Model of effective leadership in public administration UDK: 35.008.2:342 Janez Stare Fakulteta za upravo, Univerza v Ljubljani janez.stare@fu.uni-lj.si ABSTRACT A large number of factors have an impact on leadership effectiveness. One of the most commonly cited is the leadership potential of the leaders themselves. Leaders as individuals are defined in this manner by their inherited qualities and the personality-trait development they have either received or actually achieved themselves. Furthermore leadership (the conduct of leaders) is closely connected to leaders' motivation, values and work ethic, and the power and authority that leaders acquire or build. To determine the extent to which leadership effectiveness is related to personality-trait based leadership potential, the paper presents a proposed model of effective leadership in the public sector, which covers the formation of personal leadership potential and identifying leadership effectiveness. The paper presents a trial application of the model in Slovenia, which offers a realistic representation of leadership potential and leadership effectiveness, which are at a relatively low level due to past neglect of this field in Slovenian central government units. Keywords: leadership, competences, leadership effectiveness, personality-trait based leadership potential 1. Introduction Both the theory and practice of organisational science offer examples of attempts to identify the characteristics of effective leadership through research and analysis of how successful organisations operate. This work has found that the quality (efficiency and effectiveness) of an organisation's functioning depends primarily on leadership1, with leaders and their potential having a major 1 Irrespective of whether an organisation is in the public or private sector. Cf.: Hyde (1992), Fivush Levine (2000), Chaudron (1992), Bennis (1989), Skansi (2000). impact on leadership effectiveness. The results of research and studies by organisational science experts, psychologists, economists, sociologists, engineers and others involved in theoretical and practical work are all agreed on just one point: there is no simple answer to the question of what leadership potential entails and how to measure it. There is a range of approaches and content that are considered to have a significant impact on leadership, and which have proved beneficial when applied by effective organisations. Increasingly rapid change and development demand corresponding changes in central government operations, and also increase the importance of public administration in general. Society can only change if the public administration is actively promoting change. In modern central government units and public administrations2 there is a growing realisation of the importance of leadership for this issue. Furthermore, leaders have been identified as the key factor in terms of impact on the people within an organisation, whose actions then have an impact on the organisation's performance. This places them at the very centre of studies in this field. Scientific approaches are being used -following the best practice of effective organisations - to develop and upgrade this knowledge and create a system that will facilitate the best possible selection and development of leaders, and enable them to operate effectively. The traditional understanding of leadership focuses on the importance of accomplishing tasks that are considered achievable by means of an approach grounded on the principle of autocratic leadership and respect for rules and power. More recent concepts of leadership within central government units take into account a wider range of operation-based contents. Operational excellence and leadership effectiveness are emphasised in this approach. Furthermore, the amount of change that has occurred in central government units and the need for a continual, up-to-date response to environment requirements has only served to enhance the role of leaders. Leadership potential in the wider sense is defined as communicative expression, personality-trait based potential, motivation to lead, and intelligence. In the narrower sense it is defined primarily as personality-trait based potential. There are different definitions of the personality-trait based potential factor (or factors); many of them are inadequate, as they are limited to individual factors within the study of personality and individual behaviour. In the proposed model the expectations relating to the personality-trait based potential indicator are broader and include results from testing character and personality and behavioural 2 Experience (e.g. UK, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, France) has indicated a number of activities (e.g. developing competence systems, defining development systems) implemented by governments, ministries or other such bodies in these countries that have been promoting leadership. patterns as indicators of possessing various potentials. This is intended to take into account "inherent and developed" leadership potential. Another strength of this model is that it is studied in relation to leadership effectiveness and efficiency. The model tests the personality-trait based leadership potential of leaders, assessing the effectiveness of their leadership and identifying the correlation between personality-trait based leadership potential and leadership effectiveness. The initial section of the paper presents some theoretical views on leadership and the development of leadership competence models, followed by a presentation of the model and the methodology applied. The third section presents the application of the model in Slovenia. 