CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the various literature reviewed that are relevant to the substantive area

under study – leadership, and as much as possible those that are related to education and preferably

ones that involve higher education. Although in classic GT the review of literature is strictly not

advised and should be delayed till the data analysis is nearly completed in order to ‘avoid

contamination’ (or forcing the data into pre-existing concepts which distort or do not fit with data or

have no relevance to the substantive area (Thornberg, 2012, p.244), there are some who have done

evolved GT studies who actually advocate a priori reviews (Goldkuhl & Cronholm, 2010, Thornberg,

2012). The review of related literature is actually one of the most debated-about part of the GT

methodology. This chapter includes both literature that were reviewed before the study commenced,

which includes books (Lupdag, 1984, Andres, 1999) and some GT studies (Aulicino, 2006, Munson,

2007), but the majority were reviewed after most of the data have been analyzed and some categories

have been emerged. The first literature review was embarked upon in order to survey the available

literature/ publications/ studies that were done in the Philippine setting, and thus make a case for

doing a GT study on leadership. Later the GT studies and books that pertained to Filipino leadership

was integrated into this final version of the review. There is a total of 17 published materials reviewed,

four of which are GT studies. There are six non-GT studies (one multi-method in this), two authors

on Philippine culture are cited with their works, three that are related to the emerged categories of

development agenda and economics and two articles on leadership (one on a distinctly Filipino

‘brand’ of leadership). All of the theories that were matched to the emerged conceptual framework

(Part 5) as part of the theoretical grounding process are reviewed and discussed in this chapter aside

from the matching done in Chapter 4, which is required by the methodology used.

24
 According to Glaser (1998), in an emergent study, the researcher probably will not know at

the beginning what literature will turn out to be relevant. Grounded theory’s dicta are: a) do not do a

literature review in the substantive area and related areas where the research is to be done, and b)

when the grounded theory is nearly completed during sorting and writing up, then the literature search

in the substantive area can be done and woven into the theory as more data for constant comparison.

The purpose of these is to keep the researcher free and open as possible to the discovery and

emergence of concepts, problems, and interpretations from the data (p.67). Eventually though,

Strauss with his student Corbin, deviated from this original maxim and became amenable to doing an

earlier review of extant literature which they believe lends to a researcher’s theoretical sensitivity and

helps in directing theoretical sampling (Dunne, 2011). Nevertheless, these authors still echo Glaser’s

concern that one may be overwhelmed or paralyzed, unable to trust one’s own ability for theory

development with a prior review. Strauss & Corbin (1990) clarifying their stance on this much

debated part of the GT approach stated “We all bring to the inquiry considerable background in

professional and disciplinary literature” (p.48). Charmaz (2014) cited Bulmer (1984), Dey (1999),

and Layder (1998) who assumed that Glaser and may be even Strauss were naïve to assume that the

researcher is a ‘tabula rasa’ through the entire research process (p.306). Dunne (2011) cited Clarke

(2005, who paraphrased Elkins, 2003) claiming that “there is actually something ludicrous about

pretending to be a theoretical virgin.” (p. 117). Charmaz (2014) in her constructivist GT approach

cited Thornberg (2012), who proposed an “informed grounded theory” where the theorist “sees the

advantage of using pre-existing theories and research findings in the substantive field in a sensitive,

creative, and flexible way instead of seeing them as obstacles and threats. Informed GT has its roots

in constructivist GT” (p.307). Thornberg (2012) states informed GT “refers to a product of a research

process as well as to the research process itself, in which both the process and the product have been

25
thoroughly grounded in data by GT methods while being informed by existing research literature and

theoretical frameworks” (p.249).He allies himself with Charmaz’s constructivist approach by

rejecting pure induction (calling it an impossibility) and by saying that in the process of inquiry the

researcher is aware of his or her own embeddedness within a historical, ideological, and socio-cultural

context, so that they recognize that data do not represent reality objectively, rather these are always

social constructions (or reconstructions) of it. Moreover, Thornberg suggests a variety of data

sensitizing principles to argue for an early literature review, such as: theoretical agnosticism,

theoretical pluralism, theoretical sampling of literature, staying grounded, theoretical playfulness,

memoing extant knowledge associations, and constant reflexivity (detailed descriptions of these

principles in the Appendix). He asserts that by being informed, “the researcher not only situates his

or her study and its product in the current knowledge base of the field, but will also contribute to it

by extending, challenging, refining or revising it” (p.256). Charmaz further noted that delaying the

literature review assumes that “researchers remain uncritical of what they read and are easily

persuaded by it”. She recommended that since a literature review is a requirement for grant proposals

and funding, the researcher may engage material at this stage (proposal) critically and comparatively

but to let it ‘lie fallow until after you have developed your categories and the analytic relationships

between them”, yet to remain “alert as to whether, when, and to what extent earlier ideas and findings

enter your research, and if so to subject them to rigorous scrutiny” (p.307). Charmaz (2014) reasoned

that the delay in literature review “is to avoid importing preconceived ideas and imposing them on

your work”; according to her “delaying the review encourages you to articulate your ideas”. However,

she also acknowledges that in practice this can “result in rehashing old empirical problems and

dismissing the literature” (p.306).

26
 On the other hand, there are other reasons why delay of literature review is not acceptable to

many and also those who convey a number of valid reasons for doing the review prior to the study.

In the midst of these disputes and debates, Dunne (2011) cites Strûbing (2007) who remarked that the

main point is not whether these existing theories and a priori knowledge should be used in data

analysis, but more importantly rather on “how to make proper use of previous knowledge” (p.117).

Dunne also cited Urquhart (2007) who argued that: “There is no reason why a researcher cannot be

self-aware and be able to appreciate other theories without imposing them on the data” (2011, p.117).

Enter multi-grounded theory (MGT), where the originators Goldkuhl and Cronholm (2010)

explicitly acknowledge that in their evolved or modified GT approach a ‘more systematic use of pre-

existing theories” is incorporated (p. 192). For these authors, the emphasis in MGT on the role of

theories are more pronounced than in classical GT. They emphasize that “one should use external

theories in a constructive way throughout the research process” (italics added)) (p. 193).

In the present study, the literature presented include those that are related to both the

substantive area of study (leadership concepts), specifically those using the grounded theory method

(but not only). As a novice in this approach, the researcher found it helpful to read some articles and

dissertations that used similar methods to the present study as research commenced. But for brevity

and conciseness, mostly those that are current and relevant to the study, majority of which use the GT

approach are presented in this paper. Over the years, there was inevitably an increase in the use of the

GT qualitative approach – notably within the Philippine context. Therefore, those that tread on similar

grounds were judiciously chosen to be presented herein. The presentation is chronological beginning

from 1984 to the present 2020, except for Project Globe - discussed beforehand as a counter point to

27
earlier leadership literature which mostly had western bias. Also, the literature on leadership and

economics is presented as a subsection of the chapter.

“Leadership is a social phenomenon” (Chemers, 1984). As such it cannot be divorced from

the broader situational and cultural context. Aspects of the group’s tasks, leadership systems, the

economic, social, and cultural characteristics of the society where the organization is, critically

influence the nature of leadership (p.91). He also pointed out that the problem of cultural differences

become salient when theories and training programs developed based on western (European and

American) samples are exported to cultures that are different from them. Thus, it is helpful to do

comparative research to produce a much broader range of variables or with greater generalizability

across cultures. According to Chemers (1984), research on leadership has not totally ignored culture,

but the results leave much to be desired. Reviews concluded that cross-cultural research were

characterized by “weak methodologies and by a paucity of theory, both of which make the

interpretation of the scattered findings very difficult” (p. 104). This was in the mid-1980’s though,

where the broad question of the importance of the bearing of culture upon leadership has not yet been

studied on a global scale. At that time there were very few theories which make any specific

predictions about the role of culture in shaping the leadership process. Chemers (1984) did have a

strong argument that “the imposition of Euro-American theories, measures, and research designs on

other cultures may lead to very inaccurate conclusions” (p. 105). This is important to note as many

research studies and their findings with regard to leadership in the Philippine setting must have been

consequently biased and affected by the imposition of these western models, theories, and

conceptualizations of leadership.

28
 Almost a decade later in 1993, Professor Robert House of the Wharton School of the

University of Pennsylvania embarked on “Project GLOBE” (Global Leadership and Organizational

Behavior Effectiveness Research), a breakthrough study which revealed traits that were viewed as

desirable for effective leadership all over the world. The project was aimed at analyzing

organizational norms, values, and beliefs of leaders in different societies. In a monograph of the

project, the authors stated that the meta-goal of the GLOBE Research program is to “develop an

empirically based theory to describe, understand, and predict the impact of cultural variables on

leadership and organizational processes and the effectiveness of these processes” (House, et.al., 2014,

p.2). The authors expounded that the central question of the research project concerns “the extent to

which specific leadership attributes and behaviors are universally endorsed as contributing to

effective leadership and the extent to which the endorsement of leader attributes and behaviors is

culturally contingent” (p.2). This project actually sprung out of Geert Hofstede’s study, where the

Dutch management researcher developed a cultural dimensions theory (in 1980) based on a

worldwide survey of employee values by IBM between 1967 and 1973 showing the effects of a

society’s culture on the values of its members and how these values relate to behavior (Hofstede,

2001).

With GLOBE Research program’s expansion of its scope beyond leadership and

organizational behaviors to “examining issues on how cultural drivers influence economic

competitiveness of nations and many other aspects of the human condition” (Dorfman, et.al.,, 2012),

as well as Hofstede’s continued research and update of his cultural dimensions theory (from 4 to 6

dimensions) into this decade, more information and exact data are now available with regard to the

cultural underpinnings of leadership - which has implications for the purpose of education and

29
preparing the next generation for a fast evolving future. In 2012, twenty years after its inception, the

GLOBE network (which includes more recently a foundation) presented new and unpublished results

related to leadership processes and effectiveness and included the latest phase of their research which

focused on executive leadership. The GLOBE team of researchers (numbering 200 by 2012)

surveyed and interviewed more than 1,000 CEOs and 5,000 direct reports of these CEOs – leading to

another book: Strategic Leadership across Cultures: The GLOBE study of CEO leadership behavior

and effectiveness in 24 countries (published in 2014). The initial project (Phase 1) which gathered

data from 17,300 middle managers and 951 organizations worldwide (62 countries) in three specific

industries: food processing, telecommunications, and financial services, focused on traits/ attributes

of effective leadership within organizations and societies based on culture. It still stands as the largest

database for cross-cultural leadership today. The decade-long work (phases 1-3) of 170 country co-

investigators (CCI’s - selected social scientists and management scholars) culminated in two volumes

of global research on leadership in organizations and societies: 1) Culture, Leadership, and

Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies (2004); and 2) Culture and Leadership across the

World: The GLOBE Book of In-Depth Studies of 25 Societies (2008). Thus, Project GLOBE is cited

in this review as it will be one of the studies with which the theoretical outcome of this present work

will be matched and verified upon. According to House, the principal researcher of the GLOBE

project - as of 2004 “more than 90% of the literature on organizational behavior reflected U.S.-based

research and theory”. Thus, with Project GLOBE U.S. hegemony on organizational behavior was

hopefully liberated (cited in Center for Creative Leadership, 2012, p.8).

Project GLOBE utilized both quantitative and qualitative methodologies in their study of

effective leadership traits across organizations and societies where middle managers from three

30
sectors (earlier mentioned) were asked to use a 7-point scale to describe leader attributes and

behaviors that they perceive as enhancing or impeding outstanding leadership. They were also asked

to give their perceptions of the practices and values (in the form of As Is and Should Be responses,

respectively) in the society in which they live, and of the organizations in which they are employed

(p.43). From the aggregation of results, the following six global leader behaviors (leadership

dimensions of culturally-endorsed implicit theories of leadership or CLT’s) emerged and will be

more fully defined in part 5 of Chapter 4 where this CLT theory is used for theoretical matching/

grounding:

1) Charismatic/ Value based leadership

2) Team-oriented leadership
3) Participative Leadership
4) Humane-Oriented Leadership
5) Autonomous Leadership
6) Self-Protective Leadership

It is of course with relevance to this present study that the results for the six leadership

styles, as gathered from the Philippines, is given below. Note that scores between 1 and 3.5 indicate

that a style is seen as inhibiting outstanding leadership, while scores from 4.5 to 7 indicate that a style

is seen as contributing to outstanding leadership. Scores between 3.5 and 4.5 indicate that a style does

not matter much for outstanding leadership.

TABLE 1: PHILIPPINE RESULTS OF LEADERSHIP DIMENSIONS (Project GLOBE, 2004)

Country Charismatic Team- Self- Participative Humane- Autonomous
oriented Protective oriented
Philippines 6.33 6.06 3.33 5.40 5.53 3.75

*For a comparative view, the full list of 58 countries is included in the Appendix (cited in Center for

Creative Leadership, 2012 as adapted from Den Hartog et. al. 1999). The conceptual framework

drawn in this present study was matched theoretically to these results, to serve as a confirmation

31
whether the present undertaken research as processed through the MGT method, has yielded similar

results.

