Let’s agree about nice leaders: A literature review and meta-analysis of agreeableness and its relationship with leadership outcomes

In this study, we draw from 22 years of research in leadership to investigate the ambiguous relationship between the personality trait agreeableness and leadership. First, we conduct a comprehensive review of the leadership literature to build a foundational understanding of leader agreeableness that includes providing a broad definition for agreeableness, identifying emerging trends, and proposing an agenda for future research. Second, using the literature review as our theoretical foundation, we conduct a meta-analysis from the same body of literature to quantitatively decompose the relationship between leader agreeableness and leadership emergence and effectiveness. We also hypothesize and test the contextual moderating effects for gender, leadership level, and cultural context (as reflected by individualism-collectivism). Collectively, our findings provide a framework for future research on leadership agreeableness and support the notion that nice (highly agreeable) leaders can emerge as effective leaders.     

How can research contribute to the implementation of sustainable development goals? An interpretive review of SDG literature in management

Organizations often face challenges in incorporating the sustainable development goals (SDGs) into their strategic agendas. Despite the availability of guidelines from leading practitioners, such guidance often lacks the scientific insights provided by academia. In this study, we examine the integration of scholarly management literature into practical guidelines for achieving the SDGs. To do so, we first examined nine practitioner guidelines offered by well-reputed consulting firms, multilateral organizations and non-profits, from which we identified four underlying general processes: prioritizing SDGs to the most relevant strategic goals of firms, contextualizing the SDGs to firms’ geographical and industrial contexts, collaborating with other organizations and stakeholders to make more impactful progress and innovating via business process remodelling. Using these four processes as an overarching framework, we then conducted an interpretive literature review to mine highly cited sustainable development-related papers in the management field covering an 11-year period (2010–2020). From these studies, we derived novel connections to all four stages to offer a more robust and scientifically informed process-based framework for SDG adoption. We discuss multiple scholarly implications, including the importance of enhancing knowledge about the various phases of the SDG adoption model, developing research on understudied SDGs, and expanding theoretical and methodological approaches to SDG research. Additionally, we provide a more grounded SDG adoption model with significant practical implications.     

An expatriate’s perspective on leadership and leading (a global organization) in India: interview with Matt Barney

Organizations are often confronted with the challenges of developing global leaders who can function effectively in different cultural contexts. The existing scholar-practitioner literature offers limited information regarding evidence-based practices for developing global leaders who are called to exercise effective leadership in different cultures. The interview presented here is an attempt to highlight some of the unique challenges and opportunities senior executives face when they operate in international contexts.     

Are there advantages to seeing leadership the same? A test of the mediating effects of LMX on the relationship between ILT congruence and employees' development

Although there has been an increased interest in implicit leadership theories (ILTs) over the last two decades, only a handful of studies have examined the effects of ILT congruence among leader-follower dyads. Just as important, this research has largely suggested few effects for ILT congruence, focused exclusively on prototype congruence, examined a limited number of potential outcomes, and has failed to examine questions about ILT congruence utilizing the most appropriate statistical approaches. We examine the effects of ILT congruence, with an explicit focus on the possibility that congruence between supervisors and their employees on both prototypes and antiprototypes impacts the LMX developed within their dyads. We predict that LMX, in turn, affects employees' opportunities to engage in developmental activities. Using a sample of 74 matched pairs of supervisors and employees and polynomial regression and response surface methodology, we found that congruence between supervisors' and employees' prototypes positively influenced LMX. We also found limited evidence that LMX explained the effects of this congruence on employees' engagement in developmental activities. Although we found no evidence of antiprototype congruence effects, supervisors who rated antiprototypical traits as characteristic of leaders had lower LMX with their employees.     

Effective Regulation and Support to Economic Growth: Are These Aims Mutually Exclusive in the Regulation of the UK’s Nuclear Industry?

This paper is a reflection on the UK governments’ latest regulatory intervention affecting all non-financial institutions, including the Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR). The intervention forms part of the government’s response to the economic downturn experienced in the UK and requires regulators to take into account not only their responsibilities for maintaining safety, but also the impact of their actions on economic growth. While this may be a valid proposition for some organisations, the paper suggests that the unique characteristics of the nuclear industry should exempt its regulator from these government provisions. The paper identifies existing and historic regulatory and governance weaknesses that would suggest regulatory intervention should be reviewed but not from a need to enhance economic growth. Rather a need exists to redesign the regulatory process so that the industry’s hazards and risks arising are mitigated. An inherent conflict of interest is also identified that compounds historic governance problems where publicly-funded, government-appointed regulators attempt to regulate publicly-funded, government-appointed third-party organisations. While in neoliberal terms this may not be seen as an issue, I examine notable, generic, regulatory incidents where managerial and regulatory action failed to resolve resource allocation issues between the need to improve levels of economic growth or safety.     

‘An opportunity for other men and a threat to other women’: workplace harassment at the intersection of marital status and gender in Sri Lanka

The aim of this exploratory study is to identify the ways divorced women experience workplace harassment at the intersection of marital status and gender in an Asian context, using the theory of intersectionality. Employing qualitative research approach, in-depth interviews with 12 divorced women were carried out. Results indicated the ways in which the participants get caught between ideological norms and beliefs about marriage and women that trigger distinct forms of harassment such as sexual harassment (sexual propositions and unpleasant flirtation), mistreatment (rumour-mongering, unsolicited/derogatory remarks, and ostracization/social exclusion), and discriminatory treatment (denial of promotions and positions as well as dismissal of achievements). Mostly subtle and at times blatant, the interplay of power dynamics, female misogyny, and intra-gender competition arising out of societal structures and deeply entrenched beliefs about women and marriage are seen as the basis for the manifestation of these forms of harassment. These findings advance the understanding of harassment, divorced women, and intersectionality, while also highlighting important implications for Human Resource Development professionals in addressing this grave issue at work.