John Latham

Organization Designer + Researcher

Leading Transformation Research

The Leading the Journey to Performance Excellence: CEO Perspectives research project was a result of the 2006 Monfort Institute Summit in Bachelor Gulch, Colorado (Latham, 2008). At this summit researchers and executives worked together to develop a research agenda that was both important to leaders and of interest to the researchers. The top two topic categories from this summit were culture and leadership. The need for a better understanding of the leadership for performance excellence drove the CEO study which resulted in the development of the Leading Transformation Framework (LTPE).

CEO Leading Transformation Study

Two papers describe the results of a qualitative, multiple case study, that utilized grounded theory methods based on in-depth interviews with 14 CEOs who lead successful organization transformations resulting in recognition as a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient (Latham, 2013a and Latham, 2013b). A framework for leading the transformation to performance excellence (LTPE) from the top is described. The LTPE framework consists of 35 concepts organized into five categories: forces and facilitators of change, leadership approaches, leadership behaviors, individual leader characteristics, and organizational culture.

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Papers (selected)

Presentations (selected)

CEO Attitudes and Motivations

The original CEO Study identified several individual leadership characteristics, behaviors, and activities that raised questions regarding the CEO’s attitudes and motivations. In short, these CEOs were not your typical senior executives. They seemed quite different than most of the senior leaders that I have worked with over the years. To investigate this further using more objective quantitative methods, to supplement the qualitative analysis, I worked with three colleagues who are experts in this area.

Papers (selected)

Presentations (selected)

Servant Leadership

Many of the findings in the original CEO Study were related to key concepts in servant leadership as described by Dirk van Dierendonck (2011). Servant leadership concepts were linked directly or indirectly with 22 of the 35 top-level concepts in the leading transformation framework (Latham, 2013, p. 33). This research “stream” focuses on the intersection between servant leadership and the leading transformation framework, two of the research streams that I call for being combined in Latham (2014).

The current research projects originated with Tatiana Zimmerer’s Ph.D. dissertation and investigate three key issues related to servant leadership in the United States (Zimmerer, 2013). First, validate the multi-dimensional Servant Leadership Survey (SLS), developed and previously validated by Dirk van Dierendonck and Inge Nuijten in a European context, in the United States. Second, compare the levels of servant leadership displayed by leaders in the United States with those in the UK, Netherlands, and Italy. Third, determine if there is a relationship between the level of servant leadership and follower job satisfaction and affective organization commitment in the United States.

Papers and Presentations

Spiritual Leadership

Many of the original CEO Study findings (Latham, 2013) appear consistent with the concepts found in spiritual leadership as described by Fry (2003) and Fry & Nisiewicz (2013). Specifically, we found that spiritual leadership concepts were linked directly or indirectly with 21 of the 35 top-level concepts in the leading transformation framework (Latham, 2013, p. 33). This research project brings together leading transformation framework and spiritual leadership, two of the research “streams” that I call for being combined in Latham (2014).

Papers and Presentations

The Book

Become the architect of the organization you really want! Learn how to align and integrate your stakeholders, strategy, systems, scorecard, and culture to create sustainable excellence. The Leading Transformation Framework is composed of 14 components described in the 14 chapters of the [Re]Create book.

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