Words and deeds – Experimental evidence on leading-by-example

The paper studies how leadership recommendations and leading-by-example shape group behavior. The experimental results from an intergroup contest show that the leaders are the key drivers of contest expenditure. They increase their expenditure substantially once they make recommendations to the followers. The leaders' expenditure recommendations have a highly significant impact on the investments of followers. The additional impact of leading by example confirms the relevance of the alignment of words and deeds. A second experiment replicates the treatments in a non-competitive voluntary contribution game. In this setting, the opportunity for making recommendations has an even stronger impact on the leader's expenditure. For a given level of leader expenditure, the behavior of followers remains remarkably consistent across the two experiments but the additional impact of leading by example is not significant anymore.     

Followership,leadership and social influence

Traditional research in leadership has largely relegated followers to the role of passive recipients or, at best, moderators of leader influence and behaviors. However, recent work in the area of followership has begun shifting this focus and emphasizing the possibility that followers actively have an influence over leaders, in particular leader behavior. This paper revisits traditional areas of the leadership literature and builds on the emerging followership literature to reintroduce followers as part of the social context of leaders. In an attempt to build theoretical rationales for how followers influence leader behavior we draw on the social influence (e.g., Social Impact Theory, Latane, 1981) and the power literature to suggest individual (e.g., strength and immediacy of followers) and group level (e.g., number of followers and unity of the group) characteristics that influence leader behaviors as a function of a leader's informational and effect dependence on followers.     

Leader intention,misconduct and damaged relational follower identity: A moral decision making perspective

We demonstrate the value of a moral decision making paradigm for investigating the effects of intention and harm on followers' reactions to leaders' wrongdoing. We also introduce damaged relational identity as a mediator of these effects. Participants were assigned to one of four conditions in which intention to harm and harm were manipulated. The study was conducted using a stochastic, incentivized economic game that involved real monetary consequences for the followers. The results indicated that intention to harm was the primary determinant of followers' withdrawal behavior while actual harm had no effect on withdrawal. A desire to punish the offending leader was influenced by both intention and harm. Damaged relational identity mediated the effect of intention on withdrawal behavior and punishment. In contrast, harm's effect on punishment was direct. We hope that our study stimulates additional research on leader misconduct using intention and identification processes as linchpins.     

The effect of charismatic leaders on followers’ memory,error detection,persuasion and prosocial behavior: A cognitive science approach

Adopting a cognitive and follower-centric approach to charismatic leadership, we hypothesized that followers show lower levels of cognitive effort, reflected in superficial processing of factually correct information when listening to and viewing a charismatic leader. We conducted two experiments, using a 2 (charismatic versus neutral) × 2 (female versus male leader) between-subjects design and videos of trained actors delivering a speech. We examined the effects of leader charisma on (1a) followers’ ability to detect factually false information, (1b) accuracy to remember information from the leader (study 1, N = 100), (2a) the persuasiveness of factual messages, (2b) followers’ prosocial behavior and (2c) the mediating effect of the leader’s persuasiveness on followers’ prosocial behavior (study 2, N = 140). We did not find support for the effect of leader charisma on detecting false information, the persuasiveness of messages, or increased prosocial behavior among followers. We found an effect of leader charisma on memory. Participants recognized fewer messages in the charismatic compared to the neutral leader conditions. Exploratory analyses provided mixed results for an interaction effect of leader charisma and sex on detecting and remembering false information. Our studies offer first insights into the cognitive outcomes of the charismatic signaling process.     

Followers' moral judgments and leaders' integrity-based transgressions: A synthesis of literatures

This paper reviews the state of knowledge about integrity-based transgressions with an emphasis on the leader-follower relationship. Our review highlighted many important contributions of this literature, but, it revealed several limitations that should be addressed within a followership paradigm. We then synthesized the integrity and trust literatures with a targeted review of moral experimental philosophy. Cushman's (2008) dual process model suggests that because followers simultaneously assess leaders' intentions and their causal nexus with negative outcomes, they might judge behavioral and moral integrity transgressions in different ways. Judgments of moral condemnation should primarily be a function of perceived intent while blame and punishment of the leader based on behavior should be jointly affected by cause and intent. This moral assessment is expected to influence followers' trust through its effect on moral identity. A framework is offered for guiding future studies of followers' interpretations of leaders' integrity-based transgressions.     

