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.     

The impact of positivity and transparency on trust in leaders and their perceived effectiveness

A critical challenge facing today's organizational leaders is gaining their followers' trust and having them view leaders as effective in addressing turmoil and change. Using a downsizing scenario as the context, this field experiment examined how a leader's positivity and transparency impacted followers' perceived trust, defined in terms of willingness to be vulnerable, and effectiveness of their leader. To test the hypotheses, 304 participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions of high (low) leader positivity × high (low) leader transparency. Results of our mixed methods study indicated both the leader's level of positivity and transparency impacted followers' perceived trust and evaluations of leader effectiveness. Besides limitations and suggestions for future research, we conclude with the practical implications that positive, transparent leaders may have on building trust and perceived effectiveness among their followers.     

Transformational leadership and childrens' aggression in team settings: A short-term longitudinal study

Social learning theory posits that one crucial way individuals learn how to behave is by observing and modeling the behavior of salient others. We conducted a short-term longitudinal study using multisource data on 183 teenaged ice hockey players (M age = 13.39 years) in 16 hockey teams to test the effects of 3 potentially salient leadership influences (team coaches, team players, and parents) on players' on-ice aggression. We tested a cross-level mediated model in which player aggression (penalty minutes) as measured by referees was the criterion variable. After controlling for prior levels of player aggression, team-level aggression mediated the relationship between team-level coach transformational leadership and player aggression. Parents' transformational leadership did not influence player aggression when assessed simultaneously with team-level coach transformational leadership. Consistent with social learning theory, the findings suggest that transformational leaders model prosocial behavior for followers.     

Leader evaluations after performance feedback: The role of follower mood

Team and organizational failures can negatively impact leadership perceptions, as followers tend to attribute performance outcomes to leadership. The current study explores how follower mood moderates this effect. In two experiments, the first with students (N = 132) and the second with a sample of the working population (N = 229), we show that performance information has a weaker effect on leadership evaluations when the follower is in a positive mood as compared with a negative mood. In addition, we show that this moderation effect holds for performance information about the team as well as the leader. We discuss how these findings extend the cognitive follower-centric perspective on leadership by acknowledging affective influences and explore several counter-intuitive implications of these findings.     

Transformational leadership and ambidexterity in the context of an acquisition

This study explores the role of transformational leadership and the values incorporated in a learning culture in promoting ambidexterity (the ability to explore new capabilities while exploiting existing ones) in teams involved in acquisition integrations. Data from a field study of an acquisition integration (N = 71 work teams) support hypotheses arguing that transformational leadership behaviors and the development of a learning culture, characterized by psychological safety, openness to diverse opinions, and participation in decision making, promote ambidexterity at the team level. We also found support for the association between transformational leadership and learning cultures.     

Leader corruption depends on power and testosterone

We used incentivized experimental games to manipulate leader power — the number of followers and the discretion leaders had to enforce their will. Leaders had complete autonomy in deciding payouts to themselves and their followers. Although leaders could make prosocial decisions to benefit the public good they could also abuse their power by invoking antisocial decisions, which reduced the total payouts to the group but increased the leaders' earnings. In Study 1 (N = 478), we found that both amount of followers and discretionary choices independently predicted leader corruption. In Study 2 (N = 240), we examined how power and individual differences (e.g., personality, hormones) affected leader corruption over time; power interacted with endogenous testosterone in predicting corruption, which was highest when leader power and baseline testosterone were both high. Honesty predicted initial level of leader antisocial decisions; however, honesty did not shield leaders from the corruptive effect of power.     

“To thine own self be true”: The effects of enactment and life storytelling on perceived leader authenticity

Although researchers have emphasized the importance of antecedents to the construct of authentic leadership, very little empirical research exists to confirm this notion. Combining theoretical approaches from dramaturgy and narrative research, we were able to identify possible antecedents that help followers perceive a leader's authenticity. Using two online experimental designs, we analyzed the concept of perceived leader authenticity. Specifically, we examined how a leader's enactment—that is, a leader's physical actions—(Study 1, n = 105) and a combination of leader enactment and life storytelling (Study 2, n = 334) influenced followers' perceptions of the leader's authenticity, and how this may impact leadership outcomes. The results of these studies, in which leader enactment in the context of authentic leadership was operationalized for the first time, indicate that leader enactment predicts perceived leader authenticity. Life storytelling, however, only partially predicted followers' perceptions of the leader's authenticity. Findings further revealed that followers' trust in the leader and positive emotions are outcomes of perceived leader authenticity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

A new substitute for leadership? Followers' state core self-evaluations

In this experimental study we integrate transformational leadership theory with recent theoretical considerations and research on core self-evaluations (CSE) in a contingency approach to leadership. We analyze to what extent high state CSE may represent a substitute for transformational leadership in terms of its influence on follower motivation and performance. In a 2 × 2‐design the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' motivation and performance is compared for followers with high versus low state CSE. Participants (76 students) were randomly assigned to four groups. High or low state CSE was activated through a priming manipulation. After that, participants were presented with a written vignette of a transformational or a nontransformational leader who instructs them to perform the subsequent task, a word-search puzzle. Results reveal that followers' state CSE moderated the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' motivation and performance. As expected, followers' state CSE represents a substitute for transformational leadership. Results are discussed for leadership research and management practice.     

