Conveniencing the Family In Agri-Based Processing Enterprise

“Kairos time”. Discernment is fundamental to managerial wisdom. Discernment refers to the ability to “perceive variation in the environment… and an understanding of the social actors and their relationships” (Boal and Hooijberg, 2000:518). Discernment is also labelled as social intelligence or interpersonal intelligence when discussed to mean understanding of others. Kairos time is the capacity to take the “right action at a critical moment” or “kairotic moment” (Boal and Hooijberg, 2000:518). Similarities can be drawn between managerial wisdom and what Covey (1996) terms empowerment, especially that the execution of both entails some ingenuity and social intelligence.

Hitt et al. (2001:497-513) also focus on six key functional and social actions that strategic leaders perform to successfully implement organisational strategy. Strategic leaders (a) determine the strategic direction, core ideology and the envisioned future; (b) continuously exploit and maintain a unique mix of core competencies in the implementation of organisational strategy; (c) and acquire and maintain human capital as part of strategy formulation and implementation. Furthermore, strategic leaders also (d) shape and sustain an organisation culture that serves as a source of competitive advantage; and (e) reinforce ethical practices within the organisation so that the interest of the organisation transcend managerial opportunism. Finally, (f) strategic leaders establish balanced organisational controls supportive of strategic change that serve as parameters for strategy implementation, monitoring, and adjustment.

Strategic leadership roles occur on a continuum. The complexity of current organisational situations requires strategic leaders to be multi-skilled and able to fulfil multiple roles. Guided by this notion, Richardson (1994) adopts a historical approach that examines the role of strategic leaders on a continuum of nine roles. These roles are the (a) classical administrator, (b) design school planner, (c) role playing manager, (d) political contingency responder, (e) competitive positioner, (f) visionary transformer, (g) self-organising facilitator, (h) turnaround strategist, and (i) crisis-avoider strategist.

The different views on the roles of strategic leaders suggested by these various scholars can be amalgamated into three common streams, namely (a) vision and path finding, (b) human 82