About JSL

The Journal of Strategic Leadership (JSL) provides a forum for leadership practitioners and students of strategic leadership around the world by publishing applied articles on topics that enhance knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon of strategic leadership at all levels within a variety of industries and organizations.

The JSL is published in electronic format and provides access to all issues free of charge. [subscribe]

Editor's Note

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, uttered the prescient phrase, “When the change in the environment is greater than the change inside your company, the end is in sight.” Scores of organizations have found that their inability to adapt to the changing demands of the dynamic global marketplace resulted in sudden death (think Kodak, Borders, Solyndra, American Airlines, et al.).

At the heart of this issue of the Journal of Strategic Leadership is the important concept of change: personal change, organizational change, global change.  Relative to personal change, Jeff Slattery reviews the human and technological requirements of change, Gary Roberts discusses the importance of workplace spiritual intelligence by servant leaders, and Astrid Garza and Jorge Salcedo consider the mechanisms for encouraging leadership among Mexican college students. Regarding organizational change, Jeanne McDonnell held a strategic conversation with Dr. Pat Robertson, founder of The Christian Broadcasting Network and Regent University. Moises Aguirre-Mar details the global structural design and related effects on PepsiCo Mexico, and John Lanier outlines value-creation options in companies and how they alter leadership actions.

Leadership authority Stanley Gryskiewicz noted, “Ignoring the inevitability of change can be fatal.” Through a relentless focus on the necessity of personal and corporate adaptation, may we survive, and thrive, in the tumultuous future.

— Dr. Gary Oster, Editor

Please Note

Views and opinions expressed in the articles published in the Journal of Strategic Leadership (JSL) represent each author's research and viewpoint and do not necessarily represent JSL or its sponsors. JSL and its sponsors make no representations about the accuracy of the information contained in published manuscripts and disclaims any and all responsibility or liability resulting from the information contained in the JSL.

Change Management
Jeff Slattery

The ubiquitous nature of change seems to imply that change comes easily, but this is certainly not the case in most instances. The world of business and information technology requires frequent, and at times significant, change initiatives. Successful change appears even more elusive, and thus, the following information strives to address the major factors that aid in change management. The paper describes the technical and human elements of change and includes components of change management that relate to the field of information system management. The results provide guidelines and processes for successfully implementing change initiatives.
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Global Structural Design and Results: PepsiCo Case
Moises Aguirre-Mar       

As a global company, PepsiCo represents an interesting case study for the review of some theoretical elements of structural design: (1) international development level, from Galbraith (2000), (2) international structure, from Ashkenas, Ulrich, Jick, and Kerr (2002), and (3) healthiness level of its hierarchy. Also, in order to assess the organization’s level of flexibility, the article focuses on PepsiCo’s Mexico Food (PMF) business unit and its Consumer Strategic Insights (CSI) department. PepsiCo is a company that intends to continue its growth by strategically increasing its participation in the healthy food market; in this process, the company has faced many challenges and setbacks that add an interesting perspective for this review.
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Five Elements for Encouraging Leadership Among Mexican Undergraduate Students
Astrid Garza and Jorge Salcedo 

Leadership is formed by a diverse array of elements, and leaders need to be prepared to portray different skills according to the context, situation, and the constituent’s needs. So, how can we teach leadership and prepare the next generation of leaders? The article proposes five elements for encouraging leadership development among Mexican undergraduate students. Also, the article presents some leadership theories and leadership scholars’ ideas. In addition, Mexican history and Mexico’s current context is described, with the purpose of considering it as background information for teaching leadership to Mexican undergraduate students. The five specific elements the authors propose and seek to develop among undergraduate students are: self-awareness, life’s mission and vision, social awareness, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. Using the background information and the five elements of leadership proposed, the authors describe a newly developed leadership course which is currently being taught as a main stream course to all the undergraduate students of the Universidad de Monterrey.
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A Strategic Conversation with Dr. Pat Robertson
Jeanne M. McDonnell     

Strategic conversations can mine valuable information from strategic leaders from which others can draw encouragement, knowledge, and best practices. This essay discusses one such interview with Christian Broadcasting Network founder, Dr. Pat Robertson, who successfully put strategy into practice. Other organizations that he founded include Regent University, Operation Blessing International, and WorldReach. Current strategic leadership literature was reviewed in order to develop a line of questions that would pull out key contributors to his success. The interview revealed several themes that leaders can put into practice in order to improve their own skills. Included were creation and deployment of a vision, personal leadership traits, leveraging technology, encouraging innovation, and more. This strategic conversation also provided advice not normally found in leadership literature including the importance of humility, faith, and harmony.
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Value Creation Options and Their Leadership Implications
John A. Lanier        

Value creation is integral to organizational enterprise value. Many options are available to leaders, including innovation. The variety of innovative opportunities may elude neophytes. Moreover, innovative principles overlap and complement numerous other value creating concepts. However, these principles stop shy of being synonymous. Innovation is spawned by creativity. Creativity, unfortunately, does not translate into profitability absent the innovative rigor. While innovation may seem obvious and laudable in hindsight, it is not necessarily welcomed upon its advent. Indeed, innovation’s threat to the status quo begs exceptionally intrepid teams of diverse talent. Moreover, the innovative initiatives beg sponsorship by leaders whose vision appreciates innovators’ indispensability to corporate vitality. This essay endeavors to clarify definitions, connectedness, and guiding principles for incorporating innovation into the firm’s operational personality.
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Leadership Coping Skills: Servant Leader Workplace Spiritual Intelligence
Gary E. Roberts   

This paper presents the results of a pretest of 77 human resource and city manager respondents in the area of servant leader workplace spiritual intelligence (SLWSI). SLWSI is a subset of research on spiritual intelligence which consists of five components: a capacity for transcendence; the ability to enter higher states of consciousness; the facility to interject the sacred into everyday events; the capability to utilize applied sanctification principles to solve problems; and the ability to engage in ethical and virtuous behavior such as forgiveness, love, transparency, and humility. The results indicate that respondents who scored higher on servant leadership, an important workplace spiritual intelligence attribute, reported lower levels of job stress and higher levels of workforce engagement (more satisfied with peers and job challenge, higher organizational commitment and loyalty, greater motivation to improve performance, and higher overall performance level). SLWSI has great relevancy and promise for managers and executives.
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