Eclectic Leadership Theory or Superman Theory?

Eclectic Leadership Theory or Superman Theory?

Hello! Spurred by Dr. Martha Cleveland-Innes' question this week in our Course Forum at Athabasca University, about how is leading through change feasible, I would like to comment on Cleveland-Innes and Sangrà's article (2010) in the light of some of leadership theories and styles studied so far.

As we know, the current reality of higher education in the 21^st century, as a result of new demographics, a globalized economy that uses up resources, and the increasing use of information technologies demands urgent changes, as Keller (2008), Cleveland-Innes and Sangrà (2010), Vaughan, Cleveland-Innes and Garrison (2013) and Garrison (2016) have pointed out. For these changes to take place, a “leadership in context” is in order (Cleveland-Innes and Sangrà, 2010, p.78).

In fact, such educational harbingers can be described as follows,

“The higher education leader of the 21^st century will exhibit strong character, well-developed personal skills and the ability to create and communicate vision (Garrison and Vaughan, 2008). In addition to these personal traits, this new leader will be willing and able to 1. manage change and innovation 2. listen to and assist stakeholders, maintaining and enhancing relationships between the institution and relevant partners, 3.embrace the reality of network environments 4. ensure transformation to a new model of teaching and learning” (Cleveland-Innes and Sangrà, 2010, p.83).

Thus, the new higher education leaders won't respond to a particular leadership theory or a leadership style, as they will incarnate elements from authentic leadership, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and new-genre or charismatic leadership among others (Avolio et al, 2009).

So, can we summarize this by saying that the leadership for the present century is no more than an eclectic mixture of theories and styles, or an updated version of the “great man theory”? Subscribing to a particular leadership theory or style could limit our potential as leaders as well as that of our followers? In short, are we up to the task, as doctoral students, of assuming the challenge of becoming leaders and agents of change? What if the prospect of such leadership requires extraordinary individuals, as rare as "the leaders of men"?

Update:

After having posted this on the course's forum, as stated above, I got some reactions from my classmates.  They made me reflect on my original ideas, so, as a conclusion, I can state the following quoted from my forum reply:

"We should remain flexible, open to change, but grounded enough in our values.  In fact, my guess is that leaders evolve and may subscribe to different leadership theories during different periods of their life." 

 

References:

Avolio, B., Walumbwa, F., & Webber, T. J. (2009). Leadership: Current Theories, Research, and Future Directions. Annual Review of Psychology 60, (60), 421–449.

Cleveland-Innes, M., & Sangrà, A. (2010). Introduction to distance learning: Understanding teaching and learning in a new era. (M. Cleveland-Innes & D. R. Garrison, Eds.). New York: Routledge. Retrieved from https://cde.lms.athabascau.ca/pluginfile.php/72135/mod_page/content/18/cleveland.pdf