Effective Leadership in Upper Level Management of Organizations
Effective Leadership in Upper Level Management of Organizations
Tahlar Rowe, Jacob Spitz, & Ariel Zanzuri
Trinity University
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Effective Leadership in Upper Level Management of Organizations
Abstract
Over the past century, the research
being conducted to discover what makes a
person an effective leader has increased
exponentially. Our team has contributed to
this effort by focusing on effective leadership
in the context of upper level (executive)
management of organizations. We conducted
a qualitative interview with Heath Schiesser,
President of the Integrated Care Group at
Fresenius, who has held several different
executive leadership positions and whose
knowledge and experience we have based
many of our findings on. We also examined
various scholarly articles to better understand
the different contexts of leadership. We
cross-referenced our inferences from the
articles with theories of “Transactional
Leadership”
and
“Transformational
Leadership,” as discussed by Hackman &
Johnson in their textbook Leadership: A
Communication Perspective. From our
interview, and subsequent cross-examination
of leadership theories, we were able to define
Heath’s leadership style, and confirm our
hypothesis: Transformational leadership is
the most effective leadership within upper
level management of organizations.
Literature Review
A transactional leader only responds
to the basic needs of the follower. In their
work “Leadership: A Communication
Perspective”, Hackman and Johnson describe
transactional leadership to be most
“concerned with the satisfaction of the
physiological, safety, and belonging needs”.
Transactional leaders practice management
by exception, which means that the leader
will only intervene when needed to. Thus, we
can see that there are elements of laissez-faire
when transactional leadership is put into
practice.
Initially, we understood
transactional leadership to be more effective
when compared to an authoritarian form of
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leadership, but less effective when compared
to transformational leadership.
Transformational leadership impacts
the follower by addressing higher needs such
as self-esteem and self-actualization. The
factors that contribute to transformational
leadership are charisma, individualized
consideration, inspiration, and intellectual
stimulation (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).
Charismatic leaders provide a sense of vision,
a mission, and inspire others while building
trust
and
respect.
Individualized
consideration means the leader supports
followers,
while
inspiration
entails
communicating high expectations and
focuses efforts to enhance their followers’
understanding of organizational goals.
Lastly, intellectual stimulation promotes
innovative ways to view situations and
encourages problem solving and decision
making skills. Hackman and Johnson have
identified the following five characteristics
inherent in a transformational leader: being
creative, being interactive, having a vision,
being empowering, and being passionate.
Transformational leaders realize the
importance of both tasks and relationships to
motivate others and allow them to make their
own decisions.
Showry and Manasa (2014) discuss
their theory that in order to be an effective
leader, one has to have a high level of selfawareness. In order to successfully lead other
people, one has to have a good understanding
of they are and what works best for them.
Introspection requires the leader to
understand his or her own weaknesses and
strengths. It allows the leader to determine
what the most appropriate behavior for a
productive environment is. Desiring the
approval of others or having a large ego are
ways that one can damage his or her
effectiveness as being a leader. An effective
leader has a high emotional intelligence and
a valid understanding of others, which is
Effective Leadership in Upper Level Management of Organizations
emphasized through his or her interaction
with the follower (Showry and Mansa, 2014).
Schmitz, Lee, and Lilien (2014)
compare different forms of leadership and
motivation, and how those inputs affect
salespeople’s outputs in term of performance
in cross-selling certain products. Crossselling is essentially selling a customer
something that they did not originally come
in for, but is similar to what they are already
buying, or could be contrived as fitting
together in a “packaged deal.” Taking
advantage of this kind of sale requires
advanced salesmanship, a vast knowledge of
products and services which may be offered
outside of your own department, and the
creative freedom to approach every new
customer in a different manner. Schmitz et al.
(2014) found transformational leadership
better suit salespeople because it would give
them the creative freedom they need to
approach each new customer differently and
motivate them by the future goals of the firm
and their desire for a job well done. This
article is extremely enlightening with regard
to our research proposal. If we are hiring
someone to manage salespeople, he or she
needs to have the characteristics of a
transformational
leader,
or,
more
specifically, creativity, interactivity, having a
vision, empowering followers, and bringing
their passion and motivation to the
workplace.
Thomas & McDonagh (2013) explore
effective communication as the first step
toward teamwork and collaboration. They
discovered that a shared language plays a key
role in how true collaboration can be created
in an organization. In general, the authors
refer to the entrepreneurial aspect of these
collaborations in a business setting. Upon
communicating with others, the authors
emphasize how being empathetic and open
can actually strengthen individuals, teams,
and
other
relationships.
Being
a
transformational leader means being
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interactive with your followers, in which
communication plays a key role. It is
important to be aware of others’ differences
and embrace them to enhance your
organization. Varying perspectives in a group
help that group to achieve creativity and
better problem solving skills, which are
critical to success (Thomas & McDonagh,
2013). We must not only recognize
difference, but embrace it.
Methodology
Our purpose for this research is to
determine, through our articles, class
discussions, and our qualitative interview
with Mr. Heath Schiesser, the most effective
leadership within upper level management of
organizations. The participant of our research
project is an entrepreneur by the name of
Heath Schiesser. Our course instructor, Jamie
Thompson, assigned Heath to our group
because our interests and future aspirations
fall in line with what Heath does for a living.
Mr. Schiesser has held many valuable roles
in a multitude of organizations, including
serving as the President and CEO of both
Medspring Urgent Care and Wellcare Health
Plans, Inc.
