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Power, Personalities, and PrinciplesDiscussions from a Cass Business School workshop on improving political leadership through cross-disciplinary research

An Impact Report for Practitioners

Professor Jo Silvester, Professor of Organisational Psychology, Cass Business School, City University London

November 2014

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This report is based on a workshop on Improving political leadership through cross-disciplinary research, held at Cass Business School on 15 July 2014 and organised by Professor Jo Silvester, with funding provided by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF).

The workshop was one of an ongoing series of interdisciplinary leadership events held under the aegis of the Group for Leadership Evidence Analysis and Development (LEAD) at Cass.

Cass LEAD is a multi-disciplinary research centre focusing on leadership in many sectors. It was launched in May 2013 at the IZA/Cass event Understanding Leadership: A Multidisciplinary Workshop. The aim of LEAD is, first, to facilitate discussion and share the latest research from across the leadership field by holding annual one-day multidisciplinary research workshops, and, second, to promote the group’s members, each of whom brings a unique perspective: Douglas Board, Laura Empson, Amanda Goodall, Jo Silvester, David Sims, and André Spicer.

Professor Jo Silvester

ForewordPolitical leaders are fundamental to democracy, yet we know very little about the work they perform or how they develop the skills required to deliver good government. It seems that while political leaders play a critical role in tackling society’s “wicked problems” (i.e. problems where there is little agreement about causes or solutions that often require fundamental changes in ideas or perspectives), there has been much less attention paid to the “wicked problem” of political leadership itself.

As an organisational psychologist I’ve worked with politicians and political parties for the past decade, and throughout this time I have been struck by how few opportunities there are for academics and practitioners from different backgrounds to get together and discuss questions such as: what is political work? what do we mean by good political leadership? and how can we make sure we get the best possible elected representatives?

My intention in organising this workshop was therefore to create a space where academics and practitioners from political science, psychology, business and politics might come together to discuss, challenge, and surprise one another with their different perspectives and ideas, and ultimately develop a broader understanding of the challenges of political work.

We were therefore delighted to welcome 80 scholars and practitioners to the workshop; all of whom came from very different spheres. Short thought-pieces around four topics provided by 14 invited speakers allowed time for plenty of audience participation and discussion. The day proved to be thought-provoking and engaging; it more than fulfilled our aim of encouraging innovative and cross-disciplinary thinking that had the potential to develop an improved and actionable understanding of political leadership. I and my colleagues at Cass would therefore like to thank everyone for their support and participation.

This report is intended as a reflection on the themes of the day, and to act as a spur for further research and practice. In preparing it we have included a flavour of each of the formal presentations delivered by our speakers, and sought to summarise the major themes that emerged from these and the group discussions. As the event was subject to the Chatham House Rule, contributions to the discussions have been anonymised. We hope they inspire further research and discussion of the challenging and fascinating world of political work.

Jo SilvesterProfessor of Organisational PsychologyCass Business School

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“I think you are right to promote discussion of these issues, right to discuss it, right to address the cynicism – which is real – and to try to bring it out and say we’ll really try to talk about politics in a worthwhile way. Leadership is completely under-studied, completely un-understood. Even the major political parties don’t complain about leadership, and actually getting some way of looking at it is very, very important.” Charles Clarke, Former Labour MP and Home Secretary

Charles Clarke ©James Bass

CONTENTS

SESSIONS AND INVITED SPEAKERS ................................................................................................8

1. DEVELOPING POLITICAL TALENT INTO POLITICAL LEADERSHIP ............................................................................... 1

WHAT DO POLITICIANS NEED TO KNOW AND HOW CAN WE SUPPORT ASPIRING AND/OR ELECTED MEMBERS WHILST REMAINING TRUE TO DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES?

Helena Cooper-Thomas, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Work and Organisational Psychology, University of Auckland, New ZealandDonald Searing, Burton Craig Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillMatt Korris, Senior Researcher at the Hansard SocietyAmanda Goodall, Senior Lecturer in Management, Cass Business School

2. HOW DO WE ATTRACT THE BEST POLITICAL LEADERS? .......................................................................................... 4

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY GOOD POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AND HOW CAN POLITICAL PARTIES ATTRACT AND SELECT POLITICAL TALENT?

