The production of outstanding leadership — an analysis of leadership images in the Swedish media

Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

The production of outstanding leadership * an analysis of leadership images in the Swedish media Ingalill Holmberg*, Sta!an As kerblom Centre for Advanced Studies in Leadership, Stockholm School of Economics, P.O. Box 6501, 113 83, Sweden Accepted 1 February 2000

Abstract In this paper the constructive and ideological aspects of (business) journalism provide the starting point for an exploration of the images of (outstanding) leadership (re)produced in the Swedish printed media. Using an ethnographic semantics method, articles in "ve major Swedish publications during two separate weeks were scanned, selected and analysed, resulting in 853 media statements about leadership subsumed under 60 leadership categories. These statements were further categorised and analysed, resulting in 12 underlying leadership themes that together suggest a dominant implicit model of leadership. The results were found to be consistent to some extent with central aspects of a `Swedish leadership stylea as reported in previous studies, but they also gave rise to some interesting paradoxes. These paradoxes were partly resolved by introducing a distinction between leadership in a political as opposed to a business context. The analysis shows that institutional contexts seem to generate di!erent implicit models of leadership, but within the same national framework. Excellent leadership is evidently exercised and enacted as an expression of socially constructed institutions and culturally grounded values.  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Leadership; Management; Implicit theories; Culture; Sweden; Media; Business; Politics

1. Introduction For over a decade ideas about the existence of a particular Swedish leadership style have been attracting attention within the management "eld. This very notion implies that leadership is exercised in di!erent ways between countries, and that the variances

* Corresponding author. Tel.: #46-8-736-90-00; fax: #46-8-33-72-90. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (I. Holmberg), [email protected] (S.As kerblom). 0956-5221/01/$ - see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 9 5 6 - 5 2 2 1 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 3 3 - 6

68

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

derive from cultural di!erences. Based on a review of empirical studies in crosscultural management, House, Wright, and Aditya (1997) conclude that cultural di!erences account for a signi"cant amount of variance in preferred leader behaviour as well as in actual leader behaviour. They claim that culture and cultural forces `clearly a!ect many aspects of leadership such as prototypical requisites for leadership positions, the degree to which leadership roles are "lled by ascription or achievement, modal leader behaviour patterns, preferences for and expectations of leaders, and followers' reactions to di!erent kinds of leader behavioura (p. 571). One construct that explicitly links culture and the exercise of leadership is that of `implicit leadership theoriesa. This stream of theory asserts that cultural forces in#uence the implicit theories of leadership of the members of that culture. In their turn, the implicit leadership theories constrain, moderate or facilitate the exercise of leadership, the acceptance of leaders, and the perception of leaders as in#uential, acceptable, and e!ective (Lord & Maher, 1991; House et al., 1997). Meindl (1990) takes a broader view of the signi"cance of implicit theories of organisation and the role that leadership plays in people's assumptions and expectations concerning the way organisations operate or should operate. With the notion of the `Romance of Leadershipa he makes the observation that it is easier to believe in leadership than to prove it. In other words, leadership is important not because it necessarily makes a substantial di!erence to organisational outcomes, but because it is undoubtedly a signi"cant concept in the thought processes of people who address organisational issues. As recognised by many social scientists, the media is clearly an important actor in the shaping of views of social phenomena, such as leadership (e.g. McLuhan & Fiore, 1967). Other important producers of explicit and implicit leadership models are business schools or leader training institutions (Engwall, 1992; Trollestad, 1994; Sandberg, 1999), management gurus (Huczynski, 1993; Furusten, 1995), and management consultants and "rms (Czarniawska-Joerges, 1988; Brulin, 1997). According to Chen and Meindl (1991) the implicit leadership theories produced by the media are an expression of the national culture at large. The aim of this paper is to explore the images of (outstanding) leadership (re)produced by the Swedish printed media. What images are transmitted in the Swedish media? Is there a coherent whole that could be called a dominant implicit theory of leadership? And "nally, addressing the issue of the relation between culture and leadership, are the images of leadership expressed in the Swedish printed media consistent with a Swedish (work-related) culture?

2. Theoretical framework 2.1. The media as a culture producer In line with the above arguments this paper adopts a social-constructivist approach (Burr, 1995; Gergen, 1999), which focuses attention on the development and transmission processes of shared implicit (leadership) theories. A basic premise is that the understanding of leadership, as re#ected in implicit theories, is the result not only of

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

69

individual experiences, but also * and more importantly * of the interaction between individuals and social networks in the joint construction of leadership phenomena. This premise does not necessarily imply that everyone's account and contribution to these processes carries equal weight. Rather, the Orwellian approach to equality is a better representation of the implications of a constructivist approach: `all animals are equal, but some are more equal than othersa (Grint, 1997). In fact, there is convincing evidence that people's understanding of leadership is determined especially by their interactions with `social actorsa (Chen & Meindl, 1991) or `fashion settersa (Abrahamson, 1996) who a!ect the availability, salience and value of the information they receive (Salancik & Pfe!er, 1978). Previous research has shown convincingly that the media in#uence people's cognitions in a variety of ways (for a comprehensive review, see Roberts & Maccoby, 1985). The media may determine `what issues are important and set the agenda for the public debate, transmit knowledge and information, reinforce or crystallise (or change) existing beliefs, and cultivate perceptions of the nature of social realitya (Chen & Meindl, 1991, p. 521). Thus, while an apparent mission of the media is to mirror reality, e.g. by o!ering facts and information about leaders and leadership, it is obvious that it is also an important creator of that same reality through its production of a public leadership discourse. 2.2. Leadership as a cultural expression: `Swedish leadershipa A central question in all cross-cultural research concerns the de"nition of culture. The short answer is of course that there is no consensually agreed de"nition. Rather, culture is variously de"ned in terms of commonly shared processes: shared ways of thinking, feeling and reacting; shared meanings and identities; shared socially constructed environments; common ways of interpreting how technologies are used; and commonly experienced events (House et al., 1997). Despite the lack of consensus among scholars, certain common threads appear to run through the various conceptualisations and de"nitions of culture, for example that culture refers to some form of collective agreement, or to the sharing of important interpretations of entities, activities and events. Another common assertion is that cultural norms, values and beliefs are manifested linguistically, behaviourally and symbolically in the form of artefacts. Finally, culture usually refers to experiences common to its members, such as history, language, political and economic realities, religion etc (House et al., 1997). According to a common understanding of the culture concept, collective conceptions of leadership are therefore expressions of the culture at large, in which both leaders and followers are embedded. A possible Swedish leadership style would consequently be an expression of the Swedish culture. Most cross-cultural studies operationalise culture by taking national borders as approximations of culture. While this is certainly not an unproblematic approach, one advantageous characteristic of a nation is that within its borders, numerous institutions are established that deal with critical areas of every day life, for instance health care, educational institutions, law enforcement * and the media. Hofstede (1980) asserts that whatever it is about

