Leadership and local development: Dimensions of leadership in four Central Queensland towns

Journal o! Rural Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 113-125. 1996 Copyright ~) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved 0743-(1167/96 $15.00 + ().(X)

Pergamon

0743-0167(95)00052-6

Leadership and Local Development: Dimensions of Leadership in Four Central Queensland Towns Tony Sorensen and Roger Epps Department of Geography and Planning, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia

Abstract - - Effective community leadership is increasingly recognised in Australia, as elsewhere, as an important contributor to local economic and social development. This article examines the nature of community leadership in four Central Queensland towns as part of a wider project to test the links between it and the pace and form of local development. Empirical data on leadership questions were collected from in-depth interviews with prominent local individuals. The resulting information enables a comparison of the quality and depth of leadership present in each of the towns. The capabilities of key leaders are assessed on the basis of four leadership functions and eight variables representing personal attributes. In addition, the authors develop, and in turn evaluate, a set of a priori propositions about the exercise of leadership in small Australian country towns. The information provided and its subsequent analysis reveal that leaders' backgrounds, styles and abilities vary substantially between the four towns studied and are changing for a variety of reasons. Copyright (~) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd Introduction

Several recent studies, particularly in Europe and North America, have demonstrated the important role that community leaders can play in regional economic development [for example the edited collections of Judd and Parkinson, 1990; Pigg, 1991 ; Bowler et al., 1992 (especially the chapter by Everitt and Annis); Gittell, 1990; Humphrey and Wilkinson, 1993; O'Brien et al., 1991]. Yet the leadership question, and its importance for community development, has received little attention in Australia, despite considerable attention being focused on the issue of local economic development. Instead, the focus is on local employment initiatives (LEIs) and especially the role of infrastructure provision, information supply, business advisory services, the availability of capital, and the responsibilities of various tiers of government to provide subsidies of one kind or another (see, for example, the chapters by Vipond, Taylor and Garlick, and Harris in Higgins and Zagorski, 1989, and the contributions to Conroy, 1987). This line of thinking is also prominent in the NSW government's recently released and innovative Statement on Regional Development (1994). In contrast, there is an emergent body of sociological literature concerned with the way in

which rural communities function (Gray, 1991: Montague, 1981; Wild, 1974). They examine how classes, interest groups and personalities, holding varying degrees of power, combine to influence community affairs - - including matters affecting local development. In short, economic development is regarded largely as a management exercise in which the application of relevant formulae and technical strategies is a strong pointer to success. If there is a leadership, rather than management, role the task is seen as falling to facilitators, experts hired to galvanise a community and its businesses, actual or incipient, into realisation of their full potential. Yet there is strong anecdotal evidence of a direct link between the quality of more general community leadership and the pace and form of local development. This was recognised by the recent McKinsey (1994) Report which was one of the first Australian public documents to recognise explicitly the potential importance of leadership in regional development. The important distinction between leadership and management is treated later. The reason why the subject has not received much analytical attention lies in (a) the difficulty of 113

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Tony Sorensen and Roger Epps

defining what we mean by the term leadership, (b) difficulties inherent in measuring leadership quality, (c) the problem of separating managerial competence from the rather more diffuse concept of leadership, and (d) the problem of disentangling leadership effects from the general run of economic and social processes. These issues are much the same as the reasons why economists find it difficult to factor invention, innovation and entrepreneurship into their analyses. This article reports on part of a project, in which the authors are currently involved, that seeks to investigate the links between leadership and local economic development in small Australian country towns. It focuses on the nature of community leadership in four towns located in a Central Queensland study area: Barcaldine, Blackall, Longreach, and Winton. We start by discussing briefly the issue of leadership before explaining in more detail the purpose and methods of the study and some of its findings.

On leadership To quote Byrt (1978, p. 3), leadership is an 'imprecise, general, emotional, value laden term such as justice, democracy, sin and virtue', and therefore subject to considerable misconception. It is seen variously as a process, an outcome, and as a collection of personal attributes. Popular perception sees the leader as a forceful and dynamic personality who really leads from the front; an architect and implementer of strategy; a mediator in conflict situations; an integrator who assures the climate of the organisation; a person able to motivate subordinates and who, by persuasion, compulsion, or example to others, succeeds in getting others to follow the leader's wishes. In this regard, leadership is a process. Yet we often define leaders as persons who successfully attain desirable goals or possess a desirable collection of personality traits. Even this picture is inadequate. Leadership need not be successful in its outcome; nor is it associated with one specific set of personal characteristics. There are many possible styles of leadership ranging from the authoritarian to the democratic and the former is probably inappropriate to modern market economies where citizens demand an increasing say in the affairs of government. It is also unlikely that any one individual has ever performed the full range of leadership tasks simultaneously. In fact, it is impossible to produce a list of personality traits which, if possessed, make a successful leader. Byrt (1978, p. 10) points out that some of the most successful leaders have been neurotic, insane, epi-