Anthony King, Professor of Government, University of EssexGian Vittorio Caprara, Professor of Psychology, La Sapienza University of RomeJo Silvester, Professor of Organisational Psychology, Cass Business School

3. HOW DO WE ACHIEVE REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT? ........................................................................................ 7

DIVERSITY IS STILL ABSENT FROM BOTH HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. WHAT CAN BE DONE TO ENCOURAGE MORE WOMEN AND ETHNIC MINORITIES INTO POLITICS?

Sarah Childs, Professor of Politics and Gender, University of BristolSimon Woolley, Director, Operation Black VoteAndré Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School

4. POLITICIANS AT WORK ................................................................................................................................................ 9

WE KNOW LITTLE ABOUT THE WORK OF POLITICIANS. HOW DOES POLITICAL LEADERSHIP COMPARE TO PUBLIC- OR PRIVATE-SECTOR LEADERSHIP?

Darren Treadway, Associate Professor of Organisation and Human Resources at the University at Buffalo, State University of New YorkCharles Clarke, former Labour MP and Home SecretaryDavid Gold, Conservative life peer in the House of LordsLaura Empson, Professor in the Management of Professional Service Firms, Cass Business School

DISCUSSIONS .................................................................................................................................12HOW DO WE MEASURE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE? ................................................................................................ 13

ACCOUNTING FOR HONESTY AND INTEGRITY ................................................................................................................................... 14

THE NEED FOR EQUALITY ................................................................................................................................................................... 16

PARTICIPANTS .................................................................................................................................18

FURTHER READING .........................................................................................................................21

Sessions and Invited Speakers

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An Impact Report for Practitioners

1. Developing political talent into political leadership

LEARNING THE ROPESHelena Cooper-Thomas drew on a study of new MPs in the New Zealand Parliament (known as “The Beehive” because of the distinctive shape of the building), in which she explored how new MPs negotiate their roles, and establish credibility and respect amongst their peers and constituents. As there is only a comparatively small number of MPs, it is possible in New Zealand to take on a leadership role fairly early – in the first term – so some of the strategies adopted by newcomers can be interpreted also as means of positioning themselves for leadership.

She showed that low-risk strategies such as “cautious, thoughtful progress” (observing others, thinking before they spoke, comparing themselves to their colleagues, asking questions) and “engaging with colleagues” (chatting to people, attending social events and attending cross-party meetings with overseas delegations) were combined with the crucial strategy of “courageous action”: having a go, on the assumption that people will be lenient towards first-timers.

The study showed that proactive behaviour was critical for new MPs to establish themselves but was also risky. When and how should they act? How could they balance the need for information with the potential for looking like a novice? Most importantly, how much could they afford to get wrong? People may be lenient towards some mistakes but others are career-destroying, and in political leadership there are virtually no second chances.

POLITICAL CAREERSDonald Searing argued that, while it is important to study the socialisation and induction of new MPs, previous research shows that political norms and roles are often learnt well before newcomers enter the legislature. Socialisation processes in these cases serve just to reinforce or modify existing assumptions. If we are to study political leadership, therefore, we also need to look at how political leaders are selected and where their attitudes are being learned in the first place. For that, he suggested, we need to focus on political careers, and the series of institutions through which people pass before becoming MPs.

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In this context, research conducted in the areas of management and organisations can be relevant. But Searing pointed out that there were important ways in which political careers differ from the professional careers with which they are often compared, particularly because parliaments do not operate in the same way as traditional organisations.

Parliaments, for example, are less selective in recruitment. This is by design: MPs are supposed to be representative of the people, and they are elected from outside, not appointed from above. There is no single set of organisational goals: MPs serve all sorts of different masters. And parliaments are created to be highly permeable because they are supposed to be responsive. This is why we decry the “Westminster Bubble” and the “Washington Beltway”. Most importantly, organisational leadership is conducted in a context of different units (or “departments”) working together under a single authority structure. Parliaments, however, are based on a model in which one unit (or political party) runs the organisation, while competing units stand back, criticise, and occasionally obstruct.

POLITICAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENTIn the previous session Donald Searing had identified the lack of training as one reason why politics might not be considered a profession. Matt Korris showed that training and continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities exist in the UK parliament, but his research into the 2010 new intake of MPs suggested that there are a number of reasons why these opportunities are not more often taken up.

