Chapter 1 Introduction
1.3 Research Questions
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leaders in Indonesia, it is expected that this study will come up with a leadership model that suitable for decentralization in Indonesia. Moreover, the contingency factors which are assumed to affect the leader‟s behaviors during their leadership will also be examined. We believe that the findings of study can fill the gaps between the reform strategies which have been brought by the decentralization and the competencies needed to execute them.
1.3 Research Questions
There are some traits, skills and behaviors which considered affecting the leaders‟
effectiveness. This study focuses on personal integrity; the administrative and communication skills; and the influence behaviors of coalitions and exchange tactics. People‟s satisfaction towards the healthcare services, educational services and the economic growth performance will be identified. We use the people‟s satisfaction to evaluate the local government performance subjectively. The theoretical framework of this study will be discussed in chapter II as well as its hypotheses. This study tries to answer the following questions: the first question is aimed to identify the perceived leader‟s behaviors. The second question is to find out how leaders deal with the situational factors in order to realize the objectives.
Finally, the last question is to find out to what extent that leaders‟ behaviors could affect the effectiveness of government performance particularly in the poverty alleviation issue.
1. To carry on the poverty alleviation policy, do leaders perform the effective behaviors proposed? How these behaviors realized/manifested in the leadership process?
2. Did or did not situational factors affect leaders to behave towards their objectives?
How situation factors did affect leader‟s behaviors?
3. Is there correlation between the effective leader‟s behaviors and the local government performance? How the effective leader‟s behaviors affect local government performance?
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5 Chapter 2
Literature Review
In regard to the research questions proposed in the previous chapter, there are three main concepts will be discussed in order to build the framework; (1) the effective leadership behaviors, (2) the local government performance and (3) the situational factors or moderating variables. The discussion is necessary in order to define study concepts and their relationships that will leads to clear understanding about its analytical framework. The effective leader‟s behaviors in this study are considered as the explanatory variables in which manifested through the personal traits, skills and influence behaviors. It consists of personal integrity, administrative and communication skills, coalition and exchange tactics behaviors. Whereas, the response variable in this study is the local government performance, which is focused on the satisfaction towards healthcare services, educational facility's performance and the economy. Finally, the situational factor variables are threefolds: patronage practice, local financial capacity and local culture. To do the analytical discussion, the explanatory variable will be conceptualized at first; followed by the response variable and then moderating variable. Construction of hypotheses will be then provided at the end of this chapter.
2.1. Effective Leadership Behaviors of Local government Leaders
In the leadership literatures, more than 100 different definitions of leadership have been identified (Rost 1991). Despite these many definitions, a number of concepts are recognized by most people as accurately reflecting what it is to be a leader. Some of the most common ways of looking at leadership are as a trait, ability, skills, behavior, relationship and an occupation of an administrative position (P. G. Northouse 2001, Stogdill 1974, Chemers 1997). Leadership in the context of public organization is not necessarily only between leader
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and follower. In fact, leadership in public organization involves more than a single leader, more than one organization or even a few groups of people or community. It involves different actors which include the region‟s head, the parliament, the agencies, interest groups, common citizens and also other groups in example the other vertical and multilevel government organization. They share information as well as influence in order to achieve their common goals certainly based on trustworthiness. Although leadership definition has not mentioned trustworthy, particularly within the process of influencing, the leadership definition from Yukl (2002) may represent the current study definition of leadership:
The process of influencing others to understand and agree about what needs to be done and how it can be done effectively, and the process of facilitating individual and collective efforts to accomplish the shared objectives (G. Yukl 2002).
As the definitions of leadership, the conceptions of leader effectiveness differ from one scholar to another depends on how they perceive the leadership definition. Scholars who perceive leadership as traits may measure the effectiveness of leadership using the trait approach. Alternatively, scholars who perceive leadership as skills may measure the effectiveness using the skills approach. In addition, the contingency model of leadership effectiveness postulates that leadership effectiveness depends on two factors. The first factor is the degree in which the leadership situation gives the leader control and influence over the group process and group performance. Second, it reflects an attribute of the person, an aspect of the leader‟s goal or focus of concern, specifically whether the leader‟s primary goal, and the consequent primary concerns, are related to task performance or with interpersonal relationships. (Fiedler 1993).