leptic, narrow-minded, unjust or authoritarian. These contrast starkly with the more usual list: honesty, intelligence, objectivity, energy, sanity, unselfishness, ability to communicate and listen, sound judgement, strong will-power, courage, flexibility of mind, and integrity. To these, we can add knowledge of the task; the situation; the group; and oneself (Hodgkinson, 1983, p. 197). Some consensus seems to have emerged that intelligence, knowledge (in the sense defined by Hodgkinson), energy, and especially communication may be the most important personal characteristics of the effective leader. Intelligence concerns the ability to carry out tasks involving facts and principles, the application of such facts and principles in new situations, the invention or discovery of relations between existing facts and other similar tasks. Communicators are able to express their ideas, views, orders, and advice on particular matters in terms which will be intelligible to, and acceptable by, those to whom they are attempting to provide leadership. To Hodgkinson, morality is also very important: ~there is a moral order in the universe: adherence to it strengthens, departure from it weakens [the leader]' (Hodgkinson, 1983, p. 229). Chemers (1984, p. 95) also notes that it is important for the leader's traits to be consistent with those of their followers and with the task at hand. If we consider leadership in a local development context, it is tempting to define it as the capacity of an individual (or possibly a small group) to accelerate the pace of local growth by: • developing a clear and practical vision of the future that leads, inter alia, to a well reasoned and integrated set of goals, • enlisting the strong long-term support of key community groups for the vision and its related goals, and • motivating key actors in the community to deliver the strategy's main components - - infrastructure, investment, quality management and so on. Thus leaders may be involved in many tasks: the development of strategy; the articulation of ideas and philosophy; creation of image; decision-making; management of subordinates; conflict management; and administration. In democratic societies, these processes require a high level of knowledge, analytical ability, and inter-personal skills - - especially the ability to motivate and communicate. Realistically, leaders rarely perform more than one or two roles effectively, not least because of the wide range of tasks, skills and personal attributes involved and shortage of time in which to arrive at decisions.

115

Leadership and Local Development Thus leaders, especially those concerned with economic and social development, tend to be of two types: legitimizers (prominent citizens with prestige) or effectors (professionals or technicians), though the leaders of small communities may combine these roles. Leadership is also something more: it is the means to impart spirit, flair, vision and art to administation. Indeed, it is these attributes that distinguish leadership from mere management, which comprises the application of science and reason to decision-making. According to Hunt, 'managers are necessary, but leaders are essential' (in Byrt, 1978, p. 5).

Study methods The study area

The study, as noted earlier, aims to explore, via k)ur case studies, the general proposition that the quality of community leadership may be a crucial factor in local economic development. The authors chose a group of small service centres - - defined for the purpose of this exercise as settlements with populations less than 5000 - - located in central Queensland: Blackall, Barcaldine, Winton, and Longreach.

LOCALITY MAP

N NSLAND

0 I

!

400 ,

MT. ISA

Charlevilh

Figure 1. Location of the study area.

Ailes

km I

116

Tony Sorensen and Roger Epps

These towns and the areas they administer are shown in Fig. 1. The attraction of these four localities is that they are known to have rather different development trajectories, though they are fairly similar in size, function and the nature of their regional economies. They are also located reasonably close to one another and their economic base lies primarily in serving the region's extensive pastorial industries. No other major competing service centres have a major impact on the region: Rockhampton is 700 km to the east; Mt Isa, 400 km to the northwest; and T o o w o o m b a , 800 km to the southeast. Moreover, each of the towns has a limited range of economic, social and environmental resources, much like the great bulk of Australia's rural service centres. A cluster analysis, based on 35 economic variables for all 1489 of Australia's rural settlements in 1986 (Sorensen, 1993), interestingly groups all four small Central Queensland settlements (see Table 1 for their population size) with such major regional centres as Dubbo, Launceston, Northam and Bendigo, even though the latter perform high level service functions and have populations ranging up to 70,000. Such places typically: • deliver regional health-care and education services, • house the regional offices of Federal and State government departments, • provide a range of recreational, cultural and sporting venues, • host a variety of light industries oriented to construction and servicing local primary production, and • delivery a reasonable range of retail and commercial services. The reason why the central Queensland centres can

do all this on such small populations lies in the great distances, sparse populations, and extensive agricultural production involved, and in governments' inclination to make their services accessible despite high cost. Despite their functional similarity, these towns have experienced clearly different growth patterns (Table 1). The towns of Longreach and, to a lesser extent, Blackall and Barcaldine prospered moderately in the 5 years to 1991. Winton performed poorly. This is the reverse of the previous decade when Winton was the only town and shire to grow, while Longreach and Blackall suffered a moderate population contraction. Overall research approach

