Physician leadership. An emerging leadership position

Demand is growing for Vice Presidents for Medical Management. This is a new physician executive position that enhances the ability of hospitals and health systems to more fully integrate delivery of care and thus attract managed care contracts. Located at a hospital, a health system's headquarters, or at a hospital's MSO, this position complements the traditional role of a hospital Vice President for Medical Affairs (or Medical Director), as well as the role generally played by the Medical Director in a managed care organization, linking them via a continuum of responsibilities. Compensation and prospects are high for qualified candidates.     

Servant leadership

As corporations are eagerly pursuing reengineering and reorganization, leadership functions are changing to champion these efforts. Traditionally, organizations have had a "top-down" management approach, however, there is a gradual shift to other leadership models. Servant leadership is being successfully implemented in many settings. Servant leadership, first popularized by Robert Greenleaf in 1970, puts serving others as the number one priority. Ten characteristics of a servant leader include: Listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. Both servant leadership and the chaos theory have in common the central tenet of relationships. Since America is now approximately 80 percent a "service-economy," servant leadership can greatly benefit the individual employees, as well as help to facilitate the organization's pursuit of its changing strategic plans.     

Aesthetic leadership

We introduce aesthetic leadership as a promising approach in leadership studies. Two current movements in leadership research, the inclusion of followers in leadership models and the exploration of subjective leadership qualities, make taking an aesthetic perspective in leadership especially attractive and timely. Aesthetics relates to felt meaning generated from sensory perceptions, and involves subjective, tacit knowledge rooted in feeling and emotion. We believe the aesthetics of leadership is an important, but little understood, aspect of organizational life. For example, while we know followers must attribute leadership qualities such as charisma and authenticity to leaders to allow for social influence, we know little about how these processes operate. We propose that followers use their aesthetic senses in making these assessments. We relate aesthetic leadership to several current topics in leadership research, and outline the assumptions and methods of aesthetic leadership.     

Intergroup leadership

Strong leadership within a group can increase the likelihood of conflict with other groups. This ingroup/outgroup leadership trade-off, occurring in contexts from businesses and political parties to ethnic groups and nations, raises questions about how a different kind of leadership can improve intergroup relations. Although leadership theory often focuses on a single group, sidelining questions of intergroup dynamics, some leadership literature addresses intergroup relations. Concurrently, some intergroup relations literature directly addresses leadership. Here, we synthesize and attempt to catalyze research on leadership that promotes positive intergroup relations: intergroup leadership. We begin by reviewing the ingroup/outgroup leadership trade-off. Next, we examine five theoretical approaches to leadership that show potential to promote positive intergroup relations. Finally, we identify six characteristics of the literature as it has developed and might develop in the future. These serve as possible directions for research to further illuminate the science and practice of intergroup leadership.     

Narcissistic leadership

Narcissism—a personality trait encompassing grandiosity, arrogance, self-absorption, entitlement, fragile self-esteem, and hostility—is an attribute of many powerful leaders. Narcissistic leaders have grandiose belief systems and leadership styles, and are generally motivated by their needs for power and admiration rather than empathetic concern for the constituents and institutions they lead. However, narcissists also possess the charisma and grand vision that are vital to effective leadership. We review and critically assess the theoretical and research literature on narcissistic leaders in order to understand the potential positive and negative consequences of their leadership, the trajectories of their leadership, and the relationship of narcissism to established models of leadership. We conclude that the study of narcissistic leaders is inherently limited in scope, and propose a new definition of narcissistic leadership in order to reframe the discussion and better incorporate the topic of narcissism into the field of leadership studies.     

Re-imagining ethical leadership as leadership for the greater good

As Western nations slowly emerge from the recent global recession, there is demand among citizens for authorities to practice, and be seen to practice, ethical leadership. Although these conditions have been favourable for research into ethical leadership, extant research privileges westernized perspectives on ethical leadership and is largely silent on the meaning and practice of ethical leadership in the context of the ‘big’ ethical questions. In consequence, most research into ethical leadership, although well meaning, offers little guidance about how to imagine and implement sustainable, ethical solutions to systemic problems. In this research note, we outline a proposal to reimagine ethical leadership as leadership for the greater good and identify three avenues of research into leadership for the greater good that compliment existing critical perspectives on ethical leadership.     

Common sense leadership

Common sense has to do with problem solving. In the complexities of everyday human life, we are faced time and again with the need to solve problems. In fact, every situation we face, at least at the first exposure, requires some form of problem solving. When we want food, we have to solve a series of problems from acquisition to preparation to serving and eating. When we deal with organizational needs, problem solving is the daily fare.     

Communicating collaborative leadership

Collaborative or shared leadership has frequently been advocated as an alternative to vertical or top-down leadership. Building on the conceptual and theoretical aspects of collaborative leadership developed in previous research, this study examined the specific communication behaviors and processes used to create collaborative leadership. Based on participant observation ethnography and interviews of all the major participants, the authors collaborated on this study to explore how the leader's attitudes, behaviors, and communication supported collaboration and how the group members participated in creating a collaborative culture. The findings may be transferable to other group endeavors in which leaders and members wish to create a collaborative group process.     