70

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

a nation that is central to it will be replicated in the policies and practices of these institutions. Several authors have asserted the existence of a particular Swedish leadership style. Distinguishing characteristics of this style include a preference for teamwork and co-operation, a strong focus on performance (Zander, 1997; Tollgerdt-Andersson, 1989), an ability to create consensus and commitment for a certain communicated vision (JoK nsson, 1995; KaK llstroK m, 1995), acceptance of challenges and risk-taking (EdstroK m, Maccoby, Rendahl, & StroK mberg, 1985), and a preference for direct dialogue with the organisation members (EdstroK m & JoK nsson, 1998). Swedish leadership is vague and imprecise [2] a typical Swedish order is &See what you can do about it!' What does this mean? Obviously it has to do with a far-reaching delegation of authority. Managers who say &See what you can do about it!' are demonstrating their trust in their co-workers. It is also a matter of the exercise of control by a common understanding of the problem, rather than by giving direct orders. This must be regarded as a strength of the egalitarian Swedish society (EdstroK m & JoK nsson, 1998, p. 167. Original in Swedish). Due to the cultural similarity among the Scandinavian countries in an international perspective, Swedish leadership is also described within the broader concept of `Scandinavian managementa (SjoK borg, 1986; Lindkvist, 1988; Thygesen-Poulsen, 1988; Bjerke, 1998). 2.3. Important themes in Swedish culture If conceptions of (outstanding) leadership transmitted in the media are seen as an expression of the national culture at large, the next question is to describe brie#y a set of deeper cultural themes valid for Sweden, metaphors that catch some of the most important aspects of the Swedish culture. The themes presented below build upon international comparative studies of national cultures and on reviews of literature stemming from earlier research, mainly within the ethnographic and cross-culture management "elds. In ethnographic descriptions of Sweden it is often asserted that Swedes draw a strict line between public and private life, whereas in many other parts of the world the two are inseparable (Daun, 1989). In many respects, the two spheres are of a very di!erent nature, and blending the two can be problematic. Independence and solitude are important and positive concepts for Swedes in general (Daun, 1989), something which is enacted in the private sphere. One function of the strict boundary between public and private could be to defend one's integrity and to guarantee the individual the much-desired feeling of independence relative to the outside world. In a seven-country comparison Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (1993) declare that more than any other of the cultures examined in their study, Swedes `begin with the individual, his or her integrity, uniqueness, freedom, needs, and values, yet insist that the ful"llment and destiny of the individual lies in developing and sustaining others by the gift of his or

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

71

her own work and energya (p. 239). This energy is almost exclusively translated into engagement in organised activities. In a comparative international study involving 61 countries (House et al., 1999), Holmberg and As kerblom (1998) found Sweden to be both an extremely collective and an extremely individualist society. Their "ndings can be compared with the result reported in Hofstede (1980), whereby Sweden was labelled an individualistic culture. One explanation of this di!erence is that Hofstede did not distinguish between the small family group or clan, and the much wider group constituting the society as a whole. This distinction is obviously important in the Swedish case, where the two life worlds (public and private) are preferably kept separate in time and space. Supporting the results in the Hampden-Turner & Trompenaars study, Holmberg & As kerblom concluded that Swedes are fundamentally individualists in the private sphere, but collectivists in the public sphere, an observation summarised in the conception of `the socially concerned individualista. This concept summarises the "rst theme found in our literature search. Another recurrent theme in the ethnographic literature about Swedish culture is the pronounced emphasis on reason, objectiveness, matter-of-factness, and order. Anything beyond reason is awkward, perhaps even immoral (Daun, 1989). Only rationalpragmatic arguments that stick to the point are legitimate in discussions; `irrelevanta imaginative associations are out-of-bounds. We thus conclude that Swedes are typically very rational, although the word `rationalitya can itself be de"ned in a variety of ways. Daun (1989) de"nes Swedish rationality as putting the emphasis on practical solutions, on suitability to the goal pursued, on aiming at one objective at a time. Swedes adopt a practical orientation, which other authors summarise under the label of `pragmatisma (Czarniawska-Joerges, 1993). In Hofstedes seminal work (Hofstede, 1980) Sweden was ranked among the least uncertainty-avoiding cultures, in contrast to the more recent study (Holmberg and As kerblom, 1998), which found Sweden to be a highly uncertainty-avoiding culture with a strong future orientation. Holmberg & As kerblom argue that rational and pragmatic attitudes can be seen as an expression of high uncertainty avoidance, whereby rationalism and pragmatism provide `solutionsa to the problem of coping with uncertainty. Moreover, with a rational and pragmatic attitude the future is not seen as uncertain but is regarded as predictable and manageable, thus allowing for a positive orientation towards it. Rationality and pragmatism as predominant ways of coping with an uncertain future thus represent the second cultural theme in our reading. Our third and "nal theme concerns a strong consensus norm, a Swedish cultural trait that is often mentioned in the relevant literature (Daun, 1989). The development of the consensus culture is connected with the unusual homogeneity of the Swedish population, compared to other countries. Swedes share the same history, the same language, the same religion; and di!erences between groups within the country are comparatively small (Daun, 1989). This facilitates communication between di!erent societal groups and opens up the possibility for broad agreement and collective action (Berglund & LoK wstedt, 1996). Every individual's opinions, ideas and experiences are respected and listened to, since all are potential contributors to the accomplishment of the task at hand or to the