Does power corrupt the mind? The influence of power on moral reasoning and self-interested behavior

We test whether leaders' power shapes their reasoning about moral issues and whether such moral reasoning subsequently influences leaders' display of self-interested behavior. We use an incentivized experiment to manipulate two components of leader power: power over more versus fewer followers and power to enforce one's will by having discretion over more versus fewer payout options to allocate between oneself and one's followers. We find that having power over more followers decreased leaders' principled moral reasoning, whereas having higher power to enforce one's will enabled leaders to engage in self-interested behavior. We also find suggestive evidence that power over increases self-interested behavior by decreasing principled moral reasoning; the effect of power to was not mediated by moral reasoning. These results illustrate that power activates self-interest within and outside the context in which power is held. They also show that moral reasoning is not a stable cognitive process, but that it might represent an additional path via which power affects self-interested behavior.     

On the leadership function of self-sacrifice

This paper describes the leadership function of self-sacrifice in organizational settings using a multiple-level model of leadership. It explores why self-sacrificial behaviors would arise in organizational settings and what would be the effects on followers if a leader exhibits self-sacrificial behaviors. It is proposed that self-sacrificial leadership will facilitate individual and organizational adaptations to changing environments and that followers will attribute charisma and legitimacy to a self-sacrificial leader and intend to reciprocate.     

The nature of followership: Evolutionary analysis and review

From an evolutionary perspective, followership is puzzling because it is not clear why individuals would relinquish their autonomy and set aside their personal goals to follow those of another individual, the leader. This paper analyzes followership from an evolutionary perspective and advances three main conclusions that are not yet part of the leadership literature. First, followership evolved as a strategy to solve a range of cooperation and coordination problems in groups (e.g., collective movement, peacekeeping). Second, individuals who lack the physical, psychological, or social capital to be leaders themselves are more likely to emerge as followers. Third, followership styles, behaviors, and engagement result from (a) variations in the relative pay-offs that accrue to followers vis-à-vis their leader, (b) the adaptive goals pursued by followers, (c) the adaptive challenges that select for different followership styles, and (d) the prevailing leadership style. Together, these conclusions have several implications for followership theory, research, and practice.     

Economic and social leader–member exchange relationships and follower performance

This exploratory study investigated the link between economic and social leader–member exchange relationships and follower work performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Instead of viewing exchange relationships between leaders and subordinates on a continuum from low to high quality, we conceptualize social and economic exchange relationships as relationships with different qualities, rather than different levels of quality. Data from 552 followers and 78 leaders supported our two-dimensional model of leader–member exchange relationships. Furthermore, an economic leader–member exchange relationship was negatively related to both work performance and organizational citizenship behavior. As expected, positive relationships were obtained for a social leader–member exchange relationship and work performance and organizational citizenship behavior. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Up close and personal: Evidence that shared social identity is a basis for the ‘special’ relationship that binds followers to leaders

The present research extends prior work by proposing that followers' social identification with a group can translate into their relational identification with leaders. Study 1 demonstrates experimentally that compared to low-identified followers, highly identified followers perceive themselves to share relational identity with a leader when that leader is representative of their ingroup (but not if that leader is representative of an outgroup). Followers' relational identification, in turn, influences not only their experience of a personal bond with the leader but also perceptions of leader charisma. Study 2 replicates these findings in the context of Presidential candidates in the 2012 US election and extends them by examining leader prototypicality as a further moderating factor. Findings suggest that followers' experience of a ‘special’ and ‘personal’ bond with leaders arises from their social bond within a group that binds them together and provides a framework for their mutual relationship.     

Acting with the best of intentions… or not: A typology and model of impression management in leadership

Impression management (IM) is important for effective leadership. Followers accept influence from individuals who meet their perceptions of what it means to be a leader, and IM is an important way of impacting those perceptions. Yet, the extant literature on leader IM is fragmented. We unify the literature in this area by creating a multi-dimensional typology and multi-level model of IM in leadership. We examine the multi-dimensional nature of IM as a construct composed of information processing, communicative, and goal-directed components, thereby creating eight IM archetypes. Then, we examine how IM can be used to impact follower perceptions of the leader through the lenses of transformational/charismatic, authentic, and leader categorization theories. This research unites a currently fragmented area of research and sparks new questions about how leader behaviors can be used to influence followers toward multi-level leadership outcomes.     

