Leadership criteria in the Pacific Northwest of the USA 19972002

Abstract

There have been very little follow-up leadership behaviour studies. This study describes an investigation of the US insurance industry. Management behaviour was studied in the beginning and at the end of the five-year period 19972002. On the whole insurance managers in the Pacific Northwest in the hard market conditions of 2002 appear on average to have changed their leadership criteria evaluations only slightly: they appreciated staffing and managing by example more than their colleagues did previously in the soft market conditions of 1997. The empirical data were checked for company size and management level. According to three-way variance analysis the different time period (soft or hard market conditions) and company size seem to have affected three leadership criteria: insurance managers in big companies in 2002 seemed to rate organizing, delegating and mutual trust more highly than their colleagues did five years earlier. The study suggests hypothetically that in a soft market period (buyer's market) managers employ a more relationship-oriented leadership style and correspondingly adapt their leadership style to a more task-oriented approach in a hard market phase (seller's market).