When new MPs enter Parliament, they typically come with a lot of knowledge about being a constituency MP, through having had practice as candidates and while campaigning. However, most have not thought much beyond the point of being elected, either because they were too busy campaigning, or because they did not want to tempt fate by assuming that they would win. Once elected, they tended not to find the time for training as parliamentary sessions in the UK follow almost immediately after an election. There is also a cultural resistance to training conducted by officers or other “outsiders” – only existing or former MPs are thought to be worth listening to. Finally, they can be worried that taking part in training will be interpreted by the media as lack of ability.

Matt Korris said that the situation called for leadership. Party leaders needed to insist that their new MPs made time for training, to oppose the training-resistant culture, and to stand up to the media.

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POLITICIANS AS EXPERT LEADERSAmanda Goodall’s research focuses on the concept of “expert leadership”, which is based on the argument that the most successful leaders are those with deep knowledge of the core business of their organisations. The results of her research into hospital leadership showed that, in the USA, the higher a hospital’s performance score, the more likely it is to be run by a physician rather than a general manager. And this did not just apply to the CEO: a high number of managers with clinical degrees also indicated a higher performance.

This correlation also occurred in fields as diverse as research universities, Formula One, basketball and football. Why, then, she asked, has the concept of expert leadership not taken off in politics? George Osborne is just the latest in a long line of Chancellors of the Exchequer without economics qualifications. In the Department of Energy and Climate Change, no minister or civil servant has a science degree – they all have degrees in the humanities or the social sciences. Amanda Goodall called for further research into the effects of expertise (or the lack of it) in political leaders, asking,

“Do they know what they don’t know?”

Amanda Goodall

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2. How do we attract the best political leaders?

ATTRACTING ABLE AND HONEST PEOPLEIf we want the “best” political leaders, we should not just ask how we can attract able and honest people to politics, said Anthony King. An equally important question is: how do we minimise the chances of wicked or incompetent people coming to power? It is, after all, just as easy for strong leaders to take bad decisions as good ones, and some measure of collective leadership could contribute to designing a political organisation that was “leader-proof ”.

He suggested that people who may become heads of government should be nominated by people who can judge them by having worked with them, not by party activists or the electorate. It is also highly desirable that if heads of government are going to choose ministers, the “gene pool” on which they can draw should be large, diverse, and experienced. In the current UK model, ministers are chosen almost exclusively from the largest party in parliament, thus limiting the size and diversity of the gene pool. Britain and the Republic of Ireland are the only two countries in the EU that require ministers to be parliamentarians. Anthony King said he would like to see heads of government being able to choose ministers from wherever they liked, and that ministers should be appointed on the basis of their capacity to do the particular job they are asked to do. “There is indeed something to be said for people doing jobs for which they are qualified,” he said. His concern is with the current trend to give more say to groups of party activists. He questioned whether they are really the people best placed to decide who should become, for example, Secretary of State for Education.

“Intra-party democracy is the enemy of good government.”

Anthony King

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PERSONALITY AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIPIn Western democracies, the personalities of political leaders and voters have become increasingly important, as political choices are made on the basis of voters’ likes and dislikes, and politicians have responded by paying greater attention to personal image and narrative. Gian Vittorio Caprara argued that, in this context, looking at personality from a psychological perspective can indicate qualities likely to lead to political engagement and efficacy.

Headline findings from a study of 103 Italian politicians suggested that politicians do display certain personality traits to a greater degree than the average, and that personality can indicate both political leanings and political engagement. Most interestingly, particularly in the light of Amanda Goodall’s earlier presentation on expert leadership, Gian Vittorio Caprara said that the research had also suggested how the qualities that made good politicians differed from those of party activists. Effective politicians, he explained, relied on being able to draw on a network of expertise to inform their political decisions. They did not expect to master a range of different subjects, but to manage them, and their success depended on their capacity to assemble and use the expert team around them.

He pointed out that, while it is possible to assess the qualities a politician should have to be successful (general intelligence, communication skills, self-esteem and optimism) it is more difficult to assess integrity. In this regard, values priority and moral disengagement can be viewed as important aspects of personality to be investigated.