2. Theoretical aspects of public administration leadership and competences Leading other people is a field that historically has been subject to a great deal of study and investigation. The diversity of approaches and findings prevents the presentation of a uniform view of leadership. Furthermore, while some studies have been primarily practical or theoretical, some have attempted to create a universal leadership model by taking in account a range of approaches, while others have attempted to use a range of models and approaches to create and explain various leadership styles. Leaders themselves are naturally the key factor in leadership. Their actions or failure to act have a key impact on their attitude to co-workers, attitudes between co-workers and attitudes to work. The shared characteristic of most definitions of a leader is that a leader is someone that directs and leads something or someone by setting an example and giving advice. In organisation theory, the definition of a leader is usually connected to achieving objectives: a leader is a person who leads co-workers by means of example and advice to achieve a set organisational objective. Of course, there is a large number of factors affecting the public administration's performance, but leadership is definitely of fundamental importance. Leaders have the highest competences and responsibilities as well as the power to launch the processes of change. If a leader stagnates, has no vision, or responds too slowly to change, the consequences may be serious. The more change there is, the greater the leadership role (Brejc, 1999). The (legal) definition of central government administration has a huge impact on leadership within central government units. The traditional, "well-worn paths" that arise from legal provisions and define the administration's function generally restrict creativity and the possibility of promoting flexibility in the administration's work. Research carried out in Germany indicates that public administration employees are generally more oriented towards job security and job continuity than competition, risk and mobility (Cornelius, 1993). Furthermore the internal relationships and tasks are based on regulations, with constitutional provisions requiring their implementation. The traditional view of leadership in central government units is that it is an organisational form for executing political decisions. This means that members of the executive in this organisational form do not set the operational objectives themselves, but are required to respect and achieve objectives set for them. It includes the theory that employees on principle avoid work, and their results are best if they are coerced in some way and closely supervised. The first leadership principles and models were designed on the basis of an autocratic leadership style. Noteworthy theoretical contributions include Weber, McGregor, and Fayol. Fayol's contribution explains the management function3 (1916) and defines it as an activity including planning (analysis, planning, forecasting, decision-making), organisation (material and human resources), commanding (commanding, leading operations), coordinating and supervising (control, analysis and measures with appropriate sanctions). It is an important part of leadership studies because he discussed principles that leaders have to consider depending on the appropriateness of the situation, rather than simply rules to be followed. This diverges significantly from Weber (1947, pp. 328340) who links leadership in public administration to rules and the concept of bureaucracy. McGregor's contribution is significant to leadership studies because he set out another theory, "Theory Y", which offers a positive view of people (Dessler, 1986, pp. 52-53). Nevertheless, public administration differs from the private sector in the approaches to people found in managing and leading people. Farnham and Horton (1996, pp. 32-33) state that the differences exist due to a different orientation towards people. In the public sector (including central government units) there is noticeably more (primarily social) responsibility towards employees than in the private sector. In the private sector employees are seen more as a resource, with managing them seen as a secondary operational function. More recent efforts to achieve operational efficiency in the public sector have related to all the major aspects of operations, from the organisation and implementation (technology) of administrative work to setting the operational objectives, strategies, vision and mission. The limited resources available in 3 Management in the sense of governance. the public sector, the impact it has on social development and the increase in customer demands regarding services, has led to calls for management principles to be introduced to the public sector. This approach or movement emphasises the role of employees, particularly leaders, whose conduct influences the management of operations, development and implementing change. Behavioural competences include personal characteristics that contribute to effective work performance (e.g. interpersonal skills, positions, motivation). Work-based competences include specific skills and aptitudes that ensure work output will meet specific standards. The beginnings of competence theory go back to 1967, when Argyle developed a competence concept that was intended to recognise excellence in the performance of individuals. The concept was aimed at the overall field of human characteristics and abilities. There was a special emphasis on the aptitudes of the individual, their habits, skills and knowledge, motivation, interests and disposition. A significant milestone in the application of competences came with the theories argued by McClelland in his work Testing for Competence rather than Intelligence (1973). He found (Spencer L. M., Spencer S. M, 1993, p.4) that tests of knowledge could not be used to predict an individual's work performance, and that tests were often biased against people from minorities, women, and people from a lower social class. He therefore started to develop a research method to define competency variables that could be used to predict work performance, and that would not be biased towards any specific social group. This was intended to demonstrate that an individual's work performance depends on his or her competences and not just on intelligence. Tomaži~ (2003) states that today there are almost as many definitions of competence as there are authors studying them. He also states that the great majority of authors want to use the competence concept to cover everything that either directly or indirectly has an impact on outstanding productivity by the individual. 