Crisis in leadership or failure to plan?

During the past ten years, succession planning and managing executive transitions have emerged as important issues in the nonprofit sector. Demographers and economists have speculated for years about the potential effects of the retirement of baby boomers. The time has finally arrived: the oldest of the baby boomers are now eligible for retirement. The question that remains is how this trend will affect the nonprofit sector and the communities they serve. This study examines the issues of turnover and succession planning at the executive level, along with career development among young nonprofit professionals in Charlotte, North Carolina. Not only do the findings suggest that the community may very well see a crisis in leadership, but they also illustrate a growing disconnect between executive leaders and young professionals in nonprofit organizations. In addition to struggling with the realities of working in the nonprofit sector (limited benefits, challenging workloads), most young professionals reported that they felt undervalued by older managers and staff, and very few aspire to the position of executive director. Taken together, these findings have important implications for the local community and the broader nonprofit sector.     

Political leadership – the key for explaining post-communist diversity

This article focuses on the evaluation of recent research on post-communist political regime diversity in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It offers a snapshot of the literature which looks for explanations for this diversity in four sets of factors: pre-communist and communist legacies, transitional institutional choices, political leadership, and foreign influence. The findings are based on the political evolution of three countries: Slovakia, Belarus, and Macedonia. They are representative for all post-communist countries both in terms of regime trajectory and regional location. The author concludes that post-communist political regime diversity can best be explained when the political leadership in general and the top politicians’ ideology, in particular, are placed at the centre of the analysis. This explanation correlates well with all types of post-communist regime, whether democracy, dictatorship, or intermediate regime. The other factors – legacies, institutional choices, and foreign influence – at best, may act only as reinforcing variables in some cases.     

Better stay single? Public relations and CSR leadership in India

Public relations scholars have argued that public relations practitioners, as boundary spanners between organizations and their diverse publics, are well positioned to assume leadership and become the “conscience” of their organization's CSR efforts. Conversely, scholars have also questioned public relations practitioners’ assumption of leadership of CSR. Much of the debate, both for and against, has been generated in Euro/American contexts of practice. As part of a larger study, this research aimed to examine whether the argument for public relations’ leadership of CSR holds true in non-Western contexts as well, specifically, by examining CSR leadership in corporations in India that are known to be socially responsible. This study found that in the majority of companies that are heavily engaged in CSR in India, it was the senior business executives and managers, instead of the PR practitioners, that were tasked with CSR leadership. Based on the findings of this study, this paper questions the assumption of CSR leadership by public relations practitioners.     

Inequalities in students’ union leadership: the role of social networks

Drawing on a national survey of students’ union officers and staff, and a series of 24 focus groups involving both union officers and institutional senior managers, this article explores the characteristics of those who take up leadership roles in their (higher education) students’ union. We show that, in several areas – and particularly in relation to gender, ethnicity and age – union leaders do not represent well the diversity of the wider student body. In explaining these inequalities, we argue that friendship groups and other peer networks play a significant role in determining who does and does not take up leadership positions. Moreover, as friendship groups are often formed on the basis of ‘differential association’ and are thus frequently socially homogenous, inequalities tend to be perpetuated. Wider institutional cultures and societal norms are also implicated.     

Not ‘one of us’: understanding how non-engaged youth feel about politics and political leadership

The modern election campaign is a well-oiled machine. Campaigns are won by the smallest of margins. Strategists provide incentives for specific market segments, and potential voters are identified well before the writ is dropped. However, few questions are asked in those same war rooms when certain groups stay home – namely young people. Young people are largely ignored at election time, and in turn, those under 30 ignore elections. Drawing on 20 focus groups conducted in Canada in 2014, this paper compares politically engaged and less engaged communities of young people to learn how they feel about politics and political leaders. This effort builds a better understanding of why some communities of young people are less interested and engaged in politics which is vital to our understanding of turnout decline among youth, as it is these communities of young people who have almost entirely tuned out of political affairs.     

When non-CSR-themed social media influencers endorse corporate CSR initiatives: Effects of publics’ perceived influencer characteristics and leadership

Over the most recent decade, non-CSR-themed social media influencers (SMIs) have played an important role in driving positive outcomes of corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaigns on social media, a practice primarily contributed by public relations. Responding to the call to fully exploit SMIs for achieving public relations objectives, the research aimed to search for systematically identifying the most suitable SMIs with whom to collaborate for CSR endorsements. Grounded in social learning theory and the influence framework, this study examined the effects of characteristics and leadership of an SMI who endorses CSR initiatives on generating the supportive behavior towards the initiatives among the corporation’s most influential public on social media, its consumers. Results from a survey of 967 U.S. consumers showed that non-CSR-themed SMI endorsers trigger target consumers’ supportive behavior towards the CSR initiative which they have endorsed when the consumers perceive them as opinion and taste leaders. The SMI endorsers’ trustworthiness, expertise, uniqueness, and (consumer-SMI) congruity constituted their opinion leadership perceived by the consumers while expertise, uniqueness and congruity formed their taste leadership. Opinion and taste leadership fully mediated the effects of trustworthiness, expertise, and uniqueness on consumers’ CSR supportive behavior while partially mediating the impact of congruity on the CSR supportive behavior. The findings shed light on how to select effective SMIs in non-CSR domains to generate consumers’ behavior to support the CSR initiatives.     

