In the first module of Strategic Leadership, we will explore tribal leadership and apply its basic concepts to organizational culture. Focusing on leadership traits and personalities, we will start our journey toward a greater understanding of strategic leadership by gaining a firm grasp of some of the earliest leadership theories. Finally, we will view leadership traits and personalities through the lens of tribal leadership, which will give us the opportunity to apply what we have learned to real-world scenarios and people, while using higher-order thinking to compare the major concepts of the module.
We are tribal. This is our past, our present, and our future. Tribal Leadership is the result of years of research, writing, and presentation by David Logan and his colleagues. It details the way we, as human beings, align ourselves with tribes based on a number of factors.
As we explore tribal leadership further, it will become clear that every tribe operates at one of five levels. Below is a chart that breaks down those basic levels (cultures) and provides brief insight about each one. Once you have taken a few moments to view the chart, watch the linked video on Tribal Leadership by David Logan.
Adapted from Logan, D., King, J., & Fischer-Wright, H. (2008). Tribal leadership: Leveraging natural groups to build a thriving organization. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Now, take about 20 minutes to view David Logan’s video before you move on to the next section. Here is the direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTkKSJSqU-I
Exploring Organizational Culture
Let’s take a short pause from our study of tribal leadership and broadly define organizational culture as “the way we do things around here.” It instills shared meaning among people within organizations. And while an organization’s culture includes tangible characteristics such as rituals, stories, artifacts, company logos, colors, mottos, or slogans, there are other aspects of an organization’s culture that are intangible, and therefore hard to see and understand by outsiders or newcomers. These parts of culture are largely symbolic.
An example on a larger scale is the United States flag. The flag has clear characteristics that we can see and explain (the tangible side of culture), but it also has symbolic significance (intangible) that means different things for different people and different groups of people.
This is not always cut and dried. For instance, some sub-cultures in the United States use the flag to represent beliefs and views that are completely counter to the beliefs and views of others… even though those others view the same flag as a representation of their alternate views and beliefs. Can you think of an example of this?