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Introduction
Leadership means nothing without context. Historically, leadership has meant those in positions of power, like a King or a Czar. In modern times, leaders have a much more “everyday” usage. Those we work with are leaders, our peers at school can be our leaders, and a friend can be a leader. In a contemporary organization, the context of leadership is extremely vital to how a leader will complete his/her tasks. Here, I will expand on these important ideas of context, whether the context is time period, environment, culture, or characteristics of the leader and the follower.

Information Renaissance
In Jay Gillette’s paper, “Leadership for the Information Renaissance: Clarity, Challenges, Opportunity,” he compares the Information Renaissance of today to the European Renaissance in Italy from 1400 - 1600. Gillette argues that for a person to be a good leader in today’s Information Renaissance, one needs to be a “Renaissance Man,” or someone who has knowledge on many different subjects.

“Renaissance times are paradoxical times, characterized by encouraging positives and distressing negatives.”(Gillette, 5) This is true with any time in history. However, it seems that in Renaissance times the positives are much more positive and the negatives are especially awful. As Gillette says, a renaissance is a time of great innovation, exploration, and discovery. Yet, because of this flourish in knowledge, the traditions, or “old paradigms,” fight back against the new ways. Change is an especially scary prospect to the masses. The only way to get those masses on board with the changing times and new innovation is with effective leadership. Gillette points this out by stating, “Leadership in people and organizations, and finally in societies and the global community, will help us understand, and succeed and prosper in these paradoxical times.”(Gillette, 6)

Renaissance, as discussed before, is a time of innovation and discovery. This is because a wealth of information is flowing between people. Communication is at the heart of a Renaissance. People begin sharing their ideas and knowledge with others and those others form their own ideas and expand on it to create. As Gillette points out, “Information really ‘happens’ when it happens to you or to other people. Information has power in so far as it changes minds.” Gillette expands that idea, noting, “When ideas take shape, and people act on them, information changes people, organizations, and history.”(Gillette, 11) Information has no power unless it is utilized effectively.

Dealing with Information
Gillette outlines how we deal with information in a table titled “The Practice of Information Networking.” I will reproduce it here for easier discussion.

Copyright Jay Edwin Gillette

All people process information in basically the same way. Ideas must be accessed, then filtered, then stored, retrieved and then, finally, utilized. It may happen very quickly or we may pull out some information that has been locked away for some time. The important thing is that humans process bits of information very efficiently, whether we are aware of it or not. Gillette refers to this process of information processing as an “information value-chain.” (Gillette, 13)

In my opinion, there are two vital steps to processing information: filtering and using. A person cannot skip either one of these steps if they are to efficiently and effectively process any bit of information. Filtering causes the person to prioritize the bit of information in a line-up of other pieces of information. If it is very important or a new, exciting idea, it will probably go to the front of the brain for immediate usage. If it is something small and seemingly insignificant, it may go straight into storage for later usage. Using information, as I have just discussed, is highly important because it is applying what we know to a situation. Using information effectively would require adding value.

The Context of Leadership
In the essay, “The Historical and Contemporary Contexts of Leadership: A Conceptual Model,” J. Thomas Wren and Marc J. Swatez describe leadership in terms of context: when and how leadership is developed and discussed. The Conceptual Model “portrays leadership as the interaction of leaders and followers within a sequence of overlapping contextual categories, represented by a series of concentric circles.”(Wren, 247)

The Historical Context of Leadership
Historically, the context of leadership has had much to do with long-term social, economic and political forces. As an example, America has historically had many upheavals dealing with these three domains. Around the time of the American Revolution, “a century of population pressure on the surrounding hinterland had filled Boston with a “rabble” of extremely poor, unemployed, and restive inhabitants.” (Wren, 248) This is a social and economic problem. America’s people were poor and unhappy because they are poor. They were unhappy with the leadership of the time (from the British) and were looking for something new, exciting, and positive. The people were ripe for rebellion and were swayed very easily by charismatic agitators.

The Contemporary Context of Leadership
In contemporary times, the context of leadership has been defined by social values, cultural mores, and sub-cultural norms. In modern times, there is much less to do with rebellion and revolution and much more to do with what the values of the people are. Effective leaders speak to their followers’ culture and values of that culture. An example that the authors use is the 1990s move to lead the growing middle class of America. Political leaders spoke almost directly to the middle class and their fears about their future.