Aside from the six leader behaviors identified, there are also nine (societal & organizational)

cultural dimensions that House (2004) and his associates in Project Globe came up with. Most of

these major constructs or dimensions were based on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory (1980),

but also selected on the basis of reviewed literature relevant to measurements of culture from past

large-sample studies as well as existing cross-culture

theories (House, et.al., 2014, p.24):

1. Uncertainty Avoidance: the extent to which members of an

organization or society strive to avoid uncertainty by reliance on
social norms, rituals, and bureaucratic practices to alleviate the
unpredictability of future events;
2. Power distance: the degree to which members of an organization
or society expect and agree that power should be unequally shared;
3. Institutional collectivism (Collectivism I): the degree to which
organizational and societal institutional practices encourage
and reward collective distribution of resources and collective action;
4. In-Group Collectivism (Collectivism II): reflects the degree to which
individuals express pride, loyalty and cohesiveness in their
organizations or families;
5. Gender Egalitarianism: the extent to which an organization or society minimizes
gender role differences;
6. Assertiveness: the degree to which individuals in organizations or
societies are assertive, confrontational and aggressive in social
relationships;
7. Future Orientation: the degree to which individuals in organizations
or societies engage in future oriented behaviors such as planning,
investing in the future, and delaying gratification;
8. Performance Orientation: extent to which an organization/society
encourages and rewards group members for performance improvement
and excellence;
9. Humane Orientation: the degree to which individuals in organizations
or societies encourage and reward individuals for being fair, altruistic, friendly,
generous, caring, and kind to others.

32
 Project GLOBE also grouped 61 societal cultures they studied into ten regional clusters with

the thesis that “these reflect greater differences in cultural practices and values across societies from

different clusters than societies within the same cluster”. This was tested using discriminant analysis

confirming the viability of their regional clustering (House et. al, 2004, p.179). Below in tabulated

form are these ten regional clusters where the Philippines is identified as part of the Southern Asia

cluster:

TABLE 2: 10 REGIONAL CLUSTERS (Project GLOBE, House et. al, 2002)

Based on the authors’ rationale for these clusters, our society has the least differences with other

societies in mostly the southern Asian region such as: Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Thailand.

Interestingly, Iran which is considered part of south-western Asia and formerly known as Persia

(boasts as being one of the oldest cultures in the region) was also placed within this cluster. According

to the findings as reported in their website (globeproject.com), these clusters “are the first empirical

attempt to use a holistic approach to understand and verify cultural differences across societies”.

Based on their research, there are now cluster scores on cultural values, practices, and implicit

33
leadership theories. This clustering is worthy of note for practical purposes such as knowing which

countries may be considered as competition, even as we strive for global competitiveness within the

Asian region. Since we share similar cultural characteristics within the same cluster, which impacts

both societal and organizational leadership behaviors/ effectiveness, then we can logically deduce

that these societies will closely mirror our pursuit of corporate and national goals toward progress

and development – potentially making themselves out to be the nearest competition. Project GLOBE

then provides empirically measured and validated information on a global scale that serves as a useful

reference point when reflecting on, for example, how to strategically drive this nation’s growth and

progress, or effectively harness our human resources and capital, or more clearly foresee our

trajectory as a nation (re-aligning practices with values as needed). Also, rediscovering cultural

strengths then utilizing them to best advantage, or using that information to review aspects of good

governance and leadership for societal transformation, or even just to develop leadership programs

for sectors such as the youth, business, media that will positively impact future generations. The

results of this massive and laborious study (Project GLOBE) present an opportunity especially for

those in education, such as leaders in HEIs - to assess, re-think, possibly re-engineer and re-design

institutional programs, including content, delivery, and implementation, taking into account cultural

forces, drivers, and characteristics to make their institutions more relevant, responsive, and

formidable by having a competitive edge in 21st century contexts. Matching the conceptual

framework to be emerged in this present study with this global research study and its results will lend

theoretical validation as required by the methodology used (MGT). Knowing which specific cultural

characteristics or traits Filipinos perceive as contributing to or impeding leadership effectiveness (as

measured both quantitatively and qualitatively) by Project GLOBE serves as a valid reference on

which to further “theoretically ground” the emerged conceptual framework in this present study

34
where the main concern is to develop a framework regarding how Filipino leaders (in selected HEIs)

define and conceptualize leadership – which of course makes it culturally-bound. As the present study

involves conceptualization, it goes beyond mere descriptions of leadership traits, behaviors, and

characteristics and does not include quantitative measures of the impact of culture on societal/

organizational leader behaviors and practices, or how attributes of societal and organizational cultures

affect what kinds of leader behaviors and organizational practices are acceptable/ effective in a

society, as Project GLOBE does.

Having empirically identified the leadership behaviors that are widely accepted and seen as

effective by Filipinos as well as the cultural dimensions that come into play or affect these, Project

GLOBE enabled the researcher in the present study to theoretically validate the concepts derived from

HEI leader-participants against those who belonged in other sectors/ industries, which this earlier

research (Project GLOBE) used (telecommunications, financial services and food processing) –

where all data came from the Philippine setting. As the present study is aimed at presenting a

culturally-bound conceptual framework of leadership in a different sector - among Filipino

educational leaders in HEI’s, it provides further imperative for doing the study as it will hopefully

contribute to the body of research and available information that may be a reference for other and

future studies in the area. Thus, additionally strengthening current knowledge regarding effective

leadership in the Philippine setting.

As noted earlier, Glaser cautions the researcher to restrain himself in reading up on the

substantive topic he is interested in. This is to lessen the occurrence of a priori hypothesizing/

theorizing before gathering empirical findings. Since a priori knowledge could not be totally avoided:

35
the researcher having studied leadership theories in various courses within this program, and needing

to do prior research to explore possible gaps in knowledge within the substantive topic, a different

methodological approach was needed for the study. The researcher opted to diverge from the initial

proposal to use classical GT and in the process of seeking a suitable methodology for addressing the

problem being investigated with validated procedures/ processes widely accepted in the qualitative

field, the researcher found the multi-grounded theory (MGT) approach which permits the use of a

priori knowledge, concepts, and literature reviews for the purpose of the study. An elucidated

rationale on the use of this method can be found in the next chapter on Methodology. As far as using

this approach within the field of research in the local context goes, there is apparently no study done

yet (at least within this College) using the MGT approach, which is then a distinction for the present

study. Based on this initial review of literature, there is still much to be desired in terms of research

studies and publications pertaining to leadership within the Philippines, especially those geared

toward developing leaders for 21st century contexts and contingencies.

One of a few seminal research studies mentioned earlier is that of Anselmo Lupdag’s (1984),

who generated characteristics of effective Filipino leaders from questionnaires fielded to college

students, faculty, staff members and administrators from local HEI’s (p.11). He gave four

psychological tests in the last phase of his study, to respondents who were student organization

leaders, to measure traits relevant to leadership. However, two of these tests were also western-based.

In the last phase, he chose student participants exclusively because he believed that “majority of the

leaders of the country, in all sectors and at all levels, are products of the academe. Thus, for a

conceptualization of leadership, the concepts of students must be known” (p.12). He then used

statistical analysis to test for significant differences between groups. Lupdag reported that the

36
respondents conceptualized leadership “with reference to the action of controlling, directing,

supervising, and influencing a group to achieve certain goals: responses described the leaders instead

of the concept of leadership, which he claims could be an indicator that the respondents tend to think

in concrete rather than abstract terms. He gave tabulated results of leader characteristics, and related

traits/ behaviors based on his findings as well as personality factors contributing to effective

leadership and factors that hinder effective leadership. The primary aim of his study is “to ascertain

the characteristics of the Filipino leader which are important in the conceptualization of Filipino

leadership (p.22).” Therefore, his study was more of a step toward the conceptualization of Filipino

leadership rather than theory building itself, which is the concern of the present study.

Quantitative analysis was still used rather than a completely qualitative approach. Although

Lupdag did comparison between groups and categorized responses, he stopped there without

establishing a unified theoretical framework based on data, something he did not aim for from the

outset of his study, thus limiting it from developing a conceptualization of leadership. He also limited

his respondents to students alone. For this study, the researcher focused rather on key leaders in the

academe.

Noted Filipiniana author, human resource and management practitioner and scholar,

Dr. Tomas Quintin Andres (1999) wrote:

“No matter how effective a manager’s human relations and leadership

skills are, there will always be a problem of discipline among Filipino
subordinates… One of the main reasons for the seemingly unending
disciplining problem in our organizations is the propensity of manage-
ment to use foreign-designed methods of disciplining Filipinos. The
methods work well in other countries because they were designed and
developed for the people of those countries. Now if management uses
these foreign methods with Filipinos who have a very much different
disposition in life, failure is likely to happen. It will be like fitting a
square peg into a round hole (p.92).”

37
He explained how pakikisama is a tool for leadership in the Philippine context and how when a leader

uses this Filipino value as he leads then he is able to prove his worth as a leader. He cautions that

leaders should know when, where, and how to use this tool as it can be detrimental when carried to

extremes (p.154). Andres also explained how other values such as bayanihan (team spirit),

paglilingkod (servanthood), utang-na-loob (gratefulness), and hiya (shame), for example, play into a

Filipino organizational culture. The author’s work underscores many of the values inherent to

Filipinos, which is useful knowledge to those who lead in our context.

This literature is relevant in that it identifies values that Filipinos bring into the corporate

context, then logically even into the educational context, which may affect leadership and its

conceptualization. As part of the extant literature to be studied, it apparently contributes elements for

comparison with whatever data this study generates.As the MGT approach involves ‘theoretical

matching’ - where other theories will be explored to clarify and validate whatever results were

generated from this present study - this comparative-iterative method will be done at a later point.

Literature from this prominent Filipino scholar and management expert will then be later examined

more closely as part of this study. Similar to Philippine social anthropologist, F. Landa Jocano,

Andres (1981) espoused the application of Filipino values, principles, systems and approaches to

business management practices and organizational development. He believed that by thinking

critically about these cultural values then these practices can undergo restructuring and reorienting

where they can be utilized intelligently on current and emerging issues in organizations, for example

with regard to productivity or organizational effectiveness.

38
 F. Landa Jocano, a well-known Philippine anthropologist, educator and author who lived till

this decade (died 2013), shared the same ideas – reasoning that a familial approach to corporate

management in fact, even more generally a Filipino cultural approach to managing organizations is

not only feasible, but is thoroughly effective and completely valuable toward corporate (and

individual) success in the local context. His book Towards Developing a Filipino Corporate Culture:

Uses of Filipino Traditional Structures and Values in Modern Management (1999) in its entirety is a

testament to this. In it Jocano posed the question as to the possibility of modernizing industries “in

the technological order of society without it having to lose its cultural identity or destroy its moral

fabric”. Moreover, if it were “possible to elevate the traditional system to the level of modernity

without westernization” to which he gave a resounding “Yes!” – giving Japan as a true-to-life

example as well as Taiwan and South Korea (p. 181). Even now, two decades after Jocano wrote and

advocated this, it is evident that these countries have maintained their cultural identities in corporate

environments even though there are incremental effects of globalization. It is commonly known that

these countries do take pride in their products that are patronized and dominate in certain fields

globally notably in those of transport and electronics [To name a few: Acer, Asus, Transcend, HTC

– Taiwan/ Samsung, Hyundai – Korea/ Toyota, Honda, Panasonic, Lexus, Nintendo – Japan]. Jocano

has intuitively asserted: “Modernization does not mean inevitably westernization”, but also foresaw

that this integration of what he calls traditional structures (referring mostly to cultural traits) will be

a “challenge to the imagination, shrewdness, vision, and daring of contemporary Filipino managers”

(p.181) – a picture of leadership that interviewees in the present study have insightfully brought up.

Jocano has a strong point when he states that time and again Filipino cultural traits have been

negatively portrayed with some deviant behaviors being erroneously categorized as traditional traits;

as such implying that we have to rid ourselves of these ‘cultural baggages’ and do away with

39
indigenous characteristics as nothing good comes out of them and are hindrances to success in

contemporary society. This, he says “has become a self-fulfilling prophecy of the worst expectations

we have of ourselves” and therefore must be changed where corporate management must imbibe and

operate “in a manner that harnesses the best in Filipino workers” (p.137). He cites Gonzales (1987)

who studied Filipino managers and has come up with empirical evidence from the field indicating

that corporate executives who use Filipino cultural traits and values such as being approachable

(madaling lapitan) and understanding (maunawain) – essentially someone who is sympathetic, listens

to reason, and willing to cooperate (madaling kausapin), are highly appreciated and therefore are able

“to rally their subordinates’ cooperation, develop their loyalties, and in the process, achieve the goals

of the corporation” (p. 138). Although Jocano admits that complaints of managers as to the negative

effects of traditional values are real concerns, he argues that one critical factor is missed and is yet to

be fully explored: using these values positively for the achievement of corporate goals.

However, in the present study there was hardly any mention of the negative effects of Filipino

cultural traits and values upon leadership – whether in conceptualization or practice, except for the

mention of corruption which is mostly attributed to government or in the area of politics. One HEI

leader (a former university president*) in this study lamented how the decline in moral values has led

to “massive corruption and massive poverty” which he calls a double-headed monster in Philippine

society and can be traced to a “widespread failure to practice Christian values and virtues” whose

roots are in basic education, thus where transformation should take place. It was his ardent belief

that these two massive problems are what effective leaders must address in our nation today. In more

recent news (Inquirer.net, January 2020), the Philippines fell 14 notches from 99th to 113th in the latest

Corruption Perception Index (CPI 2019), a rating issued by Transparency International which is a

40
global anti-corruption watchdog. Using a scale of 0 to 100 where zero is “highly corrupt” and 100 is

“very clean” the nation scored 34, tying with five other countries such as El Salvador, Eswatini,

Kazakhstan, Nepal, and Zambia. This is highly disappointing, to say the least, as we are presently

undergoing both a health and economic crisis, wherein effective leadership can ‘make or break’ the

outcome for our nation, not just at this time but even in the far-fetched future as the repercussions of

this pandemic is reported globally to have long-term consequences.