COMPETENCES REQUIRED FOR POLITICAL LEADERSHIP Jo Silvester described how organisational psychology, which is generally used by businesses to design jobs, training, and support for employees, can shed light on the nature of political work and the qualities of political leadership. Drawing on three research projects in which she had helped political organisations improve their selection processes by identifying the “competences” (knowledge, skills, and aptitudes) required for political roles, she raised an important question: how do we measure political performance?

While businesses recruit and develop staff on the assumption that the right match between an individual’s competences and a job role will lead to better performance, in the political context this assumption is problematic. This is

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because political performance is contested. Unlike in a business, where the bosses decide together what they consider good performance to be, in politics, “Democracy slows things down”. Voters make judgements about performance and vote according to whatever they consider to be important. In this context, how do we measure the success of political leadership? One measure of success might be interpreted as winning elections, as that reflects voters’ perceptions of performance. But Jo Silvester pointed out that winning elections is a different leadership “job” from being in government: the competences required for one may not be suitable for the other.

“Democracy slows things down”

Jo Silvester

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3. How do we achieve representative government?

THE NEED FOR INTERVENTIONDespite the 1997 watershed election in the UK, in which the number of women in Parliament doubled overnight, there will be no steady march towards equality without intervention, said Sarah Childs.

The male party leaders are often pictured surrounded by brightly-dressed women, but this masks the fact that the percentage of women MPs is rising very slowly (indeed, declining in some parties), and the number of women in Parliament remains heavily dependent on the success of the Labour Party. Sarah Childs showed how the increase in numbers of women in 1997 was as a direct result of the imposition of all-women shortlists by Labour. When they want to, political parties can find high-quality women and get them elected, she said. But in order to do so, they need political leadership that prioritises women’s political presence over full local party democracy – already identified in a previous presentation as the “enemy of good government.”

Many further questions remain. Which kinds of woman are able to make it into Parliament? Are we still focusing on the male model of a politician, which an “unencumbered” woman might be able to adopt, but which leaves mothers and other people with caring responsibilities under-represented? How do political parties get women into seats that they can win? It doesn’t matter how many diverse candidates you have for unwinnable seats, said Sarah Childs, to get more women into Parliament you have to be able to put them into the position where they can be elected.

REPRESENTATION IS ONLY HALF THE BATTLEWith the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency in 2008, people around the world breathed a sigh of relief, said Simon Woolley: race was now “done”; we lived in a “post-racial world”; we could take our foot off the gas. Except, of course, it was not like that. We still need a more representative government because “anywhere there are decisions being made that affect our lives, we should be around that table.”

Simon Woolley described how Operation Black Vote was formed in the wake of the 1995 Brixton riots following the death in police custody of Wayne Douglas. The riots

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were a result of people feeling powerless in a divided, “them and us” environment. Black and minority ethnic communities needed power in order to demand justice, equality, and respect; but they needed representation in order to get power.

The work of Operation Black Vote has focused on identifying where BME communities can exert power (research conducted before the 2010 election showed that, if they engaged in politics by registering to vote and voting, BME communities had the potential to influence 100 seats) and on how they can field candidates and become MPs. But, as the example of Barack Obama shows, representation is only half the battle. “You can have black faces in the highest places, but if they are not talking about equality, then they are no use,” said Simon Woolley.

“Anywhere there are decisions being taken that affect our lives, we should be around that table.”

Simon Woolley

BUILDING INSTITUTIONS TO LEARN POLITICAL SKILLSThe actor and comedian Russell Brand observed during a television interview that the atmosphere in Parliament reminded him of public school. Anyone coming from that sort of background doubtless feels quite comfortable there, suggested André Spicer, but those who haven’t would probably find it an awkward and intimidating environment. How can we make sure that more different types of people feel comfortable in Parliament?

As previous speakers had suggested, people learn political skills far earlier than when they first step through the doors of Parliament. If we want a more equal and diverse group of people representing us, we have to start earlier, by looking at engagement with politics from a young age.

Although Government is involved in early years education and schooling, it offers little in the way of access to and experience of politics for people in the “transition years” of their late teens and early twenties. Even the City, which traditionally has a similar problem with diversity, is good with interns: paying them well, providing them with support and career paths. Westminster appears to have no comparable mechanism. In adulthood, too, there are fewer routes into politics for those who did not become a researcher or adviser immediately after university. André Spicer suggested that we needed to build more institutions or places where people could learn political skills – modern versions of the eighteenth-century coffee houses or the trades union movement of the 20th century.