The Immediate Context of Leadership
The immediate context of leadership deals with structure and goals, culture and task characteristics. Wren notes that this circle of leadership is the most familiar because it deals with “all those more ‘micro’ situational factors which have such an impact upon leadership.” (Wren, 250) “When [these factors are] combined with the idiosyncrasies of the leader and followers” (Wren, 250) determine how a leader will go about doing their work.

All of these contexts flow around the structure of how leaders and their followers interact. These factors also determine how leaders lead. The conceptual model is designed to bring awareness to “several contextual factors which are often overlooked in efforts to analyze and diagnose the possibilities and constraints of any leadership scenario.” (Wren, 251) It is vital to recognize all of these contexts to really understand how leaders are able to lead and what they have to take into consideration when dealing with followers. The effectiveness of a leader also depends on how well he/she can analyze and utilize all of this information.

Leadership & Large Organizations
In the essay “Leadership in Large-Scale Organized Systems,” John W. Gardner points out that leaders throughout history have had to work with intricate organized systems. “The first thing that strikes one as characteristic of contemporary leadership is the necessity for the leader to work with and through extremely complex organizations and institutions…”(Gardner, 298)

Bureaucracy lent itself well to large organizations, dividing up labor and allowing for specialization of certain functions. However, this bureaucracy makes it hard for leaders that exist to really take charge of an organization and lead it anywhere. As Jay Gillette noted in his paper, “Leadership for the Information Renaissance,” “the approach of the industrial model…is both inflexible and insulting when it comes to a human workforce.”(Gillette, 8) The industrial model of a central brain giving zombie workers orders cannot work in today’s large scale organizations. But bureaucracy, feeding mountains of papers up a chain of command just to approve a business lunch, is just as outdated. Gardner argues that “there are ways of breaking [large scale systems] up into smaller subsystems” to ultimately make them more “flexible and adaptive.” (Gardner, 299)

Gardner says that large-scale organizations can leave the individual worker feeling anonymous and “without a sense of their relationship to the whole.” Good leaders, even in a large-scale organization, can bypass these feelings by encouraging communication and creativity. As Gardner says, “[Leaders] pay attention to people. They eliminate conditions that suppress individuality.” (Gardner, 300) This communication is sometimes called “informal organization.” This is how the bulk of the communicating in an organization is done; People talking to one another in a casual or informal way, instead of through formal memos, faxes, emails or meetings. Gardner notes that “the informal networks can serve the purposes of leaders shrewd enough to use them.” (Gardner, 301)

In large-scale organized systems, Gardner says, “the turf syndrome” is bound to rear its ugly head. “Rivalry and conflict develop, and effective internal communication is diminished.” (Gardner, 301) Rivalry practically eliminates creativity and adaptation in an organization. Effective leadership is really needed in these cases to try to remove the “turf syndrome” and rivalry between coworkers. Gardner suggests that “effective leaders tear down rigid internal walls and bureaucratic enclaves, counter segmental loyalties through the creation of working groups that cut across boundaries, and foster informal exchange throughout the organization.” (Gardner, 301) This is especially important in large organizations where bureaucracy is the way of the world.

Conclusion
In conclusion, it is vital to note the context of leadership. It determines everything about how a leader leads. If a leader is to effectively lead in a bureaucracy, that leader needs to know the characteristics of that particular bureaucracy. If a leader is to lead a revolution, that leader needs to be aware of the economic, social and political forces he/she is up against. Finally, if a leader is to lead in this “Information Renaissance,” like we are currently experiencing, it is important for that leader to know how his/her followers process information and how to effectively communicate.
 
Sources
Wren, Thomas J. and Marc J. Swatez. "The Historical and Contemporary Contexts of Leadership: A Contemporary Model." The Leader’s Companion. J. Thomas Wren. New York, New York: Free Press, 1995. Pgs.247 - 252.

Gardner, John. "Leadership in Large-Scale Organized Systems." The Leader’s Companion. J. Thomas Wren. New York, New York: Free Press, 1995. Pgs. 297 - 302.

Gillette, Jay Edwin. “Leadership for the Information Renaissance: Clarity, Challenges, Opportunity.” Center for Information and Communication Sciences, December 2006.