1 Shared Meanings Why Myths Matter

2 Orientation  Focus on how people create and change perceived meanings in organisations (map making and changing)  Organizational reality is socially constructed and influenced through symbolic power of leadership actions  Leadership involves inter-dependent processes through which meanings are constructed and challenged  We may think of the processes as establishing a story  Stories that persist have their mythology, or non-rational basis. (The tales of leadership achievements or betrayals)

3 Symbolic Leadership  Perceptions of leadership are rooted in symbol systems (of a social group)  Visions are important action triggers through activating cultural symbol systems (values and beliefs)  The process creates and sustains a leadership ‘story’ (myth)  Process is also seen as giving sense or meaning to actions and plans

4 Management of Meaning  Symbolic leadership processes have been described as the ‘management of meaning’  Leaders bring structure to a situation through actions of symbolic significance (I.e. framing perceptions)  In this way formalized roles are established  In informal groups, social processes are more emergent and less constrained. (Smircich & Morgan, 1982)

5 Barry Turner’s POU Symbolism: Leadership and Culture  Culture is powerfully influenced by symbol systems (archetypes)  The approach differs from strictly rational explanations of social reality  Provides a powerful map for going beyond the dominant (rational) leadership model of the earlier chapters  Helps explain processes of charismatic influence, and the difficulties (e.g. dilemma of trust) of evaluating charismatic behaviours

6 McWhinney’s Change Model  Influence of charismatic leaders derives from their actions taking on a mythic quality. (The leader’s myth becomes accepted as reality).  Mythic leaders enable change through the symbolic impact of their mythic ‘story’ on those of other realities  ‘Power of the myth’ distinguishes them from people focussing on other realities (Empiricists, Fatalists, Relativists)  The model again indicates the potential dangers of charismatic leadership as well as its potency

7 McWhinny’s 3 types of charismatic leader  Prophetic leader: Anita Roddick; Michael Eisner  Entrepreneurial Charismatic: Bill Gates; Stephen Spielberg  Facilitative Entrepreneur: Richard Branson; Google/Yahoo (Page & Brin; Filo & Yang)  Charismatic business leaders tend to be more of a mix rather than an ideal pure type

8 Culture & Leadership (Schein)  Schein’s map treats culture as the secret to understanding leadership and organizations  Culture shapes and is shaped by people establishing shard meanings  To develop leadership skills requires an understanding of customs, rights, myths and stories  Leaders who establish a strong culture have been much praised.  This ignores the dilemma of rigidity inherent in a deeply held symbolic belief system or culture

9 Smircich & Morgan’s (management of meaning) model  Smircich & Morgan relate the general concept of management of to processes of organisation change  They represent leadership as a social reality ‘invented’ by the perceptions of the leader & followers  Leadership, as symbolism, provides a rationale for framing the experience of those led  Leadership for change is about establishing common understanding (shared vision) of a desired future state

10 Weick and sense-making  The leader instils confidence by providing cues for to people to see where they are and where they want to be.  This form of map making demonstrates how perceptions have to be respected  Weick offers sense making as complimenting theories of symbolism and meanings attached to objects  Leaders understanding sense-making processes have more confidence in the power of plausibility in the absence of adequate information and knowledge

11 Summary  Earlier essentialist maps presumed to have a correct reading  Constitutive maps influenced through symbolic content are socially constructed and open to more than one reading or interpretation  Leadership offers perspectives providing possibilities to group members  Maps of a social constructivist kind draw attention to processes involved in establishing personal, group and organizational identities  Dilemmas include the difficulty if there are competing maps (beliefs) of ends or means in organisational life