Jocano (1999) in his management by culture theory explains that “when corporate values are,

to a large extent, not congruent with community values, the corporate image is affected and the

management of corporate activities becomes a problem” (p. 142). When corporate and staff/

employee goals align, this leads to better work performance and the ends of the organization are met.

He further expounds that corporate strength depends on “corporate ethos” where it is the leader’s

(manager’s) responsibility to inculcate a strong corporate ethos in its employees and staff. Leaders/

managers who have an “intuitive feel for their indigenous and traditional culture enables them to

practice a managerial style that eminently suits the Filipino worker” (p.148). With good reason, the

requirement for developing effective management is to understand the people who are being managed

(or those being led). It is therefore necessary that cultural values and standards be of primary

consideration rather than “management principles evolved from the experiences of other peoples”

from a different cultural setting (p.158). Again, Jocano strongly advocates for management not only

by objectives but by Culture. He believes that this is “the key to managerial leadership and sustained

corporate growth in a rapidly changing business environment” (p.167). He specifies three dominant

core value elements that must be organizationally incorporated and addressed to develop a strong

Filipino corporate culture which are the following: paternalism, personalism and familism. As a well-

41
respected and eminent Philippine anthropologist and educator, with many books to his name, Jocano’s

work is both well-researched and documented. Thus, his proposal to restructure / re-program Filipino

or Philippine-based corporations/ organizations including multinational ones to intentionally

integrate cultural values & norms in their operations is worthy of serious consideration, especially at

the time of its writing in the late 90’s. However, because of the quantum leaps in technology paving

the way for increased globalization, only two decades later – it is also just responsible to say that this

(proposal) must be considered more astutely given the factors mentioned and the circumstances we,

as a nation are presently in. Cultural values and traits evidently do not erode so easily, but global

conditions do more rapidly than we can sometimes imagine.

Jocano (1999) advocates for the adoption of these core cultural values and integrating them

into modern corporate structures because he sees them as a “means of elevating traditional culture to

the level of modernity and implanting modern corporations deeply into traditional ground thereby

providing it with a solid foundation, supported and nurtured by the cultural psychology of the people”

(p.182). He admonishes that we have looked at ourselves negatively for far too long so that this

ingrained negativity, with reference to our cultural traits and values, have made us “victims” –

disdaining rather than appreciating our own culture and practices, which skews our judgments,

making us ‘colonials’ internally, so that we are ourselves “the very source of our own alienation and

“cultural degradation”. Jocano (1999) contends for us “to go back to our roots to discover our

strengths, deal with the present, and face the future” (p.183) - which this study aims to do by

unearthing our indigenous conceptualization of leadership at present, and finding out what Filipino

leaders themselves (limited to selected HEIs for this study) think with regard to leadership in our own

cultural context in the Philippines. Although Jocano’s identified dominant core cultural elements

42
(paternalism, personalism, familism) were not specifically expressed by respondents in this study as

such, these were traceable throughout the respondents’ language in various discussions of leadership

concepts – e.g. consulting with staff/ employees, moral obligations towards those led and the less

fortunate, school being a ‘family’ and ‘community’, exercising fairness and compassion, being role

models, servanthood in leadership, helping people be ‘all that they can be’, leadership being about

relationships, providing educational opportunities to surrounding communities, etc., etc. All of these

illustrations of what leaders are and do as articulated by respondents, are indicative of the cultural

values and traits that Filipinos have, which Jocano (1990) argues should be embraced and allowed to

prevail in corporate settings and organizations as a model of management by culture. The difference

lies though in the fact that his model was drawn and geared for corporate management to more

effectively function in that role (by applying these dominant cultural elements), which does relate to

leadership in the Philippine context. However, there must still be cognizance of the fine distinction

between management and leadership. Although one can say good leaders may also be good

managers, the vice-versa may not necessarily be true as it is widely accepted that leadership goes

beyond the scope of management. Scholars mostly argue that the two overlap, but the activities of

each are distinct and not necessarily synonymous (Bass, 2010 cited in Wajdi, 2017). Citing Yukl

(1989) to explain this further, he says that “while managers maintain a smoothly functioning

workplace, leaders test the current position and encourage new functions so they are looking for long-

term goals” (Wajdi, 2017, p. 75). Additionally, it must be noted that Jocano’s detailed diagrams of

cultural elements as they could be applied and integrated to “enrich the foundation of corporate life”

(pref.) within corporations/ organizations are largely for various management processes such as

communication, productivity, and motivation - and to enact these with a culturally-relevant Filipino

‘management style’, rather than as cultural distinctives of institutional leadership.

43
 Another study which has relevance to the present one is that of Garcia-Marasigan’s (2000)

who studied the concept of Christian and Filipino leadership in the Philippine setting and wrote his

study in the vernacular. The concept of Christian and Filipino leadership is according to four areas:

Beliefs or principles (Paninindigan), Action (Pagkilos), Social Relations (Pakikipagkapwa), and

Preparation for Leadership (Paghahanda sa Pamunuan). His study is based on the study of several

relevant literature and documents as well as on interviews with 14 leaders of Christian HEI’s in Metro

Manila. For the concept of Christian leadership based on literature he used: the gospels in the Holy

Bible, Church teaching according to the Vatican II and the Plenary Council of the Philippines II and

according to tradition the Second Reading of the Festival of Seasons (Kapistahan ng Panahon) and

Festival of the Saints (Kapistahan ng mga Santo).

Based on the responses and his archival research, a model of Christian and Filipino

educational leadership was formed. This model has four parts: Leadership according to Values

(Pagpapahalaga), Instructional Leadership (Pagtuturo), Leadership of Stakeholders in the

Educational Institution (Pamumuno sa mga Taong Bumubuo ng Paaralan), and Leadership in the

School’s Operational Systems (Pamumuno sa Pangangasiwa ng mga Sistema sa Paaralan).

Recommendations were given with regard to educational management and several were extended to

leaders in Christian educational settings. His study takes into account responses from leaders and

stakeholders alike where the present study focuses solely on educational leaders in HEIs including

data from literature. The above study contributes to local literature on leadership but the methodology

used is different to the methodology of the present study. Garcia-Marasigan’s study concerned itself

with forming a model. The present study will focus on discovering leadership concepts and proposing

44
a conceptual framework regarding Filipino leadership concepts of educational leaders in selected

HEI’s.

Another literature worthy to review is Aulicino’s (2006) dissertation on transformative

leadership and how girls in secondary school are educated regarding it. The study also used grounded

theory to explore the perceptions that adolescent girls have about the concept and practice of

leadership, and was done to see how schools are developing leadership especially in young women

in order to assure the supply of strong leaders in the future. Essentially, the study is similar to the

present one in that both explore concepts and practice of leadership through close examination of

words from the respondents. The difference lies in the kind of respondents who participated, although

the cited study was also informed and supplemented with interviews of adult women school leaders.

The study done was limited to females, as making a difference in the education of women was its

primary aim. The present study was not limited by gender. There is similarity in that the former study

also interviewed women school leaders aside from the student respondents and furthermore surveyed

a larger number of students for supplementary data. Aulicino’s study explored the perceptions that

adolescent girls have about the concept and practice of leadership, particularly related to

transformative leadership. Through close examination of the words and images girls use to talk about

leadership, the study revealed the ways girls see leadership and how it fits or doesn't fit into their

present and future lives. There is triangulation of data in both studies since both engaged the GT

methodology to address the qualitative nature of the problem statement. This study on women’s

perception of leadership was done using one-on-one interviews with the participants which included

school leaders who were also women. The research brought together data from three different sources

45
to develop a bigger picture of how girls perceive leadership and explore if they may have women

leader role models to follow after.

Results of Aulicino’s study showed that adolescent girls have incomplete or stereotypical

perceptions about leadership in general. The respondents had limited understanding of the role of

leaders within groups, could name only a few women leaders, and were unable to explain in what

ways leaders are effective. Aulicino (2006) also found that schools provide few, if any, experiences

for girls to explore the concepts of effective leadership or to examine the lives and dispositions of

strong female role models. Just as the outcome of the former study serves to inform schools and

curriculum planners about girls and leadership, and encourage them to create stronger school-based

leadership programs for young women, so the present study can also serve to inform schools and

educational leaders regarding a culturally relevant understanding of leadership or leadership-in-

context, which in turn may help them develop culturally appropriate leadership programs for current

and future students. This is to raise the quality of education of present and future learners, fostering

in them effective culturally-preferred leadership qualities, creation of culturally-appropriate

leadership development programs, also for better organizational or institutional planning and

development which are key responsibilities of leaders in HEIs.

The researcher also came across a study which is relevant as it tackled a similar topic

on the concept of leadership among Native American Indians and used the classic GT methodology

to develop a theoretical framework. A study to determine the Native American theory of leadership

by Terence Munson (2007) used GT methodology as he wanted to build a theory based on a tribal

perspective. This echoes Ilac’s GT study (to be found later in this review chapter) on the indigenous

46
Batad tribe of Ifugao province as well. In the study he found 11 leadership concepts of importance to

members of two tribes: the Assiniboine and the Gros Ventre tribes. These important concepts include:

tribal affiliation, service leadership, community involvement, equality and respect, business

negativity, observational learning, cultural difference, time perception, cultural participation, gender

differences, and non-materialism. According to Munson (2007), the study was merely an initial step

in promoting understanding of leadership from a Native American tribal perspective. He was able to

generate a theory from the data gathered in field interviews, although he claims that language was a

barrier in the process. Munson shares that the rationale for the study is mainly to help in the economic

development of the Native American community, increase their self-esteem as well as facilitate a

better future for the younger generation, but he adds Denzin and Lincoln’s (2005 as cited in Munson,

2007) argument that “for the most part, society is committed to the interpretive understanding of the

human experience (p.10). Since his study focused on participants from one reservation, he

acknowledges that his findings are limited to that population or is particular to that specific group,

which is similar to the present study as this is specific to HEIs and particular to those fulfilling the

selection criteria. Just as Munson’s study did not intend “to produce a generalized result, but to form

a body of knowledge” as a reference or for comparative purposes (p.11) , so this present study does

the same. The present study used as reference some of the questions Munson used for his initial

interview with respondents. These questions for the present study are outlined in the Methodology

chapter and were modified and evolved to suit this researcher’s queries as it pertains to leadership in

the Philippine context. Munson’s study is a good resource not just for the questions but for the

methodological process he underwent, which gave insights to the researcher for this present one.

Aside from highlighting the impact of culture on leadership schemas and concepts, Munson’s study

also exemplifies how leadership is differentiated within a society as there could be sub-cultures within

47
it. An article later cited in this review on the conceptualization of Leadership across cultures (Journal

of World Business, Dickson, et.al., 2012), introduces the idea of “intra-national phenomena” where

concepts like leadership may not only differ across cultures, but possibly also within it as the above

study on Native Americans leadership theory suggests.

Within the local context, there are two studies that have substantially contributed to Philippine

leadership studies literature fairly recently. These are relevant to the present study, hence, are included

in this review. The first one is a dissertation by Ellamil (2011) entitled: Structural relations among

schema-consistent supervisory leadership traits and behaviors: Quality of leader-member exchange

and organizational citizenship behavior, which she did for a doctor of philosophy degree in social-

organizational psychology where she examined Filipino leadership focusing on quality of leader-

member exchange, leadership traits, behaviors and organizational citizenship behaviors as the title

suggests. She surveyed 1,141 Filipino employees across job levels and professions, asking them to

describe the ideal Filipino boss. Her study also examined “how the presence of these qualities impact

employees’ relationship with their leader and eventually influenced their performance at work” (cited

in Ilac, 2011). The following desired and ideal characteristics of a Filipino leader emerged: preference

are for leaders who are person-focused and group-centered, but also professionally competent and

knowledgeable. A leader who is makatao or easy to talk to, listens with understanding and

compassion, as well as cares about the employees’ professional and personal welfare is also ideal. If

the boss is makatao, he/ she is more likely to foster feelings of affection and warmth in employees –

enabling him/ her to bring people to work together as a team benefitting both the people and the

organization in positive ways. Employees also prefer leaders who have leadership competencies

including mentoring skills or the kakayahang mamuno. Beyond having the technical knowhow, the

ideal leader must also be able to share knowledge and skills to lend toward the personal and

48
professional growth of employees (cited in Ilac, 2011). When leaders engage in more positive

interactions with employees, this results to affection, professional respect, and loyalty to the leader

and organization. Ellamil’s study surfaced the importance of the quality of relationships between

bosses and employees. The better these relationships are, the better the quality of employees’

performance as they go beyond the call of duty, are more willing to help peers, and length of tenure

increases. Based on these findings, Filipino bosses/ leaders must take care of how they are perceived

by their team where it is imperative that they show themselves competent, know how to mentor, are

approachable and willing to listen, not domineering nor arrogant. Employees who perceive bosses as

“moody, critical, and demanding” only follow out of compulsion or deference to the position, but

they do so while detesting it and with anger at the leader. If Filipino leaders take note, make an effort

at and develop these ideals then they will be able to build and bring out the best in their Filipino

employees (cited in Ilac, 2011). Ellamil’s study was generated from a significant number of

respondents across levels and occupations, thus contributes toward the understanding and

conceptualization of indigenous leadership. This relatively more recent study echoes the observations,

studies, and findings contained within the numerous publications of two prominent Filipino scholars/

authors named earlier: Tomas Andres and F. Landa Jocano which have been reviewed and will be

discussed again in a later section to provide ‘theoretical grounding’ to the conceptual framework

emerged in this study.

