The question is being asked that if organizations are moving towards polyarchy then does it make old leadership models redundant? I don’t believe this has to be the case and the leader, while still existent, would simply change the role that they play within the organization. The new role that they would play would be to ensure processes and to facilitate a coaching role towards members.
The ideal organization is where members of that organization are free to come together to tackle a problem, without any sort of bureaucratic processes. In essence, the role of the “leader ensures the process rather than doing the process, which is implied under an oligarchic assumption. So the leader moves away from content to process.” (Obolensky, Complex adaptive leadership, 2010, p. 203) In other words, the leader ensures the rules and boundaries are set up properly and that they are being followed. Think of Obolensky’s ‘Who needs leaders?’ exercise where certain rules are implemented in an ever so complex environment, but yet everything still flowed with such grace and simplicity. (Obolensky, Who needs leaders?, 2008) The simple, yet effective, Four + Four principles described in chapter 7 is what allowed for this smooth transition to take place. (Obolensky, Complex adaptive leadership, 2010) So within a polyarchy scenario, the leader simply needs to ensure process over content and let the followers take care of the rest.
The next role the leader would need to play greater emphasis on would be that of a coach. The truth is that “coaching produces more consistent, replicable results than a lot of other management approaches. Coaching taps people’s creativity. It encourages them to be more flexible and adaptable. That kind of response from employees can have a substantial effect on the bottom line.” (von Hoffman, 1999) When employees are coached properly, they become better leaders themselves, which is essential in a polyarchic organization. If leadership powers are to flow towards the bottom of the organization, then those at the bottom need to step up and take hold of the leadership opportunities. Coaching is a great way to ensure people develop the skills necessary to come up with solutions in complex environments.
The impact that this will have on my future strategy is to look at implementing good process practices and empower those around me to follow the process. The hope is that if the rules and guidelines are in place that people will be able to self-manage. A part of enabling this to occur is part coaching and part encouragement to allow a follower to start that “Level 5 Followership” taught in Chapter 9. (Obolensky, Complex adaptive leadership, 2010) Process development is what I learned in my computer science classes when it comes to how programs handle information. This may come in handy when it comes to process development with people and organizations.
References
Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex adaptive leadership (Second Edition ed.). London, UK: Gower/Ashgate.
Obolensky, N. (2008, April 12). Who needs leaders? Retrieved 2015, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41QKeKQ2O3E
von Hoffman, C. (1999). Coaching: The ten killer myths. Harvard Management Update , 4 (1), 4.
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