72

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

solution of the current problem. Mutual understanding, collective consideration and compromise solutions are favoured. Consensus is thus seen primarily as a condition for dialogue (Czarniawska-Joerges, 1993), but also as a preferred outcome of the dialogue. Such an attitude enables a search for creative solutions before reaching decisions, as well as wide support once decisions have been made. This idea of Sweden as a relatively egalitarian society, or in technical jargon a `low power distancea culture, accords with both Hofstede (1980) and Holmberg and As kerblom (1998). One important feature of countries with low power distance is that everyone is regarded as being `just like everyone elsea, and di!erences in status are considered undesirable. Rather than seeing con#ict avoidance (another common theme in the literature) as an end in itself, Holmberg & As kerblom propose that the desire to avoid con#ict is intimately connected with the concept of consensus, since con#ict obviously threatens the strong norms concerned with maintaining good conditions for dialogue. Thus, as a third cultural theme, the notion of consensus re#ects the egalitarian and equality values as well as the con#ict-avoiding trait.

3. Method This section describes the sampling and collection of data, as well as giving a fairly detailed account of the procedures used in extracting the images of leadership projected by the Swedish media. This study is based on a methodological approach known as `ethnographic semanticsa (Agar, 1996b), and the initial stages in the work draw on traditional content analysis techniques for reducing many words of text to a much smaller number of content categories (Budd, Thorp, & Donohew, 1967; Weber, 1985). Ethnographic semantics is `semanticsa because it deals with the meanings of words, and it is `ethnographica because the aim is to create and resolve `rich pointsa, empirical observations that do not make sense from the researcher's point of view and that therefore suggest a surfaced gap between two worlds of knowledge (Agar, 1986, 1996a). A rich point represents an opportunity to learn something about the view of the world held by the studied group of people. Central to this approach is the idea that an understanding of a particular culture emerges from exploration of the (system of) concepts and the links that tie the concepts together within that culture. Concepts are expressed in language by linguistic labels, mainly words. Thus, words label concepts, and the system of concepts (relevant to leadership) make up the images of leadership that are the primary focus in this study. 3.1. Sampling The sampling strategy for conducting the media analysis was to sample printed media products, where coverage was national, but the pro"les regarding the focus of the readership (general readership or exclusively business readership) and the periodicity of the product were di!erent. Further, every selected product was to command wide circulation in the context of its own kind.

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

73

Five newspapers and journals "tted these critera: (1) Dagens Nyheter (Daily News), the largest and most respected national daily newspaper with an average daily circulation of 357,000, (2) Dagens Industri (Business Today), the only general business newspaper distributed nationally (100,000), (3) Expressen (The Express), at the time of our data collection the largest national daily newspaper aimed at the general public (339,000) and with a reputation for being one of the main newspapers prone to sensational journalism, (4) Veckans Awa( rer (Business Weekly), the largest weekly journal aimed at the general business community (33,000), and (5) the glossy monthly business magazine Ma nadens Awa( rer (Business Monthly) which often contains special articles on management issues, as well as leader pro"les; its circulation is based primarily on its being a monthly supplement for subscribers to Veckans Awa( rer. Data for this study was collected during two one-week periods: March 15th}23rd 1996, and July 12th}18th 1996. The periods were determined in advance, and to our knowledge at the time of selection they were likely be two very `normala weeks containing no major national events such as political elections or some important anniversary that would occupy a large proportion of the news space and journalistic focus. During July, Dagens Industri was published on Fridays only due to the summer season (vacations). There was thus only one issue of Dagens Industri during our second data-collection period. Veckans Awa( rer was not published at all during July, so the latest June issue was used instead. The original data set consisted of over 8000 articles, which were scanned according to the procedures described below. 3.2. Selection of relevant articles As the chosen dates unfolded the content of each day's papers and journals was minutely scanned, except for the advertisements, the sports pages and the TV-guides, and the selection of articles for further analysis was undertaken. Any article relevant to an understanding of leadership images (re)produced in the media was marked. The operational criterion for selecting an article for inclusion in the study (judgement of its relevance) was: `This article says something about what a leader of an organisation does, has done, will do, could do, or should do.a We were thus looking for verbs that would describe a person to us (real, imaginary, possible, ideal, etc) who in#uences others in an organisational or societal context. According to one dictionary a verb is `a word that characteristically is the grammar centre of a predicate and expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being2 and that typically has rather full descriptive meaning and characterising qualitya. The paragraphs containing the text that ful"lled the above-mentioned criterion were highlighted. This procedure was conducted continuously throughout the collection process. Table 1 is a frequency summary of the collection of empirical material that was scanned for relevancy according to the described procedure. 3.3. Selection of key phrases Once the data-collection period was over and relevant articles had been selected, the selected articles were read a second time, and special attention was paid to the

74

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

Table 1 Summary of the empirical material that was scanned for images of leadership Dagens Nyheter Newspapers/ Journals Articles

