ISSUE 13 FIFTYFOUR DEGREES Lancaster University Management School | the place to be 10Digital touch 14The toxicity of masculine leadership 18 Are artists' works wanted: Dead or Alive? BeYourself Learning to listen toyour inner voice
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 3 Better off dead? Professor DakshinaDe Silva explains howan artist's death affects their artworks’ value 6 In this issue... 42 Hybrid and remote work in the North of England Hybrid working patterns have become more prevalent during the Covid-19 pandemic, but what will happen to them in the long-term? The Work Foundation's Rebecca Florisson reveals their new research. 4 Keeping it in the family Dr Bingbing Ge looks at the importance of transferring knowledge from one generation of leaders to another in family businesses. 18 Touching encounters in the digital realm Drs Mohammed Cheded and Alex Skandalis examine how we have found new ways to interact in the digital realm. 10 Forecasting for a less wasteful future With every product that goes to market – from fruit & vegetables to aeroplane parts – therewill bewaste, but Professor John Boylan shows how newmethods can improve forecasting. 14 Can the toxicity of masculine leadership be disrupted? Masculine leadership can have negative effects for those exposed to it. Professor David Knights looks at how it can be stopped. Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Dr Wendy Beekes' research into Japanese firms shows issues with transparency affect the bad news disclosures more than the good. 34 Authentic leadership – Panacea or paradox? Is it possible for a leader tobe truly authentic ineverything theydo? DrMarian Iszatt-Whitediscusses problemswithbeing tooauthentic. 26 Saving theworld – environmentally and financially As the world shifts from fossil fuels, Professor Marwan Izzeldin investigates risks to the economy in a greener future. 30 Foreword Professor Angus Laing, Dean of LUMS, prepares for a newacademic year bringing fresh challenges and opportunities. 22 38 Translating inner chatter to a life script Sanjay Rishi discusses how too often we can be carried away by the tide, following the currents and not charting our own path in business or leadership. Senior Leader Apprenticeship Fully-funded* professional development for current and aspiring senior leaders, with optional pathways to an Executive MBA or Masters degree. The apprenticeship leads to a Postgraduate Diploma in Leadership Practice and tuition fees are funded through the Apprenticeship Levy. Find out more: Lancaster.ac.uk/lums/sla *via Apprenticeship Levy “The Senior Leader Apprenticeship allows aspiring and existing managers and leaders to realise their full potential. Organisations tell us how leaders who complete an apprenticeship use their learning to bring about organisational transformation, and provide bene昀ts in the immediate and long term.” Yvonne Hoggarth, Senior Leader Apprenticeship Scheme Director Lancaster University Management School o昀ers a wide range of Executive Education opportunities including Coaching and Mentoring Organisation Development Medical Leadership Bespoke programme development
Another academic year beckons, and once again I am proud to present you with a selection of the high-quality research being produced within LUMS from researchers whose expertise ensures that our students continue to benefit from some of the sharpest minds across management education. We recognise our responsibility to help shape and produce the leaders of tomorrow; leaders the business world needs to have a positive impact on society. Questions about how to be an effective leader, how to get the best out of your team, how to ensure the best results, have been around for as long as leadership itself. In this issue, two of our academics, and one member of our respected and impressive Entrepreneurs in Residence network, present their insights on various aspects of the subject. David Knights – who was recently recognised for his expertise when he was elected as a Fellow of the British Academy – examines how we might move away from the toxicity of masculine leadership. Much like Prozac leadership, highlighted by David Collinson in a recent edition, this is a problem that has been brought to the forefront during the Covid-19 pandemic, though its roots are far older. Authentic leadership may sound like a much better option that neither of those two categories, but it is not so simple. Marian Iszatt-White’s research into the sphere demonstrates that being authentic is not always possible, nor advisable, whatever the hopes of those who pursue such a course. Perhaps the answer lies more in following our inner voice rather than the crowd. Our Entrepreneur in Residence, Sanjay Rishi, certainly believes there is much to gained from listening to our Inner Story, and letting that shape the way we lead and set an example for others. Beyond these examinations of methods and influences, we see the effects of leadership practices in pieces from Bingbing Ge, John Boylan and Wendy Beekes. Bingbing’s focus on the transfer of knowledge from one generation of leaders to another in family businesses shows how important proper management of the succession process can be to future success. John’s expertise on supply chains and how better decisions can be made to avoid shortfalls or an over-supply is particularly pertinent given recent news stories as a result of the pingdemic and Brexit. Wendy, meanwhile, turns to Japan and how corporate governance can influence transparency in publicly-listed companies – vital if investors are to make informed decisions on where there money goes. Beyond these articles, you will find other fascinating pieces on the problem of stranded assets as the world’s economy switches from fossil fuels to a more sustainable future; the effect of an artist’s death on the price of their works; the future of touch in an online world shaped by the pandemic; and what hybrid working may look like as lockdowns lift and companies look to adapt to the workpattern changes brought about by Covid. I know there will be further interesting research to come over the new academic year, which I look forward to presenting in future issues. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the fruits of our recent labours. Professor Angus Laing is Dean of Lancaster University Management School and Chair of the Academic Advisory Board at Nurture Higher Education Group. a.w.laing@lancaster.ac.uk Foreword Welcome to another packed and insightful edition of Fifty Four Degrees. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 5 4 | SUBSCRIBE
6 | FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 7 TRANSLATING INNERCHATTER TOALIFESCRIPT Too oftenwe can be carried away by the tide, following the currents and not charting our own path in business or leadership. Lancaster UniversityManagement School Honorary Teaching Fellowand Entrepreneur in Residence SanjayRishi explores the importance of listening to your inner voice to sail your own course.
