Changed Leadership -From Wise to Compromise: The Decline of Leadership Wisdom in Modern Organizations

Abstract

This paper explores leadership challenges and problems as stemming from what is called “changed leadership†in describing the major difference existing between leadership of past and present societies. Leadership in modern society is seen as engendering more of compromise rather than wisdom, and this fundamentally constitutes a leadership challenge and can theoretically and hypothetically explain leadership problems across the board. The author believes that while leaders must lead in ways conducive to follower well-being and success, the leader’s position and roles are archetypically determined according to ideas of leadership and those who become leaders having, possessing, or acquiring more than ordinary significance through their impact and influence on others. The major differences between leadership of the past and present are explored from the perspective of leadership competences centered on responses to leadership situations and followers and the leader’s role relative to definition of what is called “wise leadership†or leadership based on the leader’s knowledge and understanding of right and wrong rather than on followers’ demands and expectations relative to fear of losing popularity (compromise leadership), or an interchanged idea of leader-follower and follower-leader roles bound in one individual as typical of leadership that demands leaders’ authentic power and knowledge relative to followers’ dictates. Citing examples of modern leaders considered to be “wise†in their positions as leaders, the author makes a philosophical comparison to the patristic conceptualization of leadership to demonstrate that wisdom in leadership is valued and constitutes the difference between leadership that transcends and leadership that only seeks to satisfy.
Keywords: Changed leadership, Compromise, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Social imperative, Leadership, Wisdom.