ABSTRACT
Leadership in organizations has become more difficult since the 1980s for a variety of reasons (Barzelay 1992; Hannah et al. 2008). First, the rate of change in organizations increased substantially almost universally and has actually accelerated again with the advent of the Great Recession in 2008. Public and nonprofit organizations are still adjusting to the movement from a traditional bureaucratic paradigm to a postbureaucratic paradigm that integrates much higher levels of customer service, devolution, coproduction, and competition. This makes the job of leadership more interesting, but also more confusing and risky (Gauthier 2008; Kanter, Stein, and Jick 1992). Second, the range of leadership activities required of leaders is simply greater. In addition to the greater change-management skills implied by the first pointtechnical, organizational, and personnel change skills-contemporary managers must be better at the organizational skills identified in this study-environmental scanning, strategic planning, articulating mission and vision, networking and partnering, and performing general management functions (Van Wart and Berman 1999). A dynamic environment in which resources are scarce and frequently shrinking requires leaders to accurately assess what is happening and mobilize internal and external stakeholders to adopt practical plans. This is hard work. Third, in a more cynical age it is more difficult to be a leader. Followers are not only more cynical about institutions (Henry 2003, 11-12), but also more likely to be cynical about the individuals who lead them. Although public administrators are generally considered trustworthy in comparison to politicians, they are still not exempt from tough scrutiny.
