Institutional leadership: Maintaining and developing the ‘Good’ organisation. Kap. 8

Abstract

This chapter addresses how managers through values work enact critical functions of institutional leadership, by ongoing efforts and the recurring facilitation of processes relating the mission, values and character of the organisation. The chapter bridges values work with the concept of institutional leadership. Drawing on previous studies, the chapter analyses how leaders maintain and develop the ‘good organisation’ through three thematic frames: conceiving of the ‘good home’, enhancing ‘the common good’ and establishing a shared, embodied understanding of ‘good practice’. They exert agency by creating narratives linking past, present and future, translating external values-expectations by aligning and framing them with existing organisational identity, and securing their embodiment by facilitating processes of explorative values discourse. Utilising the ambiguity of values enhances shared yet individual interpretation of values, bridging the interests of differing stakeholder groups.