Dagens Industri

Expressen

Veckans A!aK rer

Ma nadens A!aK rer

Total

14

8

14

2

2

40

4732

744

1575

363

650

8064

highlighted paragraphs. This time, the aim was to "nd and select key phrases that expressed a value about leadership in general or about the particular leader who was the subject of the article. The operational criterion for selecting a key phrase for inclusion in the study was: `How is the leader perceived and valued as a result of the event or act?a Typically, that meant looking for adjectives in the text. According to one dictionary an adjective is `a word2 typically serving as a modi"er of a noun to denote a quality of the thing nameda. Once this stage was completed, the data set consisted of 522 key phrases which were transcribed verbatim into a word-processing "le, with appropriate identi"ers enabling us to retrace our steps to the original source. 3.4. Selection of key words Next, the key phrases were scanned several times with a view to further reducing the volume of text. This was achieved by highlighting in the word-processing "le the key word or words in the key phrases that we assessed as being crucial to our purposes. This generally meant the verbs and adjectives that were relevant to leadership. If the context of the key words suggested a negative connotation in the use of the word(s), then the key word was both highlighted (in bold) and underlined. Table 2 shows excerpts from the large word-processing "le that was generated during this stage, for illustrative purposes. When this procedure was "nished, which in some cases might mean going back to the original text to check the article context, 853 key words had been distilled from the original texts via the key phrases. A second set of documents was created, in which each key word was pasted into a separate line in a two-column structure. This was done in preparation for the next step in the procedure, namely the categorisation of the key words. 3.5. Categorisation of key words The purpose of the next stage was to conduct a "rst categorisation analysis of the data. The point of categorising the key words was to prepare a search for patterns and important underlying concepts, while at the same time it also reduced the data even further into a manageable set by clustering key words with similar meaning into categories. This stage in the procedure was de"nitely the most time-consuming.

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

75

Table 2 Examples of key phrases collected and key words subsequently highlighted from the "ve Swedish newspapers and journals (text originally in Swedish and translated by the authors) DI 960315 p.5

DI 960316 p. 40 DI 960318 p. 3 DN 960317 p. B4

DN 960317 p. B5

EXP 960317 p. 2 MA March' 96 p. 78

VA week 12 p. 6

He was seen as a visionary and someone who initiated a number of projects. He aroused enthusiasm in his co-workers but, according to DI sources, was dependent on having competent people around him. Women are less prestige-minded than men. It is easier for them to delegate than it is for men, and they are often good organisers. [The prime minister] GoK ran Persson is a brilliant pedagogue. He has realised that he needs co-operation to succeed. There is a big editorial sta! working at high tempo, and decisions are being taken minute by minute. Not everyone can handle it. The personal con5dence of the journalist in you as the manager is also needed, if things are to work. I want to give this plan for gender equality, with all its beautiful words, a real meaning. The mission is to make sure the measures described in the plan are accomplished. The problem that is troubling the new chairman is that he has been so convincing in his former roles. [As a leader] you also have to know the business you are leading, and to care about the people at the workplace, and to have the ability to recruit good people who work well together. A good leader must be interested in people and must not be self-centred. Many people have great hopes, but if [prime minister] Persson is going to succeed it will chie#y be a matter of changing old attitudes.

Categorisation was achieved by creating two columns, one containing the key words already generated and the other providing space for typing in a typixcation category word. According to our procedure we had no pre-existing theoretical framework into which the typi"cation category word had to "t. Instead it was to consist of one word that best described the meaning of the accompanying key word. In this way, we attempted to reduce the data rather than to convert it. The in#uence of our background as business-related leadership scholars and the particular vocabulary that belongs to it was not to be ignored, and was not. As far as we can tell we avoided any technical jargon or frequently used theoretical concepts, and tried to stay true to the original meaning. This was quite a challenge, since it is crucial to the quality of the analysis. Needless to say, a careful selection of the typi"cation category words was required, and the analysis was revised and re"ned several times. Whenever in doubt, we returned to the original source to get an update on the context for the key word, in order to capture the meaning as accurately as possible. Table 3 shows how the illustrative phrases were categorised during this stage in the analysis.

4. Results and analysis Table 4 provides a summary of the 60 typi"cation categories and the frequency of key words generated by the media analysis, representing altogether 853 key words

76

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

Table 3 Categorisation of the key words highlighted in Table 2, as an illustration of our procedure Typi5cation category

Key word (phrase)

Visionary Entrepreneurial Inspiring Autonomous Low key Delegate Organise Communicate; verbal ability Co-operate Action oriented Action oriented Trustworthy Work for equality Performance oriented Trustworthy Competent Humane Co-operate Personnel oriented Relational Bold

Seen as a visionary Initiated Aroused enthusiasm in his co-workers Dependent Women are less prestige-minded than men Delegate Good organisers Brilliant pedagogue Co-operation High tempo Decisions are taken minute by minute Personal con"dence in you as the manager Give this plan for gender equality2 a real meaning Make sure the measures2 are accomplished Convincing in his former roles Know the business Care about the people Ability to recruit good people who work well together Interested in people Self-centred Changing old attitudes

Table 4 The 60 typi"cation categories generated by the media analysis, representing 853 key words Typ5cation category

Frequency

Action-oriented Co-operative Worker for equality Communicative, verbal Enthusiastic and inspiring Accountable Delegator Trustworthy Controller Humane Compromise and consensus Risk-avoiding, careful Ethical, moral Humble, low key, modest Elucidate and simplify Fair/equal treatment Honest Non-authoritarian, hierarchic Reasonable and pragmatic Ambitious