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4. Politicians at work

EXERCISING POLITICAL WILLDarren Treadway picked up on the issue of political will – a concept most usually understood in its absence, and often used as a general get-out clause. Problems such as famine in Africa, abuse in organisations, healthcare in the USA have all been attributed to lack of political will: they are nobody’s fault, says this narrative, it’s just that not enough people seemed interested in doing something about it at the same time.

Darren Treadway suggested that, in this context, leadership could be seen as reflecting one’s willingness to seek out others who are thinking the same thing, as well as having the political skill to get them to work together and exercise political will. Political will, he said, starts with individual choice, the decision by a single person to risk taking political action. It is then strengthened according to the social context, and also on the individual’s ability to work at a coalition level, to form and draw on social networks to influence and mobilise others to act. Political will works at all levels, from grass-roots organisations and pressure groups to governments. But the critical factor that prevents us from exercising political will is risk: will it lose me (the individual) my job? Will it entail making difficult and unpopular decisions? Is it just too hard to bother with?

“The critical factor that prevents us from exercising political will is risk.”

Darren Treadway

CONTEXTS AND CONCERNSCharles Clarke returned to the question of how to measure leadership effectiveness, asking why effective business leaders seem generally to have been unsuccessful in making the transition to politics, and suggesting that few politicians would be able to move in the other direction. Stating that political party leaders are “very, very interested in winning the next election”, he investigated general election results as a possible measure of leadership. While it was fascinating to note the relative positions of David Cameron and

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Winston Churchill in a ranking based on the number of seats won or lost, the most striking observation was that the largest changes in voting patterns in the UK occurred in 1918 and 1945, which suggests that context can influence election results as much as the individual leader. Indeed, looking at two slightly different lists of qualities needed by political leaders, developed by Toby James and Peter Hennessey respectively, he observed that he would expect a number of these qualities to be shared with private sector leaders. However, private sector leaders did not have to contend with, for example, party management or what was variously called “managing the constitution” or “constitutional procedural”. The job of a political leader, compared with that of a private sector leader, is concerned with a wider set of issues. 

DIFFERENT DYNAMICSDavid Gold agreed with Charles Clarke’s observations, and suggested a number of important differences between business and politics that influence what is expected from their leaders. In both contexts, the leader is required to be “out in front”, taking the business or the country somewhere and carrying the team with him or her. The role demands the ability to listen, to know when to stop consulting and make a decision, and to be able to “change along the way so that no one quite notices.” The key difference is that the driver in political leadership is the need to win the general election. Business is competitive but there is not the same kill-or-be-killed environment and the need to trample on everyone else. It is possible for several competitors to exist in the same market. This creates a different dynamic for individuals too. In politics, if you are sacked, there is nowhere to go: with very few exceptions, you may regard your political career as over. In a similar situation in business, you simply look for another job, and you will probably find another company in which you can be successful.

A final, very important difference is the influence of the media. Good or bad press can have an effect on the reputation and, to a certain extent, the performance of a business, but the media are nowhere near as ever-present and ever-commenting in the private sector as they are in politics.

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ACTING POLITICALLY WHILE BEING ABOVE POLITICSLaura Empson’s current research is focusing on leadership in professional service firms (PSFs), which share some characteristics with political parties. Individual professionals, much like MPs and other party members, enjoy a high degree of autonomy in their working lives. The authority of the leader in the firm is contingent – the most senior leaders are often elected into their positions and can be deposed if they are perceived not to be acting in the interests of the partners.

In this environment, Laura Empson has identified three specific tactics that leaders employ, both consciously and unconsciously, to ensure that they are both elected into a leadership position and keep it. The most interesting of these was “acting politically while being above politics.” Although PSFs act very much like political parties in that they hold elections, publish manifestos, and organise hustings, professionals within them claim to “abhor” politics, and admire their leaders because they are not political. This is partly because they have a simplistic view of politics, associating it only with Machiavellian duplicity and personal ambition; and it is partly because the greatest skill of the political leader in a PSF is that, despite obviously building networks and cultivating informal personal relationships, he does not appear to be acting politically at all.