Identity economics meets identity leadership: Exploring the consequences of elevated CEO pay

Economists have recently proposed a theory of identity economics in which behavior is understood to be shaped by motivations associated with identities that people share with others. At the same time psychologists have proposed a theory of identity leadership in which leaders' influence flows from their creation and promotion of shared identity with followers. Exploring links between these approaches, we examine the impact of very high leader pay on followers' identification with leaders and perceptions of their leadership. Whereas traditional approaches suggest that high pay incentivizes leadership, identity-based approaches argue that it can undermine shared identity between leaders and followers and therefore be counterproductive. Supporting this identity approach, two studies provide experimental and field evidence that people identify less strongly with a CEO who receives high pay relative to other CEOs and that this reduces that leader's perceived identity leadership and charisma. The implications for leadership, economics, and organizations are discussed.     

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS POLICY,COMPETITION AND INNOVATION

To what extent and in what form should the intellectual property rights (IPR) of innovators be protected? Should a company with a large technology lead over its rivals receive the same IPR protection as a company with a more limited advantage? In this paper, we develop a dynamic framework for the study of the interactions between IPR and competition, in particular to understand the impact of such policies on future incentives. The economy consists of many industries and firms engaged in cumulative (step‐by‐step) innovation. IPR policy regulates whether followers in an industry can copy the technology of the leader. We prove the existence of a steady‐state equilibrium and characterize some of its properties. We then quantitatively investigate the implications of different types of IPR policy on the equilibrium growth rate and welfare. The most important result from this exercise is that full patent protection is not optimal; instead, optimal policy involves state‐dependent IPR protection, providing greater protection to technology leaders that are further ahead than those that are close to their followers. This is because of a trickle‐down effect: providing greater protection to firms that are further ahead of their followers than a certain threshold increases the R&D incentives also for all technology leaders that are less advanced than this threshold.     

RITUALS OR GOOD WORKS: SOCIAL SIGNALING IN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS

We develop a model of social signaling of religiosity and cooperative behavior in religious organizations. The model embeds a ritual‐based religious organization in which signaling arises through the use of costly rituals, and a discipline‐based religious organization in which such signaling occurs through the monitoring of past behavior. We use this framework to contrast—positively and normatively—these two forms of social signaling. We show that ritual‐based religions, while using a costly and wasteful signal, also imply a higher level of coordination of behavior in social interactions and a higher incidence of mutual cooperation. Our welfare analysis suggests that communities are more likely to support a switch to a discipline‐based religion if strategic complementarities are high, and if there is sufficiently high level of public information about social behavior. This accords with the success of Calvin's Reformation in Switzerland and France, a process characterized by the reduction of rituals along with the creation of institutions to monitor and publicize individuals' behavior, such as the Consistory.     

Leaders as change executors: The impact of leader attitudes to change and change-specific support on followers

Organizational change research has long regarded leaders as instrumental for the successful implementation of change. Leaders, however, are not always initiating change but rather executing it. In those cases, leaders may hold negative attitudes with regards to the change content or even resist change implementation while also being less effective in supporting their followers. This study tests whether, and to what extent, leader attitudes alongside leader change-specific support impact follower resistance to change. Using survey data from school principals and teachers in the public education sector in Germany, findings from multilevel linear regression show that leader resistance is positively related to follower resistance while leader attitudes to change content are unrelated to follower resistance. Leader change-specific support strengthens the relationship between follower attitudes towards change content and their resistance to change. Thus, this study raises awareness of the negative impact leaders can have on their followers when they are executors rather than initiators of change.     

