Leaders' relational self-concept and followers' task performance: Implications for mentoring provided to followers

Using a sample of 137 leader–follower dyads, this study investigated how leaders' relational self-concept relates to the mentoring (career support and psychosocial support) they provide to their followers, and whether followers' task performance moderates this relationship. As expected, leaders with a stronger relational self-concept provided more career support to followers who displayed higher (vs. lower) task performance. However, leaders' relational self-concept was unrelated to their provision of psychosocial support, irrespective of followers' task performance.     

Leadership and expectations: Pygmalion effects and other self-fulfilling prophecies in organizations

The Pygmalion effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising manager expectations regarding subordinate performance boosts subordinate performance. Managers who are led to expect more of their subordinates lead them to greater achievement. Programmatic research findings from field experiments are reviewed, and our present knowledge about the Pygmalion effect in the management of industrial, sales, and military organizations is summarized. A model is presented in which leadership is hypothesized to be the key mediator through which manager expectations influence subordinate self-efficacy, performance expectations, motivation, effort, and performance. The behaviors that comprise the Pygmalion Leadership Style are described. Besides creating the one-on-one Pygmalion effect, additional ways for managers to assert their leadership by creating productive organizationwide SFP are suggested. An agenda for research on SFP applications is proposed.     

Autocratic leaders and authoritarian followers revisited: A review and agenda for the future

Despite a long history within the field of leadership, the subject of authoritarianism and how it influences leadership and leadership processes has been neglected in recent decades. However, recent global events make it clear that a better understanding of authoritarianism is needed and that leadership researchers would benefit from a renewed interest in studying why followers embrace autocratic leaders. The nature of authoritarian character, how authoritarian values develop, and how it is measured will be discussed. We will also review autocratic leadership, the factors that make it more likely, its consequences for followers, and the moderators of its effects. A future research agenda for the study of authoritarian character and autocratic leadership will be provided.     

Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization

Despite widespread adoption of servant leadership, we are only beginning to understand its true utility across multiple organizational levels. Our purpose was to test the relationship between personality, servant leadership, and critical follower and organizational outcomes. Using a social influence framework, we proposed that leader agreeableness and extraversion affect follower perceptions of servant leadership. In turn, servant leaders ignite a cycle of service by role-modeling servant behavior that is then mirrored through coworker helping behavior and high-quality customer service, as well as reciprocated through decreased withdrawal. Using a multilevel, multi-source model, we surveyed 224 stores of a U.S. retail organization, including 425 followers, 110 store managers, and 40 regional managers. Leader agreeableness was positively and extraversion was negatively related to servant leadership, which was associated with decreased follower turnover intentions and disengagement. At the group-level, service climate mediated the effects of servant leadership on follower turnover intentions, helping and sales behavior.     

Merger-specific trust cues in the development of trust in new supervisors during an organizational merger: A naturally occurring quasi-experiment

Organizational mergers and subsequent restructurings often create situations in which employees are assigned a new supervisor and they start to form a new relationship. In this study, we investigated how the development of trust in a new supervisor is affected by trust cues specific to the merger context. We conducted a quasi-experiment using three-wave longitudinal data to follow the development of trust throughout two years. About half of the participants were assigned a new supervisor between pre-merger (Time 1) and first post-merger (Time 2) measurement time points, while the remaining participants continued to work with the same supervisor. Results showed that new supervisor's outgroup membership prior to the merger was negatively related, while favorable outgroup attitudes and perceptions of top management reliability were positively related to the development of trust. These cues were important especially in the early phase of the relationship but their relative importance decreased over time.     

The susceptible circle: A taxonomy of followers associated with destructive leadership

While leadership scholars increasingly acknowledge the influence of followers in the leadership process, less attention has been paid to their role in the destructive leadership process. Specifically, the current debate lacks a broad-based understanding of different susceptible follower types that synthesizes related research across academic domains. Expanding on Padilla, Hogan, and Kaiser's (2007) toxic triangle model of destructive leadership, we integrate research and theory across various academic literatures to derive a cohesive taxonomy of vulnerable followers that we call the susceptible circle. We describe the core characteristics of each follower type, drawing on Barbuto's (2000) theory of follower compliance to highlight the psychological processes that motivate each follower to comply with destructive leaders. We then conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications, as well as avenues for future research.     

The study of followers in leadership research: A systematic and critical review

Despite the significant amount of existing research examining the relationship of follower-related factors with leadership outcomes, there is no systematic, critical review that integrates and helps leadership scholars make sense of this rapidly growing body of research. To address this gap in the literature, we first briefly discuss the leading perspectives explaining the role of followers in leadership. Next, we identify and discuss the most frequently studied theoretical narratives explaining the relationship between follower-related predictors and leadership outcomes. Because theoretical arguments generally make causal claims, we identify and examine how methodological concerns including power analysis, multicollinearity, and endogeneity might prevent researchers from supporting those claims. We further explore how these concerns, when relevant and unaddressed, might affect the reported effect sizes. We provide recommendations to help meaningfully structure the field and seed conversations for theoretical and methodological advancements in research on the role of followers in leadership.     

Focusing on followers: The role of regulatory focus and possible selves in visionary leadership

Vision communication is considered to be essential for leaders to mobilize followers, but knowledge of how and why vision communication may influence followers is scarce. We argue that visions may invite followers to create an ideal self (a desired image of the self). Subsequent consideration of this ideal self may motivate followers to make the ideal self (and thus the vision) reality. Furthermore, we propose that visions that focus on followers (by addressing followers personally and involving them in the vision) are more likely to lead to the creation of an ideal self and hence to higher follower performance than visions that do not focus on followers. Moreover, we argue that this effect is particularly strong for followers with a promotion self-regulatory focus, a focus on reaching ideals and ideal selves, because promotion focus causes sensitivity to the presence or absence of ideals (Higgins, 1987, 1996, 1997). The results of two experiments support our predictions.     