It was mentioned previously that none of the factors (leader‟s characteristics) which are considered to contribute good performance of decentralization have been tested. Whereas, it
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7 is necessary to have a certain pattern of effective leadership in order to guide the implementation of decentralization runs effectively and efficiently. The reason of this is when the leader of decentralized region does not have the ability to perform the behaviors of effective leadership in the context of autonomous region, the implementation of decentralization could possibly fail (Abdullah 1985).
To examine the leader‟s performance, many empirical studies have focused mainly on the subordinates‟ perspective and two main facets of leadership transactional and transformational (Gadot 2007). Researchers also tend to have charisma as the concept that covers the positive attributes of an effective leadership. Whereas in the public organization affairs, leader‟s charisma was found to have some flawed consequence (Wart 2005, G. Yukl 2002) and has been considered less important when compared to leader‟s personal integrity (Abraha 2010, Olowu 2007, Lewis 2010). Certainly, personal integrity is not the only attribute that contributes leader‟s effectiveness. In fact, leaders need to equip themselves more than just positive traits. As the two case studies presented by Moore (1995) it shows that while some combination of public office skills and personal expertise might seem to qualify leaders to make the decision for society, actually the leader needs more effective influence than their current position. A leader needs to supplement their authority and effective influence if they hope to succeed in accomplishing the purposes they judge to be publicly valuable. Building support and legitimacy for a policy or of enhancing the effective claim that an official may make to the society at large, is where the political management is played. Hence, for the purpose of this study, adopting Yukl‟s definition of leadership we define the effective leadership as a successful process of influencing and facilitating others in order to accomplish the shared objective in which the leader‟s integrity, communication and administrative skills, as well as the coalition and exchange tactics had contributed its effectiveness. Accordingly, how the effective leadership defined here is actually performed?
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To correspond with the ideal leader characteristics for decentralized government expressed in the prior‟s study (Abraha 2010, Abdullah 1985, Manyak and Katono 2010, Prasojo 2011), the leader‟s personal integrity behaviors, the communication and administrative skills behaviors and the coalition and exchange tactics behaviors will be the focus. In order to link these attributes to local government performance, the conceptualization of the attributes is presented in the following discussion.
2.1.1. Traits and performance effectiveness
It appears that the traits of a successful leader indeed vary depending on time and context, across sectors and generational labels and the question of whether any leadership elements are truly timeless arises (Ahn, Ettner and Loupin 2012). For example, extraversion, openness and conscientiousness are found to be related to perceived leader‟s effectiveness (Nana and Jackson 2010) and transformational leadership (Zopiatis and Constanti 2012). Moreover, visionary was found to be the primary quality (trait) desired for the public library leader (Mullins and Linehan 2006) than other traits proposed. Further, Wood & Vilkinas (2005) found two dominant characteristics of the success of chief executive officers were achievement orientation and humanistic approach, while very little or no emphasis was placed on being inclusive, having integrity, having a balanced approach, learning and self-awareness or having an external focus. Finally, Kirkpatrick & Locke (1991) argued that honesty (and integrity) together with other traits (drive, desire to lead, self-confidence, cognitive ability and industry knowledge) will give a considerable advantage for those who displayed any of these traits. Based on the preceding discussion, we assume that in regard to public organization performance, leader‟s personality integrity does matter.
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9 Abraha (2010) assumed that positive attributes such as honesty, integrity, just, trustworthy and visionary could success the nation building of decentralized region.
