The dynamics of effective corrupt leadership: Lessons from Rafik Hariri's political career in Lebanon

This article introduces the notion of “effective corrupt leadership” to distinguish those in public office who engage in corrupt practice, who are more effective, and better for their people, than alternatives. The paper examines a case of such leadership by discussing the career of the late Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese Prime Minister who initiated and achieved the rebuilding of Beirut after the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990. Using the historical case-study method, an examination of Hariri's activities allows us to appreciate the difficulties of achieving tangible welfare benefits in corrupt circumstances. Notably, the moralizing attacks by Hariri's rivals show that while achieving and sustaining political power may require corrupt practice, such practice can ultimately undermine the leader authority and power. This “blifil paradox” demonstrates how difficult it is to lead effectively in corrupt circumstances. Through a discussion of these difficulties and challenges, the article attempts to demonstrate the significance of “effective corrupt leadership”, both in terms of its impact upon people, and its importance for the refinement of our understanding of leadership.     

Top Management's Transformational Leader Behaviors and Innovation Orientation: A Cross-Cultural Perspective in Eight Countries

This study builds upon the established relationship between top management's transformational leadership and firm-level innovation. It extends current research by determining how specific transformational-leader behaviors influence the firm's innovation orientation and how national culture moderates this relationship. The study examines these behaviors empirically in 954 firms from eight countries. Findings reveal that six transformational-leader behaviors positively influence innovation orientation but with differing levels of intensity. Only two of these relationships, “providing an appropriate model” and “accepting group goals,” are culturally independent, while the other behaviors' effects tend to be culturally dependent. For example, “providing intellectual stimulation” has a stronger effect in collectivist cultures, cultures with high power distance, and low uncertainty-avoidance cultures than in other cultures. Similar culture-dependent findings emerge for other leader behaviors.     

Women's political leadership participation around the world: An institutional analysis

Understanding institutional systems is critical for the advancement of women's participation in leadership in varying contexts. A unique and global analysis of the contextual factors that affect women in political leadership, this paper extends prior research in the field. This is a cross-country study where we ask, “How are societal-level institutional forces related to women's participation in political leadership?” We collected data from 8 secondary sources on 181 countries and conducted linear regression analyses with six institutional influences: the business environment, societal development, the economic environment, physical and technological infrastructure, political freedom, and culture. Results indicate that to increase the political leadership participation of women, we need to evaluate the following: customs and trade regulations, graft, the gender gap in political empowerment, public spending on education, the economic viability of the country, access to power and the internet, political freedom, and cultural variables like performance orientation, collectivism, and power distance.     

Women in high places: When and why promoting women into top positions can harm them individually or as a group (and how to prevent this)

This contribution focuses on women in leadership positions. We propose that two convictions are relevant to the effects of having women in high places. On the one hand, women as a group are expected to employ different leadership styles than men, in this way adding diversity to management teams. On the other hand, individual women are expected to ascend to leadership positions by showing their ability to display the competitiveness and toughness typically required from those at the top. We posit that both convictions stem from gendered leadership beliefs, and that these interact with women's self-views to determine the effectiveness of female leaders. We develop an integrative model that explains the interplay between organizational beliefs and individual-self definitions and its implications for female leadership. We then present initial evidence in support of this model from two recent programs of research. The model allows us to connect “glass cliff” effects to “queen bee” effects showing that both relate to the perceived salience of gender in the organization, as well as individual gender identities. Each of these phenomena may harm future career opportunities of women, be it as individuals or as a group. We outline how future research may build on our proposed model and examine its further implications. We also indicate how the model may offer a concrete starting point for developing strategies to enhance the effectiveness of women in leadership positions.     

A reconceptualization of authentic leadership: Leader legitimation via follower-centered assessment of the moral dimension

We explore some challenges that face authentic leadership scholarship including problems related to how the construct is understood and measured. We present a model of authentic leadership that looks at it, not as a leadership style, but as an outcome of a legitimation process. Authentic leadership represents legitimated follower perceptions of a leader's authenticity which are activated by moral judgments. We explain how a follower-centered assessment of the moral component helps explain leadership dynamics in situations involving ethical relativism, thus alleviating concerns regarding the presumed moral component of the construct. The overlap between leaders' and followers' value systems leads to impressions of authenticity, even in cases in which there are no clear universal moral standards. An authentic person's behavior cannot be labeled as “leadership” unless it is embraced by a follower who grants moral legitimacy to the leader. We then discuss the implications of our study for scholars and practitioners.     

