Empowering leadership and contextual ambidexterity – The mediating role of committed leadership for continuous improvement

Organisations nowadays try to be ambidextrous, that is, to balance exploitation and exploration, at the level of the organisational unit, or even at the individual level. Recent studies found that important drivers for contextual ambidexterity are a high level of empowerment and an orientation towards continuous improvement (CI) and innovation. It is, therefore, to be expected that empowering leadership and leader commitment to CI are associated with contextual ambidexterity. However, literature about the relationships between empowering leadership, committed leadership for CI and contextual ambidexterity is scant. Based on two separate survey studies, we validated both the relationship between empowering leadership and contextual ambidexterity, and the mediating effect of committed leadership for CI in the organisational unit level and the individual level. The managerial implications of this research is that organisations that want to facilitate contextual ambidexterity should not only empower employees so that they can decide more independently on how to organise their time and make choices when they conduct exploratory activities and when they perform exploitative activities. Management must also act as committed ambassadors for CI, as CI functions as an integration mechanism to create both alignment and adaptability, and hence contextual ambidexterity.     

A new model for successful management of engineering design firms — “superpositioning”

A SuperPositioning model for successful management of engineering design firms is discussed which allows firms to be categorized within a matrix bounded by two primary drivers, their engineering Design Techology (how they do their work) and their Values (the primary reward thrusts or motivations of the owners). Technologies are separated into Strong Idea (Brains), Strong Service (Gray Hair) and Strong Delivery (Routine Procedure). Values are divided between Practice Centered Business and Business Centered Practice.The firm's Design Technology affects the optimal way it should handle Project Design, Project Decision Making, Middle and Lower Level Staffing, Markets, What it Sells, What it Can Charge, and Best Management Style. Its choice of Values impacts the Organization Structure, Organization Decision-Making, Staffing at the Top, How it Markets, Best Clients, Marketing Organization, Profit Strategy, Reward and Management Style. Firms that optimize their strategies for these elements to match their choice of drivers are observed to perform better for their clients and in terms of their owner's satisfaction.     

A reduced form of the Workplace Bullying Scale – the EAPA-T-R: A useful instrument for daily diary and experience sampling studies

The need for more longitudinal studies (i.e. daily diary and experience sampling studies) focused on counterproductive work behaviours such as bullying requires shorter scales that at the same time do not compromise their content validity. Our main objective is to develop and validate a reduced version of the Workplace Bullying Scale (Escala de Abuso Psicológico Aplicado en el Lugar de Trabajo): the EAPA-T-R. Two studies (Study 1: 1506 and Study 2: 932 employees, respectively) were conducted to evaluate its psychometric properties and to ensure the external validity of the EAPA-T-R. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to reduce the current 12-item scale to a more parsimonious 4-item scale. Moreover, the psychometric properties of potential models were compared. Subsequently, the new scale was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Likewise, statistically significant relationships were found between the EAPA-T-R and other dimensions evaluated, such as job characteristics, transformational leadership, engagement, job satisfaction, and subjective performance. Moreover, bullying mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and burnout. To sum up, the EAPA-T-R showed good reliability and validity across studies, supporting its use in future research. The benefits of this short scale for daily diary and experience sampling studies and when using large surveys 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.     

“Sorting Out” collective leadership: How Q-methodology can be used to evaluate leadership development

Q-methodology has proven to be an effective way to solicit participants' perceptions of outcomes. In this article, Q-methodology is described as a data collection tool that can be used to better evaluate the development of collective leadership. Additionally, this methodology provided a valuable tool for participants themselves (leadership development) and evaluators (evaluation development). In writing this article, we drew upon data from a longitudinal study of the Kellogg Leadership for Community Change (KLCC) initiative at six sites from 2002 through 2007 where multiple data collection strategies were employed, including Q-methodology.     

A tourism tax — the cases for and against

It is important that any proposal for a tax on tourist activity should be the subject of a balanced consideration. The hostile reactions initially felt by many engaged in tourism are understandable, but the tax needs to be viewed from all perspectives — hotelier, tourist, non-tourist, community and government — if its rationale and structure are to be fully appreciated. The article attempts to draw together many of the more important arguments for and against a tourism tax, by referring to the few published works on the subject and by relating it to some aspects of the wider field of public finance. It is apparent that there is a lack of information relating to the form and effects of a tourism tax in the UK; this article may serve as a framework for further investigations.     

“Facing” leaders: Facial expression and leadership perception

This experimental study investigated the effect of a leader's expression of happy versus nervous emotions on subsequent perceptions of leadership and ratings of traits associated with implicit leadership theories (ILTs). Being fast and universally understood, emotions are ideal stimuli for investigating the dynamic effects of ILTs, which were understood in this study in terms of the constraints that expressed emotions impose on the connectionist networks that activate ILTs. The experimental design contrasted videotaped and still frame presentations of a leadership event; however, this methodological factor had no significant effects and analyses were thus collapsed across this factor. Key findings were that the expression of a happy versus nervous emotion at the end of a problem-solving sequence had multiple effects: happy emotions resulted in higher leadership ratings, higher trait ratings, greater correlations among trait ratings, and greater dependence of trait ratings on leadership perceptions. An exploratory model suggested that leadership impressions mediated the effects of facial emotions on trait ratings. The discussion further links the study findings with interpretations in terms of ILTs and many types of constraints on these cognitive structures. It also suggests ways to integrate these ideas with advances in neuroscience research.     

Emotional labor and leadership: A threat to authenticity?