The project, in essence, attempts to explain these differences, focusing in particular on the quality of local civic leadership. Given similarities in function (in 1986 at the start of the study period), environment, location, economy, resources and even climate, the differences are intriguing. These similarities should be critical in helping us to separate out leadership considerations from mainstream economic events: in effect they will help control many of the factors that influence local development. The study has several stages. One, that need not detain us here, is to document local economic change during the last inter-censal period with the ultimate aim of distinguishing the part resulting from 'autonomous factors' and a residual that reflects 'local inputs'. The autonomous factors include state and federal policy impacts, macro-economic and macro-social events, and such environmental considerations as drought (see Sorensen and Epps, 1993 for a detailed statement of the kinds of processes at work). Naturally, a principal local input will be the quality of community leadership.

Table 1. Population growth in Central Queensland towns, 1976-1991

Place Barcaldine (S) Blackall (S) Longreach (S) Winton (S)

1976

1981

1986

1991

Population Per cent Per cent change change 1976-1986 1986-1991

1780

1783

1779

1813

-0.1

+1.9

1443

n.a.

1427

1530

-1.1

+7.2

2160

2223

2070

2045

-4.2

- 1.2

1618

n.a.

1497

1578

-7.0

+5.4

4052

3846

3871

4369

-4.5

+ 12.9

3354

n.a.

3159

3607

-5.8

+14.2

1938

1995

1986

1877

+2.5

-5.5

1275

n.a.

1281

1156

+0.5

-9.8

n.a., not available.

Figures in italics are for the main urban centre in the respective shires. Sources: ABS 2730.3, Census Counts for Small Areas, Queensland; ABS Census

Data 1976, 1981.

Leadership and Local Development The second step, which is the subject of this article, is to survey the attributes and quality of local leadership. It was anticipated, a priori, that leadership in small communities tends to come from local government rather than the business or welfare sectors. This reflects: • the lack of a strong commercial sector and the wider public institutions that provide an alternative leadership focus in larger centres. Contrast this situation with Sbragia's (1990) findings about the role played by such an institution as CarnegieMellon University in the revival of Pittsburgh (see also the work of Logan and Molotch, 1987), • the fact that local government has what Wildavsky (1976) calls 'officiality' - - the holding of legal authority. It is also responsible for much of the infrastructure necessary for business survival. Moreover, councils are elected, and individual councillors represent, and gain strength from, the community in a way that no business person ever can, • the numerous small almost undifferentiated communities among which only exceptional development activity is likely to generate results - - meaning high quality leadership, and • the wider development path required in small places, incorporating such aspects as a sense of community, environmental improvement, and the development of social and cultural facilities. Only local government can adopt this role. This view of government's role is supported by Luke et al. (1988, p. 16) who conclude that: Leadership is critical not only as a catalyst in promoting long-term economic growth, but to bring together the myriad key actors: business representatives, community and political leaders, and leaders from non-profit organisations.., without active leadership in the public sector, even the best conceived economic policy or set of policies can eventually undermine the efficacy of a strategic long-term view' (authors" emphasis).

For all these reasons, a primary target of data gathering was senior councillors and local government officials. However, it is just possible that this analysis about leadership in small communities is wrong and that leaders spring from other backgrounds. In view of the earlier analysis of the nature of leadership, the study tests the following propositions about leadership approaches in the small country towns examined. 1. That leadership will come from a single prominent individual, or at the most two such people. 2. That the personal traits of local leaders will not fit a single mould.

117

3. That the leader's primary roles may vary from that of architect, through to mediator, integrator, communicator, motivator, or some combination of these. 4. That the styles of individual leaders will vary considerably from one to another. For example, some may be consultative while others are more authoritarian. 5. That leaders may be legitimizers or effectors or both. 6. That, notwithstanding items 2 to 4 above, all leaders will tend to be knowledgeable about local development processes and opportunities, have good analytical ability and inter-personal skills, and be energetic. 7. That, moreover, all leaders will have a clear vision of the future and a related set of practical goals, and will attempt to enlist the support of, and to motivate, key players in their communities. These questions are concerned collectively with how leadership is exercised rather than its outcome. That comes later. The focus is also on the degree of variation or similarity in leadership approaches in the communities surveyed. The third step in the project, not considered here will be to reconcile local economic performance with two things: the approach to leadership displayed, and the degree of effort put in to the task by the leaders. In other words, the aim is to test leadership effectiveness. To do this, the researchers will match the scale and type of residual d e v e l o p m e n t in each place with the style of local civic (or c o m m u n i t y ) leadership. This task is essentially qualitative.