43 38 32 31 31 26 26 26 25 23 22 22 21 20 20 18 18 18 18 16

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

77

Table 4 (continued) Typ5cation category

Frequency

Good listener, sensitive PR/image "gure head Visionary Performance-oriented Relational Network-builder Flexible and change oriented Informing Charismatic Autonomous Determined Accessible and visible Careful and orderly Encouraging, motivational Respectable and respectful Balanced, harmonic Entrepreneurial Generalist Long-term oriented Open Providing guidelines Strategic and tactical Humorous Popular, common touch Patient and tolerant Prone to risks/bold Co-ordinator and organiser Cultured Induces loyalty Competent Creative E!ective bargainer Self-con"dent Empathetic Family-oriented Planning Informal Evaluate Personnel-oriented Role model

16 16 16 15 15 14 13 13 12 11 11 10 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 8 8 8 8 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 4 3 3 2

relevant to leadership, extracted from over 8000 articles in Swedish newspapers and journals. The "ve categories with the highest frequency among the 60 represent 175 of the 853 key words (20.5%). These categories presumably denote important aspects of leadership as (re)produced in the Swedish media. The top "ve categories describe outstanding leaders as: Action-oriented; Co-operative; Working for equality; Communicative and

78

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

verbal; And enthusiastic and inspiring. While the results in terms of high (and low) frequencies, following traditional procedures of content analysis, yield a clear result of the use of concepts in the media to communicate ideas about leadership to the readers, it is evident that the top "ve categories reveal only a part of a possible leadership pattern. Adding another "ve categories to the list does not eliminate this problem; the addition of accountable; delegator; trustworthy; controller and humane gives us an updated list representing only 35 per cent of the keywords. Thus a top "ve (or ten) listing should perhaps be regarded simply as providing some potential basic components of a dominant implicit leadership theory. In order to produce a more comprehensible picture of a possible dominant implicit leadership model, a semantic analysis of the 60 typi"cation categories was conducted. During this quest we wanted to look for underlying leadership themes in the material, as well as further reducing the amount of data to a more manageable size. After an iterative process of framing, testing and re-framing the semantic links between the 60 typi"cation categories produced at the level of the articles and the key phrases, we "nally arrived at 12 clusters, each one bound together by an underlying theme relevant to the understanding of leadership. The 12 themes are presented brie#y in Table 5. About 10 per cent of the data were left out of the analysis at this stage, as some phrases did not "t into any of the emerging themes. Nor did their meanings converge into a possible additional theme. To test the reasonableness of the categorisation process and the interpretations and resulting classi"cations in Table 5, we conducted a modest veri"cation exercise involving "ve "nal-year business students. A document was prepared with a sample of 60 key phrases representing the 12 leadership themes in mixed order, and the respondents were asked to sort each key phrase into one, or if necessary two, of the 12 predetermined themes. The categories were presented and de"ned according to the descriptions in Table 5. The result of the veri"cation test was encouraging. The level of agreement with our interpretations varied between 48 and 93%, with an overall average agreement of 71%. According to the themes delineated in Table 5, an outstanding leader should be: performance- and action-oriented, charismatic and visible within and outside the organisation, honest, modest, pragmatic, a good team-builder, working for egalitarianism and consensus, entrepreneurial and procedural. These themes could be regarded as a preliminary dominant model of leadership (re)produced in the Swedish media * a culturally grounded image of leadership that de"nes leadership in the Swedish context, and that constrains, moderates, or facilitates the exercise and evaluation of leadership. However, the consistency of this image could be questioned. For instance, how can we understand paradoxes such as leaders being performance-oriented and focusing primarily on the "nal achievements, while also being action-oriented and focusing on getting the work done without striving towards a particular goal? Another paradox appears in the description of outstanding leaders as being charismatic and visible * people with an unusual ability to inspire and enthuse others and to stand out from the crowd. This image does not "t in with the competing image of the leader as modest, i.e. informal, low-pro"le and humble. A third paradox arises in the contrast between the entrepreneurial and procedural themes, where the former describes leaders as bold,

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

79

Table 5 Twelve underlying themes relevant to the understanding of leadership Leadership theme

Brief explanation

Performance orientation

Found in articles describing leaders as goal-oriented, hard-working, ambitious and acting with self-con"dence. Found in articles describing leaders as decisive, demanding, and action-oriented. Found in articles describing leaders as visionary, inspiring, charismatic, enthusiastic and having an unusual verbal ability. Found in articles describing leaders as accessible, visible, "gureheads, and role models. Found in articles describing leaders as co-operative, relational, loyaltyinducing, personnel-oriented and network-builders. Found in articles describing leaders who give fair and equal treatment to others, work for equality, delegate and are non-authoritarian. Found in articles describing leaders as willing to compromise and seeking consensus, being empathetic, humane, and good listeners. Found in articles describing leaders as rational, reasonable, pragmatic, patient and tolerant Found in articles describing leaders as honest, trustworthy, ethical and moral. Found in articles describing leaders as unpretentious, informal, open, humble, low-pro"le, and humorous. Found in articles describing leaders as prone to take risks, bold, entrepreneurial, and creative. Found in articles describing leaders as co-ordinators, organisers, planners, long-term oriented, careful and risk-avoiding.

Action orientation Charisma Visibility Team-building Egalitarianism Consensus Pragmatism Honesty Modesty Entrepreneurial Procedural

audacious and prone to take considerable risks, and the latter describes the opposite image of leaders as careful planners and organisers who avoid taking any risks. One likely explanation of these paradoxes is that there is more than one dominant implicit model of leadership. In order to enhance our understanding of the interrelationship between the leadership themes in Table 5 (i.e. the `system of conceptsa: Agar, 1986, 1996a), yet another analysis was carried out, introducing a context-bound variable and thereby opening up for the possibility of multiple co-existing models of leadership. 4.1. Towards multiple cultural leadership models The new analysis was conducted by going back to all the original sources and then splitting the material into separate groups, depending on the context of the article. Two main groups (contexts) emerged from this analysis: a private business group, and a political group. A third miscellaneous group also emerged consisting of articles (13% of the total data) focusing on societal issues in general or on organisations of various kinds, such as non-pro"t organisations, theatres, schools, police forces, and health care. No clear, meaningful patterns could be extracted from this group. Consequently, it was decided not to include it in the subsequent analysis.

