Systems thinking: Leadership behaviors, ethics, and outcomes

A clear shared vision is the most powerful way to create a learning organization. A transformative leadership style may create a desire to learn and to innovate within the organization. The role of leadership in a learning organization, which is the heart of the systems thinking, is to encourage creativity and innovation. This paper analyzes the qualities an effective leader may have in order to create a learning environment, to foster ethical conducts, and to ensure organizational positive outcomes from a systems thinking perspective.

The Qualities of an Effective Leader in a Learning Organization

The effective leader in a learning organization needs to inspire the management and the whole organization to be engaged in the learning process that must enhance creativity and innovation for the organization to adapt to change (Daft, 2010). In today’s global business environment dominated by constant change, leadership must be opened to new ideas, must sustain genuine efforts to carry out creativity, and must provide necessary support to team members to show flexibility. The key to realize the aforementioned results is to formulate clear and unequivocal shared vision. Each individual’s contribution is part of the group productivity and will undoubtedly influence the whole organizational efficiency and effectiveness. For that reason, the effective leadership style in the context of a learning organization must make of each individual the center of attention, similar to a transformational or a servant leadership style. That is, the learning organization needs a change leader (Daft, 2010) that will present a vivid clear vision matching the organizational values with the best interests of the stakeholders in mind.

Another key behavior for a learning organization’s leader is to cultivate tolerance. Mistakes may happen in a constant changing internal and external environment. Either the explicit knowledge of the organization is used in employees’ decision making process when it is documented by leadership and shared with the whole organization, or the tacit knowledge earned on the job as personal expertise of each employee is applied, mistakes may be considered as opportunity to learn. From that stand point, the right leadership style may be also consistent in encouraging employees to participate in the learning process and to take initiatives with no fear of being belittled when mistakes happen. As Giescke and McNeil (2004) put it, the organizational leadership may be ready to foster learning, experimenting, and risk-taking. Daft (2010) suggests the appreciative enquiry model as a good technique to engage individuals, teams, or the whole organization in creating new ideas by focusing on learning from past success.

Leadership Strategies to Ensure Positive Outcomes

The old strategy of a leader who is thinking or learning for the whole organization is no longer a good recipe (Senge, 2006). The global business environment is so rapidly changing that an individual or the management alone cannot perform this job. Many authors, such as Singh (2013) called for a transformation of the bureaucratic management approach towards collegial leadership model of emancipation (COLME). This model offers a powerful framework to develop collegial leadership by following the established outlines with clear perspective to all employees’ leadership potential while fostering joint accountability (Singh, 2013). Consequently, the leadership strategy in a learning organization where systems thinking is at work is to consider each individual learning as a potential to guaranty sound decisions making at all levels of the organization. Another strategy is the culture of tolerance. Openness to new ideas, a culture of holistic and systematic thinking must be created within the organization, says Garvin et al. (2008). All layers of the organization may feel at ease to learn and to share new ideas that are not in conflict with organizational culture and values.

According to Singh (2013), besides the recognized theoretical validity of the collegial leadership model of emancipation to shape the learning organization, it has practical validity because of it consistency defining the nature and role expectations from the leaders. The process is to determine the key interests and needs of the stakeholders, and to align them in a conscious manner in the organizational learning plan which is part of the whole organizational strategic plan. With this approach, tacit knowledge is increased by being able to tapping into existing explicit knowledge well documented and archived by the organization (Signh, 2013). In addition, Good practices based on shared values and ethics are imprinted the decisions making process on all levels of the organization as a synchronous harmony of a philharmonic musical with lesser risk of cacophony.  In sum, create a climate that fosters learning, experimenting, and risk taking (Giesecke & McNeil, 2004) are key strategies. In support to these strategies, an opened organizational structure may inspire employees a genuine interest to perform beyond expectations. Consequently, a higher level of corporate citizenship may be observed by also increasing employees’ self-confidence and self-determination, states Singh (2005).

