On Effective Leadership: Across Domains, Cultures, and Eras

260 Pages·2013·1.96 MB·English

by  G. Donald Chandler III

On Effective Leadership
Jepson Studies in Leadership
Series Editors : George R. Goethals, Terry L. Price, and J. Thomas Wren
Managing Editor: Tammy Tripp
Jepson Studies in Leadership is dedicated to the interdisciplinary pursuit
of important questions related to leadership. In its approach, the series
reflects the broad-based commitment to the liberal arts of the University
of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies. The series thus aims
to publish the best work on leadership not only from management and
organizational studies but also from such fields as economics, English,
history, philosophy, political science, psychology, and religion. In addition
to monographs and edited collections on leadership, included in the series
are volumes from the Jepson Colloquium that bring together influential
scholars from multiple disciplines to think collectively about distinctive
leadership themes in politics, science, civil society, and corporate life. The
books in the series should be of interest to humanists and social scientists,
as well as to organizational theorists and instructors teaching in business,
leadership, and professional programs.
Books Appearing in This Series:
The Values of Presidential Leadership
edited by Terry L. Price and J. Thomas Wren
Leadership and the Liberal Arts: Achieving the Promise of a Liberal Education
edited by J. Thomas Wren, Ronald E. Riggio, and Michael A. Genovese
Leadership and Discovery
edited by George R. Goethals and J. Thomas Wren
Lincoln’s Legacy of Leadership
edited by George R. Goethals and Gary L. McDowell
For the Greater Good of All: Perspectives on Individualism, Society, and Leadership
edited by Donelson R. Forsyth and Crystal L. Hoyt
Executive Power in Theory and Practice
edited by Hugh Liebert, Gary L. McDowell, and Terry L. Price
Leadership and Global Justice
edited by Douglas A. Hicks and Thad Williamson
On Effective Leadership: Across Domains, Cultures, and Eras
G. Donald Chandler, III and John W. Chandler
On Effective Leadership
Across Domains, Cultures,
and Eras
G. Donald Chandler, III
and
John W. Chandler
ON EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
Copyright © G. Donald Chandler, III and John W. Chandler, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-30070-6
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-137-30069-0 ISBN 978-1-137-31832-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137318329
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Chandler, G. Donald, 1950–
On effective leadership : across domains, cultures, and eras / G. Donald
Chandler, III & John W. Chandler.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Leadership. 2. Leadership—Case studies. I. Chandler, John W., 1923–
II. Title.
BF637.L4C43 2013
158(cid:2).4—dc23 2012029560
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: February 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Michele Moeller Chandler,
my inspiration and partner in life
In memory of Florence Gordon Chandler
with love and gratitude
The presidency is not merely an administrative office . . . it is
pre-eminently a place of moral leadership. All our great presidents
were leaders of thought at times when certain historic ideas in the
life of the nation had to be clarified.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt, governor of New York
To lead the people, walk behind them.
—Lao Tzu
If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
—Matthew 15:14
Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.
—Publius Syrus
C O N T E N T S
Foreword ix
Introduction xiii
Part I Effective Leadership: A New
Framework 1
One The Leadership Conundrum 3
Two T he Temple and the Genome 9
Part II Organizing Change 23
Three Margaret Sanger and Susan B. Anthony/
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Social
Reformers 25
Four Robert S. McNamara and John W. Gardner:
Lyndon Johnson’s Cabinet Warriors 41
Five Henry Ford and Soichiro Honda: Business
Entrepreneurs 67
Part III Powers of Persuasion 87
Six G . Stanley Hall and William Rainey Harper:
University Presidents 89
Seven Edward Teller and Sir William Osler: Scientific
Leaders 111
Eight Napoleon and Augustus: Empire Builders 135
viii Contents
Part IV Transforming Visions 159
Nine John Humphrey Noyes and George Fox: Religious
Visionaries 161
Ten Robert Mugabe and Nelson Mandela:
Revolutionary Leaders 179
Epilogue Implications for Leaders and Followers 203
Notes 219
Bibliography 237
Index 243
F O R E W O R D
This book grew out of a course we taught in the Leadership Studies
Program at Williams College that focused on theories of leadership. In
it, our students read selections from a number of contemporary scholars,
together with a series of case studies of leaders. We then challenged them
to assess whether any author had developed a comprehensive framework
that convincingly explained how very different people became effective
leaders in a wide variety of fields and cultural contexts. Every student
concluded that although each theory was useful in describing or explain-
ing some aspect of successful leadership, none met the test of comprehen-
siveness. We agreed.
Yet during the semester we became increasingly convinced that such
a comprehensive framework was feasible as we tested the theories against
the case studies and our personal experience. Prior to teaching leadership
studies, each of us had a longtime interest in leadership and had read widely
in history and biography. Our interest was further stimulated by careers in
which we had been exposed to many executives and administrators, some
of them highly effective leaders and others not. One of us was an academic
whose career embraced roles as teacher, scholar, college president, college
and university trustee, and adviser to approximately 40 colleges and uni-
versities in their search for new chief executives. The other was a manage-
ment consultant who worked with for-profit and nonprofit institutions in
several different fields over his career. From our respective experiences,
we both were drawn to the question of what distinguished the effective
leaders from the less effective ones we had observed. The combination of
our reading and our practical professional experience served as a starting
point for our assessment of contemporary leadership theory.
By the end of the course, we concluded that the answers to our question
lay in a small number of factors, some of which had been identified by
scholars and others that had not been fully explored or understood. Nor
had all of the factors been integrated into one comprehensive framework.
Accordingly, we wrote a paper that contained the core of the frame-
work outlined in this volume. With the encouragement of Professors
Susan Dunn, Al Goethals, and James McAllister, all of whom were at
Williams College at that time, as well as Williams Professor Emeritus
James MacGregor Burns, we continued our project by analyzing a number