3. Designing the effective leadership model and methodology 3.1 Starting points for model design The design of the model to test effective leadership follows the pattern of models treating leadership as a process. Within this model, the leadership competence model becomes the linking factor between leadership potential and leadership effectiveness, which is used as the basis for testing leadership effectiveness and determining how leader potential influences the effectiveness of their leadership. The leadership competence model must be designed so that is a factor in leadership, but also a criterion for leadership. In that way it can serve both as a basic criterion for measuring leader effectiveness (performance), and also as a tool for shaping leader development. A number of foreign leadership competence models were studied in order to develop the model4. This review indicated that the models used were generally designed for public administration and public sector, but related to various levels of leadership. The competence models usually comprise competences defined by various content-based factors or groups (e.g. intellectual competences with cognitive capacity and creativity) and verification criteria. It should be made clear that models used in practice by central government units around the world, and various foreign organisations, particularly in the public sector, in the field of leadership can offer a sound basis for acquiring an overview of the competences involved in public administration leadership, but no more than that, because a competence model must be designed for a specific environment, taking into account the specific work culture, values and characteristics. On this basis and by analysing individual models (studies of factors and criteria within the model) one can formulate the content groups that are frequently mentioned in the case of leadership in central government units. These are the groups or competences: • Teamwork; content (criteria) that relate to teamwork are linked to the leader's attitude to cooperation between all employees. This involves permitting and promoting diversity, ownership of ideas and results, and judging when teamwork is effective and when it is not; • Interpersonal relations; the leader builds, works on and maintains good interpersonal relations. This includes being aware of difficult situations that could lead or have led to problems and conflicts. Leaders must be interested in subordinates' expectations in order to achieve this; • Communicating; communicative expression and willingness to engage in two-way communication is the most important leadership criterion. It relates to clear verbal and non-verbal communication, respecting the principles of dialogue and keeping employees informed; 4 Including Senior Executive Leadership Capability (Australia), Public Services Commission of Canada (Canada), Bundesverwaltungsamt, Konzept VBS (Germany), ABD - Algemene Bestuursdienst (Netherlands) Verteidigung, Bevolkerungsschutz und Sport (Switzerland), Senior Civil Service Competence Framework (United Kingdom) and United States Office of Personnel Management, MOSAIC (United States). • Vision and creativity; leaders promote, co-create and implement a vision and strategy for future work that will contribute to achieving the organisation's objectives. To this end, leaders promote and enable employees to operate in accordance with the vision and strategy; • Environment; the environment of an administration (interior and exterior) is an important factor in the operations of an organisation unit. The leader must be familiar with and understand the administration's operational system and links with formal and informal groups that affect work and attitudes to work; • Process creation; knowledge and experience allow leaders to understand various aspects of work, and the creation of work processes. To ensure that leaders optimise the organisation of work, they provide conditions and respect the interests of key partners (employees, customers); • Action; action is one of the most important characteristics of a leader. It relates to the implementation and progress of work and providing and coordinating all actions to achieve the set objectives; • Resource management; leaders plan, provide and take charge of optimal utilisation of resources. This emphasises the importance of the leader's role in managing human resources both in recruitment procedures and employee development. Leaders ensure that employees have an appropriate work burden and adopt measures to assess their contribution to work; • Motivation; leaders help employees to seek challenges in work, and motivate them to achieve standards and provide appropriate rewards, promoting independence and responsibility at work; • Cognition and development; based on their knowledge and understanding of the situation, leaders recognise innovations and their impact on work. To make managing new content easier, leaders study and search for information, keep aware of trends and developments in the fields in which they operate; • Employee development; leaders recognise the need for employees to gain new knowledge and qualifications. This is the basis for ensuring the development of employees. This includes clearly explaining matters to those affected, and openly discussing knowledge and skills they must develop to work effectively and enjoy a successful career; • Awareness; leaders in the central government units must have an awareness of working in the public interest on the basis of a mission and common values; • Values; in every situation leaders must act honestly, responsibly and respectfully; • Example; leaders encourage responsible conduct by setting an example themselves. They do not use their position for their own private interests, and work to bring a sense of pride to the organisation; • Personality; leaders exude energy. They are reliable and have established principles within which they generally operate. In stressful situations they retain their composure and maintain the effectiveness of their work. These 15 groups of competences serve as the basis for creating a leadership competence model for central government units. 