Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal

Entrepreneurs' and managers' leadership roles compared: Context is what matters: what a person does trumps who they
are
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(2010) "Entrepreneurs' and managers' leadership roles compared: Context is what matters: what a person does trumps
who they are", Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, Vol. 24 Issue: 4, pp.30-32, https://
doi.org/10.1108/14777281011056767
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(2002),"ENTREPRENEURS AND MANAGERS: SIMILAR YET DIFFERENT", The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 10
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(2010),"Learning to lead in the entrepreneurial context", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour &amp; Research, Vol. 16 Iss 1
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 Entrepreneurs’ and managers’ leadership
roles compared
Context is what matters: what a person does trumps who they are
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n-depth interviews with nine entrepreneurs, backed up by a literature review, yielded

I some interesting findings as to the relationship between entrepreneurs and their

potential leadership role and threw light on how their attitudes towards leadership were
different from that displayed by employed managers. Research shows that managers,
working in large organizations, aspire to be leaders. They are constantly practising and
developing their leadership skills in their day-to-day contacts with subordinates and other
people that they have contact with. Much less is known about how entrepreneurs view their
leadership role. Past research tended to concentrate on a trait-based approach to
leadership and focused on how managers acquired leadership skills. Recent work has
rejected this approach believing that it is the context in which people work that determines
their ability to develop leadership attributes and skills. It offers a dynamic view, recognizing
how leadership skills are developed through taking part in a range of experiences. Focusing
on the different contexts in which managers/entrepreneurs work has allowed for more
insightful and informative research into why mangers/entrepreneurs may differ in their
attitude towards how they view their leadership roles.

Key questions to be answered

A number of key questions were identified as being significant to providing a greater
understanding of the issue:
B To what extent is an entrepreneur’s work situation different from that of a manager’s? How
does their working situation affect how they actively relate to the phenomenon of
leadership?
B To what extent do entrepreneurs considers themselves to be leaders?
B How do they learn to lead?
B Do entrepreneurs value leadership in the same way as employed managers?
Four themes are considered to be important in the shaping of the leadership practices of
entrepreneurs:
B their limited ability to benefit from opportunities that would allow them to practice their
leadership abilities;
B the fact that the running of the business is the focus of their concerns and activities;
B the influence of the family;
B the low salience of leadership.

PAGE 30 j DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS j VOL. 24 NO. 4 2010, pp. 30-32, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1477-7282 DOI 10.1108/14777281011056767
 A review of the contemporary literature indicated that leadership capability is vital to the
growth and success of small firms; that entrepreneurship and leadership are deeply
connected; entrepreneurs must possess leadership skills and entrepreneurship increasingly
becomes a distinct form of leadership during the growth process of small companies.
Kempster, 2006, identified that ‘‘the nurturing of leadership learning reflects informal and
contextual process of situated learning and apprenticeship.’’ The question is can this
process of leadership learning identified by Kempster, with regard to employed managers,
be applied to the entrepreneurial context? In line with Kempster’s work four dominant themes
were identified as having a bearing on their leadership role.
1. leadership as an aspired identity;
2. limited prior organizational experience;
3. enacted and situated learning in the organizational context;
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4. notable people and the dominance of parents.

Entrepreneurial reflections on leadership

Nine entrepreneurs (all male) were selected to take part in the research. All of them had
substantial entrepreneurial experience, a limited history of employment and were drawn
from a range of different industry sectors, had achieved successful growth over a period of
time, been self-employed for more than 15 years and employed a minimum of nine
employees.
The entrepreneurs were asked to give their views on leadership, to construct a timeline on
how they thought they had developed their leadership skills and to identify those that had
influenced their leadership development.
Compared with employed managers in large organizations, the majority of the entrepreneurs
had given little thought to the issue of leadership and were more concerned with the daily
routine running of their businesses. Leadership was not an aspired identity. Just over half of
the participants had little or no employment experience. They had been exposed to few
good leaders and for many of them contact with ‘‘bad bosses’’ had spurred them to set up
their own businesses. Their past experience had told them how not to lead but had provided
them with no positive clues as to what constituted good leadership. Participants spoke of
feeling confident in the context of their own business but felt that they would have problems
working in a new environment. They did not encounter the range of experiences enjoyed by
employed managers that would allow them to feel confident about transferring their
leadership skills to alternative situations. Participants’ values, ethics and leadership
behaviour were affected by family experiences.

The entrepreneurial context

It is clear that the leadership role of entrepreneurs is hampered by their lack of organizational
experience and positive leadership role models. There is a lack of feedback and support
from notable leaders, instead networking provides entrepreneurs with their key-learning
domain. However entrepreneurs may not be able to devote the time and effort to building up
long terms relationships with others outside of the business and, therefore, lack the chance

‘‘ Leadership appeared to be low in relevance or aspiration,

even appearing to have negative associations related to past
experience. ’’

j j
VOL. 24 NO. 4 2010 DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS PAGE 31
 ‘‘ It is the very absence of access to a broad range of human
capital with regard to leadership, either inside or outside the
venture, which makes the entrepreneurial context unique and
problematic in terms of leadership development. ’’

to observe and reflect on successful leadership practices. Entrepreneurial leadership

learning takes the form of trial and error and experimentation.

Developing networks
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It appears that a major stumbling block for entrepreneurs is the lack of access to a broad
range of human capital that would enable them to develop their leadership skills. It is this
absence of contact with leaders and challenging experiences that make their situation so
different from that enjoyed by employed managers. Entrepreneurs’ lack of interest in
leadership must be tackled. Several initiatives have been implemented to try and encourage
entrepreneurs to give more consideration to their leadership role. These programmes have
had varying degrees of success and care must be taken to ensure that such initiatives take
into account the special situation of entrepreneurs. The creation of learning networks that
could facilitate collaborative development and the sharing of successful leadership practice
with fellow entrepreneurs and other practitioners could provide one way of overcoming the
limitations imposed by the small firm.

Comment
Keywords: This review is based on: ‘‘Learning to lead in the entrepreneurial context’’ by Stephen
Entrepreneurs, Kempster and Jason Cope. Although the findings are based on a small sample, the
Leadership, qualitative research design enabled a number of useful insights to be drawn into how
Management development, entrepreneurs’ view their leadership role and enabled conclusions to be drawn as to way
Owner-managers, entrepreneurs’ differ from employed managers in their attitude towards leadership.
Small to medium-sized Presented are some suggestions on how entrepreneurs can be encouraged to develop their
enterprises leadership capabilities.

Reference
Kempster, S. and Cope, J. (2010), ‘‘Learning to lead in the entrepreneurial context’’, International Journal
of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 5-34, ISSN 1355-2554.

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j j
PAGE 32 DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS VOL. 24 NO. 4 2010
 This article has been cited by:

1. Louisa A. Huxtable-Thomas Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom Paul D
Hannon Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom Steffan W. Thomas Business
School, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom . 2016. An investigation into the role of emotion in leadership development
for entrepreneurs. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research 22:4, 510-530. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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