In 2012 a special issue of the Journal of World Business on Leadership in a Global Context

(Vol. 47, Issue 4, October 2012) contained a number of articles pertinent to its title including various

leadership styles across cultures, new directions in research and theory development of leadership in

a global context, a report and an analysis of Project GLOBE marking its twenty-year journey into the

world of culture and leadership, cross-cultural reviews of quantitative and qualitative leadership

49
studies, leading global teams, emergence of women leaders, leadership perspectives from various

cultures, etc., etc. Among these, one article is being cited here as it focused on Conceptualizing

leadership across cultures, where the authors summarized research on how the meaning of leadership

varied systematically across cultures and described conflicts in the literature then - “between the quest

for universals and the identification of cultural contingencies leadership theory” (Dickson, et. al.,

2012, p.483). These authors brought up how leadership as defined by Project GLOBE was

“intentionally broad because of the recognition that how leadership is enacted, the evaluative and

semantic interpretation, and the cognitive prototypes that define leadership are likely to differ across

cultures” (p. 486) - which the results of the empirical study eventually proved true (across 62 societies

included in the study). Dickson, et.al. (2012) for their article’s coverage chose to define leadership

as both an ability and a process – “as an ability that is enacted differently across cultures, and as a

process that is created and developed differently across cultures” (p.486).

These definitions together are more all-encompassing and relate to the present study as the

HEI leaders interviewed here also defined leadership within such classifications, many of them

mentioning the universally-endorsed leadership attributes as contributing to leadership effectiveness.

This list of universals include: “trustworthy, just, honest, charismatic, inspirational, visionary,

encouraging, positive, motivational, confidence builder, dynamic, having foresight, team-builder,

communicator, coordinator, excellence-orientated, decisive, intelligent, and win-win problem solver”

(p.487). A significant point that this article adds is Project GLOBE’s test of the relationship between

societal culture and the content of leadership schemas, with consistent findings that societal cultures

influence the content of employees’ leadership schemas in organizations (Dorfman, et.al., 2004 as

cited in Dickson, et. al, 2012, p.488) and how “there is evidence for both universal and culturally

contingent leader characteristics that should be taken into account when identifying successful leaders

50
in different countries” (p. 487). These findings support the need to undertake indigenous or culturally-

contextualized studies, such as those cited in this review and the present study, in order to identify

and develop leadership frameworks that are culturally relevant embodying the values, ideals,

preferences, aspirations, as well as strengthening the cultural identity of the nation. Dickson, et. al.

(2012) emphasized the impact that culture has on leadership and how it is apparent in something as

simple as how leaders are perceived, where in some countries they are revered or emulated and in

egalitarian societies are looked upon equally as co-workers – this perception is even evident in the

language used (p.488).

The authors also point out the common observation that a “North American bias” continues

to proliferate in general leadership literature so that knowledge about leadership is “culturally limited”

(Dickson & Den Hartog, 2004, as cited in Dickson et al. 2012, p.488). They also cite House’s (1995

as cited in Dickson et. al., 2012) similar observations that:

“…most leadership theories and measures reflect individualistic

rather than collectivistic values; they emphasize assumptions of rationality rather
than ascetics, religion, or superstition; focus on individual rather than group
incentives; stress follower responsibilities than rights, and assume hedonistic rather
than altruistic motivation” (p.488).

The applicability and usability of these theories and measures are then questionable as these

do not reflect nor represent the specific cultures being studied, discussed, categorized, being informed

about, or even creating programs and policies for. Hence, the importance of culturally contextualized

leadership studies as the present one - studies which factor in elements that House (the principal

author of Project GLOBE) as cited above, indicates.

Dickson, et.al., (2012) also mentions that much of the cross-cultural leadership research were

conducted years ago and relied on pre-determined cultural dimensions (e.g. Hofstede & Project

51
GLOBE), which though useful should also take into account “other cultural dimensions that may help

clarify important leadership characteristics”, such as “cultural tightness-looseness” (Gelfand, et. al.,

2006) and recommends a move “toward a more local understanding of culture” as well as to take

“more of an emic approach to the study of leadership in different regions…to yield results that are

more practical for organizations” (p.489). It is hoped that with the present study being local and

focused on a specific sector (HEIs), these recommendations are well-considered and singly addressed.

A discussion of the importance of the meso-level of analysis in this article also lends

support to the present study. The authors (Dickson, et.al., 2012) note that multi-level research is

needed to make conclusions about phenomena across cultures so that it has to be studied at the

individual (micro), organizational (meso) and national (macro) levels. They describe micro-meso

research as a level of analysis where “individual behavior is evaluated as aggregates of the individuals

and the surroundings that influence their behavior”, therefore as this present study involves

organizations (HEIs) with individual responses evaluated as aggregates with their surroundings

(HEIs) it falls under the micro-meso research level of analysis. The authors assert that meso research

“can be a helpful tool to address issues of overgeneralization and underestimation of cross-cultural

effects” (p.488). A major critique of cross-cultural research is the failure to take into account intra-

national phenomena as culture is commonly perceived to be homogenous within one culture, this fails

then to provide a full understanding and accurate information about the culture (Tung, 2008 as cited

in Dickson et.al., 2012, p. 487). Since the present study will present a conceptualization of leadership

based on responses from selected HEI leaders, leadership as an ‘intra-national phenomenon’ within

the Philippine culture is addressed and taken into account.

52
 Additionally, the article’s inclusion of the Global Mindset Inventory (GMI) as one measure

of interest in global situations and people is informative, serving as an assessment tool with which to

compare a number of the pattern and selective codes emerged in the present study. The table (Table

4, p. 121) of dimensions of the GMI is a good reference on which to see overlaps from the responses

given by HEI leaders in the present study – for one to have a sense of whether any of them has a

global mindset, since global integration is looming in the horizon if not already at the heels of regional

(ASEAN) integration currently in process since 2015.

This article concludes by saying that “culture matters and not in a small way” (p.491) with

strong evidence presented using various studies, positing the importance of also knowing when it

does not (p.490). Dickson et. al (2012) cites Huntington’s book (2000) Culture Matters: How values

shape human progress where he illustrated how there are “countries who at one point in history were

similar in terms of their economies, but who 30 years later had shown tremendously different growth

patterns”, the present authors asserting that what was left out in the analyses was the “mediating role

of leaders who emerged and were educated, socialized and trained within those cultures” (p. 490).

The importance of culture and its impact on leadership matters in “how leaders emerge, are selected,

developed and seen (or not seen) as role models to be emulated, and it matters in ways that are

predictable, and that organizations can respond to strategically” (p.491). As we advance further into

the 21st century experiencing constant flux and fluidity with unpredictable scenarios unfolding on an

epic scale, we learn more and more how crucial and critical leadership is, even for the survival not

just of organizations, but of nations. Thus, it is hoped that with this present study being specifically

about leadership as conceptualized by leaders themselves in a strategic field such as Higher

Education, a significant contribution can be made, not just within the sphere of Education itself but

in other important fields as well.

53
 Meanwhile, Cimene and Aladano’s (2013) closely-related study of leadership perspectives

within the Philippine context, which gathered information from 71 leader respondents from both the

public and private sectors in Northern Mindanao, generated findings on leadership that are a

worthwhile contribution to the literature in this area. Their research is included in this review as both

a parallel work and a solid reference on which to analyse the emergent conceptual framework of the

present study given that they similarly used grounded theory as their methodology. The objective of

their study was “to capture the different viewpoints about the practice of leadership in organizations

for a deeper understanding of personal leadership in the Philippines and its implications on theory,

research, and practice” (p.50). Although they wrote that respondents came from both public and

private sectors, their more detailed description shows that more of the top tier leaders interviewed

came from the political arena and majority are mid-tier leaders (59 regional and provincial directors)

with no specific numbers for each gender given. These were purposively sampled where the criteria

for leadership was: being in a leadership position in an organization and success in leadership is

evidenced by being a recipient of local, national or international awards. It should be noted that the

authors have prefaced their study by discussing ‘situated leadership’ as explained by Munro (2008 as

cited in Cimene & Aladano,2013, pp. 48-49) where there is ‘no one best way’ to lead given that

leaders “work in complex settings where rules, players, problems, and objectives can change from

hour to hour…so that it is unlikely that any one strategy or style will fit all of these changing

conditions” (p.49). They went on to describe how beleaguered with problems the Philippine education

sector is, as well as all other sectors of the nation, highlighting how the economy is propped up by

overseas workers’ (OFWs) remittances, thus the “greatest leadership challenge for the government is

to provide employment for its people so that they don’t have to work abroad” (p.49). The authors

already zeroed in on the cultural trait of Filipinos as being family-centric even before the discussion

54
of findings in the study (as it appeared in the cited book chapter) so any reader is immediately

informed of this distinctive trait, which they describe as one of the values that are embodied in the

value-systems across Asia and not just in the Philippines. From their findings which entailed a

comprehensive examination of multiple perspectives based on in-depth interviews with their key

informants, three major ones that Filipino leaders have, emerged: 1) Leadership as an art, 2)

Leadership as an ability, and 3) Leadership as a process.

To expound briefly, according to the findings, leadership is an art as respondents expressed

that it takes creativity to handle opposition diplomatically and graciously as well as deeming this

necessary to optimize limited budgets and resources available. Leadership is an art as one navigates

through cultural values and utilizes them beneficially in organizational settings with positive

consequences rather than negative ones. An example, as mentioned earlier is the value Filipinos place

on family – as a cultural trait this can be harnessed to the mutual benefit of members or employees

and the organization, where a sense of belongingness can foster loyalty and productivity. However,

this value can also be misplaced and detrimental if family members are employed and put in positions

where they are not suited or do not have the requisite qualifications and competencies at all – in fact,

this may even lead to corruption. The authors agree that “indeed, leadership in the Philippines is an

art of building relationships with people with whom leaders work” (p.54). They propose that the “key

is for leaders to use ingrained values and beliefs as the bases for building positive organizational

improvement” (p.53). This perspective is also held by respondents as they reason that leaders must

‘orchestrate strategies in order to achieve objectives’ which is difficult, as in order to do so they have

to study the ‘surrounding circumstances, the tasks at hand, the people who will make them happen,

and the resources available’ – variable and changing factors which leaders must be able to fathom

55
and organize in efficient and effective ways to achieve envisioned goals (p.53). One strategy that

respondents of the study pointed out as effective in addressing limited financial resources is

‘networking’ which the authors thought to also be an art since according to them “there is no hard

and fast rule about how to tap other organizations in order to share resources” (p.54). There were

respondents though who believed that there are “key ingredients to successful networking” – which

are sincerity and diligence. Another reason for the perspective of leadership being an art is that of

leaders having communication and interpersonal skills as these are needed for relating “to different

personalities, bringing out the best in people, advancing their growth and delivering more than what

is required given limited resources” (p.55). All these themes of being relational, strategic, having

communication and interpersonal skills, collaboration, networking, harnessing cultural traits

beneficially for the achievement of organizational goals, and fostering a sense of ‘family’ within the

educational institution are all familiar themes that were also brought up in the present study, however

these were not categorized as leadership being an ‘art’. Rather, these were categorized under personal

and professional competencies/ skills that leaders must have to be effective in the Philippine cultural

context.

With regard to the perspective that leadership is an ability, Cimene and Aladano (2013) report

that this was claimed by respondents as necessary especially in “generating the cooperation, trust and

goodwill of staff”, convincing them that the organization is concerned for their welfare (p.55). An

effective leader needs to spend time with people not just within the organization, but outside too to

gain their trust, where the best opportunities present themselves during celebrations such as

Christmas, birthdays, fiestas or other such special occasions – also when they collaborate in important

projects (p.56). To inspire people particularly those who are already self-directed and motivated, to

56
“strategically mobilize” people, address and implement change, become a ‘learning organization’,

and institute continuous improvement are areas where the leader must possess abilities in. These are

skills and competencies that were also brought up in the present study and were basically categorized

as professional competencies. Some though fall under the category of people empowerment where

leaders inspire and provide continuing professional development opportunities for staff/employees

and faculty.

As to leadership being a process, the authors discussed at length the importance of integrity

and all other exemplary characteristics such as “diligence, dedication, honesty, dignity, honor, love

for God and for people which some would rather term ‘commitment’, giving importance, respect,

recognition, rewarding good/ best performance, and financial security” which Filipinos naturally

desire and all of which will lend to employees’ loyalty and will contribute to them feeling valued

and not just being used by the organization to achieve its ends (p.58). Respondents also perceive

“leadership as a continuous learning process” where there are no shortcuts, requiring discipline and

creativity – where discipline is needed to stay focused on goals and to “stay true to one’s values” not

sidetracked by corruption which eventually leads to loss of leadership position as well as people’s

respect, thus ‘accountability’ is also key to effective leadership (p.58). In this perspective, the

importance of creativity was reiterated as leaders need it to address future issues to run organizations

effectively and to facilitate problem solving, again noting how leaders need to continue learning, so

some undertake both formal and informal training. For others, they would have to do this on-the-job

- which respondents termed “embedded learning” where leaders engage in “intelligent reflection and

action; reflecting on day-to-day activities and then acting on them” continuously repeating this

process until the lessons learned become part of the leader’s repertoire of behaviors (p. 58-59).

57
 Leadership undeniably involves processes whether in the translation of the vision-mission into

goals and objectives then communicating these to people for them to take action, or in undergoing

continuous learning and improvement at all levels of the organization, or in collaboration within and

without the organization in order to foster a sense of community and in seeking to empower people

for mutual benefit - on the road to achieve the purposes of the organization. This perspective

highlights how leaders are not born rather they are ‘made’ as they undergo these processes externally.

There are also internal processes happening within their persons so that they are developing in their

understanding, in their role, and in their practice of leadership. The study reviewed here clearly

focused on the “practice’ of leadership whereas the present study aims at developing a ‘conceptual

framework’ – where a number of emerged categories do correspond to some of the descriptions given

by the authors as based on their gathered responses.

