability is okay.
Alex Koohang, Joanna Paliszkiewicz and Jerzy Goluchowski built a research model to examine whether effective leadership is a foundation for increased trust; and whether this increased trust then leads to successful knowledge management and, in turn, if this leads to enhanced organisational performance.
THE RESEARCH
The researchers built a model consisting of six constructs:
- Leading organization
- Leading people
- Leading self
- Trust
- Knowledge management
- Organizational performance
This formed the basis of a questionnaire which was sent managers in various organisations across nine regions in the United States. 217 managers completed the survey.
Underpinning this model was the work of Joanna Paliszkiewicz and colleagues on the characteristics of effective leadership:
| Leading organisational change | Listening | Seeking feedback |
| Leading innovation | Empowering | Managing time |
| Motivating employees | Interpersonal communication | Learning |
| Being grounded in values/principles | Influencing and being flexible | Understanding individual differences/ diversity and inclusion |
| Leading and resolving conflict | Being self-aware | Building/sustaining relationships among people |
A book by D. Scott Sink and Thomas C. Tuttle identifies seven indicators of organisational performance:
| Effectiveness | Quality of work-life |
| Efficiency | Innovation |
| Quality | Profitability |
| Productivity |
And the work of Joanna Paliszkiewicz, this time on the five characteristics of knowledge management:
- Localization
- Use of knowledge
- Knowledge acquisition and development
- Knowledge codification
- Knowledge transfer
THE FINDINGS
“Trust has been viewed as an imperative element for organizational success” – Alex Koohang, Joanna Paliszkiewicz & Jerzy Goluchowski –
- Effective leadership of self, others and the organisation is a foundation for greater levels of trust.
- Increased trust, as a result of effective leadership, contributes to the successful implementation of knowledge management practices.
- Successful knowledge management practices, as a result of increased trust stemming from effective leadership, significantly and positively contributes to better organisational performance.
IMPLICATIONS AND IDEAS
While the findings of this research are based on a fairly small sample, all of whom self-reported on effectiveness, nonetheless this offers managers and leaders some helpful clues in areas to focus on.
- Evaluate where you are using the 15 characteristics of effective leadership. Which areas are you stronger at? Which areas do you need some development on? This could be done at an individual and also a team level, with leadership teams. The results can then be used to help with development and improvement.
- Examine how you measure your organisation’s performance, using Sink and Tuttle’s indicators. Are you focusing on some areas more than others? Are there some elements you don’t look at? How does this get reported and to who?
- Review your current leadership development offering. What evidence drove the design of your programme, if you have one? Does it provide a balance of a focus on the here and now, along with looking at the future? How are you evaluating success both in terms of individual impact, as well as organisational?
REFERENCES
Koohang, A., Paliszkiewicz, J., & Goluchowski, J. (2017). The impact of leadership on trust, knowledge management, and organizational performance: A research model. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 117, 521-537.
Paliszkiewicz, J. (2007). Knowledge management: An integrative view and empirical examination. Cybernetics and Systems, 38, 825-836.
Paliszkiewicz, J., Goluchowski, J., & Koohang, A. (2015). Leadership, trust, and knowledge management in relation to organizational performance: Developing an instrument. Online Journal of Applied Knowledge Management, 3, 19-35.
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