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Dilemna in Leadership

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THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER MANCHESTER BUSSINESS SCHOOL | GLOBAL EVENTS AND LEADERSHIP |

PART 1 US/Iran nuclear talks offer rejected
The Iran supreme Leader has dismissed the proposal to have a one to one talk with the US over his country's nuclear program. Ayatollah Khamenei said in a speech posted online that the US was proposing talks while "Pointing a gun at Iran".
“Iran’s president has said he is ready for directs talks with the US if the West stops pressuring his country. His comments directly contradict the words of the Supreme leader of Iran who rejected the US proposal of direct negotiations.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his statement at a rally to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“You pull away the gun from the face of the Iranian nation, I myself will enter the talks with you,” he said.”1
“ Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected any idea of bilateral talks with the United States on Thursday in a speech in which he scoffed at Iranian officials who might consider such negotiations.”2
Iran which has suffered sanctions from the international community has been arguing that her nuclear programs are for peaceful reasons mainly for research and electricity power generation.However,Iran's critics argue that the country is developing weapons of mass destruction(WMD) despite the country being a signatory to various treaties that are against such developments.These treaties includes the Biological Weapon Convention3,the Chemical Weapons Convention4 and the Nuclear Non-Poliferation Treaty(NPT)5.

Leaders with different opinions. Iranian president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad,according to BBC online publication indicates that he has been trying hard to 'reset' the Iran-US relations which are not too good, clearly defying the ‘map’that such issues are to be aunthenticated by the Supreme Leader the Ayattollah.However,White house feels that its not enough to only talk to president Mahmoud without the involvement of the Ayatollah .This poses a dilemma to Ahmadinejad in that despite him being the Iranian president he cannot have a meaningful breakthrough as far as foreign policy is concerned.
Obama working with a lame duck
In trying to improve his foreign policy president Obama of the United States of America started his second term by offering a positive signal to Iran through his Vice president Joe Biden. This diplomatic approach stated as early as 2009 but has not yielded any results posing a serious dilemma for Obama’s foreign policy on Iran. Iranian president on the other hand has few months to go before he leaves office but has been seen of late by his critics that he is trying to be defy the stance of the supreme Leader on the issue of sanctions and other issues in different forums. With Ahmadinejad’s few months to go,Obama might not achieve the intended results.
“Iranian parliamentarians have previously attempted a number of times to impeach Ahmadinejad but their latest bid in November was blocked when Khomeini came to the president's rescue, saying that such a move would play into the hands of Iran's enemies. The ayatollah, who has the final say on all state matters, is an erstwhile patron of Ahmadinejad and despite several attempts by the latter to defy him publicly, is believed to prefer a smooth departure for the lame-duck president on face-saving grounds.”6

President but not In-Charge(The platform of Understanding)
Looking at the political structure of Iran reveals its complexity. The elected president serves for two terms of four years each and cannot go beyond this according to the the country's constitution.The constitution describes him as the second highest official in the country.The president's powers are circumscribed by the clerics and conservatives in Iran power structure and by the authority of the supreme leader, the Ayattollah.The supreme leader controls key areas of governance like judiciary,security,defence and foreign policy.The supreme leader is appointed by the assembly of experts who monitors his performance.Periodically,there has been tension between the office of the supreme leader and that of the president when they differ in opinion. This brings about political tension and instability.

PART 2
Looking at the scenario in part 1,it clearly indicates and portrays a complex type of leadership which is a combination of a political and religious system. Political in the sense that the president of Iran is an elected figure and the supreme leader is appointed. The governance system combines Islamic theocracy and some form of democracy. This complex system results into dilemmas of trust and allegiance. It results into conflicts between the elected and the unelected institutions .The unelected institutions includes the supreme Leader, the armed forces, the head of judiciary and the expediency council. President Mahmud Ahmadinejad exhibits a form of transformational leadership. Looking at his leadership style ,he is a leader that takes personal risk and chances in making a descision.Some of which are questioned and not supported by the supreme Leader.According to Conger and Kanungo (1988)7 a transformational Leader takes some self sacrifice to achieve his vision.Mr Mahmud’s behaviour in some cases is novel and counter to norms of the religious system of leadership this is transformational leadership according to Conger.He desires to change some ethical stance of not agreeing to US suggestions of changing their nuclear policy. Further indications are that he champions his agenda using the parliament .He tries to further his vision by influencing his followers to buy in his descisions.The system of leadership in Iran lacks a Leader-Participation model in that the followers in some cases have no sufficient information to make an informed descision.This is evident when there is a disagreement between the president and the supreme leader .According to Path-Goal Leadership theory,House,R.J(1996)8 ,Iran leadership lacks supportive leadership qualities.There seem to be lack of support from the top leadership.(Supreme Leader).The example in question is the US/IRAN nuclear program talks. This is as a result of the squeezing economic sanctions which the people of Iran are facing. As he approaches his end of term as president,Mahmould seems to be flexible to talk to US over the issue so that the sanctions can be loosened for the good of the people of Iran(Typical of the transformational leader) .This move is not approved by the supreme leader.
The supreme leader somewhat is of Charismatic Leader. Looking at his style of leadership he has a vision for the people of Iran.However,the dark side of this visionary is that he champions his own agenda as well and has held on to critical areas of governance of the country. He believes in himself and not others(difference between the transformational and charismatic leadership).The supreme learder,however,commands trust by the followers built on a solid moral and ethical foundation9.This is idealised influence and disagreeing with such leaders puts a follower in a dilemma and might not win support from other followers. The dilemma of this kind of leadership in Iran is balancing between democracy, theocracy and the religious(Islamic) style of leadership. The Iranian president limited powers offers a dilemma of leadership in various aspects of governance and cannot fully live up to his vision. The supreme leader’s primary interest is to protect his power and ensuring the survival of the Islamic theocracy, which he believes is based on justice,independence,self sufficiency and piety10.

List of References 1. RT News(2013)Ahmadinejad:”I’m ready for direct talks with US if pressure stops ‘Available at:http://rt.com/news/iran-talks-us-ahmadinejad-868/[Accessed on 12 March,2013] 2. Thomas,E(2013).Iran’s top cleric rejects direct talks with the US. Available at: http://www.smh.com.au/world/irans-top-cleric-rejects-direct-talks-with-the-us-20130208-2e31p.html#ixzz2NQkFnR34.[Accessed on 17th February,2013]

3. UNOG(No Date).Membership of the Biological Weapons Convetion.Available at:http://www.unog.ch/__80256ee600585943.nsf/%28httpPages%29/7be6cbbea0477b52c12571860035fd5c?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1%2C3%2C2#_Section1[Accessed on 15 February,2013]

4. Tom.Z.C(2012)CWC Signatories and State-Parties.Available at:http://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/cwcsig[Accessed on 1st March,2013]

5. Signatories to the Treaty on the NPT(2012).Available at:http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Threats_to_Israel/nptsigners.html

6 Saeed .K.D(2013).Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issues challenge to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-ayatollah-ali-khamenei[Accessed on 9th February,2013] 8 Changing Minds(No Date)Path-Goal Theory of Leadership. Available at:http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/styles/path_goal_leadership.htm.[Accessed on 12th March,2013] 9 Transformational Leadership Report(2007)Available at:www.transformationalleadership.net/products/TransformationalleadershipReport.pdf[Accessed 10th February 2013]

10 Karim Sadjadpour(No Date) The Supreme Leader. Available at:www.Iranprimer.usip.org/resource/supreme-leader.[Accessed on 14 March,2013]

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