80

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

Table 6 Two emergent implicit models of leadership, depending on context Political leadership

Business leadership

Charisma Pragmatism Procedural Action-orientation Egalitarianism Consensus Modesty Honesty

Charisma Pragmatism Procedural Performance-orientation Team-building Entrepreneurial Visibility

The two main groups were relatively evenly represented in total, but with variances depending on the media product. Political articles were found mainly in Expressen (85%) and Dagens Nyheter (48%), to some extent in Dagens Industri (35%) and Veckans Awa( rer (30%), and not at all in Ma nadens Awa( rer. Business articles were found mainly in Ma nadens Awa( rer (99%), Veckans Awa( rer (70%), and Dagens Industri (53%), to some extent in Dagens Nyheter (12%) and very rarely in Expressen (2%). By grouping the data according to the context, two implicit models of leadership emerged. Table 6 shows that the two implicit models of leadership share three of 12 important aspects (themes) of leadership, but di!er as regards the remaining nine depending on the context. The shared aspects of outstanding leadership in the two groups are charismatic leaders with a pragmatic as well as a procedural approach to leadership issues, i.e. leaders described as visionary, inspiring, enthusiastic, but at the same time rational, pragmatic, reasonable and with excellent co-ordinating and organising skills. However, the shared aspects of preferred leadership behaviour in the two models reveal variations as regards the meanings and connotations of words and concepts. Charisma, for instance, is an aspect of leadership much celebrated in the business context, while some ambivalence is evident in the political context. Charismatic politicians are both wanted and rejected. In the case of rejection, the line of argument focused on the con#icting norms between charisma on the one hand, and egalitarianism and consensus on the other. Similarly, procedural leadership was referred to in the business context in terms of co-ordinating activities including team-building, and with a strong emphasis on decision-making processes grounded in some sort of risk analysis. In the political context, procedural seemed to mean a certain way of doing things with a view to preventing short-term solutions to long-term problems. The distinguishing characteristics of political leadership were found to be actionorientation, egalitarianism, consensus, modesty, and honesty. In other words, political leaders are described as being decisive and demanding people, yet also as nonauthoritarian and low-pro"le leaders who treat people fairly and equally. Further, they are honest and trustworthy in an ethical and moral sense, and recognised for being empathetic and for seeking compromise solutions.

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

81

Likewise, the distinguishing characteristics of business leadership were found to be a performance orientation, team-building, an entrepreneurial approach, and visibility. Together, these concepts provide an image of a leader who is hard working and goal-oriented, as well as bold, creative and prone to take risks. Such leaders act as "gureheads and role models for their organisations, creating teams or networks of committed people, and it is essentially among these that the work gets done.

5. Discussion A more detailed comparison between the two leadership models as described in Table 6 and in previous studies is quite encouraging. Distinguishing characteristics of Swedish leadership, as reported in previous studies, include an ability to create commitment for a communicated vision (JoK nsson, 1995; KaK llstroK m, 1995), a strong focus on performance and a preference for teamwork and co-operation (Zander, 1997; Tollgerdt-Andersson, 1989), acceptance of challenges and risk-taking (EdstroK m et al, 1985), and a preference for direct dialogue with the organisation members (EdstroK m & JoK nsson, 1998). These characteristics are veri"ed in several of the themes for business leadership found in this study: charisma, visibility, performance orientation, team-building, and an entrepreneurial approach. However, acceptance of challenges and risk-taking are con"rmed and challenged simultaneously * supported by the entrepreneurial leadership behaviours, but countered somewhat by the procedural aspects of leadership. Equally important, we note that there is low correspondence between the characteristics of `Swedish leadershipa and the themes re#ecting the implicit leadership model in the political context. For instance, modesty and honesty are seldom mentioned in the business context, at any rate not in terms of leaders being unpretentious and humble, or leadership as being a question of speaking the truth. This could very well be a consequence of the fact that previous studies have focused almost exclusively on leadership in business "rms and business contexts. There is little doubt that the typical conditions (or context) for the exercise of leadership di!er in several important aspects, concerning such things as the ultimate stakeholders, the "nancing, the organisational forms and the missions, between the business and the political domains (Petersson, Hermansson, Micheletti, & Westholm, 1996; Brunsson, 1998). In the political context the emphasis on actions rather than results (performance) is also very striking. The expression `a man of actiona frequently occurs in articles that discuss outstanding political leadership, and lack of action is proposed equally often as an explanation for an observed failure in political leadership. If we consider the fundamental principle underlying politics and political organisations, namely to re#ect the con#icting interests and opinions of stakeholders (Rombach, 1986; Brunsson, 1998), then the emphasis on action can be seen in terms of the mediation of con#icting interests. In this context, action rather than performance is thus regarded as the relevant measure of leadership e!ectiveness. As Weick (1979) notes, organising does not require the convergence of common ends (results) but only convergence of common means (action).