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Discussions

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DiscussionsDuring the wide-ranging discussions that followed each group of formal presentations, three major themes emerged. These are all areas in which extensive research has already been conducted, but the continued debate suggests that the issues are far from resolved. More research is warranted in all areas, as well as further cross-disciplinary collaboration and communication.

HOW DO WE MEASURE POLITICAL LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE?Is election success the only or best measure of a party leader’s effectiveness?

• It can be interpreted as the voters’ positive judgement on what the party has achieved and how they have conducted themselves while in government.

• Votes are entirely subjective: each voter will vote according to what he or she considers to be important. In most cases, this is not related in any way to the actual work done by politicians in office.

What does this mean for selection?

• Candidates appear to be selected purely on the basis of the likelihood that they will win an election.

• Do political parties ever look at candidates as future MPs and ask what they will need to do when in Parliament, what skills they will need, and how they should be trained?

How much of a problem is it that MPs continue to wear both a party “hat” and a legislative “hat”?

• Party leadership is all about getting elected, or re-elected; when wearing the legislative hat it is about running the country.

• While you don’t even get to wear the legislative hat if you don’t win an election, leadership in government is complicated by the need always to have half an eye on whether or not you get re-elected.

• Should we consider a model where ministers do not also have constituency responsibilities?

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How can we develop and implement a more formal and transparent assessment of performance?

• In the absence of a formal appraisal system in political parties, reshuffles are often interpreted as tacit judgements on perceptions of how people have performed.

Is social capital – being able to develop and benefit from social networks and connections – a double-edged sword for the electorate?

• It is through mobilising social networks that a leader can generate political will, and social capital is essential for managing diverse and individualistic party members and MPs.

• But has the role of informal relationships in politics started to overwhelm the institutions?

What about the relationship between politicians and the media?

• Does reliance on social capital lead to too many “career politicians”? It is easier both to be selected as a candidate and to progress once elected if you are already plugged into various Westminster networks. But if people have not had a “proper job” before going into Parliament, they are thought to be less connected with the electorate and more easily absorbed into the Westminster bubble with no concept of life in the “real world.”

ACCOUNTING FOR HONESTY AND INTEGRITYIntegrity is important to voters. How do we make sure our political leaders have it?

• Integrity is not necessarily linked to political competence. “If you were to judge the most successful prime ministers in this country, you might not find that they had much integrity.”

• Both institutions and power can corrupt. Selecting good people is not enough; we have to consider how they will perform in office, and develop means to ensure that they do not turn into bad politicians.

• We should look at potential candidates as future MPs, not just as election-winners. Is it possible to train people from the start in the characteristics that will make a difference in the role?

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How can we remove the mechanisms that make it possible for people to behave wrongly whilst declaring their honesty and integrity?

• For example, the expenses scandal emerged because rules were set up by the system to compensate for the fact that it was not felt suitable to raise MPs’ pay. Around this system, norms developed: MPs would understand that if everyone else claims for x, y, and z, then it is acceptable for them to do so too.

Are we expecting too much of our politicians. Do they have to be more honest than the rest of the population?

• Research has shown that most people, given the opportunity, will cheat a little bit, with an over-claim of 15% cited as the higher limit of what they can rationalise to themselves. Parliament is supposed to be a representative sample, and in fact the expenses revelations showed that most politicians stuck well within this 15% margin of acceptability. Those who really did take it too far were disciplined.

• Over-simplification by the media is also a problem. Integrity in public life is taken to be the same as personal morality. But while one might wish that politicians in their private lives were models of virtue and restraint, their private conduct does not often have any impact on their conduct in office.

How much should politicians be paid and does it have an impact on the calibre of person who wants to enter public service?

• A recent survey suggests that many politicians who had previously had jobs outside politics took pay cuts to become MPs. An MP’s salary is already three times the average salary for the country. If 50% of MPs have to take a pay cut, they are already not earning normal salaries. What does this say about how representative they are? How much can they possibly understand about their constituents’ lives?

• It is very expensive to become an MP. There is a high opportunity cost in spending time campaigning which limits the field of potential MPs to the personally rich and those who are very well funded by other bodies. This is not good for diversity, or for understanding the normal lives of constituents. On the other hand, trying to become an MP is so risky (you may not get elected; even if you do get elected, if you fail you could be completely out of a job, with no redundancy pay or golden goodbye) that few people would consider it without adequate financial backing.

