Strategic Leadership and Management of Multistakeholder Organizations

Organizational leaders and managers face several challenges, operating in a complex web of institutions including the parent, funding, and host institutions, which all have divergent interests. One area to explore and advocate for in such situations are roles of leadership and management. Based on a constructivist theoretical orientation, we conducted a case study inquiry into the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL) and framed our recommendation based on CSRL as a related multistakeholder organization. We first theorized with literature on artistic and scientific leadership and management strategies; and deciphered the four organizational frames including structural, human resources, political, and symbolic, which became our guiding categories in the thematic analysis. The structural frame raised think tanks, reframing, facilities, and technology themes while human resources raised servant leadership, empowerment, professional support, appreciation, welcoming, and farewells. In the political frame, participatory planning, evaluation, fundraising, and transparency emerged while in the symbolic frame, the use of stories, culture, symbols, celebrations, and ceremonies emerged. To achieve managerial and leadership efficiencies, both artistic and scientific management styles across all frames are vital. Understanding employees’ working environment and using soft-skill communication are tactics of artistic management. Participation involving experts in setting goals signals scientific style while involving local stakeholders implies artistic and overall collective decision-making. Managers thinking through the structural frame must understand that it is the architectural foundation of their organizations, the helm of power providing vision and direction while in human resources, their goal should be building inter-employee-organizational relationships. Thinking in a political frame, leaders need skills in coalition and negotiation in dealing with conflicts delightfully while in a symbolic frame, leaders ought to maintain the organizational ethos and its public-facing persona through credible communications with the public.