82

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

Given the results presented in Table 6, there is a certain amount of clear evidence for the co-existence of at least two major implicit leadership models in the Swedish printed media. In light of the number of articles that were not classi"ed above as either `businessa or `politicsa, it could still be argued that the type of leadership context explored here may be only one of many possible mediating factors. But, as noted in the introduction, many scholars argue forcefully that the media combines the role of o!ering facts and information about leaders and leadership with the role of producing and reproducing public leadership discourses. The importance of institutions like `the "rma and `the political organisationa as thought "gures (Asplund, 1979) or ideal types (SjoK strand, 1985; Brunsson, 1998) is strongly upheld in the literature. This does not mean, however, that we have ruled out the possibility of yet other context-bound leadership models. The next issue to be addressed is the relation between cultural values and the dominant implicit models of leadership (re)produced in the Swedish media. Before embarking on a more detailed discussion about this relationship, we need to restate the de"nition of culture adopted in our present study. The Swedish media cannot be separated from Swedish culture; the media is per se an expression of culture. The same is true of the two leadership models identi"ed here. The analysis thus has to be focused on the linkages between typical expressions of the cultural themes (root metaphors), as identi"ed in section 2.3, and the two implicit leadership models found in this study. The cultural themes outlined above were: socially concerned individualism, rationality and pragmatism, and consensus * egalitarianism and equality. On a conceptual level the "t between the cultural metaphors and the implicit political leadership model is striking. Labels and conceptual constructs have a fairly obvious overlap. For instance, it could easily be shown that cultural values like egalitarianism and equality are treated as end values, but there are also numerous examples of egalitarianism and equality being clearly rooted in a tradition of consensus (samfo( rsta nd) and a pronounced norm of low power distance. As regards values like socially concerned individualism, one clear expression of this is the elevated view of political leaders as slightly charismatic, pragmatic and honest problem-solvers in the public sphere, who at the same time have the right * and the obligation * to be treated like everyone else in the private sphere (Holmberg and As kerblom, 1998). Rationality and pragmatism are expressed as a readiness to listen to others, to compromise when necessary, and to enact practical solutions. For instance, the Swedish Prime Minister is frequently criticised for not taking other people's opinions into account. In terms of the root metaphors, the business leadership model does not reveal the same clear-cut images as the political model. Meaningful interpretations could nevertheless be o!ered. For instance, socially concerned individualism inclines to be manifest in a strong belief in the power of teams and the necessity of team-building activities. As Hampden-Turner and Trompeenars (1993) put it succinctly, the ful"lment and destiny of the Swede lies in developing and sustaining the work and energy of others. However, the individualistic dimension has a much stronger emphasis and is legitimated in the business context in terms of the celebration of entrepreneurial leadership behaviour such as boldness and risk-taking. The concept of consensus is not explicitly treated in the business context but there are quite a few examples of the

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

83

role of consensus, primarily as a highly appreciated model of decision-making (teambuilding and performance-orientation) and as an instrument for co-ordinated activity, in combination with a fundamentally rational and reasonable attitude (pragmatism and a procedural approach). While some previous studies of the image of leadership in the Swedish media claim that business leadership concepts conform to a global leadership discourse, much in#uenced by American values and ideals (Berglund & LoK wstedt, 1993; Furusten & Kinch, 1996), our analysis shows instead that the business leadership model is rooted in Swedish culture. In other words, leadership concepts and images can only be meaningfully understood in light of a speci"c context or institutional setting. 5.1. Concluding remarks It is worth noting that the relationship between culture, the implicit models of leadership and behaviour seem to be more complex than is often assumed. Considering the historically close ties and joint e!orts of the political, business and labour union leaders in building the Swedish Welfare State (cf. `the Swedish modela), we might expect similarities rather than di!erences between the political and business domains. This is obviously the case as regards the shared aspects of the two leadership models presented here. But the ties are no longer as close as they once were, and the model as such has probably played out its role. Many signi"cant changes have occurred in the political arena, such as acquiring membership of the European Union. Similarly, for more than a decade scholars within the business domain have been repeatedly reporting dramatic changes in Swedish management ideals (e.g. BeckeH rus et al., 1988). Changes are continuous, and new streams of ideas are constantly challenging existing ones, but the implications of the changes on a more fundamental level call for continual evaluation and interpretation. In sum, the institutional contexts (business and politics) seem to provide two signi"cantly di!erent implicit models of leadership within the same cultural framework. It is clear that excellent leadership is exercised and enacted as an expression of socially constructed institutions and culturally grounded values.

Acknowledgements This study was funded by The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge helpful comments from the editor and two anonymous referees, as well as the valuable editorial help provided by Nancy Adler.

References Abrahamson, E. (1996). Management fashion. Academy of Management Review, 21(1), 254}285. Agar, M. H. (1986). Speaking of ethnography. SAGE qualitative research methods series, vol. 2. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications Inc.