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THE NEED FOR EQUALITY Why do we think that a more representative government will lead to a better government?

• Equality We demand that all people should have an equal ability to participate in the institutions that are important to them, because it is morally right that they should.

• Legitimacy Many people do not engage with politics because they do not recognise the legitimacy of the institutions. They are not seen to be representative and therefore do not speak for or to everyone. The more representative and equal an institution is, the greater legitimacy it has with the public.

• Decision-making Research has shown that when a homogenous group of policymakers address a problem, they tend to come up with a reasonably good solution and probably quite quickly. The people in the group are likely to share many assumptions, making it easy to progress. A more diverse group will argue more about those assumptions, meaning that they take longer and may get derailed entirely. But where they do produce a solution, it is likely to be far better than that of a homogenous group. With large and complex problems such as climate change, it makes sense for the groups addressing them to be as diverse as possible.

Can more quotas and all-women shortlists solve the problem?

• All-women shortlists have been shown to increase participation. But the idea that a party has to have women in it in order to represent women ignores the problem that not all women think the same – not any woman would do. Women might have very different views on what the interests of women are.

• Even where there has been success in increasing participation by women, those women are all very similar, being largely white, heterosexual, and not disabled. “White women have been told for so long by white men to stand back and wait their turn that they are now saying the same to black women.”

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Do women just not want to go into politics?

• Are they put off, not just by the public-school-like institutions, but by the misogynism of the media and the public, who will probably abuse them on Twitter simply for being women? Or do they think that other routes, such as pressure groups, NGOs, and charities, are the best way to change things?

• The problem with that line of argument is that it leaves the power in the hands of parliament. You can’t expect to change anything if you abdicate power.

Do the same mechanisms work for everyone?

• Different groups face different barriers. The Conservatives are naturally resistant to change, and tend to favour traditional gender roles. Women who are inclined towards voting Conservative and standing for the Conservative party, therefore, may find it tougher than their left-leaning colleagues. On the other hand, many people in BME communities are very conservative. Once they can get past the perception that right wing parties are all racist, their political inclinations probably resonate very well within the Conservative party.

• When political parties want to find candidates of a certain type, they can find them – if the political will is there.

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Participants

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An Impact Report for Practitioners

PARTICIPANTSSanchia Alasia London Borough of Barking and DagenhamJane Alder Cass Business SchoolPhilip Aylett Scrutiny Unit, House of CommonsHelen Baron Independent ConsultantJohn Benger DIS, House of CommonsMark Bennister Canterbury Christ Church UniversityAlan Bourne Talent QGianvittorio Caprara La Sapienza University of Rome Sarah Childs University of Bristol Charles Clarke University of East AngliaHelena Cooper-Thomas The University of AucklandEmma Crewe University College London Keith Cuthbertson Cass Business SchoolSharon Darcy Committee on Standards, House of CommonsRyan Devlin Industry and Parliament TrustElena Doldor Queen Mary University of LondonLaura Empson Cass Business SchoolPeter Fraser University of HertfordshireJohn Gaffney Aston UniversityRuth Garland London School of EconomicsBob Garratt Cass Business SchoolDominic Gates Industry and Parliament TrustJaason Geerts University of CambridgeNikoletta Giatras Cass Business SchoolDavid Gold Herbert Smith LLPAmanda Goodall Cass Business SchoolCharlotte Goodwin University of BristolTamsin Hewett OPMPeter Hil University of RoehamptonNicola Jackson Cass Business SchoolZahira Jaser Cass Business SchoolIsher Jat Forest SchoolSandra Kerr Business in the CommunityAnthony King University of EssexEfrosyni Konstantinou University College London Matt Korris Hansard SocietyLiam Laurence Smyth House of CommonsAnthony Lewis Leadership for ChangeYulia Lubska Network Rail Infrastructure LtdKarolina MacLachlan Scrutiny Unit, House of CommonsJohn Montgomery Cass Business SchoolKevin Morrell Warwick Business SchoolArifa Nasim Forest School

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Power, Personalities, and Principles