The mediating effects of leader integrity with transparency in communication and work engagement/performance

We examined in a 3-month longitudinal study how leader behavioral integrity relates to individual follower work engagement, and how that relationship, in turn, connects to performance. We hypothesized that ratings of leader behavioral integrity would mediate the relationship between leader transparent communication and follower work engagement, which would also have a positive relationship with performance. We tested our hypotheses using data collected from military cadets (n = 451), who each rated their respective leader. Our findings show that followers who rated their leaders as exhibiting more transparent communication at Time 1, also rated themselves as more engaged in their work role at Time 2 (3 weeks later), and that their perceptions of leader behavioral integrity mediated that relationship. Follower engagement also positively related to third-party ratings of follower performance at Time 3 lagged 3 months. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on leader integrity, authenticity, follower engagement, and performance.     

Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory

The development of effective leaders and leadership behavior is a prominent concern in organizations of all types. We review the theoretical and empirical literature on leader and leadership development published over the past 25 years, primarily focusing on research published in The Leadership Quarterly. Compared to the relatively long history of leadership research and theory, the systematic study of leadership development (broadly defined to also include leader development) has a moderately short history. We examine intrapersonal and interpersonal issues related to the phenomena that develop during the pursuit of effective leadership, describe how development emerges with an emphasis on multi-source or 360-degree feedback processes, review longitudinal studies of leadership development, and investigate methodological and analytical issues in leader and leadership development research. Future research directions to motivate and guide the study of leader and leadership development are also discussed.     

THE USES OF BUSINESS GAMING IN EDUCATION AND LABORATORY RESEARCH*

This paper reports an empirical investigation of business gaming in education and research. Subjects were approximately 200 junior and senior undergraduate students who were assigned to seven-man teams on the basis of scores on the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) leadership style questionnaire, and who played the Marksim business game during one academic semester. Relationships were explored between post-game perceptions of the game, team atmosphere and the leader, combinations of congruent and incongruent leadership styles, and measures of team performance. Also explored were relationships between several predictor variables (including grade point average) and measures of team performance. The results were generally disappointing in regard to business gaming as an educational tool. However, it seems that business gaming may hold promise for laboratory research in the behavioral sciences. The results of this investigation suggest that relationship-oriented and task-oriented leadership styles and combinations of these styles within hierarchically structured groups affect members' perceptions of the task and other aspects of the task environment but do not affect group performance, at least directly. These results may have significance for those interested in organizational design and the selection and development of leaders for first and second-level managerial positions.     

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.     

Reciprocal interactions between group perceptions of leader charisma and group mood through mood contagion

Departing from the static perspective of leader charisma that prevails in the literature, we propose a dynamic perspective of charismatic leadership in which group perceptions of leader charisma influence and are influenced by group mood. Based on a longitudinal experimental study conducted for 3 weeks involving 116 intact, self-managing student groups, we found that T1 group perceptions of leader charisma mediate the effect of leader trait expressivity on T2 positive and negative group moods. T2 positive and negative group moods influence T3 distal charisma perceptions by affecting T2 proximal perceptions of leader effectiveness. The current findings offer critical insights into (a) the reciprocal relationship between group perceptions of leader charisma and group mood, (b) the dynamic and transient nature of group perceptions of leader charisma, (c) the importance of understanding negative mood in charismatic leadership, and (d) the mechanism through which charismatic leadership perceptions can be formed and sustained over time.     

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.     

Transformational leadership and leader moral orientation: Contrasting an ethic of justice and an ethic of care

Previous research on the moral foundations of transformational leadership has focused on a Kohlbergian (1969, 1976) ethic of justice. However, proposed associations between level of justice reasoning and transformational leadership have received only partial support. We reasoned that an ethic of care would be more consistent with the nature of transformational leadership than would be an ethic of justice. Multilevel regression analyses on data obtained from a sample of leaders (N = 55) and followers (N = 391) at a Canadian university supported our predictions. Specifically, leader propensity toward using an ethic of care was significantly, positively related to follower perceptions of transformational (but not transactional) leadership. Leader propensity toward an ethic of justice was significantly, positively related to follower perceptions of transactional (but not transformational) leadership. Conceptual, research, and practical implications are discussed.     

