Leadership and Public Management: the Life Cycle of a Public Manager Mandate
Liderazgo y dirección pública: el ciclo de vida del cargo directivo
Abstract (en)
A growing body of literature identifies the impact of leader characteristics on the strategy and performance of organizations. This article, after reviewing the leadership literature, and, in particular, the public management literature regarding leadership and public managers, concludes that most of the literature on the effects of this leadership is static. To fill this gap and add a dynamic and longitudinal analysis, the paper applies the life cycle concept to the public managers’ mandate, a still under researched topic in the public management literature.
First, the article focuses on the horizontal approach to public managers’ leadership along its mandate, in contrast to the traditional vertical approach analyzing promotions along a career. That is, the public manager’s life cycle. Second, this document identifies the key dimensions and phases along the public manager mandate’s life cycle, and develops the following proposals through a phase model: 1) Public managers at the beginning of their mandates focus on achieving the goals measured by indicators, with initial support from the political environment that appointed them. 2) In a second phase a period of exploration starts, allowed by some success, and the avoidance of political mistrust. 3) In the third phase the public manager selects the narrative by which it will be recognized its mandate in the organization. For that, the manager weaves internal information networks to develop a long-term vision for the organization. 4) In the convergence phase is when the maximum results are obtained by public managers, since an inverted U shape is shown between tenure and results. 5) The dysfunction phase or executive sclerosis, is when the manager’s power and the knowledge of the task is at its maximum. However, if the mandate does not have a limit on its duration, the consequences for the organization can be lethargy or crisis.
Last but not least, the article builds an overarching research proposal, combining a survey based on recognized scales by the literature, and semi-structured interviews, to perform an exploratory analysis of the conceptual model and its propositions.
Abstract (es)
Un creciente número de investigaciones identifica el impacto de las características del líder sobre la estrategia y los resultados de las organizaciones. Este artículo, tras realizar una revisión de la literatura sobre liderazgo, y en particular sobre las contribuciones de la literatura en liderazgo en gestión pública, concluye que los efectos del liderazgo se han estudiado desde una perspectiva estática, en la mayoría de casos. Para superar esta limitación e incluir un análisis dinámico y longitudinal, propone aplicar el concepto de ciclo de vida al mandato de los directivos públicos, un tema hasta ahora no abordado en la literatura en gestión pública.
En primer lugar, aborda el análisis de la carrera horizontal del directivo público a lo largo de su mandato, frente a una aproximación tradicional, vertical, de análisis de promoción en carrera. Esto es, el ciclo de vida durante el mandato directivo. En segundo lugar, el documento identifica las dimensiones clave y las etapas en el ciclo de vida del directivo público durante su mandato y realiza las siguientes propuestas para la construcción de un modelo de análisis: 1) El directivo público, en el inicio de su mandato, centra su atención en lograr los objetivos que definen sus indicadores de resultados, con un apoyo inicial del entorno político que le nombró. 2) En una segunda etapa, inicia un período de exploración tras haber demostrado algunos logros y no haber puesto en peligro la confianza política. 3) Es en la tercera etapa cuando el directivo público puede seleccionar la narrativa por la cual será reconocido su mandato en la organización. Para ello, teje redes informativas internas para desarrollar una visión legítima y factible, de largo plazo para la organización. 4) En la etapa de convergencia es cuando se producen los máximos resultados del directivo público, dado que se manifiesta una relación en forma de U invertida entre la duración del mandato y los resultados. 5) En la etapa de disfunción con la organización o esclerosis directiva, el poder del directivo es máximo, así como el conocimiento de la tarea. Sin embargo, si el mandato no tiene una limitación en su duración, las consecuencias para la organización pueden ser de letargia o crisis.
Finalmente, el artículo construye una propuesta de investigación que combina cuestionarios basados en escalas reconocidas por la literatura y entrevistas semi-estructuradas para el análisis exploratorio del modelo conceptual y sus proposiciones.
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