CERES :: Browsing by Author "Turnbull James, Kim"

Browsing by Author "Turnbull James, Kim"

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Open Access
Alternative approaches for studying shared and distributed leadership
(Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2011-05-31T00:00:00Z) Fitzsimons, Declan; Turnbull James, Kim; Denyer, David
Scholars hold different perspectives about leadership which are not limited to a formally appointed leader. Of the abundance of terms used to describe this phenomenon, shared and distributed are the most prevalent. These terms are often used interchangeably, resulting in confusion in the way that shared and distributed leadership is conceptualized and investigated. This paper provides a historical development of this field, challenges existing conceptions and reveals inconsistencies and contradictions that are seldom acknowledged. Four distinct approaches to the study of shared and distributed leadership are identified in the literature, each embracing different ontological views and leadership epistemologies. Individually, the four approaches offer valuable - yet partial - understanding. Comparing and contrasting the assumptions and insights from the four approaches raises fundamental issues about how we think about leadership in terms of research, practice and development.
Open Access
Art-based Methods in Management Education
(Cranfield University, 2014-12) Springborg, Claus; Ladkin, Donna; Turnbull James, Kim
The purpose of this dissertation is to develop explanatory theory for the learning processes facilitated by art-‐based methods in management education (ABMs). Such theory is important because managerial educators increasingly use ABMs, and without a well-‐developed theory it may be difficult to realise these methods’ full potential. Current research on ABMs uses theories from other fields but generally sees ABMs as methods for making important information available for reflection, e.g. information about unconscious assumptions, aesthetic experience, or non-‐propositional or tacit knowledge. This shows that the field is grounded in a representationalist view of cognition. This view of cognition makes it difficult to explain certain themes in the research field, such as, the importance of staying with the senses without reflecting, aesthetic agency, and the process of making. I therefore asked: What insights can be gained from exploring ABMs, using theories grounded in the embodied view of cognition, in particular Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999) and simulation theories (Barsalou, 2008). For the empirical work, I used an experimental design with 60 managers from Danish companies. All participants selected problems from their work they perceived as important, yet unsolvable. They were randomly divided into three groups: Two groups using different ABMs to address problems and a comparison group where no ABM was used. The experiment indicated that 1) creating new metaphors for a problem based on different sensory metaphors enabled the participants to import behaviour from contexts unrelated to the problematic situation, and 2) focusing on sensory experience enabled participants to remove judgments about self or others. Furthermore, the experiment indicated that learning outcomes reflected participants’ experience of the concrete learning intervention. These findings contribute to CMT by suggesting that it is possible to formulate relationships between changes in metaphors and specific learning outcomes. They contribute to ABM by suggesting that experiences that participants have during ABMs are later used as tools for structuring other experiences – not merely as data for reflection.
Open Access
CEO: Hero or Villain?
(Cranfield University School of Management, 2010-09-01T00:00:00Z) Turnbull James, Kim
Open Access
Coaching below the surface
(2012-04-01T00:00:00Z) Turnbull James, Kim
Open Access
Constructing a professional identity: how young female managers use role models.
(Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z) Singh, Val; Vinnicombe, Susan; Turnbull James, Kim
Role models are often identified as important for aspiring managers as they seek insights into how to develop themselves in their careers. There are, however, still few female role models at the top of companies. This project explores how young careerminded women use role models. It draws on previous research into how professionals experimented with their identity projections to become partners in US professional service firms. In-depth interviews with ten young professional women revealed that they actively draw on role models from different domains. In some cases, the role models were personally known to the individual women, whilst in other cases, they were personally unknown to them. The women revealed that they preferred to use the learning from external role models rather than focus on individual women from the top of their own professions. This research adds richness to our understanding of young female managers’ use of role models, and contributes up-todate empirical evidence in a field which has been somewhat neglected in recent year
Open Access
Constructing safety: reconciling error prevention and error management in oil & gas and petrochemicals operations
(Academy of Management, 2021-03-29) Cowley, Charles Ian; Denyer, David; Kutsch, Elmar; Turnbull James, Kim
On the basis of a qualitative study of three different operational oil and gas and petrochemical sites, in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Europe, we examine how actors construe error prevention and error management and how they reconcile these approaches in their everyday practice. Our repertory grid data reveal that actors recognise the importance of error prevention, but also appreciate that emergent and unexpected issues require error management in order to trap, address or mitigate problems in the making. Errors are also regarded to play an important role in adaptation, innovation and learning. However, our interview data and analysis of incident investigation reports reflect a narrower range of factors and indicates a strongly institutionalised predisposition towards error prevention. There are practical implications for the management of process safety and for incident analysis, which may be overlooking the importance of error management, and also for individuals at the sharp end who may be coping with the gap between what they believe is important in terms of process safety and what they bring to the surface, share and document.
