Management noviembre 2006.qxd

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Management Herald
Noviembre 2006
A Relational Perspective
Thomas Maak, Nicola Pless
The goal of the present paper is to discuss the concept of responsible leadership in the context of stakeholder theory from a relational
perspective. The authors, Dr Thomas Maak and Dr Nicola Pless,
both visiting Senior Research Fellows at INSEAD, argue in The
Journal of Business Ethics (2006) that leadership is a social-relational
and ethical phenomenon that occurs in interaction between a leader
and a broader group of followers inside and outside the organization.
The authors demonstrate that the role of leadership is changing in
a context of global markets with multicultural workforces, transforming corporations with flattened hierarchies and network
structures and active stakeholder societies in which corporations
and their leaders are expected to act as good citizens.
With this article Maak & Pless provide further insights in the emergent discussion on responsible leadership. Placing responsible leadership in the context of stakeholder theory they dis-cuss the following questions: What is the purpose of leadership in a stakeholder
society? Who are the actors in the leader-follower relationship?
What is the function of the leader in the leader-follower relationship? What makes a responsible leader? And what qualities do responsible leaders need?
To summarize some of the answers, the authors understand followers as a leader’s stakeholders who are either affected by a leader's
action or have a stake in the leadership project. Often, they have
an equal status. Maak & Pless contend that in a global and networked stake-holder environment the concept of the leader as the great
man at the top of the pyramid, as the main creator of economic and
social reality with followers as subordinates who are dedicated to “do
the leader’s wishes”, is no longer valid.
Instead, leaders are understood as equal human beings who earn a
license to lead from their followers. They are weavers who bring
together different people to follow a shared and morally sound
vision. They are facilitators of relational processes of co-creation
and orchestrators for achieving common objectives. Furthermore,
they argue that responsible leaders need moral character and relational qualities to build sustainable relationships and cope with the
complex leadership challenges of business in society.
The authors also point out that in this context leaders need to balance the external pressure of conflicting interests and demands by stakeholders, and the internal tension of being a coherent and consistent
person that leads with integrity. To better understand the responsibilities that leaders have with regard to leading stakeholders, to balancing internal and external pressures and to tackling the leadership challenges they introduce a “roles model” of responsible leadership. This
model can help approach leadership from a new angle and gives a gestalt to a responsible leader. The model is comprised of the different
roles a leader takes in leading stakeholders and business in society.
The authors distinguish between roles with a normative connotation and those with an operational function. Normative roles are the
following: the leader as steward (being a custodian of values and
resources), the leader as good citizen (being an active and caring
member of communities), the leader as servant to others and the
leader as visionary who provides inspiration and perspective with
respect to a desirable future. The authors argue that these roles are
key to the self-image and self-understanding of a responsible leader.
Connected to these roles are the more operational ones of being the
architect of inclusive systems, processes and a moral infrastructure;
the change agent and transforming leader; the coach who supports
followers; and the storyteller and meaning enabler, who is the creator and communicator of moral experience and enabler of shared
systems of meaning. The authors stress that all these roles are relational, that is, they concern specific responsibilities or activities visà-vis relational processes in the construction of responsible organizational realities.
With this article the authors intend to stir a broader discussion on
the responsibilities of leaders and responsible leadership in a stakeholder society.
OPINIÓN Sustentabilidad, management y liderazgo responsable
Armando E. Bertagnini
Doctor en Ciencias Económicas
(UBA) Director-Organizador del
Departamento de Administración de
Empresas y actual profesor de
Management, estrategia y cambio en
la Universidad de San Andrés.
Profesor invitado en la Escuela de
Negocios ESCP-EAP de París.
Conferencista y consultor internacional en management, especializado
en procesos de cambio estratégico.
Autor de los libros Las diagonales
del cambio empresario y Estrategia,
management y cambio: el estado
actual del debate.
Abordaremos el valioso artículo sobre liderazgo responsable desde
dos ángulos complementarios: los cambios que se observan en el
modelo de empresa exitosa y la evolución de los conceptos de creación de valor, competitividad y sustentabilidad.
La reciente evidencia empírica sugiere un fuerte cambio en el "modelo empresario" habitualmente asociado al éxito. Desde un punto de
vista sistémico, dicha evolución sugiere cambios importantes tanto en
el perfil de negocios como en el perfil de gestión empresarios: En
cuanto al perfil de negocios, la visión y la estrategia corporativa
pasan del énfasis en el corto plazo y la creación de valor sólo para el
accionista, a un equilibrio entre el corto y el largo plazo con creación
de valor para clientes, empleados, proveedores, accionistas y también comunidades en las que la empresa desarrolla su actividad.
En cuanto al perfil de gestión, destacaremos el cambio en la conducción, pasando de un CEO que tiene un papel central en los
resultados a través del énfasis en el crecimiento y los logros inmediatos, a un CEO que crea las condiciones organizacionales para la
obtención de resultados, alentando la innovación y el cambio con
una visión de largo plazo.
El concepto de responsabilidad social empresaria (RSE) evoluciona desde acciones aisladas hacia la comunidad, pasando por
programas de acciones y por el compromiso empresario con el
medio ambiente, hasta llegar a configurar un aspecto central de
la estrategia corporativa adecuadamente articulado con el mode-
lo de gestión de la compañía.
La misma evolución en la praxis y la doctrina empresarias se observa desde el ángulo de la creación de valor, la competitividad y la sustentabilidad:
La creación de valor evoluciona desde la dimensión puramente económica, incorporando a los clientes, procesos, capital humano y networks, y llegando a las comunidades relacionadas.
La competitividad incorpora a la indispensable efectividad operacional los distintos niveles de la innovación estratégica, hasta llegar
al cambio institucional.
La sustentabilidad se basa crecientemente en un aprendizaje que
incorpora al abordaje tradicional del "cómo" el doble circuito del
"qué" y la evolución del aprendizaje mismo ("aprender a aprender").
La síntesis de estos planteos sugiere que, en sociedades que
demandan instituciones sustentables, la creación de valor para
los distintos stakeholders y los procesos de cambio y aprendizaje profundo adquieren un papel central. En consecuencia, la
esperanza de reiterar liderazgos tan iluminados como heroicos
debería ser reemplazada por la visión de un liderazgo responsable enmarcado en un enfoque sistémico del management. Este
enfoque debería contemplar tanto los aspectos descriptivos del
comportamiento institucional como la articulación del liderazgo
con los otros cuatro vectores del management: estrategia, administración, tecnologías y procesos de cambio.