by Jim McGrath

Created on: October 27, 2009

Examining Fullan's "Leading in a Culture of Change"

Michael Fullan opens his preface to Leading in a Culture of Change by noting that the more complex society gets, the more sophisticated leadership must become. I am thankful that Fullan didn't prove this point by inundating the reader with hundreds of pages of material regarding the complexities of leadership.

This is a useful book which reads quickly because the author sticks to five basic components of leadership that are used to represent what he calls independent but mutual reinforcing forces for positive change. By sticking to his script, Fullan delivers an impressive argument for future leaders everywhere.

Fullan's five framework components are - moral purpose, understanding change, relationship building, knowledge creation and sharing and coherence making. His points make sense because they work as long as the leader continually works on improvement with each component with the energy and enthusiasm requested by the author.

The first component is moral purpose. Business leaders might lose sight of this, but it should be of utmost importance in an academic milieu. The main thought of this argument states that the means are as important as the ends. In other words, the importance of moral purpose comes from the trust and stability built into the relationships developed. Human relations are the key. This theme resonates over many of Fullan's components, and it should. A leader truly is nothing without followers, and they are built through relationships. It is felt that working on improvement with all five qualities will naturally lead to an increasingly moral pursuit.

The next component is understanding change. With the great speed and nonlinearity of change, Fullan suggests that there will be messiness involved with any creative breakthrough. While others may say that change is not rocket science, Fullan strongly disagrees, although the witch doctor source (Micklethwait and Wooldridge, 1996) may have been extreme.

I appreciate how well Fullan cites other processes in search of the happy medium. On the topic of change, his take on others theories is that it seems contradictory and that one could get confused deciding on a best theory to follow. Perhaps change cannot be managed, but it can be led and the leadership is meaningful. Goleman's six leadership styles were an interesting addition to the argument, particularly by stating that two (coercive and pacesetting) led to a negative climate and reduced

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