Implicit Leadership and Followership Theories “in the wild”: Taking stock of information-processing approaches to leadership and followership in organizational settings

For over 30 years information-processing approaches to leadership and more specifically Implicit Leadership Theories (ILTs) research has contributed a significant body of knowledge on leadership processes in applied settings. A new line of research on Implicit Followership Theories (IFTs) has re-ignited interest in information-processing and socio-cognitive approaches to leadership and followership. In this review, we focus on organizational research on ILTs and IFTs and highlight their practical utility for the exercise of leadership and followership in applied settings. We clarify common misperceptions regarding the implicit nature of ILTs and IFTs, review both direct and indirect measures, synthesize current and ongoing research on ILTs and IFTs in organizational settings, address issues related to different levels of analysis in the context of leadership and follower schemas and, finally, propose future avenues for organizational research.     

‘Innovation should not be Treason’: Domestic Violence Interventions

The deterministic ideology of political correctness which sanctions particular interventions permissible to use in domestic violence situations has not only thwarted creativity in the therapeutic field and ignored the interactional aspects of these complex relationships and the inherent opportunities for positive change, but has placed many women victims in danger unnecessarily. It is time to challenge simplistic models of domestic violence and develop feminist‐sensitive multiple approaches to this serious and complex social problem.     

‘No Coward Soul is Mine’: A Family Systems Analysis of the Bronte Family

The Bronte family produced three major authors of the Victorian period, only one of whom, Charlotte, lived to enjoy her fame. Since the beginning, this family has elicited controversy, myth and speculation. The authors attempt an analysis of the complex dynamics of the Brontes, including its constituent ‘family cultures’, parent‐child alliances, sibling bonds and rivalries, the traumatic effects of three early deaths, and the strong theme of secrecy and ‘protection’ in a family dominated by Branwell Bronte's instability and eventual alcoholism. The authors speculate on how this family might have presented for treatment, and invite readers to consider how they, as family therapists, might have responded.     

Suicidality and Sexual Orientation in Five Continents: Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America

This study examined the relation between suicidality and sexual orientation in an intercontinental sample (Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America). Participants responded to a survey hosted on the Internet Website of an international news organization. Categorical analyses compared homosexual and bisexual respondents' history of suicide attempts and suicide ideations to those of heterosexual respondents, by total sample, males only, and females only. A relation between male sexual orientation and suicide attempts was found for every continent except Europe (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.3, 6.9). A relation between female sexual orientation and suicide attempts was not found in any continent except North America (OR = 2.1; 95% CI % 1.7, 2.5). These data provide preliminary evidence of intercontinental variation in the relation between suicidality and sexual orientation.     

Emergence of Industries: A Review and Future Directions

This paper reviews the literature on the emergence of industries and the theoretical and methodological approaches employed. The analysis reveals that industry emergence can be depicted as a three‐stage process. In the first, initial stage, a disruption to the existing industrial order triggers the second, the co‐evolutionary stage, which includes four sub‐processes related to developments in technology, markets, activity networks and industry identity. The convergence of these sub‐processes leads to the third stage, a growth stage and the birth of a new industry. While these three stages and the four sub‐processes are well covered in the literature, the authors find that there is a lack of understanding in terms of the transitions between the stages, the interactions and interdependencies between sub‐processes and moderating factors of industry emergence. Future research can bridge these gaps by exploring the different origins and initial conditions of industries, the processes and interactions in the earliest stages of industry emergence, and the role of facilitating and managing industry emergence. This implies a shift in the research focus from the industries that have emerged to the nascent processes of emergence.     

Women rebuilding lives post-disaster: innovative community practices for building resilience and promoting sustainable development

Disasters result in devastating human, economic, and environmental effects. The paper highlights women's active participation in community-based disaster recovery efforts drawing from the results of the ‘Rebuilding Lives Post-disaster: Innovative Community Practices for Sustainable Development’ by an international research partnership. Two case studies are presented from Pakistan and the USA to demonstrate how women contribute to building resilience and promoting sustainable development in diverse post-disaster contexts. The policy and practice implications are relevant for discussions regarding the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals and framework.     

Sociology, ethics, and the priority of the particular: learning from a case study of genetic deliberations

There are growing debates about the relationship between the two disciplines of sociology and ethics, particularly as they each become increasingly involved in research and policy formation on the life sciences, especially genetics. Much of this debate has been highly abstract, often stipulating the seemingly different character of the two disciplines and speculating on their theoretical potential--or lack thereof--for future collaborative work. This article uses an existing collaboration between a sociologist and an ethicist, on a study of participation in genetic databases, to explore some of the challenges, for both disciplines, of working together. Building upon this case study, we examine the suggestion that the Aristotelian concept of 'phronesis' provides the grounds for establishing one possible theoretical framework with which the disciplines can be bridged. Further exploration of this approach leads to suggestions for ways of thinking about the apparently fundamental divides between the disciplines and for ways of adding to notions of a 'public sociology'.     

Slicing Up the Pie: Allocation of Central Government Funding of Care of Older People

The allocation of central government funds is a critical element in the equitable provision of local authority‐commissioned and ‐provided services. A variety of approaches to allocating funding for social services for older people have been used over the years, most recently founded on ‘needs‐based’ formulae. In 2004, the Department of Health for England commissioned research to help inform the improvement and updating of the formula. The results of individual‐level analyses were compared with the results obtained from analyses of small area (ward‐level) data on service users. Both analyses were affected by problems of data availability, particularly the individual‐level analysis, and the Department of Health and the (then) Office of the Deputy Prime Minister decided that the formula calculations should be based on the results of the small area analysis. However, despite the differences in approach, both methods produced very similar results. The correlation between the predicted relative needs weights for local authorities from the two models was 0.982. The article discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and developments that could allow a normative approach that would incorporate future policy objectives into formulae that, to date, have inevitably been based on historical data and service patterns.     

Transformational–transactional leadership and upward influence: The role of Relative Leader–Member Exchanges (RLMX) and Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

By utilizing the resource theory of social exchange (Foa & Foa, 1974), we attempted to cast light on the dynamics of the relationship between transformational–transactional leadership and employees' upward influence tactics. Using data collected in two time points (N = 200, 1 year apart), we found perceptions of transformational leadership (Time 1) to be positively related to the use of soft and rational upward influence tactics (Time 2) whereas transactional leadership (Time 1) was positively related to the use of soft and hard upward influence tactics (Time 2). We also found support for a 3-way interaction between transformational–transactional leadership, relative Leader Member Exchanges (RLMX) and Perceived Organizational Support (POS) on employees' upward influence tactics. Specifically, in resource-constrained conditions (low RLMX and low POS), employees were likely to use soft tactics to influence a manager they perceived as transformational to a greater extent than in resource-munificent conditions. They were also likely to employ higher levels of soft and hard tactics to influence a transactional manager in resource-constrained rather than in resource-munificent conditions.