The language of power and authority in leadership

The purpose of this article is to provide insight into how leaders obtain their power through language use. The thesis defended is that, at its best, the language of power in leadership activates specific linguistic functions in prescribed ways. This thesis draws on three subordinate arguments. First, to the extent that leadership is a relationship resting on voluntary obedience, it is through a process of authorisation that leaders obtain their power. Second, the way language functions are instantiated in communication determines whether social interactions are authoritative or authoritarian. The view advanced is that noble language characterises the former, base language the latter. Third and consequently, the power of leaders develops from their use of noble language. Contrasting examples illuminate this article's thesis. An agenda for leadership research and education is then outlined.     

Leadership in organisations: Meta,macro and micro

The study of leadership suffers from too many definitions, not too few. Much of this confusion springs from the fact that there are two fundamentally different perspectives on leadership. From these arise three common usages of the word. This article suggests that we recognise this diversity and abandon the search for a unique definition.The first perspective views leadership as “influence on individuals” without using power or authority. This “meta” leadership relates individuals to their environment through “visioning” — a complex interaction of perception, articulation, conviction and empathy (PACE).The second perspective views leadership as the “shaking and moving” of an organisation to face the future, cope with change and achieve results. It includes both the creation of a successful organisation, through “macro” leadership, and the accomplishment of specific jobs or tasks, through “micro” leadership.These three types of leadership — meta, macro and micro — are examined from the two perspectives. It is suggested that all three should be exercised by managers at all levels - no matter how junior.     

Does shared and differentiated transformational leadership predict followers' working conditions and well-being?

Transformational leadership has been widely researched and is associated with followers' performance, attitudes, and subjective well-being at the individual level. Less research has focused on transformational leadership as a group phenomenon. In a survey study (425 followers and 56 leaders), we examined how group-level and differentiated transformational leadership shape followers' perceptions of their working conditions and individual subjective well-being. There was stronger evidence that differentiated transformational leadership's relationships with indicators of well-being was mediated by perceptions of working conditions, in that 10 out of 20 tests for mediation using differentiated transformational leadership were significant, compared to just three out of 20 for group-level transformational leadership. The results suggest that transformational leadership needs to be studied as a group phenomenon considering how group-level perceptions may impact on followers' well-being and that leaders need to realize that there is an “I” in groups and addition to a “we” in groups.     

Am I a leader or a friend? How leaders deal with pre-existing friendships

We studied employees who were promoted into a leadership role from within their workgroup and explored how they dealt, psychologically, with being both a leader and a friend of their subordinates. In an inductive, qualitative study of 33 individuals from across three organizations (two mining companies and one childcare organization) we found that these people experienced psychological conflict that resulted in them feeling vulnerable to being exploited or being afraid to use their power over subordinate-friends. We identified five strategies that were used, namely abdicating responsibility, ending the friendship, establishing the divide, overlapping the roles, and using friendship to lead. We developed a model whereby the type of psychological conflict and the person's leader identity (either “the boss”, just a role, or a weak or non-existent leader identity) leads to the choice of resolution strategy. This exploration into understanding pre-existing friendships demonstrates the ongoing need to consider those in a leadership role as “people” and not just “leaders”.     

The awestruck effect: Followers suppress emotion expression in response to charismatic but not individually considerate leadership

This study examines how followers regulate their outward expression of emotions in the context of two types of leadership that are commonly associated with transformational leadership, namely charismatic leadership and individually considerate leadership. Based on new theorizing and a series of three studies involving experiments and field work, we show that the two types of leadership have different effects on followers' emotional expressiveness. Specifically, we find that followers under the influence of leaders' charisma tend to suppress the expression of emotions (we call this the “awestruck effect”), but followers express emotions when leaders consider them individually. Awestruck followers may suffer from expressive inhibition even as charismatic leaders stir their hearts.     