Our ever-present imagery, thoughts and words – the world in which we exist – are things we rarely, if ever, tap into. We experience reality in an almost ‘stream of consciousness’ mode. If only we were to pause more often and listen to the chatter in our head. Much more than our education and formal learning, it is in this that the roots of our behaviour lie. Unbeknownst to us, an invisible story is directing ourmoves, wherewe define the plot; play director and actor; populate our lifewith a cast of characters, all thewhile believing our carefullymade plans are driving us, ormoaning about how random chance has affected us. So why do we end up ignoring and influencing our Inner Story? We do this for a variety of reasons. Somewhere down the line, we have forgotten to pause. Despite the rich practices which are part of differing spiritual and religious leanings, most of us are not living life in the moment but instead transacting life in the moment. There seems to be an almost pathological dread in pausing, as if a moment lost will result in retribution, or less likes & followers on social media. CEOs and business executives take pride in their speed of response, but not its thoughtfulness. Naturally, if the seniors are emphasising speed, so will everyone else, regardless of the consequences. During the pandemic, despite people working from home, there are umpteen examples of a workforce exhausted by the need to act rather than think. Meetings drag on, people are pulled into ‘urgent’ calls under the guise of brainstorming or problem-solving, and woe betide the poor soul who asks for an agenda, a time out – after all, this is a crisis! Another reason for this is muscle memory, the compulsion to obey rules drilled into us from birth. The need to conformmakes us hesitant in taking charge and going against the prescribed formula for success. Questions like “What will others think?”; “What if I fail?”; or “What if this gets me into trouble?” lurk like saboteurs in the shadows of our mind, crippling our ability to enjoy discovering and being ourselves. What is worse, we get into the habit of looking outwards for affirmation instead of defining our own measure of success. At the receiving end of this behaviour are those same ‘senior’ people, i.e. managers, owners or parents, who are aghast when decisions are kicked upwards by staff or children (themselves loathe to break the rules), and then there is talk of a lack of initiative and responsibility. But perhaps the biggest reason is that we just don’t know how to tap into ourselves. All our formal and informal education is about learning skills to help us become ‘productive’ and ‘successful’. There is insufficient emphasis on self-awareness, getting in touch with one’s feelings; conducting a dialogue where difficult questions need to be addressed or extracted from oneself; or even how one asks for help on framing a life problemwhere, say, a relationship could be at risk or there could be a proverbial leap into the unknown – where all one can do is trust oneself. No wonder we hear of so many mental health and wellness issues. SOWHATCANWEDO? There is a humongous focus on designing everything, but very little on architecting oneself. How does one start scripting one’s own life? This is a lifetime’s quest, and one has to apply oneself every day in some form, so these are some ideas to consider. Follow your joy – What is it that gives you joy, makes you confident, instils a desire to knowmore, experiment, persist. If you enjoy what you do, it renews energy and, interestingly, excellence is a vital by-product – because we enjoy it, we endeavour to do it well. This allows us to identify roles where we will excel. Time for oneself – In my Executive Coaching, whenever I ask ‘where is the time you have scheduled for yourself?’, I see raised eyebrows, hear sarcastic comments on the value of their time, 8 | or vague references to holidays. Backto-back meetings are a badge of honour. And yet it is these very people who share that they struggle with authentic relationships, feel empty and don’t know their next career move. They are trapped in golden handcuffs with a great lifestyle for the family, but burdened with mortgages and loans, and often physically stressed. It is only when we step into quiet spaces, and allow our minds to roam, that the shy yet insistent voice from inside is heard. It is not always a eureka moment, but the ability to make choices which are authentic and feel right is developed slowly. Whatever you aspire to, ‘see’ the picture(s) in your mind – Sketch, write or dictate a voice note. These are the building blocks of your life script. In the movie Any Given Sunday, the ageing and injured football star played by Dennis Quaid says, ‘…if you can see it, you can do it’. Invest in visualising your path and choices. If you stay with this, you will perceive why you make your choices. Is giving back important or is it getting ahead? Is getting the upper-hand in a negotiation the key, or a genuine win-win ? Once you see this, you understand the consequences, and whatever you do, is done with awareness. Beware of implied control, especially from ‘well-wishers’ – Tune in and listen to what the other person is implying, not just what they are saying. “Oh! That’s a great job, but your mother would like to have you around the house; as she gets older, she misses you even more”, is just one example where we need to decode the intent of those who care for us, and what we believe is good for us. If you are a manager or an owner, watch out for this classic “I will be away, and I trust you, of course, but copy me on the emails, just in case”; and there goes the training in Effective Delegation. As our daughter once told us “You are intimidating as parents, because you are take-charge problem-solvers. You are not giving us time to figure things out.“ Examine core relationships – is there reciprocity? Whether it is fun, intellectual stimulation, or a place of emotional safety, one-way traffic usually becomes a millstone around the neck. Entrepreneurs have to be especially watchful of this, as they kickstart their work through relationships, not process. If they are not proactive in ensuring reciprocity from the outset, no amount of boundary setting later will help in changing the contractual terms and expectations with clients or staff. As you move forward, as is nature’s way, tremendous and unknown forces will come to support you, often surprising you. Yes, many forces – envy, for one – will oppose you as you take charge and move to an inner rhythm, while others are unable or unwilling to. Once begun, it’s like becoming a shark with swimming, you cannot stop being self-aware, else you sink. Happy swimming, scripting, and safe landings. Sanjay Rishi is the founder of @intersections, and an Honorary Teaching Fellow & Entrepreneur in Residence in Lancaster University Management School. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 9 How does one start scripting one’s own life? This is a lifetime’s quest, and one has to apply oneself every day in some form, so these are some ideas to consider. ‘‘ ’’