Does managers' motivation matter? Exploring the associations between motivation,transformational leadership,and innovation in a religious organization

Religious organizations are social systems operating in a complex and changing environment. By looking to an authority beyond themselves, religious organizations have comparatively little control over defining their own goals. In this juggling between sticking to the ultimate goal of an organization and adapting to complex changing environments, that is, in the juggling between tradition and renewal, transformational leadership seems to play an important role in religious organizations. The extensive body of literature on transformational leadership has focused more on the outcomes of transformational leadership than on its antecedents. We extend the existing literature by linking managers' motivation to their transformational leadership behaviors in a religious organization. More specifically, we examined the associations of intrinsic and prosocial motivation with transformational leadership, and we investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and innovation among 252 managers in the largest nonprofit organization in Norway, the Church of Norway. Analyses in structural equation modeling revealed a positive relationship between intrinsic motivation and transformational leadership, whereas the relationship between prosocial motivation and transformational leadership was not significant. Transformational leadership was positively associated with innovation. Based on the results of the study, we discuss practical implications regarding how to support intrinsic motivation, transformational leadership, and innovation in religious organizations.     

Organizational factors,leadership practices,and adoption of technological and administrative innovations: an exploratory study of Lithuanian nonprofit social service organizations Organizaciniai faktoriai,lyderystė ir technologinė bei administracinė inovacijos: aprašomasis Lietuvos nevyriausybini organizacij tyrimas

This exploratory study sought to describe the types of innovations implemented by Lithuanian nonprofit social service organizations, their leadership practices and organizational cultures. It also assessed the relationships among organizational innovation, leadership, organizational culture, and size. Thirty-five nonprofit organizations in Kaunas, Lithuania, constituted the sample. Technological product innovation was by far the most often implemented innovation type. While technological innovation was not related to any of the independent variables, administrative innovation was positively related to the value dimensions of team orientation and stability. Taking a closer look at the relationship between leadership and organizational culture variables provided useful insights into why there was little association between organizational innovation and the independent variables. Limitations of the study are discussed along with implications for social work practice.

?is tyrimas siek? apra?yti inovacijas, kurias diegia Lietuvos socialin?s nevyriausybin?s organizacijos, ?i organizacij kultūr bei lyderyst?s praktikas. Taip pat buvo vertinti ry?iai tarp organizacij inovatori?kumo, lyderyst?s, organizacin?s kultūros bei organizacijos dyd?io. Tyrimo antrankos grup sudar? trisde?imt penkios Kauno miesto (Lietuva) nevyriausybin?s organizacijos. Da?nausiai naudojam inovacij tipas—technologin?s, arba produkto inovacijos. Nors technologin?s/produkto inovacijos nebuvo susietos nei su vienu nepriklausomu kintamuoju, administracin?s inovacijos buvo teigiamai susietos su orientacijos komandin veikl bei stabilumo vertyb?mis. Gilesnis ry?i tarp lyderyst?s ir organizacin?s kultūros kintamj nagrin?jimas pad?jo geriau suprasti silpnus ry?ius tarp organizacini inovacij bei nepriklausom kintamj. ?is straipsnis taip pat aptaria tyrimo trūkumus bei rezultat svarb socialinio darbo praktikai.     

Predicting attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship: the role of servant leadership in young people / Predicción de las actitudes y las intenciones conductuales hacia el emprendimiento social: el papel del liderazgo de servicio en los jóvenes

: Social entrepreneurship (SE) refers to the development of innovative projects whose main aim is not individual profit but the transformation of society. The issue is particularly important for promoting youth development and participation. This research offers insights from two studies designed from a multi-dimensional perspective analysing attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social ventures built upon the constructs of servant leadership and lifestyles. Results of Study 1 indicated that servant leadership is a key predictor of attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship, while having a violent lifestyle is negatively associated with these attitudes and intentions. Study 2 showed that servant leadership style predicted attitudes towards social entrepreneurship over and above other types of leadership (i.e., transformational, transactional and laissez-faire). These studies demonstrate the importance of considering servant leadership and relational styles as key factors in predicting attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding social and active participation of young people. Limitations of the study and applications to designing interventions aimed at improving attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship are discussed.     

Transformational leadership and job satisfaction of police officers (carabineros) in Chile: the mediating effects of group identification and work engagement / Liderazgo transformacional y satisfacción laboral en carabineros de Chile: los efectos mediadores de la identificación con el grupo y el work engagement

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership and work satisfaction, as well as to analyse the mediating role of group identification and work engagement in a police training process at a Chilean professional military institution. The sample was made up of 985 candidates representing all the candidates that joined the units of the country in the different locations. Officers and non-commissioned officers acting as instructors were considered ‘leaders’, while their ‘followers’ were the young candidates in the training period. It was found that all the relevant variables were positively and significantly interrelated, and a model of structural equations revealed that both work engagement and group identification played a mediating role in the relationship between transformational leadership and work satisfaction.     

Authentic leadership and its influence on group cohesion and organizational identification: the role of organizational justice as a mediating variable / El liderazgo auténtico y su influencia sobre la cohesión grupal y la identificación organizacional: el papel de la justicia organizacional como variable mediadora

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between authentic leadership, group cohesion, organizational identification and the potential effect of organizational justice as a mediating variable. Partial Least Squares (PLS) modelling was used to analyse the data from 210 employees at several Spanish companies. The results showed that organizational justice as a mediator in the proposed model and positive relationships among the variables studied. These findings are discussed taking into account the importance of the authentic leadership model in the study of group processes in organizations and the development of policies and behaviours that promote ethics, transparency and justice in companies.