Effective leadership and the allocation and exercise of power in organizations

We experimentally investigate whether delegation can be an effective leadership behavior to motivate followers. In particular, we study how the allocation and exercise of power – the right to choose projects – by leaders affects the subsequent implementation of the chosen projects by followers. To isolate the pure motivational effect of delegation, we focus on whether the amount of effort that followers exert to implement the exact same project depends on who has chosen the project and on what information was available when making the project choice. We find that followers implement projects efficiently if they have chosen them themselves, but reduce implementation effort if the same projects are imposed on them by leaders. But this motivational effect of delegation is persistent if and only if followers must implement projects that they themselves would not have chosen.     

The impact of leader communication on free-riding: An incentivized experiment with empowering and directive styles

Organizations often appoint leaders to foster cooperation. This paper studies the effect of leader communication on free-riding behavior using controlled and incentivized experiments. Leaders are asked to choose public messages from a set that induces a particular leadership style and to send them to subjects matched in groups to play a repeated, finite-horizon public good game. Using a between-subjects design, empowering and directive message sets are studied. Treatments are implemented with and without opportunities for two-way leader follower communication to study the impact of free-form communication. In the absence of opportunities for two-way leader follower communication, leaders assigned to the empowering messages treatment are more effective in mitigating free-riding than leaders assigned to the directive messages treatment. In its presence, contributions in both treatments are higher. The design allows for the study of a more interactive form of directive leadership by combining directive public messages with two-way leader follower communication.     

电子商务市场特征对产品创新影响的实证研究

根据电子商务价值理论,电子商务企业进行产品创新能有效提升或创造客户价值,但电子商务市场环境因素可能会影响电子商务企业的产品创新,而已有关于产品创新的研究大多聚焦于传统市场。依据电子商务客户价值、从众行为、多重创新、组织学习和信息过载等理论,以电子商务市场的两个主要特征市场信息和竞争强度为前导变量,构建它们对于电子商务企业产品创新倾向和电子商务企业绩效的影响模型,并提出变量间关系假设。通过收集中国最大B2C平台天猫商城内309家电子商务企业的数据,应用多元回归分析方法实证检验电子商务市场特征对产品创新的影响。研究结果表明,电子商务企业产品创新正向影响企业绩效;市场信息促进电子商务企业产品创新,但其效用受竞争强度的反向调节;竞争强度显著加强电子商务企业的产品创新倾向且不会影响企业创新绩效,因为在当前电子商务发展阶段和电子商务市场特性的作用下,产品创新能获得熊彼得租金,主导产品创新的是竞争脱离效应而非熊彼得效应。本研究结论对电子商务企业实践具有一定的指导意义。     

To whom does transformational leadership matter more? An examination of neurotic and introverted followers and their organizational citizenship behavior

Despite the massive amount of transformational leadership research, the role of followers has not been well-examined in the transformational leadership literature. To understand how leader–follower interactions influence follower organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), we examined the cross-level interactions between transformational leadership and two follower personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion). Using a sample of 215 leaders and 1284 followers, results showed that follower neuroticism moderated the relationships between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior directed toward other individuals (OCB-I) and toward the organization (OCB-O), such that relationships were stronger for those high in neuroticism. Further, follower extraversion moderated the relationships between transformational leadership and OCB-I and OCB-O, such that relationships were stronger for those low in extraversion. Therefore, the inspirational and developmental nature of transformational leaders can offset follower neuroticism and introversion and guide these employees to perform more OCB despite their tendencies to worry, lack confidence, and be shy and withdrawn.     

When do leaders sacrifice?: The effects of sense of power and belongingness on leader self-sacrifice

Past research on leader self-sacrifice has focused entirely on the effects of this leader behavior on followers and its implications for organizations. The present research focused on antecedents of leader self-sacrifice. We argued that self-sacrifice is positively influenced by leaders' sense of belongingness to the group they supervise. Furthermore, leaders' subjectively sensed power can serve as a moderator of this effect. We expected this because a high sense of power is known to facilitate goal pursuit. Given that organizational goals often prescribe serving the interests of the organization, leaders' sense of belongingness should promote self-sacrifice particularly among leaders low in subjective power; leaders high in subjective power should display self-sacrifice regardless of their sense of belongingness. Two field studies supported these predictions. A final experiment supported a critical assumption underlying our argument in showing that the sense of power × sense of belongingness interaction is restricted to situations that prescribe cooperative goals. When situations prescribe competitive goals, this interaction was absent.