Romancing leadership: Past, present, and future

This paper presents a review of the romance of leadership and the social construction of leadership theory 25 years after it was originally introduced. We trace the development of this theoretical approach from the original formulation of the romance of leadership (RoL) theory as attributional bias through its emergence as a radical, unconventional approach that views leadership as a sensemaking activity that is primarily ‘in the eye of the beholder.’ We subsequently review research published in management and organizational psychology journals, book chapters and special issues of journals from 1985 to 2010. Three overall themes emerged from this review: 1) biases in (mis)attributions of leadership, including attributions for organizational success and failure; 2) follower-centered approaches, including the role of follower characteristics, perceptions, and motivations in interpreting leadership ratings; and 3) the social construction of leadership, including interfollower and social contagion processes, the role of crisis and uncertainty, and constructions and deconstructions of leadership and CEO celebrity in the media. Within each of these themes, we examine developments and summarize key findings. Our review concludes with recommendations for future theoretical and empirical work in this area.     

More is less? The volunteer stewardship framework and models

Scholars have devoted substantial attention to developing conditional models of volunteer administration and management, but no consensus surrounds the criteria underlying the different models or the rationale. The literature reveals a welter of possibilities but no clear choice. This study conceives the primary managerial challenges as securing access to and guiding volunteer energy into productive volunteering, and the volunteer administrator as the central actor in this process. Based on how volunteers are accessed and guided in their roles, we develop the Volunteer Stewardship Framework, which distinguishes volunteer administration according to two key dimensions: organizational access to volunteer energy (private resource vs. common pool) and guidance of volunteers (unitary vs. shared). Results of a survey of volunteer administration practitioners in the Netherlands show that respondents working under the four models emanating from the Framework recognize different elements of volunteer administration as “Very Important.”     

The “new” military and income inequality: A cross national analysis

Military expenditures have escalated over the last three decades in both developed and less developed countries, without a corresponding expansion of military personnel. Spending has instead been directed towards hi-tech weaponry, what we refer to as the “new” military. We hypothesize that this new, increasingly capital-intensive military is no longer a pathway of upward mobility or employer of last resort for many uneducated, unskilled, or unemployed people, with significant consequences for those individuals and society as a whole. One such consequence, we argue, is an increase in income inequality. We test this hypothesis with cross-national panel models, estimated for 82 developed and less developed countries from 1970 to 2000. Findings indicate that military capital-intensiveness, as measured by military expenditures per soldier, exacerbates income inequality net of control variables. Neither total military expenditures/GDP nor military participation has a significant effect. It appears from these findings that today’s “new” military establishment is abrogating its historical role as an equalizing force in society, with important policy implications.     

A semiparametric nonlinear mixed model approach to phase I profile monitoring

When process data follow a particular curve in quality control, profile monitoring is suitable and appropriate for assessing process stability. Previous research in profile monitoring focusing on nonlinear parametric (P) modeling, involving both fixed and random-effects, was made under the assumption of an accurate nonlinear model specification. Lately, nonparametric (NP) methods have been used in the profile monitoring context in the absence of an obvious linear P model. This study introduces a novel technique in profile monitoring for any nonlinear and auto-correlated data. Referred to as the nonlinear mixed robust profile monitoring (NMRPM) method, it proposes a semiparametric (SP) approach that combines nonlinear P and NP profile fits for scenarios in which a nonlinear P model is adequate over part of the data but inadequate of the rest. These three methods (P, NP, and NMRPM) account for the auto-correlation within profiles and treats the collection of profiles as a random sample with a common population. During Phase I analysis, a version of Hotelling’s T² statistic is proposed for each approach to identify abnormal profiles based on the estimated random effects and obtain the corresponding control limits. The performance of the NMRPM method is then evaluated using a real data set. Results reveal that the NMRPM method is robust to model misspecification and performs adequately against a correctly specified nonlinear P model. Control charts with the NMRPM method have excellent capability of detecting changes in Phase I data with control limits that are easily computable.     

Implementing legislative strengthening programmes: Who is in control?

Over the last few decades, international development (also known as Official Development Assistance (ODA)) has been under attack for its lack of effectiveness. Critiques reflect two conceptual challenges, the nature of expert knowledge and the centrality of local ownership of development initiatives, bounded by the practical constraint of how politically controlled resources from bilateral and international donors will be used. This article examines five implementation strategies, including their strengths and weaknesses, keyed to the level of control asserted by the donor agency. We illustrate our argument through a review of legislative strengthening projects, most of which were funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) in the case of one of the models.     

Discussion

A number of studies have investigated the numerical reliability of the GAUSS Mathematical and Statistical System by Aptech Inc. Those studies identified several critical accuracy errors for different computational methods. We conducted comprehensive tests of this widely used package on estimation, statistical distributions, and random number generation and found that GAUSS 8.0 still has serious problems, especially with statistical distributions and random number generation.