Qualitative and historiometric methods in leadership research: A review of the first 25 years of The Leadership Quarterly

In the spirit of the 25th anniversary edition of The Leadership Quarterly, as the world's premier outlet for leadership research, we have reviewed qualitative and historiometric research across those 25 years. Qualitative research is a complex and cluttered area of scholarship. This is not because there is an inherent confusion about it. Rather, it is because ‘qualitative’ research is a cover-all term for a wide range of research strategies, paradigms, parent disciplines, sources of data, and methods of analysis for them. More so than in previous journal review articles, we explored variation in qualitative analysis as well as variety in qualitative data. In terms of methodologies, our efforts concentrated on case study, content analysis, grounded theory and historiometrics. We also examined trends toward post-positivism, post-modernity and liquid modernity, and their resultant benefits for researching leadership. Future directions for leadership research are posited.     

Leadership across levels: Levels of leaders and their levels of impact

This article assesses 25 years of empirical leadership research in 11 top journals with the goal of understanding current practice and future needs for drawing solid conclusions about leadership at different hierarchical levels of the organization, as well as leadership’s effects on individuals, teams, units and organizations. We summarize the hierarchical level of leader and outcome level of analysis studied in different theoretical perspectives on leadership (traits, behavioral, transformational, LMX, strategic, shared) and by journal outlet. Among our findings, we observe that significantly less attention has been devoted to team- and unit-level emergent processes and outcomes, despite its conceptual relevance for leadership theory and practice. Four critical opportunities for advancing leadership science are presented.     

Stories from the circle: Leadership lessons learned from aboriginal leaders

While much has been written about leadership, very little research has examined North American Aboriginal leadership. Drawing upon a qualitative methodology, our findings suggest several differences in how Aboriginal leaders view leadership; compared to non-Aboriginals or mainstream approaches to leadership. We found that Aboriginals view leadership as a spiritual endeavor that is holistic and egalitarian in nature. Aboriginal leaders use a more indirect style of communication that frequently invokes traditional imagery, story-telling and animal-based metaphors. Aboriginal leaders also draw from the Medicine Wheel as a guide. In conclusion, we discuss several challenges shared by Aboriginal leaders including the tall poppy syndrome and walking in two worlds and accordingly, offer managerial implications of our findings.     

Collectivistic leadership and George C. Marshall: A historiometric analysis of career events

Many of the prevailing approaches to understanding leadership assume that leadership operates as an individual-level phenomenon, in which one person takes on the role of a leader. However, a number of recently developed leadership models now describe leadership as a shared process. These collectivistic theories present leadership as a dynamic process in which a leader may selectively utilize the skills of followers and distribute elements of the leadership role among these followers as the situation demands. In this study, we conduct an investigation into the viability of core elements of the collectivistic theories through a historiometric analysis of events from the career of a notable leader, George C. Marshall. One hundred and two events from Marshall's career were identified from historical biographies and were then content coded and analyzed with regard to the components of a collectivistic leadership model. The results of this historiometric analysis indicated that there are key antecedents to collectivistic leadership and that the use of this form of leadership can result in positive team outcomes.     

Leadership in collaboration: A longitudinal study of two interorganizational rule-making groups

Two problem-solving groups were followed for a year to explore how leadership behaviors influenced members developing shared frameworks as they created regulatory solutions to air pollution. The study suggests that leadership behaviors are best thought of as a gestalt among several individuals. The most influential behaviors on shifting frameworks were: (1) those that illuminated and surfaced people's assumptions and thoughts, (2) those that created new possibilities and alternatives, and (3) those that initiated collective actions.     

Leadership development:: A review in context

Interest in leadership development is strong, especially among practitioners. Nonetheless, there is conceptual confusion regarding distinctions between leader and leadership development, as well as disconnection between the practice of leadership development and its scientific foundation. The present review examines the field of leadership development through three contextual lenses: (1) understanding the difference between leader development and leadership development (conceptual context); (2) reviewing how state-of-the-art development is being conducted in the context of ongoing organizational work (practice context); and (3) summarizing previous research that has implications for leadership development (research context). The overall purpose is to bridge the practice and science of leadership development by showing the importance of building both human and social capital in organizations. Specific practices that are reviewed include 360-degree feedback and executive coaching, mentoring and networking, and job assignments and action learning. Practices and research are framed in terms of a general need to link leader development, which is primarily based on enhancing human capital, with leadership development that emphasizes the creation of social capital in organizations.     