Clartfving leadership and leaders The first task was to identify people who are widely regarded in their communities as playing a prominent leadership role. To do this, a wide range of people were interviewed, including elected or salaried council officials, media representatives (press and radio), business owners or managers, professional workers, social and community workers, senior representatives of state government departments, and people in the Remote Area Planning and Development Board ( R A P D B ) located in Longreach. The interviews were conducted over two visits to the region. The first, in September 1993, was for reconnaissance purposes and the interviews were informal or only loosely structured. The second visit in March 1994 yielded a series of formal structured interviews with leading citizens identified during the first visit or subsequently added to the list.

118

Tony Sorensen and Roger Epps

These interviews identified numerous people who performed a leading role in each town. However, relatively few were consistently mentioned as playing a major role by virtue of occupying a position of great authority, exercising high level leadership skills, and/or achieving significant benefits for the whole community. Many prominent people play a less significant, though nevertheless valuable, role through their tireless contribution to running clubs, societies, and community services. However, their activities are often administrative and activist in kind. If leadership functions are involved, they are focused narrowly on the group rather than the community as a whole. Such prominent people were excluded from the analysis. Obviously, there is a fine line between social activist and community leader. The former can assume the mantle of the latter by (1) involvement in a large range of activities that affect most of the community in one way or another, or (2) emphasising the leadership component of their task. In order to circumvent this definitional difficulty, the researchers adopted a two stage strategy. First, they identified four leadership functions primarily on the basis of the relevant literature: 1. To formulate a realistic vision of the community's economic and social development. (In the case of small country towns, whose development potential is often limited, the vision could encompass such 'negative' aims as preventing further population or service decline.) 2. To achieve a high level of community acceptance of, if not active commitment to, the vision. (Acceptance may often be only passive, whereas commitment implies active support. A true leader will neutralise most active opposition.) 3. To motivate key community business-persons, administrators, and social activists to work systematically and in a coordinated way towards the vision. (Of course, leaders may also gain an element of 'psychic income' from their exercise of authority), and 4. To lead by example. (Leaders should be identified personally with a series of achievements that are consistent with their vision. This vindicates their judgement and assists in tasks 1 to 3.) These criteria served to clarify in the researchers' minds the high qualities expected of ideal community leadership. The second stage involved testing the practical applicability of this standard. This was achieved by starting the interview schedule with a question that sought respondents' definitions of the leadership task. Replies tended to confirm the list of four functions, though few respondents mentioned them all. Thus there is reasonable correlation

between the authors' assessment of leadership functions and capacities and the respondents' own appreciation of what leadership involves. On top of these functions, the researchers identify eight principal personal attributes that assist in the performance of leadership functions: 1.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

8.

- - ability to understand and reason through regional problems. Knowledge of regional problems, their causes, and potential solutions. Respect - - the extent to which an individual can win the community's estimation or admiration. Resources - - sufficient finance and time to perform a leadership role. Energy - - ability to expend considerable (necessary) effort on the leadership task. Originality - - ability to bring new perspectives to bear on local problems. Persuasiveness - - which may result from some combination of position, eloquence, fear, inducement, or ability to simplify arguments for general consumption. Synoptic thinking - - ability to see the big picture. Intelligence

Unlike the leadership functions, this ex post facto list of personal attributes combines ideas taken from the literature and respondents' remarks during the survey. Although the survey confirmed many key leadership attributes noted in the literature, the list represents a considerable distillation of the total range of dimensions possible. In particular, little can be said about leaders' morality and many criteria concerning their intellectual capacities or style are also something of a closed book. This may reflect the difficulty of eliciting information about these concepts from respondents who sometimes had limited verbal skills or understanding of the leadership task. For the moment, the researchers feel that these omissions do not detract seriously from the picture they are about to portray. The investigations just described sought to identify current leaders. However, the discussions and interviews conducted inevitably focused on the changing leadership picture over recent years. It appears that community leadership has changed only slowly in the four towns whose social structures are essentially conservative. This confirms Gray's (1991) observations for Cowra in the New South Wales Central West. Prominent leaders were therefore identified mainly by their peers. A combination of crosscorroboration between the interviewees and the researchers' own observations creates the impression that those people assigned to a senior leadership role make the list for good reason. It is difficult for the reader to test this judgement

Leadership and Local Development independently, for the study undertook not to divulge the identities of particular people.

