Polyarchy Reflections

A633.9.3.RB – Polyarchy Reflections

The polyarchy concept was interesting for me in the beginning.  It took me a few weeks to completely understand this concept.  Under this concept there are a few ideas which if used could provide benefits to organizations and leaders.  Under traditional oligarchy there is an emphasis on leadership from the top.  Most organizations under this concept are structured like a pyramid with one person on top who is in control and makes decisions for the many (Obolensky, 2014).  This leadership structure is the same as the pharaohs in Egypt, emperors of China or Kings who ruled England.  Most organizations are similar in that they only have one CEO.  So as you can see this is structured the same as organizations were structured thousands of years ago.  The polyarchy approach looks to change this top down, the buck stops here, ruler says all mentality and shift it to focus on everyone in the organization contributing. 

Some concepts under the polyarchy approach which have implications on leaders and organization include the bottoms up leadership approach.  The Obolensky text (2014) discusses the idea that in a normal organization 90% of all solutions to any issues come from the middle and bottom levels within the organization (pg 37, figure 4.2).  If this is true then why do organizations feel that 100% of the leadership and decisions should come from one leader?  The bottoms up approach to leadership looks to incorporate all levels of the organization into the strategy development, decision making and overall running of the organization.  This idea makes people feel more involved, creates a strong team atmosphere, increases innovation and overall morale of the organization.  Incorporating aspects of this approach would be very beneficial to the success of your organization and would have great impacts throughout.

          Another aspect of polyarchy is the development of followers (Obolensky, 2014).  Developing followers is essential to the polyarchy structure and also beneficial.  By developing followers within your organization you are increasing their confidence and motivation.  If you have followers who do not fear initiative but rather take challenges head on and run with them you are helping develop their leadership potential.  This is in essence grooming them to maybe one day step up into actual leadership roles or positions.  Any time you can increase motivation and innovation it is a recipe for success.  As a leader if you can develop your followers you will have big impacts on your organization.

For future development the use of the 70-20-10 model would be very beneficial.  This is a model in which 70% of your time should be devoted to mastering you core competency, 20% on related projects and the final 10% devoted to side projects and learning new skills (Groth, 2012).  Most organizations pay their individuals to perform a task or produce something.  With this in mind why would you not focus much of your time on master the thing you are being paid to do?  This in turn will help you focus on the bigger picture and help in the development, implementation and adaptation of strategy within your organization. By mastering you skill you can focus on things that are going well and things which may need improvements.  However, by not focusing only on those aspect you still allow yourself opportunities to grow and learn new things which will also help you while developing strategy because you have a broader sense of what’s going on.     By splitting up your time you can attempt to make a more well-rounded assessment when dealing with the strategy within your organization. 

 

Groth, A. (2012). Everyone Should use Google’s Original ‘70-20-10 Model’ to Map out Their

Career. Business Insider.  Retrieved from: http://www.businessinsider.com/kyle-westaway-how-to-manage-your-career-2012-11

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty (2^nd

ed). New York, NY. Taylor & Francis Group.