An organizational approach to undoing gender: The unlikely case of offshore oil platforms

This case study of two offshore oil platforms illustrates how an organizational initiative designed to enhance safety and effectiveness created a culture that unintentionally released men from societal imperatives for “manly” behavior, prompting them to let go of masculine-image concerns and to behave instead in counter-stereotypical ways. Rather than proving how tough, proficient, and cool-headed they were, as was typical of men in other dangerous workplaces, platform workers readily acknowledged their physical limitations, publicly admitted their mistakes, and openly attended to their own and others’ feelings. Importantly, platform workers did not replace a conventional image of masculinity with an unconventional one and then set out to prove the new image—revealing mistakes strategically, for example, or competing in displays of sensitivity. Instead, the goal of proving one's masculine credentials, conventional or otherwise, appeared to no longer hold sway in men's workplace interactions. Building on West and Zimmerman's (1987: 129) now classic articulation of gender as “the product of social doings,” we describe this organizationally induced behavior as “undoing” gender. We use this case, together with secondary case data drawn from 10 published field studies of men doing dangerous work, to induce a model of how organizational cultures equip men to “do” and “undo” gender at work.     

Toyota's approach to alternative technology vehicles: The power of diversification strategies

While the “quality revolution” of the 80's and the “oil crisis” of the 70's dramatically altered the automotive industry, a new and potentially more influential issue is emerging—the pursuit of an environmentally friendly vehicle. This “green car,” or “eco car,” has become the new “holy grail” of automotive achievement and has the world's largest automakers racing to find a solution that satisfies environmental regulations, rapidly expanding new markets, and consumer preferences alike.Toyota Motor Corporation has chosen to follow several paths simultaneously to attain this seemingly elusive goal. Their twin-tiered technological approach focuses on improving the traditional interval combustion engine (ICES) and developing alternative powertrain technologies, including electric vehicles (EVs), fuel cells and hybrids (a combination of the ICE and EV). Toyota's strategy is to establish proficiency, but not dominance, in a number of the possible alternatives to the current automobile. Toyota strategists believe this is the best tactic for dealing with the uncertainty and risk prevalent in the search for the “green car”.     

领导与权力分界视野下威权领导本质的探索研究

深入探讨了领导与权力二者在影响员工方面的本质差异,并在此基础上分析和揭示了威权领导的本质。研究结果表明:领导是通过构建领导者和追随者的共同目标来激励追随者积极主动地为实现共同目标而努力的过程,它和运用权力的行为有着本质的区别;威权领导在本质上是充分运用正式权力影响下属的行为。因此,威权“领导”与领导的本质相背离,不应纳入领导行为的范畴。     

The Role of Clinical and Process Quality in Achieving Patient Satisfaction in Hospitals

Managers constantly struggle with where to allocate their resources and efforts in managing the complex service delivery system called a hospital. In the broadest sense, their decisions and actions focus on two important aspects of health care—clinical or technical medical care that emphasizes “what” the patient receives and process performance that emphasizes “how” health care services are delivered to patients. Here, we investigate the role of leadership, clinical quality, and process quality on patient satisfaction. A causal model is hypothesized and evaluated using structural equation modeling for a sample of 202 U.S. hospitals. Statistical results support the idea that leadership is a good exogenous construct and that clinical and process quality are good intermediate outcomes in determining patient satisfaction. Statistical results also suggest that hospital leadership has more influence on process quality than on clinical quality, which is predominantly the doctors' domain. Other results are discussed, such as that hospital managers must be mindful of the fact that process quality is at least as important as clinical quality in predicting patient satisfaction. The article concludes by proposing areas for future research.     

On becoming a leader in Asia and America: Empirical evidence from women managers

In concordance with recent calls for cross-cultural leadership research as well as research on women leaders, this study investigated how women in Asia and the U.S. become leaders and how they enact their leadership. In-depth interviews with 76 mid- to upper-level female managers in Asia (China, India, Singapore) and the U.S. were conducted. Analyses revealed that a simple dichotomy of “Asian” versus “Western” leadership did not appropriately describe the data. Rather, factors such as achievement orientation, learning orientation, and role models emerged as crucial success factors for advancement to leadership positions across continents. However, the particular meaning differed between countries. Furthermore, with regard to women's leadership style differences between Asian countries were more salient than between Asia and the U.S. Implications for leadership theory and practice are discussed.     

Civic capacity: Building on transformational leadership to explain successful integrative public leadership

An emerging stream of work has been investigating the leadership processes necessary to guide public multi-sector collaborations. This stream of work argues that new leadership theory about integrative public leadership is needed because the context is different from that traditionally investigated by leadership researchers. In this paper, we advance the study of integrative public leadership by arguing that transformational leadership theory does apply to multi-sector collaborations, but needs to be augmented with an additional construct called “civic capacity.” We elaborate on this construct and suggest that it consists of three components: civic drive, civic connections, and civic pragmatism.     