Cimene and Aladano (2013) note that “in the Philippine context organizational culture cannot

be ignored because it is critical to leadership performance” (p.59), so they cite Andres (1985) as they

propose for local organizations to adopt appropriate approaches when applying leadership theories

from western models since this is inevitably encountered with a majority of literature on leadership

coming from the west and local leaders who are sent for training abroad are exposed to the same.

Andres (1989) had written of four roles that leaders can adopt to contextualize western models and

of these the authors recommend the role of an orienter where the leader “relates management systems

to the actual issues that Filipino management practitioners are facing today” (p.60). This is precisely

what this present study aims to contribute by emerging a conceptual framework using a similar

methodology where it is grounded in reality as based on firsthand data and not on preconceived

hypothesis and ideas. This is to advocate that we should not just adopt approaches, but rather that we

58
should draw out our own concepts and models of leadership so that we know it is the best suited for

the Philippine context – at the very least for the operation of local HEIs (as this study is limited to

this sector). Where the reviewed study proposes an ‘indigenization’ of western models that integrate

both eastern and western influences, the present one seeks to contribute to the formation of an

indigenous one, taking into account our own cultural values, so leaders in various sectors of the nation

will have a practical guide in applying it to their organizations for overall effectiveness and success.

This will serve not just practitioners but also students who are studying leadership. In their final

recommendations though, Cimene and Aladano do recognize the need “for Filipinos to stop

borrowing leadership perspectives from the West, and to try to develop a homegrown leadership

perspective”, additionally prescribing more grounded theory research to be undertaken which can

“enhance the integration of theory, research, and practice in the discipline” (2013, p.62).

A study on Leadership in Philippine HEIs that explores the narratives of 15 government and

higher education leaders who were described as holding formal leadership positions in varying

capacities within the government or university’s research management team is included here as it

involves their perception of their role as leaders and their leadership development. Calma (2013),

currently a senior lecturer in Higher Education at the University of Melbourne, used discourse

analysis and the method of narrative inquiry with multiple lenses (“how”,“what”, and “why”) in this

study, analyzing these narratives which illustrate “the complexities and challenges” entailed in

Filipino research managers’ leadership roles in academia (p.1). His focus on these research managers

and their view of their leadership roles involved examining “what their story is” and the “what” in

their story, which led to constructing certain characters and subsequently “how their stories impact

their activities” where investigation is on the “shared activities of the narrators in their similar socially

located contexts”, relating these to dominant HEI discourses on leadership and finally presenting

59
another lens in his analysis which is the “why” (p.2). Calma’s discursive framing of leadership help

explain the images shaped of research managers as leaders. These include that of leaders as: experts,

beneficiaries, negotiators, tyrants, facilitators, and heroes (p.2). He notes that these categorizations,

meanings, and discourse are jointly constructed or are co-constructed experiences as he inquired,

examined his understandings, assumptions, and reflected on participants’ experiences and how these

resonated with his own (p.2). In narrative inquiry, his objective was to present voices of leaders and

their stories where he opted to be a story analyst “who thinks and treats stories as social facts” which

can then be subjected to rigorous and systematic analysis thus, similar to GT methodology he reduced

data to categories, themes, and patterns where he analyzed for key organizing themes (similar to

theoretical condensation in MGT) across stories told by the participants (p.3). Calma constructed

depictions of leaders as used by Allan (2006), where subject positions and modalities of power were

observed so that in his study he found “two or more leaders sharing similar subject positions; in

particular that of being facilitators, heroes, experts, beneficiaries and negotiators with none found as

tyrants as described by Allan and colleagues” (p.3).The leaders who Calma terms as ‘storytellers’

have half who teach and 12 who supervise Masters or PhD students representing universities from all

the major island groups of the Philippines who all work full-time, come from varying age groups,

years of experience and fields of discipline, eight are females (p.4).The most relevant section of his

study is that of “what leaders think of themselves” and from Calma’s analysis “a persistently strong

narrative about their roles emerged” relating that their responses were “intricately woven into a web

of stories of projected identities” (p.4). These projected identities, as earlier mentioned, were similar

to Allan’s description of constructed images of leaders namely (descriptions and issues involved per

leader-image based on Calma’s study (2013, pp. 5-10):

60
 1. Facilitators (difficult role but have less impact/ insignificant influence)
2. Heroes (role as mentors and teachers full-time, heavily engaged in scaffolding others,
active in research, help in capacity building)
3. Experts (great deal of understanding of complexity of managing university research but
view selves as powerless in convincing people to do research)
4. Beneficiaries (manage research in ad-hoc role, struggle with research funding, difficulty
finding time to do research due to work commitments, lack of skills, challenge to engage
staff in research, manager role is ‘extra’ as working full-time, need for teaching staff to
investigate relevant and meaningful areas of research and come up with good research
questions, research not seen as integral to advancement/ over-all see themselves as interim
solution providers)
5. Negotiators (liaison research center managers who manage government funds, maintain
offices in host universities, work with staff from host universities to help other academic
staff within their zones, pressing need to train academic staff in proposal writing, view
themselves as helping to develop research through a piece-meal approach, find it difficult
to develop strong research cultures in less research-orientated universities, capacity issues
with both trainers and trainees)

As to leadership development, Calma (2013) reports that participants’ needs in this area

relate to how research is seen as secondary to teaching so it needs to be made more attractive, as well

as to “managing tensions that exist between teaching, research and leadership” (p.11).The impact of

this study on leadership in HEIs, aside from these categorizations (which are relevant to this present

study), is in identifying how higher education in this nation has a system where “inadequately trained

teachers and researchers provide training to others” so that these unqualified staff “may not

effectively build research capacity and a strong research culture locally, let alone compare

internationally” (pp.11-12). Internationalization and global competitiveness are current key issues

already identified by HEI leaders whether locally or overseas, as mentioned by both respondents in

the present study and referenced works included in this literature review. As such, these are leadership

concerns not just to be addressed in terms of organizational strategies but also involve leadership

practices and behaviors that may consequently need to change in response to contingencies brought

about by global systemic shifts. It can then be assumed that the conceptualization of leadership in

various cultures also change as affected by these phenomena and as cultures evolve.

61
 Even more recently, Valdez, et.al., (2016) studied Filipino women as educational leaders in

HEIs as windows of opportunities in the region began widening in 2015. At that time ASEAN opened

with a free flow of employees among its member states, which inevitably affected education. Leaders

in the sector had to start working from thence to ensure that their graduates can compete with

graduates from HEIs in other member nations. The need to produce graduates who have capabilities

that are either equal to or better than those from other states in the region surfaced. With competitively

skilled graduates, the economy of a particular nation can improve and progress on a global scale or

even just within the ASEAN region (p. 204). A number of 21st century skills were identified by the

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC, 2015 as cited in Valdez et.al, 2016) as necessary for all

students and graduates to acquire across the region for competitiveness and integration within the

region. These 5 domains of competencies and skills labelled as transversal (generic and transferable

to a wide variety of functions and tasks enabling people to integrate successfully in employment and

social contexts) (UNESCO, 2015a, 2015b as cited in Valdez, et.al., 2016, p. 205) include the

following: Critical and innovative skills, interpersonal skills, intrapersonal skills, global

citizenship, and media and information literacy. The study is included in this review as it featured

outstanding Filipino women educational leaders (presidents) who all came from state universities and

colleges in Northern Mindanao where these HEI women leaders were assessed based on how they

exemplified and applied the above-listed 21st century skills in their leadership roles and functions

(p.206).This 2016 study is relevant to review as it identified particular skills that may align or match

the ones that have surfaced in the present study since it also focused on leaders in Philippine HEIs,

albeit solely women. The methodology is qualitative, utilizing a self-reporting questionnaire where

the women educational leaders were asked “which of the APEC competencies did they perform, how

often they performed them and the instances where these skills were used in their power roles to

62
achieve their objectives” (p.207). Each domain was defined with specific key skills and

competencies.

The findings of the study revealed the following specific skills and competencies these

Filipina HEI leaders exhibited (pp. 210-211): under Critical & Innovative skills - entrepreneurship,

resourcefulness, reflective thinking; under Interpersonal skills - communication skills, organizational

skills, teamwork, empathy; under Intrapersonal skills – self-discipline, the ability to learn

independently, flexibility and adaptability, self-awareness, perseverance, self-motivation,

compassion, integrity, risk-taking and self-respect; under the Global Citizenship domain – awareness,

tolerance, responsibility, respect for diversity, ethical understanding, intercultural understanding,

democratic participation, conflict resolution, respect for the environment, national identity and a sense

of belonging; under the Media and Information literacy domain competencies of these women leaders

include – expressing and communicating ideas through ICT, using media and ICT to participate in

democratic processes, and the ability to analyze and evaluate media content. All these women leaders

have expressed their desire and intent to align their institutions with ASEAN goals whereby it is

envisioned that there will be “a single common market and production base leading to the free flow

of goods, services, investment capital, and skilled labor in Southeast Asia” (Valdez, et. al., 2016,

p.212).

The authors’ discussion particularly on internationalization/ globalization bears upon the

present study as having a ‘global perspective’; it is coded as one of the major leadership characteristics

emerged from the interviews done with various leaders in both private and public HEIs, a domain

which APEC places under Global Citizenship. Skills/ competencies that also resonate with the present

63
study are encompassed in the other major domains of Critical & Innovative skills, Interpersonal and

Intrapersonal skills, so it is interesting to note that the only domain that does not is that of Media and

Information literacy, which presumably could be because at the time the interviews for this present

study were done ASEAN’s opening of skilled labor exchanges between member states has not

materialized yet (only in 2015), eventually leading to APEC’s identification of this important domain

for global competitiveness. Nevertheless, the fact that quantum leaps in technology have already

taken place even before transitioning to the 21st century, Media and Information literacy skills as a

transversal domain is worthy of regard as a ‘must-inclusion’ for leader effectiveness especially in

educational contexts such as HEIs. It would be ironic and paradoxical that HEI leaders who belong

to institutions with CHED autonomous or deregulated status - therefore considered excellent

educational institutions - would not be aware of the increasing need for literacy in this domain when

their very institutions are offering degree programs in ICT or ICT-related courses, and the HEIs

themselves are offering tutorials or seminars for the continuing professional development of teachers

in this specific area. On the other hand, it could also be surmised that ICT and media literacy are just

not specifically identified by the interviewed leaders in this study as skills a 21 st century educational

leader must have, but perhaps was just lumped together with all the ‘professional’ competencies and

skills that HEI leaders need in order to function effectively in their roles this millennium.

Although the theme of having competitive or globally competent graduates were mentioned

by a number of HEI leaders interviewed for this study, upon review of interview notes this seems to

be more of a concern of leaders in private HEIs and mostly leaders who have an institution-wide

responsibility (presidents) rather than those who are in middle management. Respondents who are in

middle management mainly advocate teachers going abroad for graduate studies as part of continuing

64
professional development (CPD) with a myopic view of just gaining credentials and be eligible for

promotion, rather than from a standpoint of global competitiveness or for the purpose of their HEIs

being globally ranked. Global ranking gains more credibility and prestige not just for themselves, but

serves as a value-proposition to faculty, staff, and students - more so as a contribution to valuation of

the nation as a whole. The fact that the present study has more male respondents than females also

make the inclusion of this literature on Filipina HEI leaders who are re-positioning their institutions

to be at least competitive within the ASEAN region for the possibility of national economic

betterment – a reasonable choice. It is worthwhile to note that these Filipina HEI leaders were

analyzed in comparison with male leaders on traditional traits of masculinity such as ‘risk-taking,

aggressiveness, competitiveness, and esprit de corps” as they worked to close the gap according to

regional standards and make their HEIs fit soonest for ASEAN integration (Valdez et. al, 2016,

p.214). It was indicated that these women leaders harbored these same competencies as men so that

the usual masculine characteristics were found to “belong to neither women nor men leaders” (p.214).

Furthermore, Valdez et. al (2016) reports that to be a successful woman leader especially within the

Asian cultural milieu, characteristics like empathy, organizational skills, perseverance,

communication skills, compassion, and tolerance are necessary. Finally, the APEC-identified

domains of competencies and skills are suitable to include in this review as a reference for the

identification, matching, and confirmation of emergent categories that will be included in the final

conceptual framework as the outcome of this study.

One woman leader who was recently elected into public office in the Philippines, who seems

to embody all the aforementioned leadership skills identified in Valdez et. al.’s study is incumbent

vice-president Leni Robredo. She is for anti-corruption in public service and just like her husband

65
apparently has a heart for the welfare of her constituency. Her husband, a public official that has

gained national respect and the general public’s trust, was the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo

(a 2000 Magsaysay awardee for Government Service). Vice-President Leni carries the same mantle

of integrity so that she was catapulted from congresswoman of Camarines Sur to the vice-presidency

in the last elections (2016). In a speech at the Ateneo Professional Schools in March 2017, she paid

homage to her late husband and his pragmatic style of leadership – poignantly termed as ‘tsinelas’

leadership because her husband used to bicycle around Naga, as the then youngest mayor ever in

Philippine history, only in shorts, shirt, and slippers with no bodyguards at all. VP Leni said: “It was

critical that power was shared with the people... If we all allow the concept of ‘tsinelas leadership’ to

guide the way we make policies, we would include rather than exclude”, adding that the windows of

service can quickly close when the poor speaks, advising to approach them with empathy leading to

collaboration, which she believes is the “essence of democracy and engagement”. The current vice-

president endorses “tsinelas leadership”, saying that local leaders must “have ears close to the ground,

feet planted in reality really big hearts, and a lot of patience”. The three key elements that her husband

espoused as governance model when he was in public office were: progressive perspective,

partnerships, and people participation – a brand of public service that endeared him to his constituents

(ateneo.gsb.edu, 2020). Interestingly, these are elements that were also favored by majority of the

HEI leaders interviewed for this study.