Open Access
The contribution of ethical concepts to the development of professional applied psychology
(Cranfield University, 2009) Kwiatkowski, Richard; Turnbull James, Kim; Muir, Helen
In this PhD by publication, the author’s work concerning what it is to be a psychologist operating - sometimes simultaneously - within different ethical domains will be examined using conference papers, journal publications and book chapters. This material, which spans a period of 20 years, demonstrates a fundamental concern with the normative ethical question of “what we ought to do” as psychologists in complex situations; it will be argued that this work has contributed to the academic debate and influenced policy and thus practice. In order to position the body of work, and to introduce Codes of Ethics (which seek to operationalise ethics within prescribed domains), the thesis begins by introducing normative ethics. It is argued that psychology’s stance is essentially deontological, whilst organisations are utilitarian in orientation. This implicit tension is addressed in the author’s contributions, which are examined within their (historic) academic context using a comparison of the British Psychological Society’s 1985 and the significantly revised 2006 Code of Ethics. These codes, rather than the more usual positioning within one specific literature, are used to provide a coherent narrative concerning the development of the author’s thinking in this domain, though, necessarily, different overlapping academic literatures are accessed depending on context. The cumulative academic contribution of the published work has been to advance ethical ideas in some areas of professional applied psychology. For example, in the 1985 code, the complexity of operating within organisational contexts was barely acknowledged; this has now significantly changed. The body of work examined here has emphasised how psychologists must consciously and deliberately coexist and act The contribution of ethical concepts to the development of professional applied psychology within overlapping, and sometimes competing, professional and organisational ethical contexts, domains and philosophical positions. In this synoptic piece, after the presentation, positioning, and examination of the contribution of extant published material, possible future directions for research and practice are indicated. For instance, preliminary material will be presented suggesting that, in occupational psychology, where complex differing ethical perspectives are present, public ethical debate appears to be relatively neglected; some hypothesis are presented. More theoretically, areas for development include the extension of recent philosophical ethical ideas to these particular domains of applied psychology, including thinking that suggests that ethical considerations precede other kinds of social obligation. Finally, and linking the academic more firmly to practice and policy, a brief theoretical examination of the possible impact of statutory registration on different branches of psychology is briefly attempted, and potential practical and philosophical ethical consequences for UK psychologists and psychology are briefly outlined.
Open Access
Developing a new breed of leaders
(Cranfield University School of Management, 2013-10-01T00:00:00Z) Drake, Jacquie; Turnbull James, Kim
What do Mark Carney, Ruby McGregor- Smith and Dr Andy Wood have in common? They are all exemplars of the new breed of leaders that we need for 21st century organisations.
Open Access
An exploratory study of global leaders' and Chinese managers' leadership constructs in multinational corporations in China
(Cranfield University, 2012-03) Wang, Lake; Turnbull James, Kim; Denyer, David; Bailey, Catherine
This research explores the leadership constructs of global leaders and Chinese managers in multi-national corporations (MNCs) in order to understand whether their constructs are misaligned, and if so, in what ways. To address these questions, data was gathered via repertory grid test interviews with 31 global leaders and 59 Chinese managers in six MNCs’ China organizations. Analysis subsequently revealed that global leaders rely upon twelve key constructs to define global leadership capability and potential. These are: creative, drive to improve, communication skill, collaborative style, charisma, professional knowledge and experience, visionary, cross culture, flexibility, confidence, team development and emotional intelligence. Crucially however, half of the global leaders’ key constructs were not identified as important to Chinese managers; furthermore, most of the missing constructs resonate with charismatic and transformational leadership characteristics, indicating a gap between the two groups’ leadership concepts. Subsequently, both groups of leaders’ leadership constructs were compared with their respective companies’ Leadership Competency Frameworks. The results again revealed gaps, suggesting reliance upon headquarter-developed leadership frameworks to communicate leadership expectations and develop local leaders is either deficient, or inappropriate. The global leaders and Chinese managers’ perspectives on Chinese managers’ career barriers were also explored, with the evidence indicating that perceptions of both groups are influenced by their own cultural assumptions. As the global leaders’ perspectives aligned with their own leadership constructs but Chinese managers were not aware of the importance of those constructs, it seems to support the contention that a bias may exist when global leaders evaluate Chinese managers’ leadership capability and potential.