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 11 10 | For thepast 18months, Covid-19has altered theways inwhichpeople interact. Lockdowns andnewattitudes towardsmeeting in-personhave seena shift away from traditional formsof encounters. DrMohammedCheded and DrAlexandrosSkandalis examinehownewmodes of touchandcontact haveevolved in thedigital realm, followinganexample set by thequeer community long before thepandemic arrived. EXPLORING TOUCH in a digital realm
The evolution of attitudes towards certain LGBT identities has seen a change in these practices, but they have never entirely disappeared. As a result, queer people have had to identify creativeways to find and bond with like-minded others in a safe environment. Queer creativity has been crucial to challenging and reworking sexuality and leveraging technology to create a safe spacewithinwhich to do so. Queer communities have been pioneers in using digital technologies to connect with each other and create alternative ‘virtual intimacies’. The launch of geolocation dating apps, such as Grindr and Scruff, for gay men transformed the world’s dating scene into a gamified erotic terrain where bodies and identities are constructed through the interplay of the virtual and physical. In recent years, this has led to a reconfiguration of embodiment in such digital spaces, as geolocation dating apps – including those outside the context of queer digital spaces, such as Tinder – actively foreground embodiment and physical encounters, and adopt a hybrid approach which also focuses on physical encounters in material spaces. These experiences have become even more central in light of Covid, especially with alternative modes of touch and contact, where normal rules of time and space are altered. The pandemic has pushed us to think of touch beyond the common framings of physical closeness. Virtual spaces represent an attempt to fill the void of nothingness resulting from a touchless world. Virtual spaces can destabilise the body, and we must take into account the role of nonhuman entities, such as screens, colours, bandwidth, in a digital postCovid landscape. The intra-activity between humans and screens provides both challenges and alternatives to the power of touch to symbolise human interactions. Aesthetics play an important role in reframing contact and interaction from various qualities of touch – such as texture, shape, temperature and vibration – to those of sight (colour, shape, movement) and hearing (pitch, rhythm, harmony). It is no longer a multi-sensorial experience, rather one based purely on auditory and visual stimuli. Global Pride 2020 was held online due to Covid-19. But the lack of a physical geography opened the doors to queer people in countries where same-sex sexual activity is still criminalised. It was no longer possible to ignore racism and xenophobia in certain gay communities, and there was a push towards a return to Pride’s roots, away from the increasing corporatisation of the event. The art of drag was prominent, with under-represented artists such as drag kings, ‘bio-queens’ and trans drag performers granted more visibility. This is testament to the rich, creative and resilient textures of digital queer lives, where the creation of a virtual affective experience is done in imaginative ways. The queering and digitisation of interaction, touch and contact requires creativity, resilience and courage. A NEW FRONTIER Digital spaces have provided us with a much-needed sense of connection with other people. They also contributed to a sense of frustration at the end of online social interactions, when closing the laptop meant a return to a space that felt terribly empty. We started to put more effort and love into the production of digital content, and this created a sense of anticipation that, albeit different from physical encounters, made for a more interesting use of these digital spaces. We were attentive to how our emotions were vivid during these trying times and how that affected our interactions. Digital spaces provide solace, andwhile the return to physical interaction has beenwidelywelcomed, they show that we can enjoy touching experiences when we aremanymiles fromeach other. Dr Mohammed Cheded is an International Senior Teaching Associate in Management in the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology. Dr Alexandros Skandalis is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing. This article is based on Touch and contact during COVID-19: Insights fromqueer digital spaces, by Dr Mohammed Cheded and Dr Alexandros Skandalis, published in Gender, Work & Organization. m.cheded@lancaster.ac.uk; a.skandalis@lancaster.ac.uk FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 13 Until the spring of 2020, the majority of us will have taken physical contact for granted. The ability to shake hands at the start of a meeting, to hug loved ones, to attend concerts and sporting events as part of a crowd, to go on a date and engage in romantic encounters where touch was an essential prerequisite. Then came Covid-19. The pandemic saw a transformation of socialisation, as entertainment and community were digitised in a way never seen before. The pandemic has presented us all with a scenario where touch is heavily policed, prohibited or rejected. Alternative modes of touch and contact – beyond the physical – became commonplace. And leading the way, setting the example, was a community that has long occupied positions on the boundaries of social space, finding new ways to engage. For the queer community – in the LGBTQI+ sense of the word – digital platforms and technologies have long been widely considered as safe and protective environments. They have used these platforms to engage and socialise, to romance and entertain. When Covid arrived, digital pride events and queer parties took place as ‘safe’ alternatives to offline equivalents. These events enjoyed significant reach and participation, and continue a relationship between queerness and digital technologies that stretches back to long before the pandemic. The rest of society found itself following the queer community's long-standing example of connecting away fromwhat we had considered themainstream. These digital entertainment and engagement spaces have led us to question how the world is shaped