The Robredos’ confidence in the people to participate in the act of helping themselves and

allowing them to contribute to their own upliftment and progress echoes the cultural value of

“bayanihan” whose root-word is “bayan” meaning “country or nation” and is also derived from

“bayani” or a hero who does noble deeds for others. This evokes a sense of solidarity, service, kinship,

66
camaraderie, and involves voluntary co-laboring with others out of concern for them and the

community. It is the Filipino community spirit of cooperation; a custom and tradition of communal

action and social cooperation usually depicted by people carrying a ‘cogon house’ or ‘nipa hut’ to

move it to another location.“Bayanihan” is related to “damayan” which translates to empathy and

involving oneself with another to alleviate problems/ burdens as well as the “capacity to be

compassionate to another”.“Bayanihan” is described as done without any expectations of a reward,

although generally people who have been helped feel an obligation to return the favor by some means

or another sometime during their lifetime (Ealdama, 2012, p.7). It could be concluded then as one

reason for earning the public’s trust, loyalty, and cooperation – as constituents are included rather

than excluded, where a sense of belonging and community is established, thus resulting to effective

leadership. This serves as an example of how cultural values and norms can be harnessed for the

mutual benefit of all concerned, through the challenges of executing organizational plans to the

achievement of predetermined goals.

Another local study from the Ateneo that employed a similar GT methodology with a social-

constructivist approach is that of Emerald Jay Ilac’s 2018 study of the leadership process of the

indigenous Batad community situated in Banaue, Ifugao in the uplands of northern Philippines. His

rationale for studying leadership with an indigenous people group, was to “better understand the

Filipino mindset” and to “have a better grasp of the Filipino conceptualization of leadership”

(p.2).Thus, he chose a people group who was never Islamized and remained unexposed to Spanish

and American influence till mid-20th Century. He cites Philippine National Scientist and former

Ateneo University president Bienvenido Nebres who “described the Philippine psyche as a

dissonance between an indigenous affect and an American consciousness” (p.2). He also cited the

same observation of interdisciplinary researchers for Project GLOBE that although there was

67
agreement on a unified meaning/ definition of leadership, there were differences in leadership

practices based on cultural values influencing it, thus definitions are not readily expandable to a

universal degree. Furthermore, he also cites Jocano (1998) that the Philippines “with its strong

collectivist background...may have its own independent framework in conceptualizing leadership

that is different from other Asian countries” (p.2). Indeed, a country’s historical, societal and cultural

heritage, its demographics and socio-economic, political and educational structures and systems can

affect leadership behaviors, practices, and outcomes, as supported by the findings of Project

GLOBE.As recent as 2018 when Ilac published his study, he was still lamenting the “dearth of

research theorizing leadership in the Philippines”, saying that most of these come from the fields of

psychology, business, sociology and anthropology – to which this researcher concurs and finds

relevance in doing the present study. These assertions strengthen the rationale for doing this study as

it engages with the conceptualization of leadership within the context of an important societal domain/

structure as Education.

Involved in the Batad study were 15 participants, eight of which were community leaders and

seven direct followers who came from three different sitios so that there was more than one data

source for each sitio, allowing for the corroboration of information as well as data triangulation and

validation. Ilac’s study focused on the following questions (2018, p.5):

1) recalling an event demonstrating leader importance;

2) roles and tasks of the leaders in the community;
3) conflict resolution approaches;
4) disagreement with leader decisions;
5) participants’ own understanding of what leadership is;
6) leadership characteristics perceived unique to Batad;
7) important lessons and traits needed by the next generation of leaders.

68
 As Ilac chose a constructivist approach within the GT method, he mainly utilized Charmaz’s

(2008) guidelines where data gathered were coded at various levels from initial codes to conceptual

categories. After the usual iterative-analytical process applied to the data as characteristic of GT, Ilac

presented his findings based on the earlier questions posed and categorized them accordingly. Of the

seven questions, the last three apparently has the most relevance to this present study as these pertain

more specifically to concepts of leadership: understanding of leadership, leadership characteristics

unique to the context, and what is perceived to be necessary lessons and traits for the next generation

of leaders in the indigenous community. Although one can glean conceptions of leadership from the

first four questions, these pertain mainly to leadership practices within the Batad community. These

included: recalling events demonstrating leaders’ importance, conflict resolution, disagreements with

leader decisions, and roles and tasks within that indigenous context. Responses to these points are

fully incorporated in Ilac’s emerged theory anyhow, and it is to his socially constructed theory as a

whole that this study’s emerged conceptual framework will refer to in the later section on theoretical

grounding/ matching.

Ilac’s findings showed that on the question of their understanding of leadership, all of the

participants cited leadership characteristics or “focusing on the person rather than the act” (2018, p.9);

most zeroed in on the leaders’ capacity to plan, initiate action, engage in positive behavior and good

interpersonal relations, be non-authoritarian, a role model, diligent, persistent through hardships,

enforce the law without regard to family ties, be transparent and accountable to the community,

putting communal interests first before family or self. Aside from these, being a father-figure in the

community and having a heart for all or “may puso sa lahat ng tao” were ideal characteristics

underscoring the collectivist identity and nature of the Filipino. He expects his leader to put others or

the group first before himself, which Project GLOBE replicates in their findings, as Team and

69
Humane-oriented are part of the top three leadership styles found to be effective in the local setting.

Ilac’s study then corroborates Project GLOBE’s findings, even though the respondents in the GLOBE

study are from a different local context (industries). Ilac’s are from a marginalized ethnic group who

remained mostly untouched by foreign cultures while those of the latter are middle-managers of

modern industries. It is also interesting to note that Ilac’s respondents are both leaders and followers

whereas Project GLOBE were all leaders.

The same collectivistic nature is evident in what Ilac’s respondents see as leadership

characteristics unique to Batads. Respondents acknowledged the primacy of family in their leadership

context with some highlighting its positive impact such as the maintenance of bayanihan (or

voluntary help/ community assistance) as a highly regarded community value, and the pervasive sense

of peace and order in their community where families are able to settle issues among themselves

rather than bringing it to the barangay (community government office). On the downside, this family-

centered nature is seen to be a hindrance particularly in the enforcement of laws, with the children of

those in authority the first to disobey rules, yet escape punishment or consequences due to family

relations. Constituents also expressed their observation that their leaders seem to be powerless outside

of Batad so that there is a limitation to their leaders’ strength as they are unable to stand up to people

outside.

With regard to traits the next generation leaders the Batad deem as important - upholding

cultural values and traditions (Ilac termed as ‘cultural/ traditional guardianship) take high priority

as respondents expressed the need to inculcate these through both education and the elders’ teaching.

Values such as respect, cooperation, understanding, fairness, justice, accountability, transparency,

enforcing the law without family-bias, humility, and being action-oriented are anchor words in this

70
area - again highlighting the relational or communal nature of the Filipino. Added to these were the

importance of literacy, knowledge and education, with present leaders preferring succeeding leaders

to “step out of Batad in order to familiarize themselves with the external world and accrue knowledge”

(Ilac, 2018, p.11).

More importantly, what Ilac’s study significantly contributes is his socially constructed

Leadership Process Model for the Batad community of Ifugao province (for diagram see Chapter 4,

p. 187). As grounded on the data which underwent a coding process through to conceptual categories

which answered his query on “how leadership happens” within the Batad - this process illustrates the

interactions between conceptual categories such as leader characteristics, actions, the community,

their collective values, and impact on their social group (pp.11-12). The BATAD leadership model

emerged through a social constructivist GT approach is a process model where there is a sequenced

pattern or phases of how leadership unfolds within their indigenous context. It begins within the

individual himself, where requisite leadership characteristics must be found and harbored by the

individual, then leadership is translated into actions, which are strongly influenced by family relations

however detrimental as most actions favor family interests rather than general public welfare (“seen

as nepotism, biases, and corruption”) (2018, p.13) , and finally the outcomes of which impacts society.

A diagram of this leadership process model is included in Chapter 4 (p.197) where it is discussed in

relation to the emerged conceptual framework of the present study for theoretical grounding/

validation purposes. In Ilac’s (2018) leadership process model diagram, he labeled the three phases/

sequences in the model as: leadership precursors, leadership agency and leadership value. Precursors

include “diverse personal characteristics, competencies and expertise brought into the leadership

exercise and required in specific leadership roles” (p.13) with communality as a guiding principle

where both leaders and followers perceive leadership as community service - that is working for the

71
welfare and betterment of the community rather than in the interest of self or family. Since family

relations detract from leaders completely exercising leadership without bias then the collective

requires transparency and accountability from their leaders. The category of leadership agency dealt

with leadership actions as it attempts to answer the researcher’s query: “what do leaders do?” (p.12).

These actions included meeting the social demands, responsibilities and behaviors expected of

leaders, especially the stringent implementation of rules and ordinances, foregoing self or family

interests in favor of the public good. Leadership outcomes are seen as having positive value when the

leader gives his attention to community infrastructures and models positive behaviors such as not

being authoritarian, being paternal, and establishing good interpersonal relations even with those from

outside the community itself. The dual aspects of communality as a guiding principle which highlights

collectivism, and “the notion that leadership should be conscious of its collective context” (p.15), are

what Ilac believes his study contributes to the literature on leadership in the Philippines. However,

both Jocano (1990,1999) and Andres (1981,1989) who have written on Filipino culture and its

influence in organizational behavior and leadership have already brought to the fore both this theme

of collectivity in leadership in the local setting. Thus, it is actually not original nor a new contribution

to the literature, except that it explores leadership in an indigenous culture which Jocano has also

written extensively on, though involving different tribal peoples from the Batad.

Although Ilac’s is a process model of Leadership grounded from a constructivist approach,

because it originated from an indigenous context it presents additional information and empirical

basis on which to theoretically ground a conceptual framework that emerges from the present study.

So far, his theoretical model has served to validate findings from most research studies regarding the

impact of cultural milieus on leadership behaviors and practices including those mentioned earlier

such as Project GLOBE, Cimene & Aladano’s leadership perspectives, Ellamil’s study of Filipino

72
leaders’ ideal traits and characteristics, Lupdag’s study of effective and ineffective leaders, as well as

the works of Andres and Jocano who both endorsed the application of cultural values to the

management of Philippine organizations in order to increase organizational effectiveness and attain

corporate goals.

In their discussion of cultural evolution Creanza, et.al. (2017) stated that: “…cultural traits

can be more or less adaptive depending on the environment and spread accordingly” and that “new

cultural traits can also originate when existing traits are combined in novel ways, which can lead to

exponential rates of cultural accumulation” (p.7783). Thus, given the current rapidly changing global

environments in all aspects – physical, political, social, economic and definitely technological, it

could be safely assumed that indigenous cultures’ conceptualization of leadership also inevitably

evolved as a result of environmental adaptation and in response to the accelerated speed at which

these changes take place. A succinct example would be the Batad’s desire for their future leaders to

be educated and to step outside of their community “to familiarize themselves with the external world

and to accrue knowledge” (Ilac, 2018, p.11). More broadly, the rise of populist strongmen globally

including the present Philippines’ own president Rodrigo Duterte is viewed as “a reaction to the

unmet promises of globalization in nominally democratic nations” (McCoy, 2017, p.7). According to

Aytaç and Önis (2014 as cited in McCoy, 2017) these populist regimes emerged as “a ‘serious

backlash’ against the ‘highly inegalitarian’ impact of neoliberal economic policy marked by

deregulation and open markets”; strongmen leaders arose in nations across the globe with “surprising

speed and simultaneity from the margins of their respective societies…where they gained influence

by giving voice, often with violent or virulent inflections to public concerns about the social costs of

globalization” (p. 8). McCoy (2017, citing Agence France Presse, 2013; Sicat, 2016; Yap, 2016)

elucidated how the Philippine economy had a sustained annual growth of six percent from 2010 to

73
2016, however levels of poverty remained largely unchanged as the poor, at a staggering count of 26

million then, survived on a dollar a day and were constantly evicted from their ‘informal settlements’,

whereas the wealthiest forty Filipino families, as ranked by Forbes, controlled 76 percent of this

economic growth (p.9). It is in this context that this present study has mostly taken place. With these

stark Philippine realities, it probably should not be of wonder that the core category of economics

emerged in the conceptual framework as it has factored in heavily in all the leader-participants’

responses.

Literature Relevant to Leadership and Economics

Finally, since an emerged core category within the conceptual framework involves economics

which closely relates to a development agenda, an article reviewing economic literature in relation to

leadership and a paper discussing areas of an economics perspective on leadership, which can be

further studied, are included here. Both of these journal articles maintain that leadership and

economics have in the past remained divergent fields and only recently have been considered as being

complementary to each other and can make further contributions if they are brought together in

research studies, especially to inform how each impacts the other, though the articles cited here focus

on the economics perspectives or approaches to leadership.

