What is strategic leadership? Developing a framework for future research

We attempt to bring clarity to the concept of strategic leadership and guide its development by reviewing and synthesizing the existing management literature on how top managers and board directors influence organizations. We propose a new definition of strategic leadership and offer a framework organized around the essential questions of what strategic leadership is, what strategic leaders do, why they do it, and how they do it. To answer these questions, we organize our review around the eight functions strategic leaders serve, the key attributes of strategic leaders, the theories scholars have used to relate these functions and attributes to outcomes, contextual factors, and the organizational outcomes that strategic leaders affect. We identify how strategic leadership research is concentrated in five streams that rarely interact with each other, and offer suggestions for connecting these streams. Our review provides a big picture of what is known about individuals at the top levels of organizations and highlights the key areas where future investigation is essential.     

Leader development for adolescent girls: State of the field and a framework for moving forward

For most leaders, their first exposure to formal leader development training occurs in adolescence, through school, extra-curricular activities, or youth leader development programs. As with many adolescent experiences, the processes and challenges of leader development are different for girls than they are for boys. With increasing calls to address gender inequity worldwide, adolescent girls' leader development has become an important cross-disciplinary research topic. Though the literature on developing adolescent girls has grown substantially, it is fragmented across disciplines, with a lack of integration and theoretical framing hindering our advancement in knowledge. Therefore, there is a critical need for a comprehensive review article to guide scholars to build an integrated knowledge of how leader development occurs for adolescent girls. We searched for literature relevant to leader and leadership development designed for adolescent girls and reviewed a total of 108 academic papers (2000–2019). We identify and critique five themes in this literature that hold important implications for the leader development of adolescent girls. To advance knowledge, we offer social cognitive theory as a theoretical frame to understand adolescent girls' leader development and provide guidance on future research. Finally, we offer insights on how the processes and practices of adolescent girls' leader development could inform adult leader development.     

不同情商水平下领导行为与员工组织承诺关系的实证研究

结合对变革型/交易型领导以及员工组织承诺的理论分析,本论文将情商作为调节变量引入领导效果研究的模型,认为领导与下属的情商会促进或阻碍特定领导风格作用的发挥.对六家企业内241对上下级(95个部门经理及他们的241个直接下属)样本数据的统计分析表明,高领导者情商同时有助于交易型和变革型领导行为的实施而获得下属的组织承诺;高下属情商有助于员工识别交易型领导的实质而指导他们对组织的情感性承诺.     

Environmental leadership in business education: Where's the innovation and how should we support it?

General managers have the power to shape environmental performance through the strategic decisions they make about products, markets and investments. Yet, often times managers fail to fully recognize the link between improved environmental performance and business performance. Over the past ten years, many business schools have added environmental content to their classes and research to help future business leaders recognize and act on these links. Ironically, although business leaders articulate ambitious environmental goals, corporate recruiting demands have not kept pace with the growing supply of these graduates. The following recap of the World Resources Institute's recent study, Grey Pinstripes with Green Ties: MBA Programs Where the Environment Matters, helps identify information barriers firms encounter in seeking new managers with a combination of business training and technical competence.     

Developing business buccaneers: employer expectations of emergent leaders

This study investigates employer expectations of graduates to inform pedagogical practice within a context of industry–university collaboration. Employers’ views of graduates as future leaders are explored through interviews, focus groups and a survey, with a regional sample of 146 managers. Findings show employers have different understandings and diverse expectations of leadership traits and generic competencies. Employers anticipate future graduates will need greater adaptability and flexibility for volatile business contexts; with some highlighting rule breaking that implies a buccaneer approach rather than responsible leadership. The dissonance between an academic aim to educate socially responsible, global citizens and industry demands potentially undermines the coherence of partnership. Consequently, this study casts doubt on implicit assumptions that practice-informed, industry–university, collaboration will deliver better leaders. The main implications are that educators need to clearly communicate to employers how university learning transfers into actual work practice, and for graduates to better articulate their broad capabilities. The research offers fresh insight into on educators’ responsibility to nurture critical thinking in graduates with the learning agility to question and responsibly navigate organisational rules. The study also contributes to the industry–university partnership debate by revealing the academic complexity of developing future leaders given the multiple lenses of practice-informed views.     

