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F.W. De Klerk and Nelson Mandela: A Study in Cooperative Transformational Leadership

1997; Wiley; Volume: 27; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

1741-5705

Betty Glad, Robert G. Blanton,

Organizational Leadership and Management Strategies

This study examines the transfer of power in South Africa, focusing on the interactions of leadership policies, strategies, and personal characteristics of F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. The revolution that these men have helped bring about through democratic and peaceful means goes beyond simply the calling of a people to a higher mission or the emancipation of a polity from an authoritarian and discriminatory regime. Rather they have accomplished the rare feat of bringing about systemic revolution through peaceful means.(1) Working within the existing system, the two leaders have reordered the basic frame of government and begun fundamental changes in social institutions, the distribution of public wealth and services, and the way South Africans relate to each other at work and play. Our inquiry centers on the interactions between the two leaders during this first phase of their relationship, which extends roughly from February 1990 to the 1994 presidential election. This period encompasses de Klerk's dismantling of the apartheid laws and his struggles to reform the existing political order. Mandela, meanwhile, was faced with the daunting task of transforming the African National Congress (ANC) from a loose collection of groups allied against apartheid into a viable and unified political entity. During this time, de Klerk and Mandela shared the overarching goal of constructing a transitional constitution and arranging the first truly representative elections in South African history. We will only touch on the second phase of their relationship, which begins with Mandela's election as president of the new South Africa, insofar as it contributes to the development of themes apparent in this earlier period. Though their formal roles were essentially reversed by the election--Mandela became president, de Klerk deputy president of the coalition government and leader of the main opposition party--many of the broader problems within the South African polity remained. An effort to describe and suggest the most important possible causal interactions within a complex whole, the approach is necessarily one that Alexander George has called pattern tracing (see Figure One). As part of a broader comparative case study, certain generalizations are suggested that should have broader implications for leadership theory more generally.(2) [Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Contrary to some earlier work, this inquiry suggests charismatic elements are apt to characterize the relationship of transformational leaders to their followers.(3) To engage their followers to undertake the long and perilous journey to a better polity, transformational leaders must envisage a better future for the group of followers and undertake feats to show that they have the strength and commitment to realize that vision. We are also undertaking in this inquiry to fill a real lacuna in the leadership literature. There have been few works on how leaders, within a given polity, relate to each other. Cooperative relationships between the leaders of the old and the new regimes, as this work suggests, maximizes the possibility that political transformations will be accomplished through orderly and democratic means. Some of the psychological traits and background characteristics that contribute to that kind of cooperation are delineated in this study. The Transition in South Africa De Klerk's early career gave no clear indication of the line he would take as prime minister. His family had long played a key role in the National Party (NP) that had been responsible for establishing apartheid as a legal system in South Africa. While in the university, he had been initiated into the Broederbond, the secret society of the Afrikaner elite that reaches into every governmental, business, academic, and cultural group identified with the Afrikaner nation.(4) As Education Minister from 1984 to 1989 under P. W. Botha, de Klerk forcefully upheld segregation in the school system. …