and sensed during and beyond Covid. Our interactions with surfaces, objects and each other have been wholly transformed during the pandemic. In this bizarre real-life scenario, many of us started to view the outside world – now perceived as anything beyond the walls of our own homes – as impure; we became afraid or sceptical of contact and touch with anything outside. When there is a global pandemic, a virus that has claimed millions of lives and led to many more being hospitalised, everything and everyone holds suspicion that it can harbour an unseen infection. We are all the potential cause of harm or danger. ADAPTING TO A VIRTUALWORLD In order to adapt to this new social reality, we turned to our laptops and accessed a virtual ‘outside’ world. We have all become familiar with Zoom and Teams, both for work or for staying in touch with family and friends; we have indulged in binge watching, sparking huge subscription numbers for streaming services as we discovered new series or returned to comfort watch the familiar; and we have attended real-time digital events, from concerts to comedy gigs, quizzes to reunions, providing a sense of time and space shared together. In the live music industry, there was the rise of virtual, ‘risk-free’ concerts within imaginary settings such as digital games or virtual worlds, with artists transformed into avatars who invited audiences to engage with them in virtual reality. But can these new initiatives be seen as an authentic way of experiencing entertainment, and do they need certain affective and sensory qualities in order to be experienced? In the digital world, are there different ways to experience touch? It could be argued that the emotional atmosphere of online events is diminished due to the lack of bodily touch and contact. A significant part of socialisation lies in such contact and can be lost in translation as entertainment and community formation are digitised. FOLLOWING THE QUEER EXAMPLE An event description for a queer digital fetish party revealed the alternative possibilities of touch to us. Organised as part of a digital series for Pride 2020, which largely shifted online due to Covid, it said ‘the digital space is not an unknown territory for many LGBTQI+ people, as these were the spaces where many of us took the first steps in exploring our identities.’ For queer people, touch and contact have been historically policed, whether through legal restrictions or societal norms. A wide range of practices have been used to police their touch and contact, from criminalisation to medicalisation, abjection and mockery to social exclusion. Queer touch and contact have been constructed as something deviant and abject. 12 |
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 15 DEADOR ALIVE? HowanArtist’s Death Affects their Artworks’ Value In the art world, the death of an artist can impact howmuch their work sells for at auction. ProfessorDakshinaDeSilva and his colleagues look at why only some artists’ works increase in price following their death, and how their families and networks play key roles in this fluctuation. Tug and Temeraire - Lithograph after J MWTurner 14 |
artist’s death. We found that 10 years after their death, 37.5%of artists had no artworks sold, increasing to 45.5% after 20 years. But this was not always the case, and investigating trading patterns and the networks artists had at the times of their deaths, led us to several factors that were at play in determining if prices went up or down. DON’T KEEP IT IN THE FAMILY Firstly, artists' families would often sell-off works following an artist's death. Before death, only 0.7%of an artist's works were sold under their last name, and this went up to 13% after death. Families tend to sell the most expensive artworks first, but generally the works sold for much less than other artworks by the same artist, suggesting both the poor quality of the works and a lack of strategic planning on the part of the seller. Artists can often strategically withhold works from the market, but their families – acting without the benefit of professional consultation and selling directly at auction – can liquidate assets in an estate sale, with no overall plan or long-term strategy. Prices for these works are on average 48%of those sold by others, and the effect on market is strong within the first two years of the artist’s death, when 55%of all family sales occur. IT’S NOTWHAT YOU KNOW, IT’SWHO YOU KNOW These sales have an effect in that immediate period, but in the long-term, it is the composition of the pool of buyers that shapes the prices. Those from artists whose works rise in value are more often bought by emerging art dealers, but they are among a select few, with most artists not having built a significant trading network through auctions prior to their death, thus decreasing the chance for a postmortem popularity increase. These influences on prices still resonate centuries later. While Turner went on to be regarded as the preeminent landscape painter of the age, McCulloch, if still respected in his own right, enjoys neither his contemporary’s fame nor favour when it comes to his works selling at auction. Turner’s 1835 work Rome (fromMount Aventine) sold for $47.6mat Sotheby’s in 2014 – the highest price for any British-born artist at auction – while the average price for a McCulloch in recent years is $25,800. This pattern can be traced to the period soon after their deaths. While dealers bought 77%of Turner’s paintings in the 20 years after his death – with the most prominent dealer of the period, Thomas Agnew, buying 28%of those sold – they purchased only 42%of McCulloch’s works. As for prices, Turner’s paintings appreciated by 122%, but McCulloch’s sale prices fell by an average of 32%. The divergence started in the mid-19th century and continues to this day. The prices of the two artists' works after their deaths seems to have been influenced by the network of auction houses connected to them at the time. Their purchasing of Turner’s work elevated his reputation and sales price over time, while the audience for McCulloch’s work carried no such influence, and the dealers formed no such network as that around the Turner paintings. REPUTATION COUNTS In life as in death, the demand for artworks depends crucially on an artist’s reputation. In the primary market for art, this is managed by gallerists and dealers, and a handful of galleries, collectors and museums have the power to determine what is good and valuable. Those artists with strong networks at the time of their death continue to see these networks buying and selling their works 20 years later, and for higher prices. The strategic planning of sales following an artist’s death