For some, the ‘great man’ theory – which attributes leadership traits to natural abilities – best explains the conundrum. For others, however, the debate leans toward the ‘development’ argument that argues for nurturing, mentoring, and teaching leaders to shepherd organisations. With the establishment of business schools across the world, the concept of what leadership entails continues to be explored and researched extensively. One of the learnings that has emerged after decades of leadership studies is a spectrum that defines the various leadership styles from heroic to facilitative – each uniquely designed and applicable according to the situation, organisation, culture, period, or context.
At GIBS, which is committed to serving, inspiring, and advancing world-class business practices across the continent and beyond, effort is made to ensure that graduating students are well equipped to challenge social and business norms – and to push themselves to be more probing. Students are encouraged to interrogate norms, while exploring alternative views.
Professor Caren Scheepers, a GIBS full-time faculty member whose teaching specialties are contextual leadership, organisational design, and gender studies, among others, believes it is important for graduating students to leave with more than just a degree. “I always tell my students that I am here to help change them, and not just to give them a degree. My duty is to help them think differently. By the time they leave campus, we would have helped them grow into better humane leaders,” she explains.
As part of the growth and development of African scholarship, she occasionally collaborates with her students to turn their academic research papers into peer-reviewed articles. Scheepers believes in harnessing knowledge produced at the university for the greater good.
A seasoned academic who also describes herself as an academic activist, Professor Scheepers is the author of seven business books, no less than 50 case studies and more than 40 academic articles. A proponent of decolonising knowledge, she is passionate about capturing South African and African indigenous knowledge, thus growing the local and continental intellectual repository. Three academic articles she has co-authored recently with her students highlight her passion for growing African scholarship. The dominant theme in all three articles is the importance of humane leadership, creating trust within the workspace, and authentic leadership.
“I was a practitioner before I went into research. What I want is for organisations to take note of these studies because they are rigorous. In the industry and in practice, there is no rigour, while in academia, we are lacking in relevance. So these will help make what we are doing on a scientific level relevant to organisations,” she notes as she explains the intention behind these academic articles.
Ubuntu leadership and participative decision-making
At its core, the premise of humane leadership is about putting people first. A leadership system fosters a culture of trust, transparency, and accountability – a space where people share ideas openly through consultation and feedback. In the article titled Authentic Leadership’s Influence on Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility in South Africa: Mediated by Participative Decision-making (2022), Prof. Scheepers and Bradley Majil’andile Nqumba explore the influence of authentic leadership on strategic corporate social investment (CSR). According to the authors, the context of this investigation is a South African business environment that is sometimes characterised by strained relationships and low trust levels.
Professor Scheepers describes her collaboration with Nqumba, an engineering professional, as a classic example of using indigenous knowledge in advancing leadership discourse. In his MBA research paper, Nqumba was deliberate in finding ubuntu values in authentic leadership. Ubuntu is a term derived from an Nguni proverb, Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu, which means you are because of others. He identifies similarities between authentic leadership and ubuntu leadership – two leadership styles that promote humanness, participative decision-making, and involve a common purpose in all human endeavour.
Getting this article published in European Business Review, however, came with some challenges, as there is no expansive measurement scale available in the academic space for measuring ubuntu leadership. This is why Prof. Scheepers says they had to use an established academic theory – in the form of authentic leadership – to underpin their argument. She is of the view that as more African students make their presentations and grow the intellectual repository, future generations of scholars will benefit from these efforts.
The results of Nqumba’s findings reveal that authentic leadership has a significant indirect effect through participative decision-making on employees’ perceptions around strategic CSR – that is, whether their corporations are genuinely socially and environmentally responsible. The research is likely to help shape how companies approach CSR.
“Participative decision-making makes people more aware of the CSR work the company is doing. Then they are likely to feel more as if they are being included in the workplace. It will also make them more positive about social responsibility,” says Prof. Scheepers.
Read the article at: https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-05-2022-0095
Bridging the trust deficit
The Covid-19 pandemic provides the backdrop for the second of Prof. Scheepers’ articles, co-authored with Schalk Visser, a telecommunications industry guru and GIBS MBA alumnus who had returned to campus to read for an MPhil in Corporate Strategy.
