A Synopsis of My Doctoral Study.

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” - Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

My decision to do a study on strategic leadership was informed by two observations. First, when I had the opportunity to work under two Rectors within the context of an educational institution, I realized that one demonstrated great leadership and the other poor leadership. Second, developments around the world in recent times are indicative of the fact that our world is losing its moral fibre, and it is heading towards a dangerous end. The malpractices of the CEOs of certain companies around the world that almost led to the collapse of the world economy; recent happenings that affected a CEO of one of the powerful financial institutions in the world; the forgery of expense claims by some law makers in certain countries; the shameful display of moral turpitude of some known political and religious leaders of our time; the ongoing civil and political and upheavals elsewhere around the world, and the selective nature and manner of responses of some world leaders to these local and regional upheavals are some of the indicators of what is wrong with leadership today. There is a strong dearth of strong ethical leadership. The failure of leadership at the top level affects majority of our people. 

A preliminary investigation showed that personality characteristics and leadership competences account for poor leadership. Despite the voluminous leadership literature, relatively little is known about critical personality attributes and competences of successful organizational leaders. Therefore, I decided to explore the anatomy of leadership (character & competence) by taking the psychological perspective of leadership, namely, that leadership is a function of the characteristics of individuals. Thus my dissertation was aimed at understanding what characteristics define successful executive leadership, how do the actions of executive leaders contribute to organization effectiveness and how can executive qualities be assessed and developed? My assumption was based on Katz and Kahn (1978) assertion that the quality of an organization’s top leaders is a critical influence on its overall effectiveness and continuing adaptability. To find answers to the above questions data were collected from chief executive officers (CEOs) of Ghana Club 100 companies utilizing e-mail and follow up face-to-face interviews. The data gathered from the interviews were manually analyzed and coded applying Moustakas' phenomenological data analysis procedures to understand the experiences and perceptions of participants.  

Conceptual complexity models, behavioural complexity models, and strategic decision-making theories of leadership constituted the theoretical framework. Some critical personality characteristics and competences that emerged from the findings included: self-discipline, personal integrity, passion, adaptability, big picture orientation, cognitive abilities and self-awareness, leadership motivation, enlist others in a common vision, challenge the process, emotional intelligence, communication skills, human relations skills and knowledge of the business. Leaders’ awareness of their own motives and emotions can assist them in finding solutions to complex problems that come their way, making quality decisions, adapting their behaviour to the circumstances, and managing personal and organizational crises. Also, executives should be more participative in their leadership style and humane in their approach towards others, especially subordinates. Thus the study provided an integrated foundation for understanding strategic leadership, particularly in Ghana, and reflected on how top leaders in service contribute towards organizational effectiveness. In consideration of this integration, business psychologists, business consultants, human resource managers and all those who work with top-level leaders now have a solid empirical body of knowledge to help them develop ways of evaluating, selecting, training, forming and developing senior leaders.

One Step at a Time

Coming out from the oral defense, an American journalist asked me, “Remy, how did you make it to the top?” My response was, “to the top of what?” It was a strategy I used in order to quickly think of an appropriate answer to give to this curious journalist. She quickly added, “To the top of the academic ladder”. 

My immediate reply now was, “One step at a time”.

 

Indeed when you think about it, that’s how most extraordinary things are accomplished. As much as you might desire it, you simply cannot leap to the "top of the ladder" at once. You can only get there by taking it one step at a time. As Margaret Thatcher once noted, “One only gets to the top of the ladder by steadily climbing up one at a time, and suddenly all sorts of powers, all sorts of abilities which you thought never belonged to you – suddenly become within your own possibility and you think, ‘Well, I’ll have a go too’”. That was exactly my experience! However, there were many times I found myself simply paralyzed by the mere scale of the challenge. I was challenged to do more with less, adapt quickly to changing circumstances, innovate on the fly, deal with extreme uncertainty, and somehow still find time for my primary apostolate, community life and socialization with friends. Sometimes it was all just too overwhelming. 

Last week (July 21-23, 2015), I finally had my doctoral oral defense, which I passed successfully. It marks the end to the most intensive period in my professional career thus far. The weeks before this very special type of final examination in European academia have been quite stressful, as I tried to prepare myself the best I could – which basically meant: I read my own dissertation over and over again. In the end, it turned out to be much more of a friendly conversation among colleagues than a classic oral examination situation. So, I can honestly say that my “viva” was a very pleasant experience; it was nowhere near any of the stories that I heard in past years about two hour long interrogations and mean spirited examiners.

And yet, a reflection on myself, people sometimes ask me, “In hindsight would you do it all over again?” And I would say: “yes, definitely!”.  Doing a doctoral project is such a multifaceted challenge, that it provides a stretch in all kinds of different directions.  At many points in time you are confronted with your own personality. In a sense, writing the doctoral dissertation has allowed me deep insights in my own behaviour and thoughts. Not only insights, but pursuing the doctoral studies has contributed to the very acceptance of myself! It allowed me to become more and more myself. 

The second question the American journalist asked me was, “What’s the most important lesson you learned from this climb?” Without hesitation, I told her, “You can’t do it alone.” No dissertation can result from sole individual effort. Certainly, mine did not. While my biography acknowledges those, whose ideas I have borrowed and built upon, here it is my privilege to thank the people who have contributed to this dissertation in obvious and less obvious ways. Special thanks go to the Almighty God, to my benefactors and sponsors, mentors, religious community, fellow brothers, colleagues, family and friends. These words are simply shorthand for my feelings of gratitude. Thank you all for your very warm congratulations!