Accounting for the formation of scientific fields in organization studies

There are few qualitative organizational accounts that explore the constitution of scientific fields in management. We developed a methodology for understanding the academic modes of scientific knowledge production in management research from the perspective of the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) and actor-network theory (ANT). SSK and ANT offer a way to account for how scientific fields in organization studies are enacted. Key to this process are splitting and inversion of statements; credibility and network formation; and the concepts of credit, trajectory, and position. Specific statements making key knowledge claims (e.g., handbooks, special editions) are situated in academic practices that obscure those rhetorical strategies that enable the production of a network of knowledge that can act, organizationally, as a more or less unified sub-field. We take as a starting point a collection of texts, dated 2011, which sought to systematize the main currents of a disciplinary sub-field during the last decade, focusing on how statements are transformed into scientific certainty and how the question of credibility is established. The sub-field is that of organizational learning (OL). The particular language of OL relies on approaches that make its epistemic assumptions intelligible within a network. It is a language that tends to reify and naturalize specific practices that become accredited as organization learning. The material/textual artifacts that sustain these practices, instead of being reified, can be reframed as enacting a scientific field whose resignification acts upon the network that enabled its existence.     

Examining the effects of trust in leaders: A bases-and-foci approach

Little empirical research has explored the implications of different bases and foci of trust in leadership within the same study. To rectify this substantive void in the trust literature, we conceptualized variants of employee trust in organizational leadership in terms of two bases (cognitive and affective) and two foci (management and supervisor). Using this dual perspective, we examined the effects of trust in leaders on two work-related attitudes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction) and two work-related behaviors (in-role behavior, extra-role behavior). Using data collected from 210 employees and their supervisors, we found that the four variants of trust in organizational leadership were distinguishable, and had differential effects on employee outcomes. Affective trust in supervisor was a significant predictor of in-role and extra-role behaviors. Affective trust in management and affective trust in supervisor explained variance in affective organizational commitment. Cognitive trust in management and affective trust in supervisor explained variance in job satisfaction.     

When leaders victimize: The role of charismatic leaders in facilitating group pressures

We present a conceptual model exploring the process by which employees seek out and process information from their social context in response to victimizing behaviors from their leader. In particular, we explore how charismatic leaders with personalized values can facilitate group processes whereby group members pressure the target into conforming. Followers of charismatic leaders have been found to ingratiate themselves with, and revere, their leader. This creates the potential for followers to prematurely comply with destructive behaviors from their leader. Research on social influence is drawn upon to theorize how targets who experience confusion about victimizing behaviors can become particularly susceptible to group pressures to conform. Through our theoretical model, we advance theory on the potential dark side of charismatic leadership, specifically how personalized charismatic leaders may trigger negative consequences for the target, group, and organization. We conclude with theoretical and practical implications and propose avenues for future research.     

机会型领导、幻觉型领导:两个中国本土领导研究的关键构念

简要梳理了英语世界针对领导的"反思-批判性"研究,结合现实经验和理论思考,提出一个由"文化、社会化、组织情境和互动"4个维度构成的中国本土领导分析框架,并围绕"领导与组织成员的互动"归纳了4种领导类型。一方面,"机会型领导"和"幻觉型领导"是有效解释中国组织领导现象的关键构念;另一方面,期望中国本土的领导研究更多从"社会干预"的角度,积极反思文化资源、社会化过程及组织互动,唤醒领导者、组织成员个体的"责任意识",以规避并扼制"机会型领导、幻觉型领导"在社会组织实践中泛滥。     

领导力共享、垂直领导力与团队创造力：双视角研究

随着组织环境日益多变,越来越多的学者关注水平的领导力共享,即团队成员为了实现集体目标而相互影响、相互领导的一种主动的团队过程。基于过程视角和投入视角提出两个竞争模型,探讨领导力共享和授权型领导对团队创造力的作用。以安徽和湖北的14家企业92个部门共339名员工为样本,采用SPSS层级回归、相关分析和验证性因子分析等方法进行统计检验。研究结果表明,在过程视角下,领导力共享在授权型领导与团队创造力之间起中介作用;在投入视角下,领导力共享与授权型领导的交互作用负向影响团队创造力,领导力共享水平越高,授权型领导对团队创造力的作用越弱。研究结果为探讨领导力共享提供了新的研究视角,并对指导企业进行团队管理和创新管理有重要的实践意义。     

The role of self-regulation in developing leaders: A longitudinal field experiment

A longitudinal field experiment examined a leader self-regulation intervention in teams engaged in a Business Strategy Module (BSM) of a University course. The BSM, which is an integral part of the degree programme, involved teams of four or five individuals, under the direction of a leader, working on a (simulated) car manufacturing task over a period of 24 weeks. Various aspects of team performance contributed towards module assessment. All leaders received multi-source feedback of leader task-relevant capabilities (from the leader, followers and module tutor). Leaders were randomly allocated into a self-regulation intervention (15 leaders, 46 followers) or control (25 leaders, 109 followers) conditions. The intervention, which was run by an independent coach, was designed to improve leaders' use of self-regulatory processes to aid the development of task-relevant leadership competencies. Survey data was collected from the leaders and followers (on three occasions: pre- and two post-test intervention), team financial performance (three occasions: post-test) and a final team report (post-test). The leader self-regulation intervention led to increased followers' ratings of leader's effectiveness, higher team financial performance and higher final team grade compared to the control (non-intervention) condition. Furthermore, the benefits of the self-regulation intervention were mediated by leaders' attaining task-relevant competencies.     