3.2 The effective leadership model The model is based on studying two content groups, based on two questionnaires. The first questionnaire determines leadership effectiveness, the second determines personality-trait based leadership potential. The results of the two questionnaires are given separately in the middle section and are then combined in the joint analysis of the leadership effectiveness of the groups of leaders. Personality-trait based leadership potential is determined by studying leaders' personalities. This study took place using personal characteristic tests to assess leadership potential. The Franceskin character test (FTK-test) is used, which is intended to study and develop human potential in the workplace and in general. It represents a network of intersecting basic findings from several major researchers into human behaviour5. It is based on studying character and personal characteristics as the part of the personality with the most stable, long-term validity. It is the very stability of personal characteristics that allow them to serve as a basis for forecasting potential, as well as current and future opportunities (for more detail see Franceskin, 2003). 5 R. Le Senne, C. G. Jung, R. B. Cattell, H. J. Eysenck, J. Makarovic, J. L. Holland, R. Plutchik, C. Myers and I. Briggs, R. McCrae and Paul T. Costa. The definitions of the effectiveness of leaders and their potential in the model are based on two indexes: the leadership effectiveness index and leadership potential index. The baseline for creating the leadership potential index is the FTK-test. The results are classified into seven groups (six types of test and a "quick fit" personality tester), making a total of 112 values. Creating the indicators for the leadership potential index was carried out using individual indicators from four tests used in the FTK-test, based on existing theoretical and experiential findings. These indicators were used to indicate development, ranging from character to social roles. Five factors (basic groups) for personality-trait based leadership potential were created based on similarities in indicator content. Each factor includes between two and four indicators. The indicators within each group are treated equally. Table 1 provides a breakdown of the personality-trait based leadership potential index. The leadership potential index is calculated using factor analysis. For a given group of related questions (in this case, tests), the first step is to check and calculate the measurement characteristics of tests, and how well they represented the area being studied (potential). In effect this measures the internal consistency of the group of tests. Cronbach's alpha is normally used to measure internal consistency. For a value to be considered as indicating a relatively high level of reliability, it should be higher than 0.80 (a>0,8), however, lower values for this test are usually acceptable in social science research. In this case, the calculated value for Cronbach's alpha is: 0.866. The test indicates a relatively high level of reliability, and it was found that the test provided a good representation of the field being measured (personality-trait based leadership potential). In each case the same method was used (mainly for consistency), i.e. the Kaiser criterion, where only factors with a value of over 1 are retained. Five factors were rejected using this criterion. These five factors explained 87% of variance. The results obtained, or the five factors obtained on the basis of the factor analysis correlate with the theoretically designed proposal of five factors (the basic groups) for personality-trait based leadership potential (based on the presented theory of leadership and experience with FTK-tests). Table 1: Breakdown of personality-trait based leadership potential index Factor Indicator Source (used in FTK) Primacy Le Senne INHERENCY Extravita (extraversion) Eysenck Extraversion Myers-Briggs Surgency Big5 Activity Le Senne DUTIFULNESS Judging Myers-Briggs Conscientiousness Big5 Unemotional Le Senne STABILITY Maturity (non-neuroticism) Eysenck Emotional stability Big5 Intuitiveness Myers-Briggs PERCEPTIVENESS Openness to experience Big5 Sociability Eysenck LINKAGE Thinking Myers-Briggs Agreeableness Big5 A factor matrix was then calculated with the five factors labelled as: inherency (factor 1), dutifulness (factor 2), stability (factor 3), perceptiveness (factor 4) and linkage (factor 5). Varimax rotation was used to improve the factor analysis results, as the value increased for most tests (Table 2). Based on the factor weightings defined for individual factors and personal scores a weighted arithmetic mean was calculated for each leader, with the weightings representing the personal scores for each factor. A leadership potential index was then calculated. The index values were ranked to place the leaders in order of their leadership potential. Table 2: Rotated factor matrix (Varimax rotation) for potential testing Factor 1 2 3 4 5 Test >- u C 2 5 ■C C CO CO CD C 3 Q £ J5 CD +-< t/5 in CO CD c CD > cp