As mentioned, leadership and economics are two domains that mainly remained

within their respective spheres until recently when more research that traversed both fields became

noted in the literature. Garretsen, et.al., (2020) in a special issue of The Leadership Quarterly (31)

wrote on how both fields would immensely benefit with more dialogues between them, especially in

grasping a better understanding of such a broad and complex phenomenon as leadership. Thus, the

74
journal issue focused on demonstrating the potential benefits of such dialogues, particularly in taking

an economic perspective of leadership – which is only now gaining traction and getting more attention

by way of increasing research studies involving both leadership scholars and economists. The authors

reasoned that leadership can be defined as “a formal or informal contextually-rooted and goal-

influencing process that occurs between a leader and a follower, groups of followers or institutions”

(Antonakis & Day, 2017 as cited in Garretsen, et. al., 2020, p.1) which imply that it is a means to an

end, just as economics is – so they both entail achieving desirable outcomes. Thus, the interaction of

the two and research involving both should be nothing but beneficial especially to the functioning

and efficiency of organizations, markets, and institutions. The authors inform that a growing body of

research in economics seeks to understand the influence of leadership in public and private

organizations (p.1). The special journal issue focused on showcasing why and how economics can be

useful in studying leadership and so provided examples of research which highlighted how

cooperation between the two fields can benefit leadership research in general (p.2). The authors cited

three main topics central to economic perspectives of leadership: 1) conceptualization, 2) causality

and 3) context. It is not the aim in this section to delve into these perspectives any further except to

mention it in relation to the present study where the core categories are that of a development agenda

and economics-driven leadership and that this concept is already on the uptake in present research

literature. The trend though of relating economics to leadership could possibly be extracted or traced

from neologisms found in the popular cultural lexicon where a leader’s name is appended to his

economic policies – such as Reaganomics, Obamanomics, Abenomics, and more recently Xienomics.

It is also worthy to note that this was not an a priori construct, but rather emerged through the

abstraction process followed using the MGT approach.

75
 A diagram of the economic perspectives of leadership showing these 3 central topics as

proposed by Garretsen, et. al. (2020) is provided below:

FIGURE 1: ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES OF LEADERSHIP (Garretsen, Stoker & Weber, 2020)

In a review of the economics literature on leadership in organizations, which looked at the

benefits from what economists have developed with regard to transactional methods, Zehnder, et.al.,

(2017) link the contribution of economics to a broad set of leadership topics which includes:

foundations of leadership, leader emergence and leader effectiveness. The authors show that these

two seemingly disparate fields do have something to contribute to the body of knowledge in each. At

the outset they trace how the need for leaders actually stem from market failures. Market

inefficiencies brought about by a number of factors such as excessive transaction costs, lack of

teamwork and distorted incentives can be mitigated by vertical authority based leader-follower

relations (p.66). Thus, in the context of organizations and from the economic viewpoint, the

justification for the need for leadership is market failure. Citing Williamson (1975, 1985), Zehnder

et. al (2017) add that leaders are needed to foster cooperation and coordination within the workforce.

76
They also cite Holmström who argued how leaders (management) need to be endowed with the power

to define tasks and incentives because incentives may be desirable in some situations but can be

counter-productive in others. In this approach, the firm is seen as a sub-economy, and the leader takes

over the role of the rule-setting government (p.69).

. With all these different views of leadership and its roles, the authors highlight how leaders

need to play these various roles effectively in order for organizations to be successful. They assert

that from an economic perspective two conditions must be satisfied for effective leadership: 1)

selection of the right leader and; 2) the application of the best leadership strategy adapted to the

situation. Zehnder et. al (2017) argue that the definition of effective leadership is dependent on the

situation (p.69). Applying these 2 conditions to the Philippine situation, one can say that from an

economic perspective: 1) the right leader must be selected which for Filipinos are charismatic leaders

who espouse similar cultural values; and 2) the leader must be able to apply the best leadership

strategy adapted to the current situation of the Philippines.

The review by Zehnder, et. al. (2017) linking economics and leadership is relevant to the

present study especially in their discussion of leader effectiveness or what leaders should do, stating

that leader responsibilities are manifold and are often specific to the environment. The authors note

that despite the apparent complexity of the leaders’ roles and lack of a unified understanding of what

constitutes leadership, most leadership scholars will agree that influencing followers to act in the best

interest of the organization they are responsible for is the leader’s primary concern (Bass, 1990;

House, 1999 as cited in Zehnder et. all, 2017), underscoring that enhancement of cooperation and

coordination is its crucial task. Although leadership scholars and economists mostly agree on these

77
aims of leadership, these two fields focus on very different methods to achieve these aims. To address

motivation problems for example, an economics perspective considers contracting solutions where

leaders move followers to act for the best interest of the organization by creating incentives - linking

pay-offs to performance (p. 74) in other words called as the “transactional’ style of leadership which

corresponds to the ‘contingent reward’ dimension (identified by Burns,1978 and Bass,1985, as cited

in Zehnder, et. al., 2017). The authors expound that economists have “largely ignored that leaders

may also have other softer channels through which they can influence their followers’ behaviors”.

On the other hand, in psychology and management literature, this transactional style is deemed basic

and ‘rather unimportant’ as ‘transformational leadership’ and other related theories (e.g. charismatic,

inspirational, visionary leadership styles) is emphasized. In this leadership approach, leaders provide

followers with a shared vision mission together with a sense of identity (p.74). Zehnder et. al (2017)

propose that both of these views are too narrow, arguing that there is no justification for either fully

espousing only contractual solutions nor for underestimating the power of incentives, with too much

emphasis on non-transactional leadership styles.

The authors propose a framework which considers a variety of organizational environments

and which leadership styles are classified as appropriate based on the complexities of these

environments. This includes environments where purely transactional leadership types may suffice

than those wherein transformational, charismatic, or inspirational leadership may be more needed.

Zehnder, et. al. (2017) argue that leadership scholars can benefit by taking insights from economists

especially in environments or situations where it has been established that contractual solutions or

creating incentives are likely to work well. But they also highlight the limit of the transactional

approach and enhance the economists’ framework with “insights on the transformational tactics” that

78
psychology and management leadership studies have put forth over the years (p.74). The map below

is a guide on how environmental characteristics affect which leadership style is optimal for that

specific environment:

FIGURE 2: Environmental Characteristics and Leadership Style (Zehnder, et.al., 2017)

The figure above identifies environmental complexity as the single most important

determinant of choice of leadership style. With simpler environments it is easier to lead with

transactional tools, however when environments are multi-dimensional and non-stationary (such as

what society is on the whole) then this calls for transformational leadership as the optimal choice.

The authors showed some key novel roles for leaders in the illustration above so that aside from being

a control device (to make sure the organization is achieving its goals) and a contract designer (giving

out performance pay, coordinating teams and getting into relational contracts which are informal and

enforced through reputational concerns within repeated interactions), leaders are also creators of a

shared/ uniform identity and provide clarity for all stakeholders within and without the organization.

According to the authors, “transformational interventions require substantial investments because the

79
leader needs to influence the followers’ preferences by creating a common vision or even a shared

identity” and as these types of leaders are scarce, their talents and skills must be used in cases where

they are needed most (2017, p.75). This economic perspective of applying leadership styles optimally

based on economic contexts, whether they are simple or complex, is applicable to academic

leadership in HEIs as well as to political leadership in nations. In such economic contexts, it is

certainly most complex as environments exhibit both multi-dimensionality and non-stationarity so

that transformational leadership styles best apply. The authors assert that if this view of leadership

could be integrated into economic frameworks it would allow building leadership models that

“provide a richer and more in-depth understanding of the interplay of environment, leadership styles,

and leader effectiveness” (p.77). The relevance of this literature review of economics linked to

leadership studies with regard to the present study is the emergence of this particular core category

in Filipino educational leaders’ conceptualization of leadership. The economics-driven core category

relates to the proposal of the authors that both transactional styles of leadership (with rewards and

incentives/ contract-based) and transformational styles (including charismatic, visionary and

inspirational) can be applied depending on the economic context of the leader – whether it is simple

or complex. The authors make a strong argument that applying just one or the other predominantly is

not beneficial to the organization or to whoever is being led. Situations the leader finds himself in

determine which leadership style one should adopt and would be optimal. Conceptualizing leadership

with consideration to the economic context is what educational leaders interviewed for the study in

the Philippines have emphasized so far. It would be truly interesting and contributory to both fields

to understand how the economic environment figures into the practice of leadership and its

effectiveness. Staying within the bounds of this study though, it suffices that the concept of economics

80
factoring into leadership concepts of HEI leaders within the Philippine context as core category is

what emerged as part of the conceptual framework.

It is also relevant to add that with regard to the role of leaders in creating a shared identity in

order to address problems of motivation (which in turn affect performance and economic outcomes),

the authors mention Akerlof and Kranton’s ‘identity economics’ (2000, 2005, 2010, as cited in

Zehnder, et. al, 2017) which is a novel approach to leadership as linked to economics, where they

“push the notion that people derive utility from having an identity” and this identity is defined as

social categories a person belongs to. This need to belong motivates people to work compatibly with

what those categories require for membership. Explaining further Zehnder et. al. (2017, p.78) state:

“According to this theory, people not only care about outcomes per se, but they are
also concerned about the extent to which these outcomes are compatible with social
norms they identify with. To the extent that leaders can affect the emergence and
persistence of social norms within the groups they lead, this theory provides the
leader with a natural role as a shaper of identities.”

Thus, when transactional models of leadership do not apply due to the complexity of the

situation or context, the leader can choose to apply a transformational model where ‘identity

economics’ can be harnessed to achieve organizational goals and economic success. This tactic aligns

well with the Filipino culture because of the high need for social acceptance or the need to identify

with a group. This economic approach to leadership utilizing a transformational style to engage and

motivate people using ‘identity economics’ suits the Philippine cultural context and can be beneficial

for establishing a strong Filipino identity in the face of the possible erosive effects of globalization.

Another study where the focus was on impact of national leaders on economic growth was

mentioned in the review. Their data set included every post-war leader in every sovereign nation in

the Penn World Tables for which there is sufficient data to estimate leader effects. A total of 130

81
countries which basically covered every nation presently and existed prior to 1990. The resulting data

set includes 1,108 different national leaders, representing 1,294 distinct leadership periods. The

authors, Jones and Olken (2005), focused on national leaders who died in office either due to natural

causes or by accident, doing biographical research to narrow the cases to study. Finally, they found

57 leaders who fit their criteria of ‘random’ deaths (which they termed as exogenously timed leader

transitions) and for whom they could estimate growth effects. In order to address the problem of their

study they used rigorous econometric methods, casting aside historical arguments first.

The authors report that results indicate that on the average leaders have detectable causative

impacts on national growth, but the degree to which the leaders matter may be a function of their

context, as different institutional systems may amplify or retard a leader’s influence (p.19). Jones and

Olken (2005) found that countries experience persistent changes in growth rate through these

leadership transitions where autocratic leaders have a stronger impact on the economic outcomes of

their nations than democratic ones. The authors claim that what their paper suggests is that while

political institutions may matter, it is not deterministic rather its important effect is that of

constraining powers of individual leaders. They cite for example democracies that may be able to

prevent the disastrous economic policies of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe or Samora Machel in

Mozambique, but this political set-up might also have constrained the successful economic policies

of Lee-Kwan Yew in Singapore or Deng Xiaoping in China (p.26). The authors conclude that their

primary interest is to understand forces behind economic outcomes, which strong evidence in their

study points to leadership. Leaders matter significantly especially in terms of national economic

growth. Using their econometric methodology, they prove the causative impact of leaders and settle

the debate on whether leader influence is deterministic (have little or no influence) or on the other

extreme, that leaders shape history so that it is as the biographies of a few individuals (the Great Man

82
view of history). Through their scientific (econometric) study of leaders’ impact on growth of national

economy, the authors debunk Tolstoy’s belief that this centuries-old debate is methodologically

impossible to settle (Tolstoy, 1896 as cited in Jones & Olken, 2005, p.26).

These various studies and literature focused on the link between the fields of economics and

leadership, informs and lends validity to the emerged core category of the conceptual framework in

this present study. An economics perspective of leadership and how leadership effectiveness and even

leadership emergence, may be determined by economics is already on the horizon and currently more

and more studies are being done relating these two fields as they are increasingly found to be

complementary to each other. It is hoped that the emergence of economics as a core category in the

conceptualization of Filipino leadership by leaders in HEIs will serve as an impetus to spur more

research into the merger and update of knowledge between these two fields.

Synthesis of the Review of Related Literature

To synthesize the review which included a total of 15 studies and one proposed model

of good governance which has yet to be studied (Robredo’s ‘tsinelas’ style of leadership akin to

servant leadership), the researcher has classified these according to a number of themes such

as: (1) Leadership as Traits, Roles, Behaviors and Skills/Competencies; (2) Leadership perspectives

and concepts; (3) Leadership as process and practices/ actions; (4) Leadership and Economics. This

synthesis also surveys and classifies which studies involved: (a) Gender; (b) Indigenous communities;

(c) educational contexts; (d) organizational contexts. An infographic to visualize these classifications

of the reviewed studies for easier perusal is included at end of the section. Gaps in the research

literature will be discussed toward the conclusion of the chapter.

83
 Of the 17 papers included in the review, ten or more than half are local studies done in the

Philippine setting, five are foreign studies (U.S.), one an article in a foreign journal summarizing

leadership research, one a local article on community/ political leadership and one, a global study on

leadership, organizations, and culture. Two of the foreign studies involved the use of classic GT and

were included in the dissertation proposal as preliminary exploration of studies that may inform this

present one and illumine the process of doing GT as these also involved conceptualizations of

leadership – one of an indigenous people in the U.S. and the other involving women in schools. The

other foreign review of literature is actually an article providing additional information on the global

study and summarizing research on how the meaning of leadership varies systematically across

cultures. It also described the conflict in literature between the quest for universals and the

identification of cultural contingencies in leadership theory. Three of the other foreign studies

involved economic perspectives on leadership which is an emerging area of interest to both leadership

scholars and economists alike. Since this is an emergent substantive area of study, it was classified

separately on its own in the diagram provided as a visual summary of the literature reviewed. The

researcher classified these various studies and references according to two major classifications for

clarity and conciseness: first, according to theme of the leadership studies, and secondly, according

to the contexts in which the research was conducted. Notably, there are more leadership studies that

involved leadership traits, roles, behaviors, and skills or competencies than any other theme. Also,

with regard to contexts, 4 studies were in educational contexts, 7 were in organizational contexts, 4

were in community/ indigenous or political contexts, and one had participants from mixed contexts.