Open Access
Exploring shared leadership in a UK public sector programme
(Cranfield University, 2010-02) Bates, Simon; Lupson, Jonathan; Denyer, David; Turnbull James, Kim
This thesis considers shared leadership in a UK public sector programme. Many UK public sector change initiatives are delivered through programmes. In recent years, the practice and academic domain of programme management have developed from within the established discipline of project management. The leadership of projects has been widely studied, both conceptually and empirically, but programmes are substantively different. Shared leadership is a relatively new conceptualisation of leadership which may be valuable for the study of leadership of programmes. The thesis uses a case study of one programme to explore shared leadership in this environment, primarily based on 15 interviews and observation of meetings and events. In particular, it focuses on the leadership tasks of setting the vision and establishing and structuring the programme. The study helps to improve the characterisation of the emerging theoretical concept of shared leadership by adding empirical evidence. It supports the conceptualisation of shared leadership as a plural, processual, diagonal and lateral influence-based phenomenon by unpacking the above leadership tasks into their constituent activities and interactions. It provides evidence for the mechanism of “numerical action” through the seamless transfer of leadership and contributes to the discussion on the nature of “concertive action”. It also highlights the propensity of organisational actors to attribute artefacts of leadership to individuals. It supports the conceptualisation of leadership in such an environment as hybrid or integrated, combining traditional vertical with shared leadership. In light of this, it proposes a dual processual and artefactual approach to the study of leadership. It does not support defined, complementary roles and structures as important for effective programme leadership. It provides useful guidance to programme management practitioners and stakeholders from seeing their own experiences and environments through the lens of shared leadership.
Open Access
Helping leaders do leadership in an uncertain world
(International Executive Development Programs, 2017-06-04) Denyer, David; Turnbull James, Kim
Open Access
The management of firm specific resources as a source of competitive advantage
(Cranfield University, 2004-01) Burton-Taylor, Sarah; Bowman, Cliff; Tranfield, David; Turnbull James, Kim
This study is about helping managers identify and enhance the idiosyncratic firm resources required for delivering superior perceived use value to customers. Specifically, the research has focused on the organisational knowledge required for routinised service delivery, and has operationalised this organisational knowledge as activities. Project 1 was a comparative study involving observation and interviews in two similar but differentially performing financial services organisations in order to identify the activities involved in service delivery and the differences between the two operations. Project 2 identified customers’ perceptions of value through customer interviews, and then mapped the links between these and the service delivery activities identified in Project 1. Project 3 involved a clinical inquiry intervention aiming to encourage and leverage the firm specific resource of inter-team coordination to enhance the delivery of customer value. The research has confirmed the role of firm specific resources as a source of competitive advantage, and has demonstrated a link with customers’ dimensions of perceived use value. In this study, effective inter-team coordination is identified as the firm specific strategic resource that appears to enable effective service delivery as perceived by customers, through the sharing of knowledge and interpretations, and the development of service process innovation. Many of these coordination activities are discretionary rather than prescribed, with implications for management practice. From this research, a framework has been developed for considering and managing firm specific sources of advantage at the detailed operational level. This is a micro level approach that makes specific links between the customer experience and internal activities, through identifying internal and external competitiveness factors, mapping the ‘inside-outside’ connections, and achieving alignment between internal activities and customer perceptions of value.
Open Access
Moving on Up
(International Executive Development Programs, 2018-08-27) Turnbull James, Kim; Vinnicombe, Susan; Harris, Hilary
This article shows how a practical approach, developed at Cranfield School of Management, can shift the dials on the numbers of women executives in organizations. We illustrate how we have used our Inclusive Talent Management template to guide our partnership with HSBC’s 80,000-strong global Operations, Services and Technology division (HOST). The HOST Executive Committee (ExCo) established a programme called Accelerating for Difference to create a strong pipeline of female talent and achieve greater female representation, particularly at the most senior levels.
