Strategic planning is oriented to
enhancing the bottom-line. Leadership
affects organizational performance as well.[1]
Therefore, strategic leadership, which can be defined as the formulation and
articulation of a vision depicting a social reality and incorporating strategic
aims, can enhance a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage.[2]
Strategic leadership is an intangible core competency that can give rise to a
core capability differential involving reputation.[3]
That strategic leadership is difficult to understand and therefore to imitate
contributes to its value in no small measure. But a straightforward application
of strategic leadership may be thwarted if a tension develops in its exercise. In particular, the principles behind an
enduring leadership vision can be at odds with pressing strategic interests,
especially as these profit-interests change while the abstract vision still
holds.
The full essay is at "Strategic Leadership."
[1].
J. A. Petrick and J. F. Quinn, “The Challenge of Leadership Accountability for Integrity
Capacity as a Strategic Asset,” Journal
of Business Ethics 24 (2001): 331; S. Finkelstein and D. Hambrick, Strategic Leadership: Top Executives and
Their Effects on Organizations (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1996); J. Ciulla,
“Leadership Ethics: Mapping the Territory,” Business
Ethics Quarterly, 5, no. 1(1995): 5-28; K. B. Lowe, K.G. Kroeck, and N.
Sivasubramaniam: “Effectiveness Coorelates of Transformational and
Transactional Leadership: A Meta-analytic Review of the MLQ Literature,” Leadership Quarterly 7, no. 3 (1996),
385-425.
[2].
R. D. Ireland and M.A. Hitt, “Achieving and Maintaining Strategic Competitiveness
in the 21st Century: The Role of Strategic Leadership,” Academy of Management Executive 13, no. 1
(1999): 43.
[3]. Petrick and
Quinn, “The Challenge of Leadership”; J. A. Petrick et al, “Global Leadership
Skills and Reputational Capital: Intangible Resources For Sustainable Competitive
Advantage,” Academy of Management Executive 13, no. 1(1999): 58, f.n. 2.
