Page 268 - 4- Leading_from_Within

Chapter 11

BUILDING LEADERSHIP CAPACITY WITHIN THE
ORGANIZATION

Levels of Leadership within the Organization

In the traditional models of organizational leadership, power typically is
found in the designated leader. This still is very much in evidence in many

organizations, perhaps even the majority of them, even with all of the
discussion about transformational and enabling leadership. Employees
often state that it never occurred to them to try to attempt to take a more
active role in shaping the outcome of a decision or an event, especially
when they experienced a negative reaction from top management. They
implicitly assume that they have no power and no "right" to power. When

management makes a request from a position of power, many hear it as a
demand. As a result, the typical response can be one of resentfully
submitting or defiantly rebelling.
280
It would appear that this traditional model of leadership is going the way
of the “horse and buggy.” If the modern organization is becoming

increasingly knowledge-based, then it becomes important that all its
employees are knowledge workers rather than people merely receiving
orders and implementing them. In this context, each employee has a
specific set of skills and expertise, all of which are subject to continual
change and upgrading. In addition, each tends to use powerful

technologies that give them access to a depth and range of information that
was formerly restricted to top management. This organizational
sophistication minimizes the distinctions between those who make
decisions and those who carry them out, and between those who conceive
of tasks and those who execute them. As operational employees take on
increasing responsibility for making decisions regarding their work and the

outcomes of their work, the identity and reputation of the organization is
placed into the hands of all its members rather than of a strategic one or

280 Mike Kashtan, “Leadership, Empowerment, and Interdependence,” Acquired Spontaneity, April 19,
2012.

David Kolzow 268