Open Access
A psychodynamic perspective on the implementation of shared leaderships
(Cranfield University, 2013-02) Fitzsimons, Declan; Turnbull James, Kim
A key debate within leadership research is whether leadership can be conceptualized as a specialized role occupied by individuals or as a shared influence process amongst all members of a group (Yukl, 2006). Since the mid-‐ 1990s some leadership scholars, as a counterpoint to the dominance of the former and using terms such as shared and distributed leadership, have attempted to elaborate new ‘post-‐heroic’ leadership models (Badaracco, 2001) of the latter, in which leadership is something that involves all group members. These new forms of leadership are often positioned as something that organizations can implement as part of an adaptive response to a rapidly changing world. Despite a 50-‐year tradition of construing leadership as a group level construct, little attention has been paid in these emerging debates to the systems psychodynamic perspective. From this perspective there are grounds for suspecting that attempts to implement shared leadership may compound rather than ameliorate issues related to adaptive challenges (Huffington, James and Armstrong, 2004). This thesis engages with the shared and distributed leadership literatures and examines how a systems psychodynamic perspective can contribute not only to debates within these literatures but to the wider controversies in the leadership literature. This thesis reports on the findings of a single, 18-‐month, longitudinal case study of a senior team whose managing director attempted to implement shared leadership. Using a clinical fieldwork methodology (Schein, 1987) in the systems psychodynamic tradition (Miller, 1993b; Miller and Rice, 1967), this study advances a number of contributions to theory. These include: findings that challenge existing approaches to conceptualizing leadership – shared or otherwise; the elucidation of complex unconscious team processes that are mobilized as a senior team undertakes adaptive work; and thirdly, a more sophisticated and theoretically robust conceptualization of leadership as a group level phenomenon.
Open Access
The Psychodynamics of Top Teams and the Impact on Strategic Organisational Learning: Three Case Studies in the Public Sector
(Cranfield University, 1998-04-21) Jarrett, Michael; Turnbull James, Kim
The growing literature on organisational change, organisational learning and the role of the top team prompted the question: what is the relationship between top teams and organisational leaming? It seemed that role of the top team was important to attain successful change and ultimately learning. Yet how this was achieved seemed to be poorly understood in the literature. Thus, the thesis focused attention on the dynamics of the top team, its organisational context and the state of the external environment to gain a clearer understanding of these relationships. In order to deepen that understanding, the thesis took a systemic and psychoanalytical approach and a clinical research methodology, which provided a different perspective and seemed to be more suited to this type of inquiry on organisational dynamics. The 'findings' from the three, in-depth, public sector case studies suggested that while the dynamics of the top team could impact negatively on the group task, its impact on strategic organisational learning was less significant. The main conclusion drawn from the study was that strategic organisational learning was impaired not so much by the top team's dynamics, but by organisational and systemic defensive routines. The source of these recursive pattems was threefold: psychodynamic ego and social defenses among top team members, within the top team's group and within the dynamics of the Board A poor 'holding environment' so that these organisational dynamics were not sufficiently contained and thus each strategic subsystem was less 'task' focused an underbounded strategic apex that reinforced the dysfunctional dynamics already in play The implication from these public sector, case studies was that while the external environment and the dynamics of the top team were not insignificant, it was the poor quality and instability of the internal organisational context that inhibited learning. The role of the Board or elected officials was particularly significant in contributing to this outcome.
