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    BUS 5411 WA Unit 5

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    Christian Miranda
    This case study analyzes the leadership of Jill Medvedow at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). When she became director in 1998, ICA had low attendance of 25,000 people and an annual budget of under $1 million. Contemporary art also had little popularity in Boston at the time. Medvedow used transformational leadership to transform ICA by motivating her team to achieve her vision of making ICA and contemporary art bigger in Boston. Under her leadership, ICA acquired a new $51 million building, boosted public interest in contemporary art, and significantly increased attendance and finances. Medvedow also employed people-oriented and participative leadership styles when appropriate to engage stakeholders and incorporate diverse input into decisions.

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    BUS 5411 WA Unit 5

    Uploaded by

    Christian Miranda
    652 views5 pages
    This case study analyzes the leadership of Jill Medvedow at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). When she became director in 1998, ICA had low attendance of 25,000 people and an annual budget of under $1 million. Contemporary art also had little popularity in Boston at the time. Medvedow used transformational leadership to transform ICA by motivating her team to achieve her vision of making ICA and contemporary art bigger in Boston. Under her leadership, ICA acquired a new $51 million building, boosted public interest in contemporary art, and significantly increased attendance and finances. Medvedow also employed people-oriented and participative leadership styles when appropriate to engage stakeholders and incorporate diverse input into decisions.

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    This case study analyzes the leadership of Jill Medvedow at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). When she became director in 1998, ICA had low attendance of 25,000 people and an annual budget of under $1 million. Contemporary art also had little popularity in Boston at the time. Medvedow used transformational leadership to transform ICA by motivating her team to achieve her vision of making ICA and contemporary art bigger in Boston. Under her leadership, ICA acquired a new $51 million building, boosted public interest in contemporary art, and significantly increased attendance and finances. Medvedow also employed people-oriented and participative leadership styles when appropriate to engage stakeholders and incorporate diverse input into decisions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    652 views5 pages

    BUS 5411 WA Unit 5

    Uploaded by

    Christian Miranda
    This case study analyzes the leadership of Jill Medvedow at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). When she became director in 1998, ICA had low attendance of 25,000 people and an annual budget of under $1 million. Contemporary art also had little popularity in Boston at the time. Medvedow used transformational leadership to transform ICA by motivating her team to achieve her vision of making ICA and contemporary art bigger in Boston. Under her leadership, ICA acquired a new $51 million building, boosted public interest in contemporary art, and significantly increased attendance and finances. Medvedow also employed people-oriented and participative leadership styles when appropriate to engage stakeholders and incorporate diverse input into decisions.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 5

    Case Study: Leadership and Risk at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art

    University of the People

    May 2021

    Leading In Today’s dynamic contexts (BUS 5411)

    Unit 5

    Instructor: Dr. Jason Fair

    1
    Abstract

    This paper will analyze the leadership success story of Jill Medvedow at Boston’s Institute of

    Contemporary Art (ICA). It will identify her major leadership style as well as other leadership

    styles she used with the relevant situational context.

    Introduction

    The search committee of the ICA selected Jill Medvedow for her attributes of deep intellectual

    understanding in art, admirable personality of being true to herself and her surrounding, her

    passion to make ICA big and relevant, and for being an outsider not to be trapped by old

    statuesque. By the year 1998, when Medvedow assumed the position of Director at ICA, ICA

    used to be small with a yearly attendance of 25,000 and operates with an annual budget of less

    than one million dollar ( Reavis, 2010). Furthermore, contemporary art was not popular in Boston

    at that time because there are no art schools and influential artist communities in order to create

    art. The city administration budget related to art in Boston is also much less than that of other

    states. On the basis of all these factors, it can be concluded that contemporary art has minimal

    growth prospect at the time Medvedow assumed the position of director at ICA.

    Immediately after assuming the position of director at ICA, it became clear Medvedow will not

    align herself to the statuesque. Instead, she intends to defy the odds to make ICA a big significant

    player in the area of contemporary art and raise the popularity of the art in the city of

    Boston. After going through a number of maverick decisions and leading, Medvedow managed to

    transform ICA as per her vision. Under her leadership the ICA managed to own a new $51

    million building at prime location, boost public enthusiasm for contemporary art , and

    significantly increased ICA attendance and its financial standing ( Reavis, 2010).

    2
    Jill Medvedow’s primary leadership style.

    Medvedow managed to effectively use transformational leadership style to transform ICA to the

    position it has never been before. Her personal attributes of being intelligent, true to herself and

    her sounding, and passion for the future helped her to efficiently put into play a transformational

    leadership style to transform ICA Transformational leader is proactive and changes the existing

    organizational culture to implement new ideas so that significant transformation will be achieved

    in the future (Odumeru & Ifeanyi, 2013). Medvedow decision of not limiting herself to the

    existing business volume of contemporary art in Boston and the small size of ICA is a true

    exhibition of transformational leadership. This decision plays a part in motivating and inspiring

    her team to fulfil her vision of making ICA and the business of contemporary art in Boston

    big. Other leadership styles could have envisioned improving ICA's business standing within the existing

    business volume potential in Boston, which will not lead to such transformation.

    Medvedow's decision of relocating ICA at a prime location in Boston's waterfront gave ICA an

    opportunity to be in the spotlight and improved its public image. This decision could not have

    been made without transformational leadership style or mindset. The existing financial standing

    of ICA, as well as business volume for contemporary art in Boston are against the odds.

    Other Leadership styles used by Medvedow

    Even though her primary leadership style is transformational, she has also used other leadership

    styles at different situations. Medvedow's decision to engage in educating the public and

    politicians on the ICA’s plan is a People-oriented leadership style. People-oriented leaders have a

    drive to motivate and develop subordinates and creates a conducive environment (Russell, 2011).

    Using this people-oriented leadership style has helped the stakeholders to have a positive view of

    ICA.

    3
    The other leadership style used by Medvedow was a participative one. Participative leadership

    factors subordinates input in making decisions giving them a sense of belongingness in the

    process (Russell, 2011). Medvedow's decision to put together a number of subordinates as

    a committee to select an architect is a participative style, which resulted in factoring

    multiple diverse inputs, and the same contributed to the success of ICA.

    Conclusion

    Medvedow has effectively employed transformational leadership style to transform ICA from

    what it is 1998. Having the personal attributes for transformational leadership also helped her in

    being effective. She has also employed people-oriented and participative leadership styles in

    different circumstances.

    4
    References

    Odumeru, J. & Ifeanyi, G. (2013). Transformational vs. transactional leadership theories:

    Evidence in literature. Retrieved from: http://www.irmbrjournal.com/papers/1371451049.pdf

    Reavis C. (2010, November 9). Turnaround and Transformation: Leadership and Risk at Boston’s

    Institute of Contemporary Art. Retrieved from

    https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1184328/mod_workshop/instructauthors/BUS%205411%

    20WA5%20Turnaround.pdf

    Russell, E. (2011, Sept 8). Leadership theories and style: A transitional approach. Retrieved from

    https://my.uopeople.edu/pluginfile.php/1184310/mod_book/chapter/273768/U1%20%20Leadersh

    ip%20Styles%20Essay.pdf

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