Leadership in change - YLE News and Current Affairs renewing project 2018-2019

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze to what extent the perceptions about leadership change during a studio and content renewing project in Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE’s News and Current Affairs in 2018-2019. The theoretical part is based on existing research and different theories on leadership and leadership styles. Leadership is a process where an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Alonderine & Majauskaite 2016 p. 141; Nazarian et al 2017, p.1079; Salehzadeh 2017 p. 865). Leadership style is playing a central role when predicting organization performance or outcomes (Yahaya & Fawzy 2015 p.190; Vignoli et al 2018 p.275) and can be divided into three main categories: transformational, transactional and laissez-faire (Yahaya & Fawzy 2016 p.191). Data has been collected from 30 participants with a questionnaire, semi-structured discussions and the notes from the discussions. The questionnaire and discussions were done twice: at the start and the end of the year 2019 to compare the result. The method to measure and analyze the result is BoMentis Coaching Houses’ Coaching Leadership Pulse© (CLP), which is measuring different interaction competences. According to previous research (Iszatt-White & Saunders, 2014; Rollinson 1998) leaders and supervisors can change or mix their leadership styles during big projects. The best of leaders typically display both transformational and transactional leadership (Avolio & Bass 1999 p.457) and they can stress different factors of the leadership styles during for example longer projects (Salehzadeh 2017 p. 866). According to the survey and interviews, management is at a high level in YLE News and Current Affairs. Although, during the year 2019 supervisors’ perceptions, reflections and priorities in the different areas of coaching leadership style changed. From the results it can be interpreted that the renewing project of the studios and content has demanded a change in the leadership concepts in YLE News and Current Affairs in 2019. In the light of the results, one can see more transition to the selling and telling style leadership. These approaches are less collaborative and more directive, as the leader simply provides instructions for the team members