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 servant identity: Influences on the cognition and behavior of servant leaders

This paper approaches the study of servant leadership by concentrating on the identity of servant leaders. An identity is important to one's sense of self and it influences the way a leader cognitively processes socially relevant information and exercises a particular leadership behavior in response to a situation. Unlike existing studies, which typically approach servant leadership as one of a number of possible leadership styles, and which merely describe its characteristics, this paper serves to explain the basis for individuals enacting this mode of leadership. This paper defines and elaborates on the servant identity by showing the psychological factors constituting it. Taking a socio-cognitive approach, the paper offers a theoretical framework for the servant identity. The framework encompasses the cognitive and behavioral disposition of leaders with servant identity and the organizational contexts that influence it. This new angle on servant leadership opens avenues for future research and practice.     

Building an organizational capability for radical innovation: The direct managerial role

Our research examines practices for managing project leaders as a component of an organization's capability for radical innovation. Our qualitative analysis of 246 interviews in twelve industry-leading corporations suggests that managers use performance-based assessment to select project leaders with demonstrated experience and skills for innovation, as well as passion that extends beyond a single project toward an awareness of its broader contribution to the organization's growth objectives. The managerial role includes concurrent hands-off/hands-on involvement, which balances autonomy and accountability with guidance. Additionally, downside/upside management involves removing the negative consequences associated with failure while providing recognition for the project leader's efforts.     

Organizational Silence and Whistle‐Blowing on IT Projects: An Integrated Model*

An individual's reluctance to report bad news about a troubled information technology (IT) project has been suggested as an important contributor to project failure and has been linked to IT project escalation as well. To date, information systems researchers have drawn from the mum effect and whistle‐blowing literature to gain a better understanding of the factors that influence bad news reporting. More recent theoretical work in the area of organizational silence offers a promising new conceptual lens, but remains empirically untested. In this research note, we integrate key elements of Morrison and Milliken's (2000) model of organizational silence, which has never been empirically tested, with the basic whistle‐blowing model adapted from Dozier and Miceli (1985) . Using a role‐playing experiment, we investigate how organizational structures/policies, managerial practices, and degree of demographic dissimilarity between employees and top managers create a climate of silence and how this climate, in turn, affects an individual's willingness to report. Our results show that all three types of factors contribute to a climate of silence, exerting both direct and indirect influence on willingness to report, as hypothesized. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Does valuing androgyny and femininity lead to a female advantage? The relationship between gender-role,transformational leadership and identification

The notion of ‘think manager–think male’ has been demonstrated in many studies. The current study examines whether leaders are perceived as more effective when they have ‘feminine’, ‘masculine’ or ‘androgynous’ characteristics, and how this relates to the leader's and followers' sex. Using carefully matched samples of 930 employees of 76 bank managers, we studied the relationship between managers' gender-role identity (perceived ‘femininity’, ‘masculinity’ and ‘androgyny’) and how this relates to leadership effectiveness in terms of transformational leadership and personal identification with the leader. Our findings show that among both male and female leaders, ‘androgyny’ was more strongly related to transformational leadership and followers' identification than ‘non-androgyny’, and that leaders' ‘femininity’ was more strongly related to leadership effectiveness than ‘masculinity’. Furthermore, the results show that women paid a higher penalty for not being perceived as ‘androgynous’ (mixing ‘femininity’ and ‘masculinity’), in comparison to men with regard to personal identification. When examining same- versus cross-sex relationships, we found that ‘non-androgynous’ male managers were rated higher by their male employees than by their female employees. Our findings suggest that women and men who are interested in being perceived as effective leaders may be well advised to blend ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ behaviors, and even more so when they are in situations of non-congruency (i.e., women in leadership roles and leading in cross-sex relationships). We discuss the implications of these findings for both theory and practice.     