Building on the emotional labor and authentic leadership literatures, we advance a conceptual model of leader emotional displays. Three categories of leader emotional displays are identified: surface acting, deep acting and genuine emotions. The consistency of expressed leader emotions with affective display rules, together with the type of display chosen, combines to impact the leader's felt authenticity, the favorability of follower impressions, and the perceived authenticity of the leader by the followers. Emotional intelligence, self-monitoring ability, and political skill are proposed as individual differences that moderate leader emotional display responses to affective events. We also look at followers' trust in the leader and leader well-being as key outcomes. Finally, we explore the influence on leader emotional labor of contextual dimensions of the environment, including the omnibus (national and organizational culture, industry and occupation, organizational structure, time) and discrete (situational) context. Directions for future research are discussed.     

A Trojan Horse? The implications of managerial coaching for leadership theory

This article examines the behaviours associated with managerial coaching and assesses the implications for leadership theory. Survey data from 521 line managers are analysed to: (i) identify the behaviours associated with managerial coaching, (ii) examine factors that affect the propensity of managers to undertake coaching and (iii) discuss the implications of the manager as coach role for leadership theory and practice. First, the analysis indicates that workplace coaching is distinct from specialized coaching practices. Second, demographic characteristics of individual managers, such as their age, experience or level of management qualification are unlikely to affect their propensity to undertake managerial coaching. However, leader-team member relationships (leader-member exchange) and occupational self-efficacy (OSE) are predictive of managerial coaching behaviours. Third, managerial coaching challenges traditional leader-centric models of leadership and requires an acknowledgement of reciprocity, collaborative ‘meaning-making’ and a diminished ‘distance’ between leaders and team members.     

Acting with the best of intentions… or not: A typology and model of impression management in leadership

Impression management (IM) is important for effective leadership. Followers accept influence from individuals who meet their perceptions of what it means to be a leader, and IM is an important way of impacting those perceptions. Yet, the extant literature on leader IM is fragmented. We unify the literature in this area by creating a multi-dimensional typology and multi-level model of IM in leadership. We examine the multi-dimensional nature of IM as a construct composed of information processing, communicative, and goal-directed components, thereby creating eight IM archetypes. Then, we examine how IM can be used to impact follower perceptions of the leader through the lenses of transformational/charismatic, authentic, and leader categorization theories. This research unites a currently fragmented area of research and sparks new questions about how leader behaviors can be used to influence followers toward multi-level leadership outcomes.     

Operant leadership and employee citizenship: A question of trust?

The present study replicates and extends previous research examining the relationship between operant leader behavior and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Drawing on recent theory proffering trust as an important explanatory mechanism, we hypothesized that employee trust mediates the relationship between operant leader behaviors and OCB. Further, we argue that the valences associated with reward and punishments augment the effects of both contingent and non-contingently administered behaviors. Using data collected from 475 employees of a United States manufacturing firm, results indicate that trust fully mediates the relationship between operant leadership and OCB. Further, results confirmed that contingently based reward and punishment leader behaviors are more constructive in engendering trust and citizenship than non-contingent leader behaviors.     

Finding the niche to reposition leadership in Africa’s developing economies for the global highway: review of literature on leadership development programmes – methods and techniques*

Africa’s developing economies remain in critical need for leadership. This paper asserts that Africa’s new growth opportunities rest with leadership that could champion organizational performance, innovativeness, and good ethics among others. A review of extant literature on leadership development programmes (LDPs) was done to examine possible initiatives that leadership developers can use to influence leadership practices in Africa. This paper proposes that in Africa, LDPs can be used to inculcate authentic leadership practices and enhance networking and acquisition of innovative skills among others. Furthermore, LDPs could target the youth considering them as an investment into tomorrow’s leadership talent pool. The paper suggests that Africa’s niche for the global highway rests in contextualization of LDPs from other regions to Africa’s unique environment.     

Why does transformational leadership matter for employee turnover? A multi-foci social exchange perspective

Drawing on social exchange theory, the present study investigates the underlying mechanisms through which transformational leadership influences employee turnover. Leader–member exchange (LMX) and affective commitment (AC) are proposed as supervisor-based and organization-based social exchange mechanisms respectively, exemplifying how social exchange processes occur between an employee and his/her supervisor, and between the employee and his/her organization as a whole to underpin the effect of transformational leadership on turnover outcomes. Results of structural equation modeling on a sample of 490 full-time employees working in a large telecommunication company in the PRC provided support for the notion that transformational leadership is related to both social exchange mechanisms – LMX and AC – turnover intention and turnover behavior. Furthermore, the results revealed that AC rather than LMX mediated the link between transformational leadership and turnover intention. Turnover intention also only mediated the relationship between AC and turnover behavior over time.     

Is there such a thing as leadership skill? – A replication and extension of the relationship between high school leadership positions and later-life earnings

This paper replicates and extends Kuhn and Weinberger's (2005) “Leadership Skills and Wages”. The original article found that those white males who were club presidents and team captains in high school earned significantly more eleven years later. As the empirical relationship between leadership positions and subsequent earnings includes those characteristics that predate high school and those that are developed because of leadership activity participation in high school, the original study cannot differentiate between leadership skills developed earlier and those developed in high school. We employ propensity score matching on leadership exposure in high school to control for potential endogenous observable selection and provide estimates from instrumental variable regressions to assess the robustness of the original effects to other omitted causes. To investigate the generalizability of the original findings, we also extend the sample by including females and non-white males. Lastly, we investigate how an extension of the initial (11-year) time horizon to almost 50 years affects the coefficient estimates. We can corroborate the original effect that those who occupied leadership positions as captains and presidents earn more 11 years after high school and report higher income some 50 years after high school. We fail, however, to find effects for those who occupied only a role as captain or president solely. Moreover, the findings do not generalize to the samples of females and non-white males. Our findings provide important insights into later-life benefits of early leadership exposure and have implications for those designing leadership training programs and those taking on (or refraining from) leadership positions in early life.