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.     

Making Sense of “Quality?” — Toward a Review and Critique of Quality Initiatives in Financial Services

This article provides a broad classification and critique of the theoretical and empirical approaches toward quality initiatives. These are the technical managerialist, social managerialist, and critical nonmanagerialist approaches. The technical managerialist approach is based upon the flawed assumption that practice follows policy almost like night follows day. By contrast, focusing on intraorganizational politics and the tensions of hierarchy, social managerialists recognize that outcomes are always a negotiated compromise. A majority of these authors are concerned with rendering quality initiatives more effective for management. In contrast, critical nonmanagerialists refuse to take on uncritically the assumptions and attitudes of management, and are concerned with understanding the forms and content of quality initiatives. The article provides a conceptual framework for guiding and advancing research on quality initiatives, and it offers themes and issues which warrant exploring.     

Who Supports Marketization and Democratization in Post-Communist Romania?

The post-1989 change in former Communist societies in East and Central Europe is generally viewed as a double transition involving both marketization (removal of state hegemony over the economy)anddemocratization (move to a Western-style liberal democracy). Data from a nationwide survey of Romania in 1993 demonstrates that Romanians in fact distinguish two reform dimensions—marketization and democratization—as opposed to a single pro-Westernization dimension. Though Romanians distinguish marketization and democratization conceptually, support for reform in both instances is strongest among the same segments of the population: the young, the better educated, men, and those living in cities. Further analysis reveals that the effects of age, gender, and urban residence (but not education) largely wash out once the effects of risk aversion, individualistic ideology, and personal economic expectations are controlled for. Risk aversion is an especially important mediating variable. Men, the young, and those in cities are more likely to support marketization and democratization in large part because they tend to be less averse to risk.     

AUDIO AND VIDEO COMPUTER-ASSISTED SELF INTERVIEWING: Preliminary Tests of New Technologies for Data Collection

Results are reported from a preliminary study testing a new technology for survey data collection: audio computer-assisted self interviewing. This technology has the theoretical potential of providing privacy (or anonymity) of response equivalent to that of paper self-administered questionnaires (SAQs). In addition, it could offer the advantages common to all computer-assisted methods such as the ability to implement complex questionnaire logic, consistency checking, etc.. In contrast to Video-CASI, Audio-CASI proffers these potential advantages without limiting data collection to the literate segment of the population. In this preliminary study, results obtained using RTI's Audio-CASI system were compared to those for paper SAQs and for Video-CASI. Survey questionnaires asking about drug use, sexual behavior, income, and demographic characteristics were administered to a small sample (N = 40) of subjects of average and below-average reading abilities using each method of data collection. While the small sample size renders many results suggestive rather than definitive, the study did demonstrate that both Audio- and Video-CASI systems work well even with subjects who do not have extensive familiarity with computers. Indeed, respondents preferred the Audio- and Video-CASI to paper SAQs. The computerized systems also eliminated errors in execution of "skip" instructions that occurred when subjects completed paper SAQs. In a number of instances, the computerized systems also appeared to encourage more complete reporting of sensitive behaviors such as use of illicit drugs. Among the two CASI systems, respondents rated Audio-CASI more favorably than Video-CASI in terms of interest, ease of use, and overall preference.     

Managerial prerogatives,employee expectations,and property rights in job security: Institutionalizing the “new equity”

Changes in the structure and provisions of the employment relationship create substantial challenges for the management community. The employer-manager's traditional prerogatives to terminate at will are being eroded in response to changing socioeconomic values that recognize the emergence of an employee's reasonable expectations of job security. The United States lags far behind the international community in protecting these expectations. The authors survey the erosion of the employment-at-will doctrine, and review the concepts of corporate due process and property rights relating to employment. To ensure the institutionalization of this new equity, the authors call on the management community to take the initiative in crafting progressive legislation that strikes a sensible balance between managerial prerogatives and employee expectations of job security.     

COMPETING AUCTIONS

This paper shows that larger auctions are more efficient than smaller ones, but that despite this scale effect, two competing and otherwise identical markets or auction sites of different sizes can coexist in equilibrium. We find that the range of equilibrium market sizes depends on the aggregate buyer‐seller ratio, and also whether the markets are especially thin. (JEL: D44, L11)