Whether these traits are truly influencing the local government performance, it never been validated. Less, Blunt, et.al (2012) study illustrated the importance of integrity and honesty for a leader in order to achieve the effectiveness of local government performance in health and education sectors. By using a qualitative approach involving a combination of semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and written accounts of patronage and corruption in action relating to human resource management (HRM), Blunt, et.al found that political and bureaucratic patrons use control over recruitment, placement, transfer, and promotion as they mean to gain private benefit from public resources. For example, in one province the sum of Rp 100 million has been mentioned several times as the fee to ensure success in the civil service entrance exam. In some instances, family connections with the authority may suffice, or at least lower the price to pass/entrance examination of becoming state apparatus. Even some respondents mentioned that the Bupati (Regent) and walikota (Mayor) take the role to determine success and failure in the exam while another cited the local elected councilors as asking for a cut in the recruitment process, that is, a certain number of position reserved.
Regarding the placement of individuals in posts in particular organizations, they found that there is also a package deal whereby payment for passing the exam also incorporated the bonus of posting to a favorable job and an organization or, not to be placed in difficult areas. As consequences, the placement has led to staff were not technically competent to carry out their tasks. Even when recruits did have the basic competencies for effective job performance, their placement in favored locations led to distortions in the distribution of staff.
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Personal integrity is defined as a person‟s behavior that consistent with the espoused values (G. Yukl 2002). The behaviors are shown by the person honest, ethical and trustworthy. In addition, the integrity is a primary determinant of interpersonal trust. In the context of public organization, Wart (2005) defined personal integrity as the state of being whole and/or connected with oneself, one‟s profession and the society of which one is a member, as well as being incorruptible.
Moreover, integrity is categorized as ethical values of public-service values (Kernaghan 2003). Values are defined as enduring beliefs that influence the choices we make among available means or ends (Rokeach 1973). The values then by some countries are manifested in code of conduct which provides the principles of how public servants should perform their official duties. According to Cox, La Case and Levine (2003), integrity is doing the right thing if no one is looking, or even if others are not doing the right thing.
In our assumption, by being honest and impersonal, leaders will make decision based on rules (merit) not by favoritism or patron-client relation. Related to the employee recruitment, when there is integrity practiced in the recruitment process, the government will hire the civil officials‟ regarding to the needs. Accordingly, when the elements of the government organized correctly based on its purpose, the system will operate effectively. It also applied to personnel of government as part of the local government element that when they are placed based on their merit, the effectiveness of local government performance is plausible to achieve. Therefore, we believe that the leaders selected in this study do possess personal integrity. The personal integrity is manifested into their behaviors such as honesty, keep promise/ consistent and impersonal in order to achieve the effectiveness of poverty alleviation policy.
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11 2.1.2. Skills and performance effectiveness
Three broad categories of managerial skills –human, technical, conceptual- are related to everyday performance especially at the levels of organization. While often devalued because they are not glamorous or exciting, Northouse (2009) argued that administrative skills also play a primary role in effective leadership. Van Wart (2005) includes six skills that contribute to leader effectiveness: communication skills, social skills, influence skills, analytical skills, technical skills, continual skills and continual learning skills. Among the existing leadership skills, the communication skills have been studied more often than other skills, meanwhile the influence skills are mostly studied as the political management of the organization (Ammeter, et al. 2002).
Effective communication has been linked with satisfaction, employee performance and organizational productivity (Downs, Clampitt and Pfeiffer 1988, Shekary and Rajabian 2012). Technical skills are more important at the lower level of organization (Gugliemino & Carroll, 1979) and least important for the executives (Kotter 1982).
Less, executives in narrow functional areas such as accounting or safety compliance need significantly more technical competence than their generalist brethren such as city managers, agency directors, or executive corps members who are considered troubleshooters (Van Wart 2005, 145). Moreover, administrative skills are found to be one of the competencies which enable leaders to adapt to management turbulence and uncertain change (Ford 2010). Although it does not mention directly that the analytical skills are important for leadership effectiveness, predictive accuracy does important for the leader in the defense-related organization in order to be effective (Lucal, et al. 1992). Finally, interpersonal skills are likely considered by the member of the US Senior Executive Services as essential for successful collaboration rather than strategic thinking and strategic management (O'Leary, Choi and Gerard 2012).