Transforming leadership in organisations: Bringing meta “visioning” into the macro leadershop rôle

A decade ago, Burns used the term transforming leadership to describe a type of noncoercive political leadership that engaged people, was morally elevating and, in turn, sparked leadership in them. In applying this concept to organisations, there has been a tendency to broaden the meaning of transforming in a way that tends to obscure its original intent. This springs, in effect, from the unconscious intermingling of two fundamentally different perspectives on leadership. These are illustrated by examples drawn from recently published studies by Bass, Bennis and Nanus, and Tichy and Devanna.Burns viewed transforming leadership from the noncoercive influence-on-individuals perspective: people were transformed by becoming “engaged” and this, in turn, could produce a transformation in the organisation. As it happens, however, a transformation can also be produced by leadership from the opposite perspective i.e. the power-wielding shaker-and-mover. The successful autocrat can transform the fortunes of an organisation but is far from Burns' concept of a transforming leader.In this article, the author suggests this confusion can be clarified by realising that the transformation produced by the shaker-and-mover comes from success in performing the macro leadership role of path-finding and culture-building. True transforming leadership in organisations only occurs when the “visioning” of meta leadership is applied to performance of the macro leadership role. In this way, enthusiastic followers are created as people become “engaged”, doubts are removed and energy is released.     

The Management of Circulations: Biopolitical Variations after Foucault

This paper provides a review of the reception of Foucault's later work on biopolitics within management and organization studies and contrasts this with the reception of these ideas in sister fields of research in the social sciences. In his later work, Foucault developed original conceptions of power, including ‘biopolitics’, ‘the apparatus of security’ and ‘neo‐liberal governmentality’, which marked a departure from his conception of disciplinary power. This paper explores these concepts and elaborates the implications of these ideas for management studies. The structure of this argument is divided as follows. The first section outlines Foucault's concept of biopolitics and neo‐liberal governmentality, distinguishing these systems of control clearly from the concept of disciplinary power. The second section then undertakes a synthesis and evaluation of the extent to which these ideas have been developed within the field of management and organization studies. The final section provides a discussion of how these concepts have been used within other social sciences, distinguishing between three key approaches to their development in terms of: (a) the concept of governmentality; (b) the concept of immaterial labour; and (c) the concept of biocapital. Based on this analysis, a framework is developed which can serve as a basis for future research into the significance of these new biopolitical systems of control for management studies.     

Crafting effective environmental strategies: A “model of learning” from the chemical and pharmaceutical industries

While creating and implementing effective environmental strategies, firms collect and process information from many interconnected “learning environmental.”These “models of learning” serve to develop environmental knowledge and cultural beliefs that guide, coordinate and synchronize actions at the corporate and subsidiary levels. In this way, best environmental practice becomes institutionalized within the organization.This article examines both the formal and informal processes that firms use to identify and transform environmental strategies into accepted organizational practices. Environmental, health and safety (EH & S) managers, in particular, should embrace the notion that systematically gathering and sharing such information across the organization can have profound implications for a firm's environmental performance. Firms that capture and disseminate the critical environmental knowledge of their members can be well positioned to attain environmental leadership roles in their industries.     

Broadband Network Management and the Net Neutrality Debate

The debate of net neutrality and the potential regulation of net neutrality may fundamentally change the dynamics of data consumption and transmission through the Internet. The existing literature on economics of net neutrality focuses only on the supply side of the market, that is, a broadband service provider (BSP) may charge content providers for priority delivery of their content to consumers. In this article, we explore a complete spectrum of broadband network management options based on both the supply and demand sides of the market. We find that although the BSP always prefers the non‐neutral network management options, it does not always discriminate both sides of the market. From the social planner's perspective, we find that some network management options maximize the social welfare under certain market conditions while other options reduce the social welfare. Using the terminology from a recent Federal Communications Commission report and order, we categorize the social welfare maximizing options as “reasonable network management” and the social welfare reducing options as “unreasonable discrimination.” We also identify conditions under which the BSP's network management choices deviate from the social optimum. These conditions help establish the criteria under which the social planner might wish to regulate the BSP's actions.