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Responsible leadership and inter-organisational partnerships : a relational social constructionist lens

Thesis (PhD (Leadership))--University of Pretoria, 2023.

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Other Authors: De Jongh, Derick
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2023
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 De Jongh, Derick
author_browse De Jongh, Derick
author_facet De Jongh, Derick
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Thesis (PhD (Leadership))--University of Pretoria, 2023.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
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license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/91635 Responsible leadership and inter-organisational partnerships : a relational social constructionist lens De Jongh, Derick sntakumba@gmail.com Ntakumba, Stanley Sixolile UCTD Responsible leadership Relational leadership practices Social constructionism Inter-organisational partnerships Ubuntu Thesis (PhD (Leadership))--University of Pretoria, 2023. Interorganisational partnerships are organisational forms in which multiple stakeholders work as a collective towards common objectives, and yet little empirical evidence exists on how the leadership construct occurs in such settings. Moreover, the heroic leadership discourse that focuses on the individual leader versus followers is deemed not to provide adequate answers to the relational dynamics that take place at non-hierarchical interorganisational partnerships. The main research question is: How do relational leadership practices (RLPs) occur in interorganisational partnerships (IoPs) and what are the implications for responsible leadership theory (RLT)? In the literature it became clear that the ‘relationality’ construct is at the centre of how leadership could be understood in IoPs. As such, this study adopted the relational social constructionist leadership (RSCL) lens as its ontology and epistemology. It employed the practice approach as its methodology, which is underlined by the abductive logic of inquiry. The research was based on two samples, namely: an international (African continent) IoP and a national (South Africa) IoP. The research findings yielded eleven themes (RLPs of interest) and seventy-seven sub-themes (intersecting RLPs) based on data generated through dialogic interviews and focus groups which was analysed via coding processes using Atlas.ti 22 software. The set of findings that were presented via a word-cloud confirmed the centrality of the leadership construct in the data. The findings on RLPs demonstrated various perspectives of the research participants on how the leadership phenomenon is socially constructed intersubjectively in the two IoPs. The findings were discussed in terms of: (1) the social construction of leadership using the ‘RSCL Model’ (Endres & Weibler, 2017); (2) outcomes of social construction in terms of the ‘Direction, Alignment and Commitment (DAC) Framework’ (Drath, McCauley, Palus, van Velsor, O’Connor & McGuire, 2008); (3) the core tenets of RLT, namely: ethics, relationality and purpose; and (4) Ubuntu relational philosophy, which was deployed abductively to examine the RLPs under the theme of ‘agreeing’ in order to contextualise the understanding of the RLPs in the African milieu. This thesis makes the following contributions to leadership research and practice: (1) RLT has been advanced through the application of the RSCL lens and the practice approach in IoPs. The findings show that over two-thirds of the identified RLPs are not adequately represented in extant RLT. (2) RLT’s individualist-orientation (heroic) has been complemented with the relational and collective (post-heroic) orientations in terms of understanding how leadership responsibilities unfold in IoPs as RLPs. (3) It was found that there is a close alignment between the Ubuntu worldview and RLT in terms of moral, ethical and relational orientations, but the Ubuntu perspective adds a nuanced appreciation of the African context via its core intersubjective values of humaneness and harmony. (4) Relational leadership scholarship has been advanced through the application and subsequent modification of the RSCL Model and the DAC Framework informed by empirical analysis. (5) The thesis enunciates a new Responsible-Leadership-As-Practice theoretical framework. (6) In practice, insights from this thesis could inform the (re)design of leadership curriculum and research activities to emphasise social-relationality and praxeology of leadership in IoPs. Business Management PhD (Leadership) Unrestricted 2023-07-26T05:54:56Z 2023-07-26T05:54:56Z 2023-09-04 2023 Thesis * S2023 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/91635 en © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Responsible leadership
Relational leadership practices
Social constructionism
Inter-organisational partnerships
Ubuntu
Responsible leadership and inter-organisational partnerships : a relational social constructionist lens
title Responsible leadership and inter-organisational partnerships : a relational social constructionist lens
title_full Responsible leadership and inter-organisational partnerships : a relational social constructionist lens
title_fullStr Responsible leadership and inter-organisational partnerships : a relational social constructionist lens
title_full_unstemmed Responsible leadership and inter-organisational partnerships : a relational social constructionist lens
title_short Responsible leadership and inter-organisational partnerships : a relational social constructionist lens
title_sort responsible leadership and inter organisational partnerships a relational social constructionist lens
topic UCTD
Responsible leadership
Relational leadership practices
Social constructionism
Inter-organisational partnerships
Ubuntu
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/91635