Van Wart (2013) addresses the lessons from major findings in leadership literature in public sector organizations for both researchers and those aspiring to lead. Cautiously, he points out that understanding is only the first, and easiest step of effective leadership in practice. While leadership is difficult to define, and there are fundamentally different types of leadership, Van Wart provides an instrumental framework to offer a descriptive (what leadership is) analysis of five leadership practices and trends, and extends this examination to prescriptive (what leadership should be) recommendations for best practices in the public sector. According to Van Wart, there are five overarching theories of leadership in the literature – classical
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Management theory focuses on leading for results; therefor there are high expectations of leaders to achieve desired organizational results. A prominent feature within this school is the idea that effective management requires wise use of resources (human, technological, financial) and based on principles of POSDCORB (e.g., Gulick and Urwick, 1937). In this school of thought, leadership requires developmental education and training. In contrast, ethical leadership theory (e.g., Avolio and Gardner’s authentic leadership) focuses on leading with an ethics-based approach, concerning itself with good intent, proper means, and proper ends. In this school of thought, good leaders know themselves and know how to lead through demonstrating integrity. In contemporary public sector literature, the recognition of the importance of service motivation, responsible leadership, emotional labor in serving people, and the needs of the community and environment has shifted the role of good leaders. Leading ethically, in essence requires not only clear principles, but also high standards and a sense of optimism. Another difference is in the leadership focus, such as leading followers (transactional leadership theory), leading organizations (transformational leadership theory), and leading systems (horizontal and collaborative leadership theory). Theories can also overlap, as in the …show more content…
In general, Van Wart provides a detailed and exceptional description of the different schools of leadership in public service organizations and addresses the complex political, legal, and social environments that change and must be reinterpreted by both practitioners and scholars. I agree with his position that scholars can learn from the broader literature, and in particular from public sector studies. For example, in Van Wart’s prescription of leadership, the lessons from the different schools of thought are consistent with research findings in nursing leadership studies. During organizational change, nurse managers moved between transactional and transformational leadership styles: while facilitating mission and cultural change, managers also required to lead followers by providing a clear path for followers in achieving new organizational goals. In other words, successful managers understood that leadership required a great number of competencies across a variety of situations. Van Wart helps to further advance the study of public management by describing different schools of thought of interest in the public sector, such as collaborative and ethical leadership theories, while addressing the seeming disconnect between theory and practice by providing recommendations for best
Management theory focuses on leading for results; therefor there are high expectations of leaders to achieve desired organizational results. A prominent feature within this school is the idea that effective management requires wise use of resources (human, technological, financial) and based on principles of POSDCORB (e.g., Gulick and Urwick, 1937). In this school of thought, leadership requires developmental education and training. In contrast, ethical leadership theory (e.g., Avolio and Gardner’s authentic leadership) focuses on leading with an ethics-based approach, concerning itself with good intent, proper means, and proper ends. In this school of thought, good leaders know themselves and know how to lead through demonstrating integrity. In contemporary public sector literature, the recognition of the importance of service motivation, responsible leadership, emotional labor in serving people, and the needs of the community and environment has shifted the role of good leaders. Leading ethically, in essence requires not only clear principles, but also high standards and a sense of optimism. Another difference is in the leadership focus, such as leading followers (transactional leadership theory), leading organizations (transformational leadership theory), and leading systems (horizontal and collaborative leadership theory). Theories can also overlap, as in the …show more content…
In general, Van Wart provides a detailed and exceptional description of the different schools of leadership in public service organizations and addresses the complex political, legal, and social environments that change and must be reinterpreted by both practitioners and scholars. I agree with his position that scholars can learn from the broader literature, and in particular from public sector studies. For example, in Van Wart’s prescription of leadership, the lessons from the different schools of thought are consistent with research findings in nursing leadership studies. During organizational change, nurse managers moved between transactional and transformational leadership styles: while facilitating mission and cultural change, managers also required to lead followers by providing a clear path for followers in achieving new organizational goals. In other words, successful managers understood that leadership required a great number of competencies across a variety of situations. Van Wart helps to further advance the study of public management by describing different schools of thought of interest in the public sector, such as collaborative and ethical leadership theories, while addressing the seeming disconnect between theory and practice by providing recommendations for best