Under the thematic classification of leadership studies reviewed four themes apply, those that

refer to: 1) leadership traits, roles, behaviors and skills/ competencies; 2) leadership perspectives and

84
concepts; 3) leadership process and practices; 4) leadership and economics. The Philippine-based

studies that highlight the first thematic conceptualization of leadership as traits, roles, behaviors, and

skills/ competencies include: Lupdag (1984), Ellamil (2010), Calma (2013), and partly, Andres

(1981), Jocano (1990), Ilac (2018) as they include Filipino traits and characteristics within the scope

of their studies. One study reviewed involving leadership traits and characteristics as well but on a

global scale is Project GLOBE (2004). Lupdag (1984, pp.15-17) enumerates eleven characteristics of

an effective leader within the Philippine setting based on his study of primarily student leaders: 1)

goal seeking, 2) friendly, 3) influence, 4) democratic orientation, 5) concern for the welfare of others,

6) morality, 7) seeks help from others, 8) intelligent, 9) flexibility/ adaptability, 10) verbal ability and,

11) creativity. Ellamil’s (2010) local organizational study involving 1,141 employees across job

levels and professions revealed that the topmost characteristics of Filipino bosses idealized by

employees are: 1) makatao or a people person, having compassion and care for the employee, and, 2)

kakayahang mamuno or competence to lead with mentoring skills to boot. Calma (2013), enlisting

research managers in HEIs as participants in his study using discourse analysis identified 5 roles or

constructed images of HEI research leaders: 1) facilitators, 2) heroes, 3) experts, 4) beneficiaries, 5)

negotiators. The rest of the Philippine leadership studies classified here mainly include the dominant

Filipino cultural characteristics such as familism, paternalism, personalism in their discussions and

study, but involve other leadership concepts such as process or practices as well. Additionally, the

study of Valdez,,et.al., (2017) involving Filipino women as leaders mainly looked at the various

competencies and skills among women HEI leaders in Mindanao as they prepare for competitiveness

of their graduates as ASEAN opened up to the flow of workers throughout the region. These skills

include: critical and innovative thinking skills, interpersonal, and communication skills, intrapersonal

skills, global citizenship, and media and information literacy including the use of ICT. Project

85
GLOBE (2004) which is a global study also involved effective leadership traits and the large-scale

research identified six leadership dimensions discussed in detail in Chapter 4. These include: 1)

charismatic/ value-based leadership; 2) team-oriented leadership; 3) participative leadership; 4)

humane-oriented leadership; 5) autonomous leadership; and 6) self-protective leadership.

For the second theme of leadership perspectives and concepts, this includes mainly Cimene

and Aladano’s (2013) study, which refers to three perspectives of leadership based on their study of

leaders from a mix of contexts including organizational, political/community, and educational. These

perspectives are namely: 1) leadership as art; 2) leadership as process; and 3) leadership as ability.

These authors also utilized a GT methodology and was chosen as one of the studies to do theoretical

matching with the present one. Others are foreign studies that dealt with conceptualization of

leadership such as Munson’s (2007) but involving the Native Americans, and Aulicino’s (2006)

involving secondary school girls in American schools and their perceptions of leadership. There is

also one journal article which is a review of leadership studies on the conceptualization of leadership

across cultures (Dickson, et. al, 2012).

The third thematic classification involves leadership as process and practices with the

following reviewed studies classified as such: 1) Project GLOBE (2004); 2) Cimene and Aladano

(2013); 3) Ilac (2018); 4) Andres (1981, 1989); and 5) Jocano (1990, 1999). Ilac’s study describes

the leadership process among the indigenous community of the Batads in northern Philippines

involving three distinct phases: 1) leadership requisites (personal characteristics) or precursors; 2)

leadership agency involving tasks and roles, including preservation of culture; 3) leadership value as

measured by the leaders’ impact on the community. Both Andres and Jocano include leadership

86
processes in their work theorizing that leadership should be culturally-contextualized thereby

proposing similar processes for leading organizations (or enterprises) except that Jocano (1990) calls

his theory for leadership Management by Culture and Andres (1981) calls his Management by

Values. Andres underscores his theory with his theorized hierarchy of Filipino needs similar to

Maslow’s except his is culturally-predicated on the Filipino. Jocano, on the other hand proposes a

“Gabay” type of leadership as culturally-appropriate for the local setting. Cimene and Aladano

(2013) included process as one of their leadership perspectives mainly since it involves a continuous

learning process. Project GLOBE (2004) discusses leadership as process and practice mainly as their

study involved exploring how culture impacts on organizational practices and values as well as on

leadership practices and values both at the institutional and societal level.

Lastly, the theme of leadership and economics includes three studies reviewed that merged

these two fields or mainly looking at leadership from the economic viewpoint: 1) Garretsen, et. al.

(2020), 2) Zehnder et.al. (2017), and 3) Jones and Olken (2005). Garretsen, et al (2020), did a review

of the literature as there are an increasing number of studies on leadership applying economics and

its tools for analyses onto problems related to leadership, thus incorporating economics perspectives

and methods into leadership research which the authors deem crucial for progress in the latter. They

argued that the field of economics can advance leadership studies in 3 main areas: concepts, causality

and context. Meanwhile, Zehnder et. al., (2017) also review and synthesize economics literature on

leadership in organizations discussing how leadership scholars can benefit from the detailed

understanding of economists regarding transactional methods. These authors provided an illustrated

guide of how the two different leadership styles: transactional and transformational styles may best

be applied based on the economic environment of the organization or leader. In their review, they

87
also linked the contributions in economics to a broad set of topics in leadership including: a) the

foundations of leadership; b) leader emergence, and c) leader effectiveness, although in this review

the focus as relevant to the present study is on leader effectiveness. Finally, Jones and Olken (2005)

explored the relationship of leadership to national economic growth, looking at whether exogenous

leader transitions (death in office) are associated with shifts in economic growth rates, finding that

leadership does matter for growth. Results of their study reveal that individual leaders can play crucial

roles in shaping the growth of their nations.

With regard to classifying the reviews done according to contexts/ settings, there are four

classifications identified: 1) according to gender (or gender context); 2) indigenous/ community or

political contexts; 3) organizational contexts; and 4) educational contexts. Studies that fall in the first

classification, according to gender or gender context include: Aulicino (2006) who studied secondary

school girls supplemented by women school leaders regarding their perceptions of leadership; and

Valdez, et.al. (2017) who studied Filipino women educational leaders in Mindanao HEIs with regard

to various competencies and skills needed to create globally competitive institutional environments

for integration into the ASEAN region and for their students and graduates to be successful or be at

par with graduates from other countries within the region, better yet globally. These were called

APEC 21st century skills.

According to the community/ indigenous or political contexts, there is mainly the study of

Ilac (2018) with the indigenous Batad tribe using a social constructivist GT approach and resulting to

a leadership process model. Another is an article reviewed that dwelt on the “tsinelas” (slipper) brand

of servant leadership as practiced by a late local politician, based on the discussion of his wife,

88
incumbent vice-president of the Philippines Leni Robredo who advocated for the practice of the 3 P’s

as a model for good governance and as suitable for the cultural context: progressive perspective,

partnerships, and people participation. Thirdly, is the foreign study of Munson (2007) which focused

on the conceptualization of leadership among a particular Native American tribe for the purpose of

helping in their economic progress and development and uplift their quality of life in the reservation.

According to organizational contexts, the following studies under this classification have all

been mentioned and describe earlier: Ellamil (2010) on supervisory leaders’ traits and behaviors as

viewed by employees including leader-follower exchange, Andres (1981, 1989) and Jocano (1990,

1999) who both dealt with management processes and proposed culturally-appropriate systems for

effective leadership in organizations, Dickson, et. al (2012), who reviewed various leadership

literature as mostly practiced in organizations and to a large degree discussing the Project GLOBE

study as they concentrated on conceptualizations of leadership across cultures, and lastly, Project

GLOBE itself, by House et.al. (2004) as this worldwide, long-term study focused on culture,

leadership and organizations looking at the practices and values of organizations within three

industrial sectors: financial services, telecommunications, and the food-processing industry.

And last but not least, according to the educational context, the following studies are classified

herein, all of which have also been described already: 1) Aulicino (2006) in secondary schools; 2)

Lupdag (1984) with college student leaders; 3) Valdez, et.al., (2017) with women HEI leaders; 4)

Calma (2013) with research managers in HEIs; and partly, 5) Cimene and Aladano (2013) in HEIs

(mixed respondents including those in the education sector).

89
 The diagram provided below (Figure 3) summarizes visually these classifications of the

literature covered and reviewed:

FIGURE 3: Classifications of the Review of Related Literature

Based on this review and survey of the related literature, it can be concluded that there is

indeed a gap that the present study can fill and contribute to. Most of the leadership studies regarding

leadership concepts involved traits, roles, behaviors and skills or competencies (9 in total either in

part or fully encompassing this theme). Lupdag’s study which involved college student organization

leaders was quantitative in nature as it used standardized measures/ tests and statistical analysis to

identify traits/ characteristics seen as effective among these student leaders. It was also done more

than three decades ago, aside from not including other dimensions of leadership. Of the four

leadership studies done in educational contexts, one was foreign and involved secondary schools

although it used the GT methodology (Aulicino, 2006), another involved only women leaders in HEIs

in northern Mindanao (Valdez, et.al., 2017) investigating whether they had the 21st century leadership

90
skills APEC recommended. Calma’s (2013) study of research managers in HEIs using discourse

analysis largely focused on their leadership roles based on the narratives of the respondents. Project

GLOBE (2004) also looked at traits and characteristics of leaders on a global scale, but mainly

focused on how culture impacts perceptions of leadership and its practice. It does confirm that

leadership – how it is perceived and conceptualized is culturally-contingent, showing which particular

leadership dimensions apply to the Philippines: charismatic, team-oriented and humane-oriented are

the top 3. Ilac’s (2018) study utilized GT methodology, specifically the constructivist approach, but

he engaged with an indigenous community and focused on the leadership process resulting to a

theorized process model applicable mainly to that tribe. Thus, the present study can fill the gap for a

study on leadership done in an educational context and one that focuses on the conceptualization of

Filipino leadership from this sector.

Furthermore, a search of the university databases such as ProQuest online has not yielded any

local study pertinent to the substantive area as majority are studies done by Filipinos (usually Filipino

Americans) in the U.S. and not in the local setting. A search on the open access library of the

University of the Philippines specifically in the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Management

and Development Studies only yielded one study related to leadership and this involves social-work

leaders and social administration which is different from the substantive area of this present study. A

copy of the available theses from this state university is included in the Appendix. Ateneo de Manila

University has yielded two of the studies cited in this review: Ellamil (2010) on organizational

leadership and Ilac (2018) on indigenous community leadership. A search of the De La Salle

University theses and dissertations section from the library’s open access system has yielded a total

of 35 leadership studies, spanning the last decade from 2010 to the present, however, none dealt with

91
the substantive area of study. There were a number of related studies based on the focus such as

emerging a framework or perspectives on educational leadership - however, one was situated in

Vietnam HEIs, two were situated in basic education and used case study methods and one on

sustainable leadership in HEIs (A framework for understanding sustainable educational leadership,

Estrañero, 2016) also used cross-case analysis and the case study method to evolve a framework

which is different from the GT approach and methodology. Based on these quite exhaustive searches,

the conclusion is that the present study will be able to contribute to existing literature and fill the gap

for GT studies concerning leadership - particularly on Filipino leadership conceptualizations among

HEI leaders in the Philippines.

A priori or initial leadership concepts based on the Review of Related Literature

The initial review of literature conducted during the proposal stage of the study was very

limited as the researcher initially applied the method of classic GT. This aligns anyhow with the

multi-grounded (MGT) approach as this methodology diverts from classic GT only in the latter part

where further grounding processes are involved, after the inductive method has been applied to the

initial analysis of data. As for the reading of pertinent literature, MGT’s authors Goldkuhl and

Cronholm (2010), counter the requirement in classic GT to “ignore the literature of theory and

especially the area under study” by asserting that the researcher runs the risk of “reinventing the

wheel” in doing so since “we often build new knowledge on existing knowledge” (p.191). Therefore,

the a priori concepts here come from the limited initial review of literature done at the beginning of

the study which MGT makes allowance for. These a priori leadership concepts are illustrated in the

following diagram (Figure 4) :

92
 FIGURE 4: A Priori Leadership Concepts

From Lupdag’s study, the concept of leadership traits and characteristics based on student

leaders in HEIs was identified as possibly contributing to evolving the framework for this study. From

Garcia-Marasigan’s study which dealt mostly with leadership competencies and practices, these

initially emerged as ideas that to a large extent relate to the present study and from Andres (1981) a

priori concepts concerning leadership being different according to culture and relating to historical

roots were noted, as these may have bearing on the present study. The concepts of attitudes and

variations in leadership styles based on the researcher’s extant knowledge, which could possibly

emerge in the present study were initially considered. Some of these actually were mentioned by

participant leaders and were included in in-vivo codes then eventually abstracted and subsumed under

more all-encompassing categories such as exemplars or professional competencies.

93