Moving beyond the employee: The role of the organizational context in leader workplace aggression

Management and psychology scholars are increasingly seeking to examine how organizational characteristics that contextualize leadership shape the occurrence, impact, and prevention of leader workplace aggression. However, a comprehensive review of this literature has not yet been conducted, so a systematic understanding is lacking regarding questions including: (1) when, why and how is such aggression more likely to occur; (2) how do contextual factors enable or constrain effects of these leader behaviors on employees; and (3) how can organizations proactively manage their internal dynamics to prevent or reduce such incidences? Drawing on Porter and McLaughlin's (2006) components of organizational context, I review existing leader aggression research that intersects with seven categories: (1) culture/climate; (2) goals/purposes; (3) people/composition; (4) processes; (5) state/condition; (6) structure; and (7) time. I then offer theoretical propositions for future work, which are grounded in the roles and responsibilities inherent to the nature of leadership and coupled with the changing nature of organizational life. As a result, I set the research agenda for the next decade of organizational context × leader workplace aggression studies.     

The impact of a workplace terrorist attack on employees' perceptions of leadership: A longitudinal study from pre- to postdisaster

A terrorist attack targeting a workplace represents an organizational crisis that requires the leaders to manage emerging threats. The changing roles and expectations of the leaders are reflected in the employees' perceptions of them over time. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the 2011 Oslo bombing attack affected the targeted employees' perceptions of the leadership behaviors of their immediate superiors or the organizational managers' interest in the health and well-being of their workers. Ministerial employees (n ≈ 180) completed questionnaires on fair, empowering, and supportive leadership, in addition to human resource primacy, on two occasions several years prior to the terrorist attack. Assessments were then repeated one, two, and three years after the attack. Changes in the course of perceived leadership from predisaster to postdisaster were examined using bootstrapped t-tests and latent growth curve models. Furthermore, the general course of perceived leadership was compared with a nonexposed control sample of matched employees. Results showed that employees with high levels of posttraumatic stress perceived their immediate leader to be less supportive. However, overall perceptions of leadership were remarkably stable, which suggests that the effects of critical incidents on perceptions of leadership may be negligible.     

The role of leadership in shared mental model convergence and team performance improvement: An agent-based computational model

Research in shared mental models has immeasurably aided our understanding of effective teamwork and taskwork. However, little research has focused on the role that leaders play, if any, in influencing, developing and/or fostering shared mental models and thereby improving team performance. We developed an agent-based computational model based on McComb's theory of three-phase mental model development, where agents repeatedly share individual opinions (orientation phase), evaluate and respond to the opinions expressed by others (differentiation phase), and modify their understanding of the team based on the responses (integration phase). Leadership and team properties are represented in three experimental parameters: social network structure, heterogeneity of agents' domains of expertise, and level of their mutual interest. Participative leadership is represented by a fully connected network, while Leader–Member eXchange (LMX) is represented by a fully connected network of in-group members and several out-group members connected only to the leader. Our simulation results show that, in general, participative leadership promotes mental model convergence better than LMX. In the meantime, the team performance improvement is achieved by participative leadership only when members have both heterogeneous domains of expertise and strong mutual interest. In all other conditions, participative leadership causes the worst degradation of team performance through team development processes, while LMX is the best to minimize such team degradation. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Ethical leadership and follower organizational deviance: The moderating role of follower moral attentiveness

The literature on ethical leadership has focused primarily on the way ethical leaders influence follower moral judgment and behavior. It has overlooked that follower responses to ethical leaders may differ depending on the attention they pay to the moral aspects of leadership. In the present research, we introduce moral attentiveness as an important moderator for the relationship between ethical leadership and unethical employee behavior. In a multisource field study (N = 90), we confirm our hypothesis that morally attentive followers respond with more deviance to unethical leaders. An experimental study (N = 96) replicates the finding. Our paper extends the current leader-focused literature by examining how follower moral attentiveness determines the response of followers to ethical or unethical leadership.     

Perceptions of and reactions to leader toxicity: Do leader–follower relationships and identification with victim matter?

This experimental study examined the influence of leader–follower relationships (i.e., LMX) and target salience on perceptions of leader toxicity and intentions to challenge the leader. There are no studies that evaluate the effect of leader–follower relationships on these two variables. Participants (n = 298) with work experience viewed a video of a leader acting in a destructive manner toward a target. As predicted, LMX out-group participants perceived the leader to be toxic to a greater extent than participants with favored status, and indicated greater intent to challenge the leader. With regard to target salience, the results also showed that observers perceived the leader to be toxic to a greater extent when the leader was targeting someone in their LMX grouping, but there were no significant differences in challenging intentions based on the target's LMX status. Implications for leaders, followers, and organizations are discussed.