Yardstick International College

Postgraduate Program Department of Leadership

General information

Title of the article: Exploring Strategic leadership in Organizations: A literature Review

Author(s): Aymen Asif and Abdul Basit

Publisher: Institute of Administrative Sciences (IAS) at University of the Punjab, Lahore,

Pakistan

Place of publication: Pakistan

Date of publication: July-Dec 2020

Number of pages: Vol. 5, No. 2, 211-230

Source: http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/IAS/PDF/12-v5_2_20.pdf

Reviewer: Zewdu Tassew

Id.no. 035/13

Section: A

Submitted to: Dr. Abera D.

Summary of the article

This paper reviews an article published by the Institute of Administrative Sciences (IAS) at
University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan by Aymen Asif and Abdul Basit, in 2020. The title
of the article is Exploring Strategic leadership in Organizations: A literature Review. The
article is conducted to describe the factors of effective strategic leaders in complex business
environment and, the Literature has been obtained from three databases i-e SSCI, Scopus and
Google Scholar. Strategic leadership consists of the top-level executives responsible for the
broad, long-term strategic direction of an organization. Strategic leadership delegates the use
of the strategy process as an organized method of decision making that integrates the shared
leadership into its concepts and practices. In the article the strategic leaders‟ behaviors, styles
and characteristics are reviewed to address the key research question: What are the key

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personal and other characteristics that make a strategic leader effective in organizations? In
other words, the comprehensive strategic leaders‟ behaviour or traits that are found to be
effective in today’s dynamic environment have been surveyed with the help of secondary
data.

The article is primarily under the concept of exploring strategic leadership in organizations; it
has attempted to explain the eight key behaviors’ have frequently emerged from secondary
data that linked with the effectiveness of a leader in all types of organizations, visionaries,
high moral and ethical values, strategic thinking, social capital development, development of
human capital and future leadership, quick learning, change initiators and, sense giving and
sense making. The article only deal with study revolves around the effective traits of strategic
leaders only and it argues a good deal of behavior of strategic leaders should be carefully
considered in different directions.

Analysis and Synthesis

The article concludes by effective strategic leadership attributes vary according to the type,
size and scope of the organization. Yes, a strategy is not just acts a means used by a leader
who exercises his authority that clarifies purposes and priorities, mobilizes motivation and
resources, and sets paths for the future (Morrill, 2007).Strategic leaders ideally have the
ability to challenge prevailing viewpoints without provoking significant pushback, to see the
big and small picture at the same time, to adapt to marketplace changes and take advantage of
new opportunities, to make difficult decisions, to balance an analytical perspective with the
human dimension of strategy building, and to advocate for and engage with employees. Key
traits of an effective strategic leader include loyalty to the organization's vision, judicious use
of power, transparency, effective communication, problem-solving, readiness to delegate,
passion for their job, compassion, and empathy for others and self-awareness. Leaders who
are strategic are always looking ahead and analyzing the present in terms of preparation for
what may come for the business. Awareness is a big part of this leadership style, but it must
be followed up with well thought out action. Strategic leaders are adaptable and growth-
oriented. They take responsibility for getting things done by training employees to think and
act more effectively to achieve the best result possible for the company.

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Hypothesis Comparison

Strategic leadership is a mind-set rather than a process. Those individuals in command of an

organization — usually an owner or executives — must be able to inspire those who work in
the company. Leadership is about accomplishing tasks through people and not because of
them. The different types of strategic leadership include authoritative, participative, or
delegative. While leadership often starts with one individual, the traits and characteristics for
it must be shared with others in order to complete a company’s strategic objectives. An
authoritative strategic leadership style is a top-down approach. Leaders are more
commanding in their strategies and demanding for goal accomplishment. Rather than
collaborating with individuals, an authoritative leader will be more direct. This leader
believes in staying above the fray of daily work while directing and controlling the activities
of others. Though an authoritative leader can be successful, workers may soon resent this
hard-charging leadership style. Participative leaders are typically the opposite of authoritative
leaders. Here, this strategic leadership style demands interaction from the leader along with
employees. Leaders help accomplish some tasks and often work alongside others when
completing strategic tasks or activities.