Their article, titled Organisational Justice Mechanisms’ Mediating Leadership Style, Cognition- and Affect-based Trust during Covid-19 in South Africa, looks into how different kinds of leadership styles – transformational and transactional – influence different components of trust. Prof. Scheepers and Visser note that one of the critical outcomes of effective leadership is trust.
They also posit that employee perceptions of trust and justice are determined by the attributes and behaviours demonstrated by their leaders in organisations. This is when leaders demonstrate to team members that they are capable of performing their duties, are authentic so that their followers experience the “real them”, and show genuine care for the people they lead.
“Many organisations believe that having procedural justice processes in place is enough to earn trust. There also has to be perception of equal administration of that procedural justice. The people in the organisation need to believe that it is handling all cases fairly and applying the processes consistently, and ensure distributive justice. There has to be some level of interpersonal trust as well. It cannot be that some people are seen to be more equal than others,” says Scheepers.
Given the context of the study, which was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, Scheepers and Visser’s findings support the notion that it is the responsibility of leaders in organisations to communicate effectively, clearly, and transparently to their followers at all times, but particularly during times of extreme uncertainty. Their research found that increased levels of perceived fairness result in the development of trust within the organisation.
Scheepers also notes that the pandemic made it possible for employee well-being to be thrust into the spotlight due to the workplace changes that ensued. Understanding people on a more interpersonal level, giving them space to participate and collaborate in decision-making, and building trust became amplified.
Read the article at: https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2021-0243
Authentic leadership in the time of a pandemic
When the Covid-19 pandemic reared its ugly head, healthcare workers, also known as frontline workers, bore the brunt of what was then an unknown disease and the mysterious SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Due to the nature of their work, they had to work under unimaginable pressure, amid great uncertainty, as they had to treat critically ill patients for prolonged periods. The pandemic burdened the healthcare system the world over, and South Africa was no different.
In their article, Effect of Authentic Leadership on Nurses’ Stress, Burnout, Presenteeism during Covid-19, published in the journal Leadership in Health Services, Prof. Scheepers and Dr. Preeadashnie Pillay probe the mental wellbeing of nurses who were working with Covid-19 positive patients. The sample was made up of nurses in the private health sector who worked at Covid-19 swab sites and who came into contact with Covid-19 patients in varying degrees.
What has come to light in the past is that stress results in emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced professional efficacy. This study confirms that authentic leadership effectively reduces job stress and burnout. The study thus provides empirical data to encourage organisations to focus on developing authentic leaders to decrease nurses’ burnout, job stress, and presenteeism.
Presenteeism refers to employees being physically present but mentally absent, resulting in disengaged employees. Furthermore, the research provides pointers to the healthcare sector to strive to create an environment where nurses are valued and their talent is recognised to increase employee engagement and commitment. According to Scheepers and Pillay, strong leadership, open communication, a focus on staff well-being, and a safe work environment are required in response to these challenges.
Read the article at: https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-10-2023-0082
In conclusion, authentic leadership is a positive leadership style that is flexible, caring and empathetic and the type of leadership that is needed in an extreme context such as the pandemic.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Authentic leadership and ubuntu leadership are two leadership styles that promote humanness, participative decision-making and involve a common purpose in all human endeavour.
- It is the responsibility of leaders in organisations to communicate effectively, clearly, and transparently to their followers at all times but particularly during times of extreme uncertainty.
- The healthcare sector should strive to create an environment that values nurses and recognises their talent to increase employee engagement and commitment.
Prof. Caren Scheepers holds a PhD in Psychology (UFS) and a Professional Certified Coaching qualification (UCT, GSB). She joined GIBS in 2007 as part-time faculty and in 2014 as full-time faculty. She lectures organisational development, strategic implementation, and contextual leadership on MBA, MPhil, and AdvDip GM programmes. Her research outputs include seven business books, 50 teaching case studies and 40 academic articles, specifically on the intersect between leadership, gender, and entrepreneurship.
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