Integrity's place among the character strengths of middle-level managers and top-level executives

One purpose of this study was to extend integrity research in organizations into the ranks of middle management. We therefore examined whether middle-level managers' behavioral manifestations of integrity related to ratings of their performance. Results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that direct report ratings of a middle-level manager's integrity were positively related to boss ratings of that manager's performance. A second purpose of this study was to understand differences in integrity's relative importance to performance among other character strengths, and as a function of context (e.g., managerial level). We extend research in this area by showing, through relative weight analysis, that integrity was relatively less important to middle-level managers' current performance compared to other character strengths (e.g., social intelligence). In contrast, integrity was relatively more important for the performance of top-level executives — roles middle-level managers may hold in the future. Implications of these results for future research and practice as well as the current study's limitations are discussed.     

Cultural diversity: an exercise in elaboration

This paper explores how I used personal construct theory (PCT) to underpin an intervention I designed and delivered to improve organizational effectiveness. The aim was to help improve the poor relationship between one of the teams in the organization I work for and representatives of their American customer which was adversely affected by cultural misunderstanding. I used a variety of tools and techniques to help individuals explore their understanding of each other's beliefs, values and language and its impact on the relationship. Delegates embarked on a journey that took them from the generic macro level of cultural stereotypes and perceptions to the micro-level of what these actually meant in their individual relationships. PCT provides a strong, robust framework for understanding one another's world from within. Because it is based on a strong theoretical base it provides guidelines within which the practitioner can, effectively and efficiently, work.     

3 Critical Management Studies

Abstract

Critical management studies (CMS) offers a range of alternatives to mainstream management theory with a view to radically transforming management practice. The common core is deep skepticism regarding the moral defensibility and the social and ecological sustainability of prevailing conceptions and forms of management and organization. CMS's motivating concern is neither the personal failures of individual managers nor the poor management of specific firms, but the social injustice and environmental destructiveness of the broader social and economic systems that these managers and firms serve and reproduce. This chapter reviews CMS's progress, main themes, theoretical and epistemological premises, and main projects; we also identify some problems and make some proposals. Our aim is to provide an accessible overview of a growing movement in management studies.     

Managers’ Resources for Authentic Leadership – a Multi‐study Exploration of Positive Psychological Capacities and Ethical Organizational Climates

While authentic leadership is highly valued in today's business world, managers do not necessarily have the resources to attain it. Building on conservation of resources theory, we propose a conceptual model to address how personal and contextual resources predict authentic leadership. Study 1 analyses the day‐to‐day variability in managers’ positive psychological capacities as personal resources in relation to changes in authentic leadership. In addition, it tests ethical organizational climates as stable, contextual resources for authentic leadership. In Study 2, we replicate our results on the between‐person level and extend the research model by exploring promotion focus as a link in the relationship between personal resources and authentic leadership. Evidence from an experience sampling study with 89 managers surveyed daily on 10 consecutive working days (Study 1) and a field survey of 130 managers at two points in time (Study 2) supports the hypothesized role of personal resources and promotion focus for authentic leadership. In both studies, only principled but not benevolent ethical organizational climates emerged as a contextual resource for authentic leadership. We discuss the implications for current management research and practice.     

The impact of leader emotion display frequency on follower performance: Leader surface acting and mean emotion display as boundary conditions

Theory and evidence suggest leader emotion has an important influence on follower performance. However, we lack a theoretical framework to understand when the frequency of leader emotional displays may or may not explain significant variance in follower performance. To advance knowledge in this emerging line of research, we integrate Emotion As Social Information (EASI) theory with attribution theory to explore boundary conditions of the relationships of the frequencies of positive and negative leader emotional displays with follower performance. Results based on leaders and followers in three organizations show that leader surface acting acted as a boundary condition, neutralizing the effects of the frequencies of positive and negative leader emotional displays toward an individual follower on that follower's performance. In addition, higher frequency of negative emotional displays shown by the leader to all group members acted as a boundary condition, neutralizing the effect of the frequency of negative leader emotional displays toward an individual follower on that follower's performance. This work advances our understanding of the way the frequency of leader emotional displays may influence follower performance, introduces new types of contingency factors to the leader emotion area, and helps extend emotional labor theory to the leadership context.     