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According to the preceding discussion, since the administrative skills enable leaders to adapt to management turbulence and uncertain change, have administrative skills behaviors also enabled public leaders to adapt as Ford found? Moreover, the existing studies have mentioned that the effective communication have been linked with satisfaction, employee performance and organizational productivity.
Accordingly, could effective communication of the public organization leader has a link to the organizational productivity and public satisfaction as well?
There are four sets of factors of local government performance developed by Cheema and Rondinelli (1983). The factor sets include the ability to build and maintain relationship with the member of the internal and external organization, to manage the financial allocation and how to spend and able to deal with the environmental situation that might influence the policy making process. Accordingly, being able to build and maintain relationships, we assume that the leaders must have good communication skills to support. Moreover, being able to do planning, controlling, and managing –resource expenditure- we assume that the leader must have technical skill, analytical skill as well as administrative skills to support.
The administrative skills of a leader, play a primary role in the effective leadership process. It helps leader to accomplish the mundane, but critically important aspects of showing a leadership behavior practiced. Administrative skills can be defined as those competencies a leader needs to run an organization in order to carry out the organization‟s purposes and goals. These involve planning, organizing work, assigning the right tasks to the right people and coordinating work activities (P. G.
Northouse 2009). For example, in the context of local government, to achieve the effectiveness of healthcare services, leaders should have plans to improve the quality of the healthcare services. To implement the services appropriately, the leaders
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13 organize works of the units or agencies and coordinate the activities. The most important thing for leaders in these administrative skills is that they are able to assign the right tasks to the right people. By doing these behaviors, leaders have shown their knowledge of administrative skills and once they are successful to perform this, indirectly the effectiveness of healthcare service provision performance could achieved too. Few studies can be found to illustrate the impact of how leader‟s administrative skills are practiced to achieve the effectiveness of local government performance on public organization affairs.
In the context of public organization, it is necessary for leaders to have communication competency. This competency is useful for leader in order to gain support. Coordinating, cooperating, and networking will not be effective if competency of leader to communicate the relationship is absent. Leaders who exchange information effectively through active and passive means are considered to possess the communication skills (Wart 2005). There are four aspects of communication skills: oral skills, writing skills, listening skills and non-verbal skills.
In oral skills, leaders should be able to talk with others to give and exchange information and ideas. Oral skills it takes different forms, such as speaking with individuals, small groups and large groups, and communicating via electronic media.
In addition, oral communication skills also include the ability to relay technical versus emotive messages orally. It is not the same between sending a message to do something and to inspire others. For example, leaders will be successful in organizing work and coordinate the health service units or agencies if they can maintain the clarity of messages delivered. Failure in delivering objective of messages might cause misunderstanding between the leaders and those who involved in the healthcare service achievement.
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Furthermore, writing skills are the ability to write using emails, memoranda (both information/discussion pieces and directives), reports and special-purpose documents such as performance appraisals, letters, public relation materials and written public statements. In the context of public leader, it is common for leaders, do their writings by assigning this to subordinate. For example, writing letters, documents or other materials. Hence, examining the preceding documents is not appropriate to identify the leader‟s writing skill. Nevertheless, some leaders were actively writing columns in the newspaper or magazine as their strategy to connect with the public. Nowadays, it is common for the governmental leaders to use the social networks.
A leader‟s response to people‟s comment, opinion, or grievances are part of the listening skills competency. To respond the exchanging message leader should be able to perform the non-verbal communication skill appropriately. The way leaders respond to comments will affect the perception of the people who see this. Hence, leaders should choose language or signs carefully in responding the people‟s
A leader‟s response to people‟s comment, opinion, or grievances are part of the listening skills competency. To respond the exchanging message leader should be able to perform the non-verbal communication skill appropriately. The way leaders respond to comments will affect the perception of the people who see this. Hence, leaders should choose language or signs carefully in responding the people‟s