分类提名:规范领导名权的一种制度设计

党的十七大报告提出,要"规范干部任用提名制度".提名,广义上既包括上级领导班子及其成员提出下级机关领导人选的活动,也包括一定范围内的干部群众推荐同级或上级领导机关人选的活动.     

Leadership and Effectiveness in the Context of Gender: The Role of Leaders' Verbal Behaviour*

This field study focuses on verbal consideration, which is a leadership behaviour that expresses esteem for the follower and her or his work, knowledge and opinion. It was assumed that the relationship between verbal consideration and various outcomes is moderated by the leader's gender. One‐hundred‐and‐forty leaders and 455 of their direct followers were surveyed in a one‐wave questionnaire study in Germany. Male and female leaders showed the same degree of verbal consideration as rated by their followers. Verbal consideration is related to three out of four outcome variables for both sexes. One unexpected moderating effect of leaders' gender was found: followers of male leaders displaying verbal consideration report less ‘irritation’ (a state of exhaustion considered a threat to good task fulfilment). One explanation may be that male leaders get ‘extra credit’ for showing verbal consideration as it may be thought to entail special effort, whereas for female leaders it may be seen as normal and routine. This assumption should be examined in further studies in order to get more information about the different mechanisms by which female and male leaders reach the same quality of outcomes.     

创业团队异质性与新企业绩效:领导者乐观心理的调节作用

异质性是创业团队的重要属性,也是创业研究的热点。本文研究将异质性分为两类:任务相关异质性和身份相关异质性,并分别讨论了两类异质性对新企业绩效的不同影响以及团队领导者乐观心理的调节作用。实证研究发现,在任务相关异质性中,行业经验异质性正向影响新企业绩效,而在身份相关异质性中,年龄相关异质性负向影响新企业绩效;同时,团队领导者的乐观心理正向调节行业和职能经验异质性与新企业绩效之间的关系。     

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.     

Beyond Corporate Responsibility: Implications for Management Development

Since the mid‐1990s we have witnessed the rise of numerous constructive and positive activities aimed at developing or enhancing corporate responsibility and corporate citizenship as well as anti‐globalization and anticorporate activism. And, of course, in 2008, we witnessed the meltdown of financial markets and numerous financial institutions as well as some major companies teetering on the brink of collapse. What is actually needed to create the world that many people want to live in may in fact be a new relationship between business and society, that is, new ways of looking at the corporation and its role in society, both in practice and in management education? We will argue that some initiatives, such as Corporation 2020, have already begun to explore these issues by taking a more holistic perspective on different purposes and roles of the corporation in the future. Management education, which has been severely criticized in the aftermath of the economic crisis, has an important role to play, but in a changed form. Implications for leadership and management education include the need to shift cognitive, moral, and emotional levels of development, renewed emphasis on balance both individually and socially, a less is more sensibility, a holistic systems perspective, and shifting the purpose of the firm to encompass not just shareholder needs, but also societal, stakeholder, and ecological needs and interests. In this article we explore some of the ways in which these attributes might be engendered in future leaders, at least in those management development and education programs interested in fostering a new wave of progressive leadership in management for the future.     

Leaders' impression management during organizational decline: The roles of publicity,image concerns,and incentive compensation

In this study, we develop and examine a model of leaders' impression management during organizational decline by elaborating on the roles of publicity, image concerns, and incentive compensation. We propose that the publicity of decline is an important antecedent of leaders' impression management during decline. We also examine how leaders' image concerns mediate this positive relationship. In addition, we consider the relative influence of incentive compensation and fixed compensation on the relationship between leaders' image concerns and their impression management during decline. Our results, based on a specially-designed management simulation game conducted with experienced Chinese managers, show that high publicity of decline elevates leaders' image concerns, which in turn increases their impression management during decline. In addition, incentive compensation strengthens rather than weakens the effects of leaders' image concerns on their impression management. We discuss the implications of leaders' impression management during organizational decline.     

Patterns of leader characteristics: Implications for performance and development

Current theories of leadership suggest that certain types of individuals are especially likely to succeed as leaders in certain organizations. The intent in the present article was to first identify types or subgroups of individuals entering the U.S. Army based on ability, personality, and motivational characteristics, and subsequently identify which types tend to be found in upper level positions. A Ward and Hook cluster analysis revealed seven types in a sample of junior Army officers. Three of these types are also particularly prominent among upper level Army leadership positions. The seven types displayed some differences in skills and patterns of career development. Based on these findings, it was concluded that organizations should recognize the need for different types of people to fill different types of organizational leadership roles.     

Information Diffusion among Agents: Implications for Humanitarian Operations

The basis for this article is an information‐processing view of the UN's cluster approach. We use agent‐based modeling and simulations to show that clusters, if properly utilized, encourage better information flow and thus facilitate effective response to disasters. The article intends to turn the attention of the humanitarian community to the importance of sharing information and the role of cluster leads in facilitating humanitarian aid. Our results indicate that if cluster leads act as information hubs, information reaches its target faster, enabling a prompt humanitarian response. In addition, we show that information quality is critical for effective resource utilization—if cluster leads filter information, it moves faster. We also found evidence that the willingness to exchange information plays a larger role in transmitting information than that of an information hub, particularly during later stages of response operations.