Leader decision speed as a signal of honesty

Decision speed is emerging as an important topic to organizations, yet its consequences for leaders have received little research attention. The present research builds on this notion by examining how the speed with which leaders come to decisions shapes observers' perceptions and behaviors. In three incentivized experiments, participants evaluated leaders who decided whether to include or exclude followers from participating in consequential decisions. Leaders were seen as more honest when they were fast (vs. slow) to include followers, but as less honest when they were fast (vs. slow) to exclude followers from decisions. These perceptions influenced several key outcomes: the willingness to reward leaders (Experiment 1) and the willingness to cooperate with leaders (Experiment 3). Consistent with a signaling perspective, these effects disappeared when observers learned that leaders were externally pressed to decide quickly or slowly (Experiment 2). The present research offers new insights into the cues that people use when judging leaders' decision-making processes, and the behavioral consequences of these judgments.     

Wither or whither London? An application of industry structure analysis

Industry structure analysis provides a tool for managers and leaders to more clearly understand the context in which day-by-day decisions are to be taken. It encourages a systematic analysis of ‘whither an enterprise?’ in the sense of ‘in what direction’ and ‘wither an enterprise?’ in the sense of ‘to what purpose’. Industry structure analysis applied to London reveals those forces which may doom current approaches to the solution to inner city problems to early failure and suggests new areas for the application of effort. As we enter a decade in which economic, political and social upheaval will be the norm, such a tool could be of use in helping managers in other enterprises to chart a surer course through uncertainty.     

The Effects of Transformational Leadership on Organizational Performance through Knowledge and Innovation*

Today's information and knowledge society requires new leaders who can confront a reality based on knowledge and foster innovation to achieve improvements in organizational performance. However, organizations sometimes fail to achieve sustainable competitive advantage due to their limited understanding of the relationships between these strategic variables. To date, very little research has analysed the direct and indirect relationships between these variables. Our study seeks to fill this research gap by analysing theoretically and empirically how the leader's perceptions of different intermediate strategic variables related to knowledge (knowledge slack, absorptive capacity, tacitness, organizational learning) and innovation influence the relation between transformational leadership and organizational performance. Based on the literature, we develop a theoretical model that shows the interrelations between these variables. We then test the model using data from 408 Spanish organizations, discuss the findings and provide several implications for business practitioners.     

How Managers Talk about their Consumption of Popular Management Concepts: Identity,Rules and Situations

This paper analyses how top managers account for their consumption of popular management concepts. By ‘consumption’ we refer to managers acting as active users of popular management concepts within their organizations. After reviewing the relevant literature, we argue that the logic of appropriateness is a better theoretical perspective to view, understand and analyse managers' accounts of concept consumption than is the logic of consequence. We apply this perspective to extensive interviews we conducted with top managers in Germany. Based on the managers' own accounts of how they understand and apply popular management concepts, we identified four discourse categories: (1) learning from others' experiences, (2) controlling organizational change, (3) gaining external legitimacy and (4) collective sensemaking. We argue that these discourse categories all draw on the social norm of rationality central to managerial identity, while differing in socially defined rules about how rationality is realized in typical management situations. Our findings strongly encourage researchers, when investigating popular management concepts in the future, to take into account the situational nature of rationality that circumstantiates the consumption of concepts.     

Is training leaders in functional leadership a useful tool for improving the performance of leadership functions and team effectiveness?

Departing from the functional leadership model, we propose a team leadership training model as a way to improve the performance of leadership functions and foster team effectiveness. Based on a longitudinal quasi-experimental study involving ninety 6-person teams, 45 trained leaders were compared to 45 untrained leaders at two points in time: before the intervention group was subjected to training experience (time 1), and 6 months after the intervention group had completed their training (time 2). Results showed that, compared to the non-trained leaders, the trained leaders registered an improvement in their enactment of leadership functions. Moreover, these results also showed that training leaders led to an improvement in team effectiveness through the development of team leadership functions. The current findings offer new insights into the way that leaders can improve team effectiveness.