Conducting the interviews The authors interviewed in depth 45 key people in the four towns in March 1994. They were selected on the basis of their prominent role in the community - - which should enable them to judge leadership style and ability. Some turned out to be significant leaders in their own right. The interviews varied in length and ranged from about half to one and a half hours depending upon the subject's knowledge, experiences, eloquence, and willingness to talk. A formal interview schedule was employed to help ensure that respondents answered a uniform slate of questions that were posed in similar ways. Where necessary, supplementary questions were asked to clarify statements made by the interviewee or to amplify interesting lines of discussion that were opened up. Obviously, respondents sometimes unwittingly re-arranged the order of questions by anticipating subsequent questions. Where possible, interviews were conducted by both researchers face to face with the interviewee. However, several interviews (in Blackall and Longreach) were conducted by telephone because the subjects were trapped by the extensive flood-waters that isolated parts of Central Queensland in March or was otherwise unavailable. Much of the resulting information is qualitative, but its authenticity is substantiated by frequent crosscorroboration from various respondents. The respondents were not necessarily restricted to commenting about leaders in their own towns. The people identified by the researchers as significant leaders often interact with each other at regional meetings and made apparently perceptive observations that added to the overall picture. The resulting comments, facts and opinions, which rarely conflicted, were subsequently tabulated. At this stage additional qualitative evidence based on respondents' general remarks or the researchers' direct observations was admitted. This only occurred where both researchers agreed to do so. This procedure identified 23 significant leaders in the four towns. To facilitate analysis, these leaders were assigned notional scores from '0' to '3' on all four Leadership Function and eight Leadership Input (personal attributes and qualities) variables. (0 = no great ability; 1 = moderate ability; 2 = good ability; 3 = first class ability). The scores were tabulated (Table 2). This creates an impression of: • the ranking of each leader (on leadership func-

119

tions and inputs (or characteristics) separately; and on total score) • 'leadership intensity' in the towns, and • the average score for the leaders in each town (and in the region as a whole) for all 12 variables separately and in total. Such impressions are augmented by qualitative observations about how the leadership in the towns works together, if at all, and the way in which matters are currently changing.

Leadership patterns in four Central Queensland towns Statement of results As noted earlier, we are interested here in overall patterns, not in the names of particular individuals. The authors also restrict their discussion to people who appear to perform a high level community leadership role. The criteria for a person's inclusion on the list were reputational: mention by at least two interviewees in their home town; and comments to the effect that they were leaders. Blackall's leaders score substantially higher across all 12 variables than the other towns, with Barcaldine and Winton at the tail of the field (see Fig. 2). However, Blackall, like Winton, has fewer important leaders than the two other centres (refer to Table 2, Fig. 3). Blackall's advantage comes mainly from the uniformly high scores recorded by its leaders in the performance of the four leadership functions (Fig. 4). The town's average entry in this part of the matrix (Table 2) is over 2.5 (with 3 as top). Although they also perform well on the 'Input' side (i.e. personal characteristics), Blackall's leaders are nowhere near as far ahead as the rest on this dimension, except in the area of 'resources'. Many of them are connected with the land which permits greater flexibility in the use of time and may, in better seasons, give a degree of financial independence. When the 23 key leaders are ranked by their gross scores on the 12 variables (the highest gross score ranks 1), Blackall's advantage is much more pronounced (Fig. 5). It's average rank of 4.8 is far ahead of Longreach (11.3), Winton (12), and Barcaldine (15). In terms of gross 'leadership mass', Longreach comes out on top (170) followed by Barcaldine (150), Blackall (144) and Winton on 85 (Table 2). This, in many respects, mirrors the researchers' a priori expectations based on casual knowledge about the towns. Clearly, however, this does not reflect the quality of the leadership present in the various

120

T o n y S o r e n s e n a n d R o g e r Epps Table 2. Leadership profiles of four Central Queensland towns - - continued opposite Leadership attributes* Leadership functions+

Town Barealdine

Blackall

Number of key leaders identified 7

5

Criterion 4 Example & judgement

Subtotal

Leader

Criterion 1 Vision§

Criterion 2 Acceptance

Criterion 3 Motivation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1 2 I [ 2 2 2

