LEADERSHIP SUCCESS WITHIN A RECESSION

What Are The Traits Needed For Leadership Success Within A Recession

The University of Northampton

Northampton Business School

Successful Leadership Traits in Recession

Julie Strafford

07254589

June 2010

Supervisor: [name]

Submitted to The University of Northampton

in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of

BA(Hons) XXXXX

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1:5

Introduction5

Problem Statement6

Purpose of the Study6

Research Questions6

Aims and Objectives7

Topic Relevancy7

Limitations7

Qualitative Research8

Research Method8

Literature Selection Criteria9

Search Technique9

CHAPTER 2:10

Literature Review10

Characteristics Of A Recession10

Leadership in Recession11

From internally-focused to customer-refocused11

From Contraction to Growth12

From Risk Aversion to Opportunism13

From Isolation to Trust in Others13

From Reactive to Forward-Looking14

Organizational Challenges15

Alternative Leadership Models16

Personal Characteristics16

Leader Behaviors19

Survival: crucial but not sufficient25

Sustainable competitive advantage: adapting in the downturn26

Behavioral strategies26

Social strategies29

Reproductive/regenerative strategies29

Evolutionary strategies31

CHAPTER III31

Research Methods31

Geographically disbursed management teams32

Distributed ownership33

Talent management34

CHAPTER IV36

Research Analysis36

CHAPTER V43

Conclusion43

CHAPTER 1:

Introduction

Background

Business cycles are not a new phenomenon. Downturns and upturns have come and gone as long as economic history research knows. However, the combination of the financial crisis and the downturn of demand in globally strongly interdependent economies, erupting in 2008, is unprecedented. As firms in the Fall of 2008 began to adjust to the quite abrupt downturn of demand for their products and services, they did that in circumstances that were different from those during earlier downturns. The reorganisation of firms, of production systems and of relationships in markets during the last decades in terms of e.g. globalisation, out-sourcing strategies and strategic partnering has mainly occurred during growth periods and has served to increase interdependencies between actors.

Resource adjustments by one actor, therefore to an increasing extent, affect and are affected by adjustment activities by other actors, even those in distant locations and belonging to different industries. The severe problems in the financial sector also support our argument that business practices that were effective during earlier downturns might be less valid in the present situation. We do not aim to answer if a specific resource adjustment practice is more or less effective than another, only to contribute a conceptual framework for understanding how temporal aspects of resource adjustment are constructed by business actors in times of adversity.

By resource adjustment we mean adjustment of the quantity and quality of the firm's own resources as well as of resources supplied by other firms. Since we apply a markets-as-networks perspective on governance of “real markets”, resources controlled by one firm are, directly and indirectly, dependent on and coordinated with resources controlled by other firms. Resource adjustments by individual actors are therefore more or less explicitly coordinated with resource adjustments by other actors, that to an important extent are involved in exchange relationships.

Problem Statement

There is uncertainty about the temporal nature of this specific business cycle and therefore also of temporality of the adjustments, e.g. when, with what speed and for how long resources should be adjusted.

Purpose of the Study

Our purpose is to develop a conceptual framework to analyze temporality of strategic actions aimed at resource adjustments in times of widespread economic adversity (financial crisis and economic recession) and to discuss research and management implications related to this conceptual framework. The disposition of the paper is as ...