Felicity Oswald-Nicholls Cabinet OfficeMaxine Robertson Queen Mary University of LondonCaroline Scotter Mainprize Independent ConsultantRuth Sealy City University LondonDonald Searing University of North Carolina, Chapel HillRosalind Searle Coventry UniversityTal Shahaf Antwerp University & Hebrew UniversityPeter Sharp  Jo Silvester Cass Business SchoolJoe Simpson Leadership CentreLaurence Solkin City University LondonAndre Spicer Cass Business SchoolStefan Stern Cass Business SchoolMiranda Thomas Cass Business SchoolDarren Treadway Buffalo University, SUNYGill Wall University of WorcesterAllan Williams Cass Business SchoolPhilip Wilson Fast Stream | Civil Service ResourcingSimon Woolley Operation Black VoteBen Worthy Birkbeck CollegeLorraine Zuleta Lorraine Zuleta Consulting LtdNicholas Beyts City University LondonAnsar Blakcori Flintdia Ltd

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An Impact Report for Practitioners

Further ReadingCONTENTS PAGE

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Power, Personalities, and Principles

FURTHER READINGAlvesson M., & Spicer, A. (2013), ‘Does Leadership Create Stupidity?’ in J. Lemmergaard & S., L. Muhr (ed.), Critical Perspectives on Leadership, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar

Caprara, G.V., & Zimbardo, P.G. (2004), ‘Personalizing politics: A congruency model of political preference’ American Psychologist, 59, 581-594

Caprara, G.V., Francescato, D., Mebane, M., Sorace, R., & Vecchione, M. (2010), ‘Personality foundations of ideological divide: A comparison of women members of Parliament and women voters in Italy’ Political Psychology, 31, 739-762

Childs, S. (2008), Women and British Party Politics., Routledge

Childs, S. L., & Rosie, C. (2014), ‘To the Left, To the Right’, Representing Conservative Women’s Interests’, Party Politics

Clarke, C., Kassim, H. (2012), ‘The ”Too Difficult Box”: Its Temptations and How to Avoid Them’, The Political Quarterly, 83, 303-310.

Cooper-Thomas, H. & Silvester, J. (2014), Ideas and advice to accelerate the transition for new MPs entering New Zealand’s House of Representatives

Empson, L., Reluctant Leaders and Autonomous Followers: Leadership Tactics in Professional Service Firms

Empson L., Cleaver, I., & Allen, J. (2013), ‘Managing Partners and Management Professionals: Institutional Work Dyads in Professional Partnerships’, Journal of Management Studies, 50, 808-844

Fleming, P., & Spicer, A. (2014), ‘Power in Management and Organization Science’, Academy of Management Annals, 8, 237-298.

Goodall A. H. (2009), Socrates in the Boardroom: Why Research Universities Should be Led by Top Scholars Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press

Goodall A. H., Kahn, L. M. & Oswald, A. J. (2011), ‘Why do leaders matter? A study of expert knowledge in a superstar setting ‘, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 77, 265-284

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An Impact Report for Practitioners

Fox, R. & Korris, M., ‘A Fresh Start? (2012). The Orientation and Induction of New MPs at Westminster Following the 2010 General Election’, Parliamentary Affairs, 65 (3), July.

King, A. & Crewe, I. (2013), The Blunders of Our Governments, London: Oneworld

Saks, A. M., Gruman, J. A., & Cooper-Thomas, H. D. (2011), ‘The neglected role of proactive behavior and outcomes in newcomer socialization’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79, 36-46.

Searing, D. D. (1995) ‘The Psychology of Political Authority: A Causal Mechanism of Political Learning Through Persuasion and Manipulation’ Political Psychology, 16, 677-696

Searing, D. (1994), Westminster’s world: Understanding political roles. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press

Silvester, J., & Dykes, C. (2007), ‘Selecting political candidates: A longitudinal study of assessment centre performance and political success in the 2005 UK General Election’, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 11-25

Silvester J., Wyatt, M., Randall, R (2014), ‘Politician personality, Machiavellianism, and political skill as predictors of performance ratings in political roles’, Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 87, 258-279

Treadway, D.C. (2012), ‘Political will in organizations’,in G.R. Ferris & D.C. Treadway (eds.) Politics in Organizations: Theory and Research Considerations (pp. 529-554), London: Routledge

Wyatt M, Silvester, J. (2015), ‘Reflecting on the labyrinth: Investigating Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Leaders’ Career Experiences Using Template Analysis’, Human Relations

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© November 2014, Published by Jo Silvester , ISBN: ?

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