1 2 3 2 1 1 2

1 1 2 1 2 2 1

Barcaldine Average

I1 1.6

12 1.7

10 1.4

11 1.6

8 9 I(1 II 12

2 3 3 3 2

3 2 2 3 3

2 2 3 3 2

3 2 2 3 3

Blacka[I Average

13 2.6

13 2.6

12 2.4

13 2.6

1

4

2 3

7 9

1 1

5 6

2

7

1

6 44 6.3 1.6¶

10 9 1(I 112 10 51 1(I.2 2.6

Longreach

Winton

7

4

13 14 15 16 17 18 19

3 3 1 2 1 2 3

l 1 2 2 2 2 3

2 2 1 2 1 2 3

1 1 [ 2 1 2

Longreach Average

15 2.1

13 1.9

13 1.9

ll

2(I 21 22 23

2 2 1 1

2 2 1 2

2 2 0 2

2 2 0 3

8 8 2 8

6 1.5

7 1.8

6 1.5

7

26 6.5

Winton Average

3 1.6

1.8

7 7 5 8 5 8

12 52 7.4 1.9

1.6

All towns Average

45 2.0

45 2.0

41 1.8

42 1.8

173 1.9

~:iLeadership attributes are divided into Leadership functions and Leadership inputs. +There are four Leadership functions: ability to define a realistic vision; ability to win general community acceptance; ability to motivate key government, community and business identities; and ability to set an example through good judgement and achievements. SThere are eight Leadership inputs, Three require elaboration. 'Respect' refers to the person's ability to engender respect from others; 'Resources' include the time and money available to enable the leader to function effectively; 'Synoptic' refers to the leader's ability to see 'the big picture' in an integrated way.

places. N o t e that L o n g r e a c h ' s scores are assisted greatly by o n e first rate leader who, t h o u g h n o w retired, o b t a i n s the r e g i o n ' s highest r a n k i n g . T h e source of the r e g i o n ' s quality leadership is not, with o n e e x c e p t i o n , from the peak of local g o v e r n m e n t (the position of Shire C h a i r p e r s o n ) , although several of the 23 leaders had b e e n elected m e m b e r s of council. This was totally u n e x p e c t e d a n d suggests that local g o v e r n m e n t may have t r o u b l e either a t t r a c t i n g quality c a n d i d a t e s or allowing t h e m to

reach positions of influence. A l t e r n a t i v e l y , ideas a b o u t the i m p o r t a n c e of local g o v e r n m e n t as a source of c o m m u n i t y leadership may be o v e r s t a t e d in very small towns. C o n v e r s e l y , the i m p o r t a n c e of self-interest m a y be u n d e r - r a t e d . T h e o c c u p a t i o n a l b a c k g r o u n d s of leaders is very diverse a n d tends to differ b e t w e e n the towns. A t first this surprised the researchers. W i n t o n ' s leaders generally have a business b a c k g r o u n d ; B a r c a l d i n e ' s t e n d to come from the professional a n d service sectors; Longreach's come from a wide variety of o c c u p a t i o n a l

Leadership and Local D e v e l o p m e n t

121

Table 2. Continued Leadership attributes* Leadership inputs$ Total Criterion 3 Criterion 4 Criterion 5 Criterion 6 Criterion 7 Knowledge Respect Resources Energy Originality Persuasiveness

Criterion 8 Synoptic

Subtotal

(by leader)