can have a significant impact on prices in the short and long-term. Having access to art professionals before an artist’s death has a major effect on the trajectory of their most highly-priced works. A dealer can strategically drive demand through their networks and by planning sales following an artist’s death; when it is left to the family to deal with such matters, strategy is often lacking and value goes down. The art you like may be down to individual taste, but even centuries later, the art that costs most and has a greater reputation depends greatly on who was left behind to sell the works when the artist died. Professor Dakshina De Silva works in the Department of Economics, specialising in Industrial Organisation, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, Regional and Urban Economics, and Applied Microeconomics. The paper, Posthumous Trading Patterns Affecting Artwork Prices, is co-authored with Professor Georgia Kosmopolou, of the University of Oklahoma, Professor Rachel Pownall, of Maastricht University, and Dr Robert Press, of the University of Oklahoma. It is published in Oxford Economic Papers. d.desilva@lancaster.ac.uk FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 17 Most of you reading this piece will be familiar with the works of JMWTurner. Turner’s works such as The Fighting Temeraire, The Slave Ship and Hannibal Crossing the Alps are admired around the globe. His art is displayed in some of the world’s foremost galleries, sold for millions at only the finest auction houses, and often seen as a cultural touchstone for 19th century Great Britain. So, the chances are you hav, at the very least heard of Turner, if not seen and appreciated his work, but what about HoratioMcCulloch? While Turner is famous the world over, the Scotsman has not enjoyed the same lofty reputation, despite in his lifetime being greatly admired for his paintings of Scotland. While his landscapes can be found in the National Gallery of Scotland, and his talent cannot be denied, to most in the 21st century, he is a lesser-known – if not unknown – figure. Yet when they were alive in the 19th century, Turner and McCulloch saw similar levels of success when it came to selling their paintings. It was only following their deaths that their popularity diverged – the works of one regularly selling for millions, the other for a fraction of that. Why so?What factors contributed to the fluctuations in prices the works of these twomen experienced after their deaths? Does the art market generally value the fact an artist is alive, and can potentially producemore work, or is being alive an impediment to posthumous market success once they have reached – and passed – their peak? Art is an investment, and previous research has shown how artworks increase in price following the death of the artists – Mark Twain’s short story and play Is He Dead? even tells the tale of an artist faking his own death so his work could become more valuable. But much research in this area focuses on artists who are particularly well-known, at the top of their field. To gain a more general picture, our paper studies all art auctions in London that took place between 1741 and 1913 – a near 175-year span when such respected artists as Turner, William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable lived and died. From sales of almost 8,000 artworks from 160 artists, contrary to those previous studies – and Mark Twain’s dramatics – it is shown that prices declined by an average of seven per cent in the 20 years following the 16 |
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 19 18 | Masculine leadership can have negative effects for those exposed to it. ProfessorDavid Knights explores howsuch practices could be changed, and how researchers and scholars might contribute to the solution. Canthe Toxicityof Masculine Leadership bedisrupted?
of their more rational predecessors. While embodiment may be a necessary condition of ethical leadership, it is not sufficient; there has to be moral integrity around a collective and communal commitment whereby leadership is shared rather than located as the prerogative of a single individual. DAMAGING ATTACHMENT TO MASCULINE IDENTITIES I argue that what stands in the way of accomplishing this ideal is an attachment to masculine identities where leaders seek to preclude alternative views by surrounding themselves with sycophants to avoid any opposition to their control. While Trump had the highest turnover of “A-Team” staff of any recent President of the US, many individuals who seek the most senior of political offices tend to be a little narcissistic in ways that incline them to prevent any criticism of their practices. Whereas the self is always insecure and precarious, masculine identities are particularly fragile, because they reside in historical and contemporary myths about what it is to be a man. Historically, men have managed this insecurity through physical prowess, military battles and male dominance in their relations – especially with women – but these strategies had their wings clipped as feminismevolved. Some men responded by presenting a gentler and more intimate and sensitive image, but this tended also to be associated with a narcissistic lack of commitment to anything beyond themselves. Others embraced a re-assertion of traditional masculine myths surrounding physical survival against the elements and took part in ‘back to nature’ haunts, where homophobic aggression and hunting, shooting, fishing and fighting were celebrated in the hand-wringing masculine antics of authors like Robert Bly. These responses are a clear indication of howmen are attached to their masculine identities. WHAT IS TO BE DONE? As we have frequently witnessed in recent years, when excessive attachment to masculine identities forms a partnership with narcissistic tendencies, the impact on leadership effectiveness can be – quite literally – lethal. How is this issue to be confronted? Clearly there is no simple solution, but it can be argued that academics who study leadership bear at least some responsibility for this state of affairs where leaders are prepared to perpetuate disinformation, a hatred of opponents, and even violence against established democratic institutions. They do this simply because their masculinity is threatened by any failure to win in the competitive stakes for supremacy. This kind of attachment to masculinity can only be disrupted by exposing its devastating impact on everything and everyone. Professor David Knights is an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology, Lancaster, and a Professor at Oxford Brookes Business School. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy. His new book, Leadership, Gender and Ethics: Embodied Reason in challenging Masculinities, is published by Routledge. d.knights@lancaster.ac.uk FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 21 Since the onset of Covid-19, public focus on leadership has reached new heights. The ability of political leaders to deliver on our expectations has, however, left much to be desired. By displaying a range of toxic masculinities (behaviour stereotypically – though not exclusively – associated with men, and which negatively impacts society as a whole), the premiers of numerous democratic countries effectively mismanaged responses to Covid-19. Be it Jair Bolsonaro inBrazil, Boris Johnson here in theUK, or thenowout-of-office DonaldTrump in theUSA, thereare examplesacross theglobeof leaderswho mademistakesandwhoseconstituents oftenendeduppaying theprice. Some might argue that the potential mismanagement of crises is simply part of the price citizens pay for their freedomwithin democracies; after all, in coercive autocracies, subjects have little choice but to obey governmental edicts, and yet the situation in such countries during the pandemic has been far from idyllic. Others suggest that we have, in fact, been getting the worst of both worlds, enjoying the illusion of political involvement whilst suffering the hubris of politicians who seek popularity above integrity, loyalty above reason. But could the proponents of leadership studies also bear some responsibility for the shortcomings of our leaders by failing to explore the intended or unintended consequences of their theories? There is a dearth of direct discussion on the emotional and bodily aspects of leadership. This is partly because of the concentration on individual attributes: traits and characteristics that are deemed to have a causal relationship to effective leadership. This focus extends even to matters of personality in analyses of charisma and emotional intelligence. However, studies of leadership frequently neglect – or even worse, deny – embodied forms of non-rational behaviour despite their prevalence among leaders and the extent to which they often have a toxic impact at work, in sport, leisure or politics. Jean Lipman-Blumen alerted us to the insatiable and narcissistic ambition of toxic leaders who lack integrity, are unethical, cynical, and untrustworthy. Yet toxic leaders readily find followers who – due to their own anxieties and insecurities – possess an excessive desire for certainty and control. By removing the need for reasoned choice and informed decision, authoritarian figures provide a simplified ‘truth’ to these followers, presenting a world in which they are no longer required to discriminate between fact and hyperbole. Using these means, populist political leadership and social media conspiracy theories have gained ever-increasing traction in recent times. Whilst the toxicity identified in certain political leaders is most frequently attributed to psychological disturbance, it might instead reflect a more pervasive force in society surrounding attachment to masculine identities. In my newbook, I explore how – through an embodied form of reasoning – masculinities might be challenged or at very least disrupted to deprive them of the power to institutionalise their toxic impact. Criticisms of masculine excesses among leaders can be attributed to the instrumental pursuit of objectives that involve controlling others. It usually precludes embodied reason and passionate engagement with people. However, populist autocratic leaders recognise how communications which are as much (if not more) emotionally embodied than cognitively rational provide the essential prerequisites to the establishment of a cult following. Consequently, criticisms of the disembodiment of masculine leaders can backfire because, as we have seen in the antics of Bolsonaro, Johnson and Trump, there is considerable passion and emotion. So, while embodied interactions may resonate with the lives of people, they can be equally as negative as they are positive. These populist leaders appeal very much to bodily emotions yet display even more toxic masculinities than the cold, calculating and cognitive practices 20 |
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 23 22 | With every product that goes tomarket – from fruit & vegetables to aeroplane parts – therewill bewaste in the production cycle as demand is over or under-estimated. Forecasting research conducted by Professor JohnBoylan, and his colleagues in the Centre forMarketing Analytics andForecasting, is providing insight into how thiswaste can be reduced, and howmanufacturers, wholesalers and retailers can better estimate demand for their products. FORECASTING FORALESS WASTEFUL FUTURE
FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 25 Howmuch of what you buy could be considered wasteful? There are plenty of examples. You can think about howmuch food you buy and don’t eat, or howmany clothes you buy and don’t wear at all, or wear only once or twice. There is a growing level of awareness of issues around waste at the consumer level. But you can go through the supply chain and find waste all through the process. Retail outlets stock items that are never sold, from the everyday – groceries, clothing etc – to spare parts. If you take your car in for a service, the garage will use spare parts ordered from a wholesaler or a national distribution centre. They don’t want to stock too many and have waste, but if they stock too few, then they may create a different waste because people scrap their vehicles if they cannot have them repaired. This is a logistical challenge! The implications aremultiple. There is an economic implication, because a wholesaler who buys things that don’t sell, andwho can only possibly sell them for scrap, will get back only a fraction of what they paid. The same applies up and down the supply chain. Then there is the environmental cost. Resources are expendedmaking things that never sell, and there is the transport of these goods which adds to the carbon footprint, as well as the energy andmaterials used to dispose of unwanted products. All in all, wastage is very costly, both in terms of money and the environment. UNFORECASTABLE DEMAND THAT ISN’T The basic decisions that need to be made by retailers, wholesalers and distribution centres are ‘when should I replenish my stock?’ and ‘by how much?’ Most of the work in this area has focused on popular, fast-moving items. The demands for these products are generally easier to forecast – the higher the volume, on the whole, the more predictable it is. These are also the items at least risk of obsolescence. I am interested in those at the opposite end of the scale, those most difficult to forecast, where patterns of demand are not uniform. These are common in industries such as automobile manufacturing, aerospace, or any sector where there is a wide range of components involved and spare parts are required. They are not exceptions, but rather the majority of items in some industries, and they are at the highest risk of obsolescence wastage. For a long time, it was thought this was an area where we could not make progress. Just look at a typical demand pattern – no demand at all for several weeks, then demand for a small quantity, followed by another hiatus of a few weeks, topped off with demand for a larger quantity. What are you supposed to dowith items like that? How are you supposed to predict their demand? The key is to recognise that, although the next demand is unforecastable, the distribution of demand may be forecastable. The distribution assigns probability values to future possible demands, and it allows intelligent stocking decisions to be made. For example, if you are predicting only a 5% chance that demand will exceed 20 units, then buying 20 units will ensure that there is a 95%of not running out of stock. Improving demand distribution forecasts is not easy, and has been the subject of research by the Centre for Marketing Analytics and Forecasting over the last decade. This work has found its way into commercial software packages used by blue-chip companies around the world. UNFORECASTABLE DEMAND THAT IS The distribution of ‘noisy’ demand is forecastable if the underlying demand pattern is reasonably stable, but what if the pattern itself is subject tomajor shocks? The problemwith shocks is this: if they were forecastable, they would not be shocking! Themost obvious recent examples include the petrol shortages we have experienced at forecourts up and down the UK, the shortage of HGV drivers that contributed to that problem and to other supply issues, and even the lack of chicken on themenu at Nando's. Then there has been the Covid-19 pandemic.. It sent shockwaves through the demand patterns formany products, making themhighly unpredictable. This is an example of genuinely unforecastable demand. More recently, demand has been difficult to predict 24 | because of problems caused by severe shortages of HGV drivers. In the hospitality sector, this led to a slump in demand when restaurants, such as the some in theNando’s chain, had to close. In the fuel sector, it led to an extraordinary spike of demand, and long queues at petrol stations, induced by panic buying. Events like the pandemic have been described as ‘black swans’. The nature and timing of black swans is unpredictable and limits the potential value of forecasting approaches. In such situations, there is a high risk of retailers running out of stock completely and then overcompensating with excessive stock, creating significant wastage. What can be done? I believe that the problemof major disruptions calls for a different approach to forecasting, known as scenario planning. While the nature and timing of disruptions cannot be foreseen, the occurrence of some supply chain disruption (of unknown origin and timing) can be planned for. In a scenario planning exercise, managers imaginemajor causes of disruption that could happen in the future, such as a repeat of. They then think through measures that could be put in place to mitigate the effects of any sudden change in demand or supply (or both). For example, if an organisation relies on a single supplier, then they can introduce a second supplier, whowill receive regular orders and can respond to higher volumes if there are problems with the first supplier. After theonset of amajor disruption, forecastswill still need tobemade. It is natural for organisations to relyonhuman judgment in this situation, because statisticalmethods that extrapolate the recent history are likely tobeunreliable. As a ‘newnormal’ returns, statistical methods come into their own again, but may requirehuman adjustment. Oneof my colleagues, Robert Fildes, has conductedempirical researchwithmajor companies on this subject, currently being taken forwardbyAnnaSroginis. Robert’s researchhas revealed conditions underwhich judgment improves forecast accuracy andwhen it doesn’t. IMPACTFUL RESEARCH IN FORECASTING I believe that if we want to see a less wasteful future, then we need to take forecasting and planning much more seriously. It is a big responsibility and research centres can play their part. The Centre of Marketing Analytics and Forecasting at Lancaster is deeply engaged with practical applications of forecasting. This includes work that is affecting commercial software (Sven Crone, Ivan Svetunkov), open-source software (Ivan Svetunkov, Nicos Pavlidis, Rebecca Killick), and forecasting and planning practices in major organisations (Anna-Lena Sachs and myself). The centre is also active in writing pieces for practitioner audiences (Robert Fildes, Alisa Yusupova) so that our ideas can become more widely known. Industry engagement was part of Robert Fildes’ vision in establishing the centre (please see separate panel). We are committed to furthering this vision and look forward to many fruitful industry collaborations in the years to come. This is an appropriate time to pay tribute to Distinguished Professor Robert Fildes, who has recently retired after more than 30 years’ service at Lancaster. Robert was one of the founders of the International Institute for Forecasters and the International Journal of Forecasting. He also founded the Lancaster Centre for Forecasting in 1990 and set the direction for industry engagement right from the start. His work has had a tremendous impact on the theory and practice of forecasting. We are delighted that Robert has signalled his intention to continue working with the centre in his new role as an Emeritus Professor, and we can continue to benefit from his knowledge and wisdom. Professor John Boylan is the Director of the Centre for Marketing Analytics and Forecasting in LUMS, and a former Head of the Department of Management Science. He also serves as President of the International Society for Inventory Research. Professor Boylan and Professor Aris Syntetos (Cardiff University) coauthored the book Intermittent DemandForecasting: Context,Methods andApplications. It gives practitioners access to new forecastingmethods in away that does not require in-depth academic knowledge.
26 | FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 27 Is itpossible for a leader tobe truly authentic ineverything theydo? DrMarianIszatt-White shows that there are inherentproblemswithauthentic leadership,whichmean itmight not be thepanaceasome imagine. Authentic leadership– Panaceaor paradox?