On April 1, 2015 we conducted a
qualitative interview with Mr. Schiesser. Due
to the distance between ourselves and our
interviewee, we conducted the interview via
Skype. We utilized recording devices to
document the entire interview, then
transcribed it. Our questions were crafted to
be open ended and give us the ability to
deduce Heath’s leadership style without
actually asking him what the best leadership
style is. He answered our questions fully and
provided us with his knowledge and
experience. We created an atmosphere in
which we maintained control of the interview
while still holding an element of spontaneity,
which led to enlightening conversation.
Based on what we have learned in class, we
Effective Leadership in Upper Level Management of Organizations
remained neutral, yet conveyed curiosity and
engagement, being patient, and paying
attention. We established an intimate setting
where there were little distractions (in a
conference room via Skype) and spoke for
about 30 minutes.
We had three variables: independent,
dependent, and controlled. The independent
variable was the questions we asked. The
dependent variable was the answers we
received. Based on how effective our
questions were, we evaluated the outcome of
our results. The controlled variable is the
environment we established. Important
instructions for our participant were for him
to give us as much information as he possibly
could. The interview was conducted very
fashionably and in order, while allowing time
for our participant to express what ideas,
experiences, examples, and opinions that he
had.
Results
Cross-examination of all of our data
has led our team to confirm our original
hypothesis: Transformational leadership is
the most effective leadership within upper
level management of organizations. Our
interview with Mr. Schiesser yielded the
results that we had previously predicted.
Heath is a very successful business man who
truly understands people (what makes them
engaged, their motivations, and how they
interact with one another), and he knows how
to use this information for the improvement
of the organizations. Due to Heath’s success,
we feel as though he is a living, breathing
model for effective leadership.
In the interview, Heath gave us many
examples of how he works with people, his
methods of problem solving, and his own
ideas of what it takes to be a great leader.
Again, the traits of a transformational leader
are charisma, individualized consideration,
inspiration, and intellectual stimulation. Our
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interview showed us that Heath displays all
of these characteristics. Heath displays
charisma in the culture and atmosphere that
he has built within his organization: one of
trust and respect. When he discussed his
junior analyst example, Heath explains that
he wants to create an environment where
people know they can speak up. He points out
that “one of the great things that Mackenzie
taught [him] very early on was the idea that
the most junior person around the table has
an obligation to dissent.” He may be the
senior partner at the table, but if the junior
analyst, who has only been on the project for
two weeks, knows about a piece of data that
contradicts what he had been saying, then he
or she has an obligation to speak up. Thus, the
responsibility for making an environment
where people feel comfortable to speak up is
important for a leader. In order for a leader to
foster this sort of atmosphere, he or she has
to have reached the fifth tier of Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs, which is selfactualization. Heath is comfortable enough
with himself to focus on elevating those
around him. This mentality directly displays
his individualized consideration, but he also
takes it one step further. Not only does Heath
want to elevate others, he also wants those
underneath him to elevate those that they
oversee.
In his discussion about problems that
he comes in contact with, he responded with
having “had situations where people are
berating other people and making comments
in emails they shouldn’t be making” also
mentioning “how amazing how childish
senior executives can be.” On the opposite
extreme for problems, Heath highlighted
some of the issues that a leader may face,
which directly supports his possession of the
inspiration trait. Heath discussed how he
handles an employee asking for greater
challenges, or telling him of a new job
opportunity, and through this discussion, he
directly displayed the way in which he
Effective Leadership in Upper Level Management of Organizations
communicates high expectations and
enhances understanding of goals. This
communication, along with his promotion of
hiring individuals who are “smarter and
better than himself” and his support of the
obligation of speaking up, directly supporting
his intellectual stimulation as well.
Although we looked at textbook
concepts, scholarly articles, and a human
subject to prove our hypothesis, our study
had some limitations. Given more time and
resources, we could have interviewed more
subjects or even observed an upper level
management setting. We could have
evaluated certain practices to test whether
they
proved
effective
toward
transformational leadership.
Conclusion
Heath has achieved self-actualization.
He has a genuine concern for the lives of
those working for him, always keeps his
followers in mind, and is always willing to do
anything that he asks his followers to do.
Though he never mentioned the words
‘Transformational
Leader,’
the
five
characteristics of transformational leadership
and the raw examples he gave us of his
leadership directly supported our hypothesis
that Heath possesses them all. Due to Heath’s
success, and our conclusion that Heath is a
transformational leader, we can confirm our
hypothesis
and
conclude
that
transformational leadership is most effective
for upper level management of organizations.
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References
Hackman, M.Z., & Johnson, C.E. (2013).
Leadership:
a
communication
perspective (6th ed.). Prospect
Heights, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.
Thomas, J. & McDonagh, D. (2013). Shared
language: Towards more effective
communication.
Australasian Medical Journal, 6 (1), 46-54.
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Schmitz, C., Y.C., & Lilien, G.L. (2014).
Cross-selling
performance
in
complex selling contexts: An
examination of supervisory- and
compensation-based
controls.
Journal of Marketing, 78, 1-19.
Retrieved
from:
http://pinnacle.allenpress.com/doi/pd
f/10.1509/jm.12.0421
Showry, M., Manasa, K.V.L. (2014). Selfawareness – key to effective
leadership. IUP Journal of Soft Skills,
8(1),
15-26.
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