Rank (all towns)¶

1 2 1

13 15 15 13 16 19 15

17 22 24 18 22 26 21

21 13 12 2O 13 8 18

11 1.6

1116 15.1 1.9

1511 21.4 1.8

1(15 15.0

2

17 19 19 22 16

27 29 29 34 26

7 4 3 2 8

144 28.8 2.4

24 4.8

Criterion I Intelligence

Criterion 2

2 2 2 "~ 3 3 3

2 2 2 "~ 2 2 2

2 2 2 "~ 2 2 2

2 1 2 "? 1 ~ I

2 2 3 "~ 2 3 2

I

1

I

2 3 2

2 2 1

"~ 2 2

18 2.6

14 2.0

14 2.0

11 1.6

16 2.3

11 1.6

I1 1.6

2 3 3 3 3

2 2 2 3 ~

3 3 2 2 ~

3 3 2 2 2

2 2 3 3 9

1 2 2 3 ~

2 2 2 3 ~

3 3 1

14 2.8

11 2.2

12 2.4

12 2.4

12 2.4

111 2

11

11

2.2

2.2

93 18.6 2.3

3 3 2 2 2 2 3

3 3 2 2 2 2 3

2 2 2 3 v 2 3

1 2 2 1 1 1 3

2 3 1 2 2 2 3

3 3 1 2 2 2 3

2 2 t 1 2 2 3

3 3 l 1 1 1 3

19 21 12 14 14 14 24

26 28 17 22 19 22 36

17 2.4

17 2.4

16 2.3

11 1.6

15 2.1

16 2.3

13 1.9

13 1.9

118

170 243 2.0

3 3 2 2

2 3 1 2

3 3 1 2

2 2 1 2

2 2 1 2

2 2 11 I

2 2 1 2

2 3 11 1

18 21t 7 14

26 28 9 22

8 4 23 13

11t 2.5

8 2.0

9 2.3

7 1.8

7 1.8

5 1.3

7 1.8

6 1.5

59 14.8 1.8

85 2I ,3 18

48 12.11

59 2.6

5.11 2.2

51 2.2

41 1.8

511 2.2

42 1.8

42 1.8

41 1.8

376 2.0

549 2.O

1 1 1

t 2 2

16.9 2.1

8 4 21 13 19 13 1 79 I 1.3

§ Scores range from 0 = 'no great ability' to 3 = 'first class ability'. 1 = moderate ability; 2 = good (strong) ability. IIThis column ranks the total scores for all 23 leaders shown in the previous column. It also computes average ranks for each town. Lower ranks are better. ¶The figures in italics give the average score for each town across the various leadership functions and inputs. backgrounds; and several in Blackall are associated with the land. In retrospect, this is understandable and appears to reflect to some extent the different ways in which the e c o n o m i c and social character of the towns developed over the last half century. The extent to which a town's leaders form a cohesive group also appears to differ markedly from one place to another. Winton's leadership appears to be the most atomistic, perhaps reflecting its business backgrounds and the town's s o m e w h a t frontier feel. Longreach's leadership also does not appear to be cohesive, comprising as it does people from very different backgrounds, some of w h o m appear to

have little in c o m m o n either philosophically or strategically. Leadership in the remaining towns is more closely knit, with many of Barcaldine's leaders interacting frequently with each other. Although the town's leaders may lack a little in leadership skills, their close cooperation may compensate substantially to increase their effectiveness. The leadership base in Central Queensland appears to be undergoing significant change in at least two respects: (i) there is a generational shift in that several longstanding leaders are bowing out. This is particularly

122

Tony Sorensen and Roger Epps

Winton

Longreach

Blackall

Barcaldine

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

Figure 2. Average total score on the 12 leadership attributes, by town.

Winton

Longreach Blackall Barcaldine 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Figure 3. N u m b e r of leaders identified in each town.

3.0

2.5

2.0 • Barcaldine • Blackall • Longreach BW nton

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0 1

2

:3

4

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Figure 4. Average leader score on the 12 attributes, by town.

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Leadership and Local Development

Winton

Longreach

Blackall

m

Barcaldine

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

Average Rank (a lower figure Indicates • higher rank of leader)

Figure 5. Average rank of leaders in each town.

noticeable in Longreach and Barcaldine; perhaps a little less so in Blackall, and (ii) the pool of leadership is diversifying towards professional and service personnel. Traditional landed and business leaders, who often still play a prominent role in their communities, increasingly have less of the necessary time and capital required to perform the leadership task well. Some of the region's most effective leaders appear to have strong extra-regional connections. These take two principal forms: • the presence of helpful contacts, especially in state government, who assist communities with funding for infrastructure of social projects and with dissemination of information about local conditions and needs; and • knowledge about current economic and social processes in the wider world. The entire corpus of economic development literature suggests that this is crucial both for the perception of realistic opportunity and the development of strategy to achieve it. This situation is consistent with McGranahan (1984) and O'Brien et al. (1991) who suggest that external contacts are indispensable for rural development. O'Brien et al. (1991) also conclude that female leadership participation is positively associated with community viability. Given that many of the externally oriented leaders, especially in Blackall, were women, one might conclude that centre had a more favourable prognosis than Winton where the authors identified no key female leaders. Indeed, three out of Blackall's five key leaders, or 60%, were women compared with just over 25% in the study area as a whole.

O'Brien and Hassinger's (1992) conclusions confirmed Merton's (1957) suggestion that leaders with a strong sense of fit with their communities may find it difficult to establish strong extra-local links. The researchers' observations do not confirm this. Well accepted leaders in all towns had considerable external ties. Perhaps Australian country regions with their strong export focus and dependence on decision-making in remote capital cities cannot afford to be as parochial as their U.S. counterparts.