Open Access
The role of identity in the development of senior leader expertise: a constructive-developmental perspective
(Cranfield University, 2012-12) Popkova, Oxana; Turnbull James, Kim
Background: The multi-billion dollar leadership development industry relies on practitioner approaches that in mainstream prescribe the content view of leadership pipeline development – recruiting in traits and attributes, and training up skills and behaviours. This approach is not delivering the expected results. However, a reliable evidence-based process approach to leader development has not yet emerged. Purpose: This study addresses the insufficiency of the current theory and evidence relating the mechanisms of development of senior leader expertise. Methodology: The study relies on the systematic review method (Tranfield, Denyer & Smart, 2003) to qualitatively analyse the literature on leader expertise and the role of identity in leader development from constructive-developmental perspective. Findings: A review of literature on leader expertise explored the specifics of the research gap in the understanding of the logic, the factors and the process behind the development of senior leader expertise. Although recent theories of leader expertise indeed proposed that leader identity provides a crucial knowledge structure around which leader expertise evolves, as well as an impetus for leader expertise development, virtually no research exists to back up this idea. However, research associated with the constructive-developmental theory, an adult development perspective largely unrelated to the leader expertise enquiry, provides some evidence of the association between identity and developmental outcomes that may be used as the first pass at validating the identity propositions of the leader expertise theorists. This review of leader expertise and identity from constructive-developmental perspective helped me formulate a framework for analysis of leader expertise from identity perspective. This framework may be used in my future PhD research as a starting point for modelling of identity processes in the development of senior leader expertise.
Open Access
Strategic and professional leadership : the challenge of role duality
(Cranfield University, 2001-09) Weight, Pauline; Turnbull James, Kim
In 1983 the National Health Service in England moved from a functional to a general management philosophy. This fundamental change gained momentum with the introduction of NHS Trusts in the early 1990s. Since this period, clinicians have taken a greater role in the strategic leadership of their organisations. This research considers the role of senior doctors (consultants) who have taken up a strategic leadership role alongside their clinical role (role duality). This is a qualitative study centred on the perceptions of individuals in this role in three NES Trusts. A new understanding of the dual role is developed through a methodology linked to frameworks from existing research. The role is viewed through a role theory perspective and put into context by understanding existing research on the role itself and relevant areas of the career, strategic leadership and management literatures. The uniqueness of this research is to understand how individuals take up the challenge of role duality; there is a need to comprehend how individuals perceive the clinical role and the strategic leadership role in equal measure. This approach drives the methodology and the design of interviews as the main source of data. The findings are many with new insights and confirmation of some existing understanding of how role duality is taken up and the differences and similarities between the two main elements of the dual role. The different approaches to taking up the dual role within and across the trusts are seen as clustering around two dimensions, taking charge and managerial alignment. Consequences of the different approaches range ftom a possibility of failure or being ineffective, to a gradual development of the service and the development and delivery of the organisation's strategy.
Open Access
The role of numbers, power and status of female corporate directors on gender diversity below the board
(Cranfield University, 2022-09) Tessaro, Michelle; Vinnicombe, Sue; Turnbull James, Kim
This thesis explores the relationship between women on corporate boards and the representation of women in the two senior levels below the board. During the past twenty years there has been considerable efforts to improve the numbers of women in leadership roles. While there has been significant progress in developing a critical mass of WoB, it has not had the anticipated effect of improved gender diversity below the board, where progress has been slow and has yielded inconsistent results. Drawing on data from UK FTSE100 companies, this research moves beyond the trickle-down effect related to critical mass theory and incorporates the constructs of power and status to examine the relationship of women on boards and women in the executive levels. The findings suggest that it is the confluence of women on boards in their numbers, and in positions of power and status that drives gender diversity below the board. This thesis makes a number of contributions to knowledge. Taking a configurational approach using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), was a departure from previous research which has mostly relied on the use of traditional regression analysis. Instead, a QCA embraces casual complexity using a comparative case-based method to systematically analyze configurations of conditions and outcomes. The use of this methodology was important in developing two theoretical contributions. First, it allowed for a more complex analysis, incorporating the theoretical lens of power and status and women’s numerical representation to examine the impact of the gender composition of corporate boards on gender diversity below the board. The findings provide empirical evidence that a critical mass of women is not enough on its own to activate trickle-down mechanism as it is neither necessary nor sufficient in its association with improved gender diversity in the executive levels. Instead, a multi theoretic approach results in strong empirical evidence that female directors on corporate boards, when represented in their numbers, power and status, indicate gender integrated boards and gender integrated boards are key to consistently activating the trickle-down effect. This research also facilitated the development of a board evolution model. Although speculative, it provides a preliminary hypothesis describing how boards have evolved from male dominated ones to ones that are not only gender balanced but gender integrated, where women directors are present in positions of power and influence.

Browsing by Author "Turnbull James, Kim"

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