Certain cultures may be more conducive with participative leadership than others. The mind-
set from a culture may demand more interaction with workers rather than the usual bossing
around of employees on a daily basis. The third leadership style — delegative leadership —
can be a hybrid strategic leadership style when compared to the previous two styles. Here, a
leader delegates nonimportant tasks to employees while working on specific, upper-
management tasks or activities. Strategic leadership that falls under this mind-set often
focuses on teamwork and the accomplishment of smaller tasks through many individuals in
order to reach large-scale goals. Delegation can be a hard management technique to learn.
Leaders must know which tasks to delegate and then not engage in micromanagement if
employees accomplish the tasks in different ways.

What part of the article did you think was most important to help you understand
Strategic Leadership better?

What I learned from this article is effective strategic leadership not only makes the best use of
the employees, but allows each employee to be held accountable with measurable goals.
Leadership skills really are about motivating a team to actively produce and often
superseding their goals. Usually these leaders bring out the best in people and often treat

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people with the upmost respect. They intuitively know what motivates people and manage to
get the best results. Often these leaders are so admired that the team will even come to the
leaders defence should there be an outside threat.
And strategic leadership attributes vary according to the type, size and scope of the
organization. Strategic style of leadership always keeps the best interests of the business in
mind; it's also appreciative of employees' unique talents and efforts. Strategic leaders use
leadership techniques that empower and motivate rather than bully employees. Another goal
is to create an environment in which employees anticipate the company's needs in relation to
their own jobs. Employees in a workplace environment led by a strategic leader are
encouraged to follow their own initiative. Leaders reward quality workers by promoting them
and offering incentives to do well for the company
The following part of the article is was most important to help me understand Strategic
Leadership better

All parts of the article is useful, but the ideas about strategic thinking are very important to
me. When it doesn't make sense to promote an employee or initiate other changes, a strategic
leader rethinks the situation rather than going through with a change. Strategy, or careful
planning, before making any change in the company is absolutely crucial in this style of
leadership. The philosophy behind the practice is to use strategy in every act of decision
making. A more thoughtful leadership approach can lead to greater success in the workplace
if many factors are considered before action is implemented.

Quality Checklist

Clear description of the context for the article and sufficient background are presented and,
there is a good connection between the conclusion and the findings, the article is organized
well. The reference format flow with APA style but its better not to use too many old books,
there are books not mentioned in the text that are mentioned in the reference. Its argument is
good according to the perspective of the strategic leadership.

Not everything can be found in one study, so the eight key behaviors (visionaries, high moral
and ethical values, strategic thinking, social capital development, development of human
capital and future leadership, quick learning, change initiators and, sense giving and sense
making) that the article tries to convey are very important. And also it is good to have a
personality types, Personality types play a role in the different types of strategic leadership.
For example, individuals may be benevolent and act like a parent or a visionary in the

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business. An individual’s personality is additional to the strategic leadership style and can
add to or take away from it. The organization’s culture will soon take on the leader’s style in
many cases. This creates a tone and culture in the organization that employees will work with
or dislike when working in the company. I especially believe that strategic thinking is the
basis for all. As the article concludes by effective strategic leadership attributes vary
according to the type, size and scope of the organization and therefore, a good deal of
behavior of strategic leaders should be carefully considered in different directions.

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Bibliography
Basit, A. A. (2020, july ). Exploring Strategic leadership in organizations. Governance and
Management Review (GMR) , p. 20.

Morrill, R. L. (2007 ). Strategic Leadership. American council on education.

Isaksen , S.&Tidd.J(2006) Meeting the innovation challenge :Leadership for transformation and
growth. wily