Interpretation of the findings The most obvious conclusion that can be drawn from this description of leadership is that the conditions in the four towns, both at present and in the recent past, are very different. Of course one cannot say, from a sample of four, whether any of the models is more typical of rural Australia than the others. The second conclusion is to falsify the first leadership proposition stated previously. The leadership in all the towns was heavily decentralised rather than vested in a single individual, though that was the Longreach model for many years until the late 1980s. Much of the information testifies to the accuracy of the second, third and fourth propositions. The personal traits of local leaders tend not to fit a single mould, partly because they come from very divergent backgrounds and, maybe, because the pool of potential leaders is rather small. The study did indeed find architects, mediators, integrators, communicators, and motivators, though very few individuals, if any, came close to performing all these roles together. Certainly, leadership styles varied considerably. Some (particularly in Bar-

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Tony Sorensen and Roger Epps

caldine and Blackall) were consultative, while others are more authoritarian. Those in government, especially local government, tended to be more consultative than private individuals who demonstrated their leadership capacity through tangible accomplishments like jobs, services, or facilities. There is a strong impression that consultative leaders (legitimisers who lend primarily their status and authority to the activities of others) are less effectual than those who are doers (or effectors). These two approaches are in no way incompatible: one supplements the other. Uncertainty surrounds proposition 6. As a group, the leaders appeared to be intelligent, knowledgeable, energetic, and capable of earning respect. Their originality, persuasiveness, and synoptic thinking were less impressive. Weakness in the latter criteria may reflect geographical remoteness, relative lack of external contacts and the conservativeness of people living in the region. However, these are crucial issues in the development of effective regional development strategies. Proposition 7 is dubious. Many leaders did not have a clear (and realistic) vision of the future that they were attempting to translate into action. Where they did, the focus was rather narrow - - on the provision of this or that facility. Synoptic and community-wide strategies scarcely existed, even among the most effective leaders. Apart from this brief commentary on the seven propositions, there are some other aspects of

community leadership that warrant comment as a whole (where information is missing) or individually (where it is available). These are shown in Table 3, and include a range of matters not usually emphasised in leadership analysis. These added dimensions frequently emerged during discussion and supplement neatly the picture being portrayed. The culture of rural Australia could be especially important, given that the ways in which people interact (or respond to each other) are bound by fairly rigid formalities that are now only slowly breaking down: for example, traditions of seniority, respect, dominance of landed interests, conservatism (and patriotism), suspicion of outsiders, and divisions between town and bush. On a different plain, leadership potential could be heavily influenced by the ways in which leaders relate to each other, the length of time they have been working together, the competition of alternative leaders (strong competition may increase the pressure to perform), how they came to assume a leadership mantle, and their links with the outside world. See O'Brien and Hassinger (1992) for mention of several of these items. Available information on these dimensions is sketchy. One can say for certain that spiralists (Montague, 1981) play a very limited role in community leadership - - and then only in narrowly focused ways through social clubs and the like. It seems clear, too, that leaders' activities should not breach conventional behaviour, especially as most

Table 3. Attributes of Central Queensland leadership Socio-economic dimensions of leadership 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Town Business/farming Business/farming Private sector Self-educated Young Dynastic Old-established family Long-term resident Traditionalist/conservative

Country Salaried/wage-earning Community service oriented Government sector (Quango, State, Local etc.) High formal educational attainment Old Parvenu Newcomer (may be in settlement for up to 20 years) Spiralist Progressive/revolutionary

Leadership structures 11. One dominant leader 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Collective Long-established Structures stable Few alternative leaders Consensus among leaders Strong local support "Inherited' leadership Strong extra-regional connections Effective leadership structure

Multiple leadership either: (a) Collective leadership - - formally constituted (b) Decentralised leadership - - informal relations Decentralised Recently-established Structures rapidly changing Numerous alternative leaders Conflict among leaders Divided/weak local support 'Earned' leadership Weak extra-regional connections Ineffective leadership structure

Leadership and Local D e v e l o p m e n t survey respondents identified local support as an important element in their achievements. Earlier comments in this p a p e r suggest that leadership consensus and strong extra-regional connections may be useful contributors to leadership performance, though its extent is debateable. In the authors' opinion, the way in which leaders took on the job can be an important determinant of effectiveness. In what we might call the "Louis Fourteenth' syndrome, there could be a problem where a long serving leader retires and the deputy is appointed successor out of loyalty. In this way, 'leadership' can be inherited rather than earned. Central Queensland's leadership history suggests that the strong single leadership model may be most successful, followed by a cohesive collective arrangement. Least promising is decentralised multiple leadership where vision and action are likely to be confused. Overall, the four towns in Central Queensland do have c o m p e t e n t leaders (actual, past or potential). H o w e v e r , the execution of the leadership function is generally far from perfect and it is probably correct to say that high quality leadership is rather sparse within the region. The implications of this situation for local development will be the subject of another article. There is one final observation. The study appears to reveal both important differences and similarities between overseas and Australian small town leadership experience. Further work is needed in this arena to confirm the extent to which such differences are influenced by cultural, political, environmental or geographical factors.

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