Management Online REview

6 January 2009 | Home

ISSN 1996-3300

Human Resources

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Learning Leadership from Barack Obama - a Short Case Study

Simon Western

In a recent case study I asked if America would vote for a Messiah Leader (Management Online REview, Feb 2008), well the answer has been a huge yes. In that case study I argued that it wasn’t enough to be a Messiah leader, that promising hope, being charismatic and a wonderful orator was never going to deliver on its own. So what took Barack Obama to the Whitehouse and what leadership lessons can be learnt from his victory?

Improving Employability for Industrial Placements: Challenges, Approaches and Recommendations

Patrick M Reid

Industrial placements can play a key role in developing an individual undergraduate’s softer skills, giving the opportunity for experiential learning, which is often sought by employers when selecting future employees. This article reviews current student industrial placement activity in the United Kingdom, a typical recruitment process and the implications for stakeholders. The combination of good academic achievement and the demonstration of broader skills developed in a varied work place environment where responsibility, collaboration and teamwork have been practiced and developed over time are highly appreciated by employers.

The Use of Information Technology to Create a Better Workplace for Individuals with Disabilities

Rachel F Adler

Linda Weiser Friedman

Hershey H Friedman

Computer and information technology has made it increasingly easy for disabled people to join the workforce. This paper describes how computer technology can play a role in accomplishing this goal and it examines new and existing technology that can be used to accommodate individuals with particular disabilities, specifically, visual impairment, hearing impairment, speech impairment, learning disabilities, autism, mobility impairment, the elderly, and those with mental health problems - in many cases, promising examples of possible future assistive technology are presented. The disabilities market consists of 750,000,000 people worldwide and is growing rapidly. About 20% of the population of the Unites States is disabled; 25% of the population of the European Union is disabled. Moreover, every demographer is predicting that there will be huge labor shortages in many countries in the near future. It is crucial for firms to find ways to hire more disabled employees since, for one thing, they can be the engine for generating and developing new product ideas for this important group. The diversity we seek to achieve in the workplace includes not only gender and ethnic background, but disability as well.

Mission-driven Leadership

Pablo Cardona

Carlos Rey

Throughout history, there have been managers who are considered examples of what we define as transcendental leadership - leadership that generates leadership. Many have been studied, admired and lauded as models to emulate. They are leaders whose deeply rooted values and principles have enabled them to achieve what so many firms pursue today: their employees’ commitment to a mission rich in content, credibility and a sense of urgency. But what is the key to their success? How can one become a transcendental leader? This paper examines one course of action that we have found to work: mission-driven leadership (MDL). For MDL, managing means driving commitment to a mission and developing subordinates so that they in turn can undertake the mission as true leaders. MDL is directly related to a mission and a series of values that transcend the leader as an individual, and is comprised of three basic tenets: Commitment, Cooperation and Change.

The Secret of High Performance Organizations

Andre A de Waal

In the past few decades organizations all over the world have been searching for the elements that constitute continuous organizational success. Fuelled by bestsellers such as ‘In Search Of Excellence’ and ‘Good to Great’, managers have been trying out many different improvement concepts, often with mixed results. The aim of this study was to identify factors that determine the continuous success of a high performance organization (HPO). A meta analysis of 280 research studies into high performance initially identified 35 characteristics of a HPO. These were subsequently used in a case study of a large financial service provider, to identify its HPO status and the improvements needed to become a really excellent organization. The results of the study show that it is possible to identify factors that determine continuous organizational success, and that managers can be offered a framework that adds focus to improvement.

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