84

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

Agar, M. H. (1996a). The professional stranger: An informal introduction to ethnography (2nd ed..). San Diego: Academic Press. Agar, M. H. (1996b). The GLOBE project: Ethnography manual for leadership studies, Part II. University of Maryland, MD: Ethknoworks. Asplund, J. (1979). Teorier om framtiden. Stockholm: Kontenta. BeckeH rus, A., EdstroK m, A., Edlund, C., Ekvall, G., Forslin, J., & Rendahl, J E. (1988). Doktrinskiftet } Nya ideal i svenskt management. Stockholm: FA-ra det & Svenska Dagbladets FoK rlag. Berglund, J., & LoK wstedt, J. (1993). Management awards } a study of the construction of excellent management. Stockholm: Economic Research Institute (EFI) at Stockholm School of Econiomics (93/10). Berglund, J., & LoK wstedt, J. (1996). Sweden: The fate of human resource management in a &Folkish' society. In T. Clark (Ed.), European human resource management. Oxford: Blackwell. Bjerke, B. (1998). Awa( rsledarskap i fem olika kulturer. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Brulin, G. (1997). FoK retagsledningskonsulternas kunskapsbas. In As . Sandberg (Ed.), Ledning fo( r alla? Om perspektivbrytningar i fo( retagsledningar. (3rd ed.). Stockholm: SNS FoK rlag. Brunsson, N. (1998). Politisering och foK retagisering } institutionell foK rankring och foK rvirring i organisationernas vaK rld. In R. Lind, & G. Arvidsson (Eds.), Ledning av fo( retag och fo( rvaltningar. Stockholm: SNS FoK rlag. Budd, R. W., Thorp, R. K., & Donohew, L. (1967). Content Analysis of Communications. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company. Burr, V. (1995). An introduction to social constructionism. London: Routledge. Chen, C. C., & Meindl, J. R. (1991). The construction of leadership images in the popular press: The case of Donald Burr and People Express. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36, 521}551. Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (1988). To coin a phrase: On organizational talk, organizational control and management consulting. Stockholm: The Economic Research Institute. Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (1993). Sweden: A modern project, a postmodern implementation. In D. J. Hickson (Ed.), Management in Western Europe. Society, culture and organization in twelve nations (pp. 229}247). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter (de Gruyter Studies in Organization). Daun, As . (1989). Svensk Mentalitet. Stockholm: RabeH n & SjoK gren. (English edition: Swedish mentality, 1996, trans. by Jan Teeland. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press). EdstroK m, A., & JoK nsson, S. (1998). Svenskt ledarskap. In: B. Czarniawska (Ed.), Organisationsteori pa( svenska. MalmoK : Liber Ekonomi. EdstroK m, A., Maccoby, M., Rendahl, J. -E., & StroK mberg, L. (1985). Ledare fo( r Sverige. Stockholm: FA-raK det/Liber. Engvall, L. (1992). Mercury meets Minerva. Oxford: Pergamon. Furusten, S. (1995). The managerial discourse: a study of the creation and diwusion of popular management knowledge. Diss. Uppsala Univ: Dept. of Business Studies. Furusten, S., & Kinch, N. (1996). Scandinavian management, where are you? In S. JoK nsson (ED.), Perspectives of Scandinavian Management. GoK teborg: GRI. Gergen, K. J. (1999). An invitation to social construction. London: SAGE Publications. Grint, K. (1997). Fuzzy Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hampden-Turner, C., & Trompenaars, A. (1993). The seven cultures of capitalism. Value systems for creating wealth in the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, and The Nederlands. New York: Doubleday. Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture's consequences: International diwerences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications Inc. Holmberg, I., & As kerblom, S. (1998). Primus inter pares * Leadership and Culture in Sweden. Centre for Advanced Studies in Leadership Research Paper Series, 1998/1. Stockholm School of Economics. House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Ruiz-Quintanilla, S. A., Dorfman, P. W., Javidan, M., Dickson, M. W., Gupta, V. et al. (1999). Cultural in#uences on leadership and organizations: Project GLOBE Monograph. In: W. H. Mobley, M. J. Gessner, & V. Arnold (Eds.), Advances in global leadership (pp. 171}233). Stamford, CN: JAI Press. House, R. J., Wright, N. S., & Aditya, R. N. (1997). Cross-cultural research on organizational leadership. A critical analysis and a proposed theory. In: P. C. Earley, & M. Erez (Eds.), New perspectives in international Industrial/Organizational Psychology. San Francisco: The New Lexington Press.

I. Holmberg, S. As kerblom / Scand. J. Mgmt. 17 (2001) 67}85

85

Huczynski, A. A. (1993). Management gurus: What makes them and how to become one. London: Routledge. JoK nsson, S. (1995). Goda utsikter * svenskt management i perspektiv. Stockholm: Nerenius & SanteH rus foK rlag. KaK llstroK m, A. (1995). I spetsen fo( r sin yock. Normer fo( r svenskt management. Gothenburg Research Institute: FoK rlags AB Industrilitteratur. Lindkvist, L. (1988). A passionate search for nordic management. Handelsh+jskolen i K+benhavn: Institut for organisation og arbejdssociologi. Lord, R., & Maher, K. J. (1991). Leadership and information processing: Linking perceptions and performance. Boston: Unwin-Everyman. McLuhan, M., & Fiore, Q. (1967). The medium is the message: [An inventory of ewects]. New York: Bantam Books. Meindl, J. R. (1990). On leadership: An alternative to the conventional wisdom. In B. Staw, & L. L. Cummings, Research in organizational behaviour, vol. 12 (pp. 159}203). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press. Petersson, O., Hermansson, J., Micheletti, M., & Westholm, A. (1996). Demokrati och ledarskap. Stockholm: SNS. Roberts, D. F., & Maccoby, N. (1985). E!ects of mass communication. In G. Lindzey, & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 539}598). New York, NY: Random House. Rombach, B. (1986). Rationalisering eller prat: kommuners anpassning till en stagnerande ekonomi, Diss Stockholm School of Economics. Lund: Doxa. Salancik, G. R., & Pfe!er, J. (1978). A social information processing approach to attitudes and task design. Administrative Science Quarterly, 23, 224}253. Sandberg, J. (1999). Utbildningretorik eller ledarskapspraktik? In S.-E. SjoK strand, J. Sandberg, & M. Tyrstrup (Eds.) Osynlig fo( retagsledning. Lund: Studentlitteratur. SjoK borg, E. (1986). Skandinaviskt management. Stockholm: Liber. SjoK strand, S. -E. (1985). Samha( llsorganisation. Lund: BokfoK rlaget Doxa AB. Thygesen-Poulsen, P. (1988). Den skandinaviska modellen. Stockholm: Svenska Dagbladets FoK rlag. Tollgerdt-Andersson, I. (1989). Ledarskapsteorier, fo( retagsklimat och bedo( mningsmetoder. Dissertation, Economic Research Institute (EFI), Stockholm School of Economics Trollestad, C. (1994). Ma( nniskosyn i ledarskapsutbildning. En empirisk studie. Nora: BokfoK rlaget Nya Doxa. Weber, R. P. (1985). Basic content analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. Weick, K. E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing (2nd ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Zander, L. (1997). The licence to lead: an 18 country study of the relationship between employees+ preferences regarding interpersonal leadership and national culture. Dissertation Institute of International Business, Stockholm School of Economics.