Leadership and stress: A meta-analytic review

Stress has been implicated as an important determinant of leadership functioning. Conversely, the behavior of leaders has long been argued to be a major factor in determining the stress levels of followers. Yet despite the widespread acknowledgement that stress and leadership are linked, there has been no systematic attempt to organize and summarize these literatures. In the present, we meta-analytically review the relationship between three leadership constructs (transformational leadership, leader-member exchange, and abusive supervision) and stress and burnout. Our analyses confirm that leader stress influences leader behavior and that leadership behaviors and leader-follower relationships are significant determinants of stress and burnout in subordinates. We build on these results to suggest new avenues for research in this domain as well as discussing how these results can inform practice with regards to leader development.     

The role of affect and affective congruence in perceptions of leaders: an experimental study

Based on the idea that emotional exchanges determine symbolic meanings in interpersonal exchanges, we hypothesized that displays of positive and congruent affect determine members' ratings of leaders in a simulated performance appraisal context. To test the hypotheses, 537 participants viewed videotapes of four male and female leaders giving positive and negative feedback, and with facial expressions of affect that were either congruent or incongruent with the verbal message that they were delivering. Results supported hypotheses that positive and message-congruent leader affect results in more positive member ratings of the leader, assessed using a seven-item measure of members' perceptions of the leader's negotiating latitude. The least positive ratings of negotiating latitude were given when positive feedback was delivered with negative facial affect.     

魅力领导:现代领导新风尚

新一届中央领导集体之所以令亿万民众印象深刻,除工作作风亲民务实以外,还与他们独具特色的个人魅力有关。在地方各级领导干部中,这种颇具魅力的干部也有不少。北京市市长王岐山、江苏省委书记李源潮、呼和浩特市已故市委书记牛玉儒等,他们在群众中、社会上都具有广泛的亲和力和影响力。观察他们的行为,我们可以发现一个共同的特征,就是他们都十分注重利用自身的魅力因素去影响和吸引群众。对这种领导行为,我们称之为魅力领导。那么,什么是魅力领导,魅力领导与传统领导的区别在哪里,魅力领导在现代领导中的作用有哪些呢?一、魅力领导是一种…     

美德的有效领导:基于儒家视角的政治领导力分析

结合了儒家伦理学和亚里士多德伦理学的观点,提出了道德作为个人能力的理论。根据这一重要见解,以及《论语》中智、仁、勇三大道德能力的发展和实现,进一步提出关于领导力(特别是政治领导力)的理论。赞同儒家学说在人类的感觉、思想、意志等深度结构中的见解,从而实现智、仁、勇(智慧、关怀、勇气)的道德能力,并解释了这3项道德能力是如何三者合一以保证高效的政治领导力,同时展示了这一政治领导力的模型将如何在社会的3个阶层,即社区、商界和政界发挥效力。在评论Governance Principles of Caux Table的时候,从"智"、"仁"、"勇"三者合一的角度提出一个建议,以此呈现所论述方法的意义和价值。     

新兴经济体迎来“成人礼”

有金砖国家学者提出，随着金砖五国峰会逐步制度化，B5对G7（七国集团）的格局正在形成。     

The role of organizational leaders in employee emotion management: A theoretical model

The actions of organizational leaders are important determinants of the emergence, management, and consequences of employee emotional experience. However, the nature and dimensionality of leader emotion management and the behaviors that constitute such management are largely unknown. The authors present a comprehensive, theoretically-derived model of leader emotion management which clarifies the nature of emotion management and its role in leadership. This model also delineates the knowledge and skill-based antecedents of emotion management and the consequences of such management. Specifically, we propose linkages between particular KSAOs and specific emotion management dimensions and between those dimensions and particular individual and organizational outcomes. The model is meant to serve as a framework to guide empirical efforts in investigating the nature and correlates of leader emotion management.     

基于中国公司情境的和谐管理领导力研究

在回顾有关领导理论研究的基础上,提出了和谐管理领导力应具备3种特征:组织影响力、内在控制点的个性特征和管理技能.同时,发展了相应的测度和研究量表,通过对中国公司样本的研究,对比了环境、组织、战略与领导4个要素对组织绩效的影响效果,用实证结论支持了和谐管理领导力的观点,即在中国公司情境下,与环境、组织和战略因素相比,领导扮演着更为重要的角色并发挥关键作用.