研发团队领导、团队反思与研发团队绩效关系研究

针对研发团队的特点,以团队领导和团队反思理论为基础,提出了研发团队领导、团队反思与团队绩效之间关系的概念模型,并采用SEM方法进行了实证检验。结果表明,变革型领导和交易型领导都会对团队绩效直接产生影响,但前者的影响更显著;变革型领导能够通过团队反思影响团队绩效,而交易型领导不能。团队反思在鼓励性激励、智能激发、个性化关怀三个变量分别与研发团队绩效作用过程中起到了一定的中介作用。     

Instrumental leadership: Measurement and extension of transformational–transactional leadership theory

Leaders must scan the internal and external environment, chart strategic and task objectives, and provide performance feedback. These instrumental leadership (IL) functions go beyond the motivational and quid-pro quo leader behaviors that comprise the full-range—transformational, transactional, and laissez faire—leadership model. In four studies we examined the construct validity of IL. We found evidence for a four-factor IL model that was highly prototypical of good leadership. IL predicted top-level leader emergence controlling for the full-range factors, initiating structure, and consideration. It also explained a unique variance in outcomes beyond the full-range factors; the effects of transformational leadership were vastly overstated when IL was omitted from the model. We discuss the importance of a “fuller full-range” leadership theory for theory and practice. We also showcase our methodological contributions regarding corrections for common method variance (i.e., endogeneity) bias using two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression and Monte Carlo split-sample designs.     

Setting the stage for effective leadership: Antecedents of transformational leadership behavior

Although transformational leadership behavior (TLB) has been linked to a number of positive organizational outcomes, research regarding the antecedents of such behavior is limited. Guided by Ajzen and Fishbein's theory of reasoned action [Psychological Bulletin 84 (1977) 888], we investigated two potentially relevant antecedents to performing TLB: cynicism about organizational change (CAOC) and the leader's social context—specifically peer leadership behavior. We hypothesized that CAOC would negatively predict TLB, while peer leadership behavior would positively predict TLB. Further, we expected that peer leadership behavior would have a positive moderating effect on leader CAOC. Data were gathered from 227 managers from multiple organizations and their 2247 subordinates. Findings supported the proposed hypotheses. Cynicism and peer leadership behavior explained nearly one quarter (24%) of the variance in TLB. Further, it appears that both CAOC and TLB may be malleable in organizational contexts. Implications for leadership research and practice are discussed.     

Transformational leadership and attachment

Attachment theory posits that the child's experiences with attachment figures (mostly parents) form the basis for an internal working model of self and others that can be either secure (others and self are perceived positively) or insecure (others or self are perceived negatively). In adulthood, these models are reflected in attachment styles which are manifested in various realms (e.g., romantic relationships). This article expands the conceptualization derived from attachment theory to the area of leadership. The arguments presented are anchored in the similarity found in the literature between characteristics of the secure attachment style and those of transformational leaders. The central hypothesis is that the style of transformational leadership will correlate positively with the secure attachment style. This hypothesis was examined in three studies conducted in officers' courses, using different sources of report in each study. In all three studies, significant correlations were found between secure attachment and transformational leadership. This new direction of research has important implications for the understanding of the personality and development processes of transformational leaders.     

Fostering integrative community leadership

This longitudinal field study examined the determinants of integrative, volunteer community leadership. Using a sample of 1443 participants in 43 community leadership programs across North America, we linked altruistic, social- and self-oriented motives to the breadth of individuals' volunteer involvement in their communities. Individuals who engaged in volunteer community leadership reported more altruistic motives (i.e., they volunteered because they were concerned about others). High levels of voluntary community leadership were also associated with social motives, such as getting involved in the community because friends or important others think doing so is important. Regardless of their motives, participants engaged in their communities in new ways following participation in a community leadership program, suggesting that such programs foster integrative community leadership. Programs that focused on team building as part of their curriculum were the most successful in fostering new community leadership activities, and programs that focused on knowledge and awareness of the community were effective in increasing participants' knowledge and awareness of the community. Considered as a whole, results of this study suggest that community leadership programs can increase both knowledge and awareness of the community and actual engagement in the community for community members who choose to participate in such programs.     

Management vs. leadership

What makes a good manager? A review of recent literature finds it's the person who deftly works behind the scenes, juggling many tasks and living in the world full of contradictions.     

高管团队内部动态特征实证研究

通过对中国企业高层管理团队内部动态特征(以沟通、冲突与决策质量作为3个关键变量)的实证研究,发现高层管理团队沟通规范有利于决策质量的提高,而高层管理团队内情绪冲突的增多会降低决策的质量.此外,高层管理团队沟通规范也促进团队内认知冲突的增加.研究结论指出了高层管理团队内部动态特征之间的联系,同时也为业界提高高层管理团队决策质量,进而增进团队绩效提供了方向.