These rationales revolved around five themes: Emotional labour as integral to leader role: Managers saw the management of their emotions, in the form of emotional labour, as integral to their professional expectations of what it means to be a leader. Managing emotions as an explicit part of being authentic: Managers articulated a sense of authenticity through the achievement of long-term goals to which they were committed, rather than through being relationally transparent in the moment. Emotional labour is necessary to the fulfilment of values and beliefs: Managers made a clear connection between feeling authentic and fulfilling their values and beliefs, with this connection holding good even when they were required to perform emotional labour. Managing emotions for the benefit of others: The most frequently mentioned rationale for performing emotional labour was for the benefit of others, both in terms of subsuming their own emotional issues to the needs of their staff, and in terms of a broader awareness of the need to positively affirm others through their interactions and behaviours. Managing emotions to protect themselves: In a small number of cases, managers expressed the need to manage their emotions in order to protect themselves, as a last-ditch response to specific, toxic situations. BEING AUTHENTICALLY INAUTHENTIC? What emerged was a degree of disconnect between the experience of personal authenticity and the actions/interactions needed for managers to lead effectively. The underlying values and goals to which managers felt committed served to supplant relational transparency as a key underpinning of authenticity and to frame emotional labour as both integral to their leadership role and beneficial to colleagues and the organisation. This complex pattern of combined authenticity and inauthenticity suggested three key tensions in the way managers construct their ideas of authenticity: Who managers feel they should be rather than who they are: This tension relates to howmanagers serve as role model professionals, and articulate their sense of how they should present themselves as leaders. The connection here between how they should be and who they should be – and hence what an ‘authentic leader’ should look like – is evident, as is the sense that these internalised expectations no longer give rise to feelings of inauthenticity. Thus, authenticity is seen as bounded or circumscribed by the expectations of the role or situation to which it pertains and underpinned by the duty of professionalism in interactions with others. What managers were true to rather than who: This tension relates to managers’ underpinning values as key drivers of action. The achievement of internalised, value-congruent goals was a strong driver for all managers in our study, expressed as an integral part of being true to oneself. Thus ‘playing the long game’ to achieve valued goals was constructed as a deeper form of authenticity than transparently showing what you are feeling in the moment: it was the sense that your ‘true self’ was reflected in the goals to which you aspired and your commitment to bringing them to fruition. Being the same self over time and across situations: This tension relates to the importance of consistency, where showing the same self in different situations, no matter what was going on personally, is seen as more important than sharing your every emotion as a marker of authenticity. The concern for consistency is thus articulated as authentic even though it involves the emotional labour of masking certain feelings. Here, authenticity is constructed as a recognisable ‘you’ that others can rely on to be the same each time you interact. Collectively, these tensions suggest a fundamental paradox underpinning managers’ understanding of authenticity. The paradox arises from managers’ routine acceptance of emotional labour (i.e. a form of inauthenticity) as a means of enacting values-driven leadership (i.e. being true to themselves, or authentic), such that authentic leadership requires them to be inauthentic. This suggests that ‘authenticity’ is implicitly situated and subjective rather than universal and absolute: about being true to the self, yes, but a more fluid and contingent self than we might usually understand. That this implicit inauthenticity did not, in practice, provoke feelings of being inauthentic – that instead it was subsumed into managers’ experiences of being an authentic leader – speaks to the need for a more complex, nuanced understanding of authenticity in leadership than the current AL construct is capable of offering. This understanding needs to embrace rather than deny authenticity’s inextricable symbiosis with inauthenticity, and accept not only that not all inauthenticity is bad but also that it may be in moments of intentional inauthenticity that we are most aware of the whole authenticity project. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 29 The clamour for leaders to be authentic – and the perception of authentic leadership as a panacea for a range of organisational ills – is widely heard in both academic literature and popularmedia. Yet authentic leadership (AL) – at least as defined by academics – remains deeply problematic. Using the requirement tomanage our emotions at work as a lens, our research has explored the tensions inherent in AL and their paradoxical implications for practicing leaders. Our study revealed how practising leaders are able to feel authentic even as they manage their emotions as a routine tool of accomplishing their leadership role. This apparent disconnect between experiencing authenticity and the actions/interactions in which this experience is embedded raises profound questions concerning authenticity – and particularly relational transparency as a core aspect of authenticity – in the daily practice of leadership. Authentic Leadership was developed with the aim of restoring the faith in leadership lost as a result of the ‘ethical corporate meltdown’ resulting from its ‘transformational’ and ‘charismatic’ predecessors. The intention was to delineate a style of leadership capable of producing positive organisational outcomes through leaders who are transparent about their intentions and who maintain a seamless link between their espoused values, behaviours and actions. More simply, authenticity involves acting in accordance with one’s ‘true self’ and hence expressing oneself in ways that are consistent with inner thoughts and feelings. For anyone who has been privy to confidential information (concerning acquisitions, reorganisations, redundancies, or a host of other commercially or individually sensitive activities), this idea of relational transparency can immediately be seen as problematic. The basic cultural idea of managers as ‘rational decision-makers’ and the inappropriateness of bringing one’s personal problems – and hence emotions – to work, also runs counter to this seemingly simple and laudable idea. My colleagues and I considered the performance of emotional labour – that is, the requirement to manage our emotions as a tool of enacting our leadership roles – to explore just how feasible relational transparency might be as a component of authenticity in leadership. Our findings were potentially shocking – if not entirely surprising. PRACTICAL CHALLENGES TO AUTHENTICITY – AND HOW MANAGERS LIVEWITH THEMK Our study identified a number of ‘rationales’ through which practising leaders could articulate feelings of authenticity even as they regulated their emotions as a routine tool of their leadership role. As an erstwhilemanager within the corporate spheremyself, these rationales had considerable personal resonance in reflecting the reality of balancing commercial necessity with personal integrity. 28 | Dr Marian Iszatt-White is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy, with a research focus on leadership as emotional labour and authentic leadership. This article is based in part on the article Impossible or just irrelevant?: Unravelling the ‘authentic leadership’ paradox through the lens of emotional labour, by Dr Marian Iszatt White, Professor Valerie Stead and Dr Carole Elliott, published in the journal Leadership. m.iszattwhite@lancaster.ac.uk My colleagues and I considered the performance of emotional labour – that is, the requirement to manage our emotions as a tool of enacting our leadership roles – to explore just how feasible relational transparency might be as a component of authenticity in leadership. ‘‘ ’’
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