Leader’s Behaviors that May Hinder the Learning Process

Singh (2013) observed that traditional managers are attached to power as an entitlement of their bureaucratic positions while in contrast effective leaders tend to share their power and flatten hierarchies (Kouzes & Posner, 1997). They may obstruct the process known as empowerment. They are controlling, they tend to use intimidation to produce results. This leadership style is toxic and is not productive. A rigid hierarchy no longer exists and no longer prevents change. New problems and new challenges can be met faster and resolved more quickly without a rigid hierarchy. According to Goldman (2012) Toxic leaders are causing employees to be demoralized, angry, trivialized and productivity drastically drops off. Negative words and emotions spread poison seeps in and demoralize employees. 

Many indicators reveal when management hinders learning process. The employee is forced to learn what is not appropriate. The learning material may be more tasks oriented than person centered, as suggested by Daft (2010). In addition, leadership may not perform learning style test to discover what real potential each employee may have. That way, the learning material design may hurt the desire to learn (Kolb et al., 1999). Also, a culture of fear and rejection may cause employees not to share new ideas with leadership and management. An finally if the employees are being blame for mistakes in front of other team members, the will to collaborate and to make new experience are impeded by fear. In sum, in contrast to transactional leadership, transformative approach of leadership in a learning organization is the process whereby the connection is made between leader and followers in such a way that raises the level of motivation and morality, says Northouse (2010).            This form of leadership is called stewardship by Senge (1990). The main role of a steward leader is to clearly define the purpose of the organization in terms of where we’ve come from and where we are headed (Senge, 1990). Moreover, the leader as steward in a learning organization helps individual to help individuals in crystallizing the organizational purpose in their own set of values and purposes.

Ethical Decision Making Process and Learning Organization

Ethics may be generally defined as a set of principles, rules, standards, judgment, common sense, values, in relation to the public interests. According to Freadrich and Ferrell (2004), ethical conducts comprise principles and standards that guide behaviors. To manage a learning organization the leadership style need to inspire others to learn (Senge, 2006). This approach requires integrity, honesty, respect of others, service, justice, honesty, and community building as described by Northouse (2010). An effective leader has the responsible to bring the organization to an ethical level which dissipates any doubt followers may have on the leaders’ hidden intention. In an interview to Meen and Keough (1992), Senge said that “nothing motivates change more powerfully than a clear vision”.  When leadership appears to be toxic, words of mouth will not follow through because employees with a higher sense of individual values may resist any unclear direction. In the same vein, Johnson (2012) suggests that lack of integrity ruins faster than anything leader’s moral authority because manipulation is used to divide followers and to strengthen malicious self interests.

Beyond the laws and the social rules, the organizational work environment imposes it own rules based on what is defined as right or wrong for people operating within the organization, the cognitive process of reasoning on each situation is imprinted of the learned values known as organizational culture. The cognitive process of decision making added to the set explicit knowledge exerts a crucial influence on the final decisions made by individual which have consequences over the entire organization. According to Johnson (2012), the term ethics refers to judgments about whether human behavior is right or wrong. That being said, the best form of leadership places a strong emphasis on follower’s needs, values, and morals. The purpose of a leader in the learning organization is to transform by enhancing creativity. Therefore the focus is to help followers to reach higher standards of competency and moral responsibility says Northouse (2010).

Impacts of Decisions Made in a Single Loop Instead of Using a Systems Thinking Perspective

According to Daft (2011), developing leadership capacity goes beyond learning the skills for organizing, planning, or controlling others. It also involves something deeper and more subtle than the leadership traits and styles. It means using the whole intellectual, emotional, and spiritual abilities and understandings. Each decision made in any area of the organization will have unpredictable consequences over the whole organization. The system think, instead of considering one single area of the organization, teaches leaders and employees to think about the impact each decision may have on a greater level. Because individuals and teams must learn together or risk dysfunction (Haldeman, 2011), using a broader loop in decision making or using opened feedback loops may offer the opportunity to prevent irreparable consequences over the whole organization.

Conclusion

Leadership behaviors is essential to sustain supportive learning environment; such environment makes it easier for managers and employees to execute concrete learning processes and practices smoothly and efficiently, said Garvin et al. (2008). The systems thinking is built on the learning process because each individual plays a key role in shaping the organization. Creativity, innovation, desire to keep learning and to share both explicit and tacit knowledge, trust in leadership, and ethical conduct are important for any organization to be effective. But from a systems thinking perspective, they are simply indispensable.

References

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