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This study investigated the differential effects of empowering leadership and directive leadership in projects. Moreover, how the complex interplay between empowering and directive leadership styles influences both leader–member exchange and project performance was also explored.

Polynomial regression analysis and response surface modeling were applied to analyze 161 matched data collected from project members and managers worked in different projects located in China.

Four leadership styles were identified, i.e. ambidextrous, delegating, directive and laissez-faire styles. These may be combined with empowering and directive leadership. With regard to (in)congruence, leader–member exchange and project performance improved with ambidextrous style as a form of high–high congruence between empowering and directive leadership compared with laissez-faire style (i.e. low–low congruence). Results were better when a delegating style was combined with empowering leadership at a high level compared with the combination of directive style as directive leadership at a high level. Leader–member exchange was identified to exert a mediating role of the (in)congruence on project performance.

This study confirmed the contingent viewpoint of leadership by identifying distinct leadership styles applied in projects. Furthermore, the co-existence of empowering leadership and directive leadership was examined, and the underlying mechanism between the (in)congruence of empowering and directive leadership and project performance was identified.

This paper aims to offer a new leadership perspective based on the premise that leader effectiveness depends on the context in which leadership behaviors are enacted.

Literature in the areas of abusive supervision and leadership were reviewed. Using social learning and attribution theories, this study develops propositions regarding the role of perceived abusive supervision in high vs low-intensity organizations.

In this theoretical account, this paper distinguishes between low and high-intensity work organizational contexts articulating a rationale for conditions appropriate for directive leadership. This paper posits that while directive leadership will be more prevalent in high-intensity contexts, it will be specifically targeted toward poor performers, those with personality characteristics that are tied to poor performance and those engaging in deviant behaviors. This study proposes that outcomes of directive leadership will depend on how it aligns with organizational norms and culture and the causality attributed to such behaviors.

Recent leadership theories focus on nurturing and providing support to followers. This paper posits that such theories are suited to low-intensity organizations. This study offers a counterintuitive perspective in proposing that directive leadership which involves inducing stress, will lead to better outcomes in high-intensity organizational contexts. This paper offers testable propositions and avenues for future research on directive leadership in high-intensity organizational contexts.

Based on the premise that leadership is context-dependent, this study proposes that directive leadership is best suited in high-intensity organizational contexts, which is a novel proposal. Even within these high-intensity contexts, such leadership, this paper proposes will be targeted toward poor performers and employees with characteristics that are tied to poor performance and violation of organizational norms.

Examination of the role of directive leadership in high intensity, clan culture organizations may facilitate understanding that effective leadership styles may differ depending upon the organization context.

Based on the premise that leadership is context-dependent, this study presents a novel proposal that directive leadership is most suited to high-intensity organizational contexts. Even within these high-intensity contexts, such leadership, this paper posits will be targeted toward poor performers and employees with personality characteristics associated with poor and deviant performance.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which male and female leaders report engaging in participative versus directive intellectually stimulating transformational leadership behaviour across three different contexts (business, government and military).

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 64 senior leaders (29 female and 35 male) across Canada.

Leaders were more likely to describe using a participative versus directive approach to intellectual stimulation. Gender similarities and differences also appeared across contexts: government leaders reported almost twice as many directive examples as business leaders, and men and women in both of these contexts were very similar in their reports about how they enacted intellectual stimulation. In contrast, men and women in the military diverged, with male leaders reporting more participative behaviour than female leaders.

This study extends the leadership literature through an integration of participative and directive leadership theory with transformational leadership theory. Sample size and self‐report data are possible limitations.

Findings provide insight into the behaviours leaders engage in to enhance creative thinking and problem solving within organizations across different contexts and suggests that this aspect of transformational leadership is most likely to be enacted in a participative way by both male and female leaders.

This is one of the first studies to empirically investigate participative versus directive transformational leadership behaviour. Gender differences between contexts are worthy of further study, specifically regarding the implications of these findings for female leaders’ promotion and career progression.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of empowering leadership, directive leadership and initiating structure on innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and examine the mediating role of climate for innovation on those relationships.

Applying structural equation modeling, the study empirically tested the model on a sample of 330 employees from tourism SMEs in Vietnam.

Results indicated that climate for innovation mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and innovation and also initiating structure and innovation. Whereas empowering leadership was found to have a negative direct influence on innovation, directive leadership was unrelated to innovation.

The results of this study contribute to the literature by expanding the existing research on SME innovation, assessing the effect of diverse leadership styles and a climate for innovation on the innovation performance of SMEs. The findings enrich the literature by indicating the contribution of empowering leadership, directive leadership and initiating structure on encouraging innovation in SMEs.

When leading subordinates in the SME context, leaders who have a clear understanding of the effect of empowerment, direction and initiating structure can optimally seek to stimulate innovation. These leadership approaches influence employees’ task, interpersonal and role-related processes that shape a climate for innovation.

The novelty of this paper is that it examines the differential influences of empowering leadership, directive leadership and initiating structure on innovation and the mediating role of climate for innovation on these relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the generally positive impact of transformational leadership on organizational commitment in large organizations can be extended to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the manufacturing and service industry. The authors investigate the possible moderator effects of a participative and directive leadership style.

The collected data from 588 employees who rated 93 supervisors within 35 Dutch SMEs in both manufacturing and service industry. The authors analyse the nested data by means of multilevel modelling.

Transformational leadership, defined as visionary leadership and development stimulation, was positively related to organizational commitment for service SMEs, but not for manufacturing SMEs. While a participative leadership style did not moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment in either industry, a directive leadership style strengthened the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment in manufacturing SMEs.

Leaders in the service industry SMEs should engage in transformational leadership, whereas leaders in manufacturing industry SMEs should engage in other types of leadership. Future research should examine effective leadership in manufacturing.

As the results of this study suggest, a distinction should be made between manufacturing and service industry. The advice therefore needs to be twofold. Supervisors in manufacturing SMEs can best improve employees’ organizational commitment by intensifying transformational leader behaviour combined with a directive decision style. Supervisors in service SMEs do not have to combine transformational leader behaviour with a particular leader decision style, if they wish to be more effective.

Demonstrating transformational leader behaviour can be successful in both manufacturing and service SMEs. However, in manufacturing companies this will only be effective when combined with a directive leader decision style.

Although SMEs most of the time are considered as one similar group in comparison to large organizations, the authors follow Hughes and Wood (1999; see also Stonehouse and Pemberton, 2002) who argue that because of their different products, customers, and labour it is important to disaggregate research on SMEs and differentiate between manufacturing and service SMEs.

This study aims to investigate the associations among different leadership styles and employees' taking charge. Applying Person–Environment (P-E) fit theory, the current study further explores employees' intrinsic motivation as an important individual factor that possibly moderates the hypothesized relationships.

In this field study, 212 supervisor–employee matched multi-source data were collected from multiple organizations located in South Korea. Data were analyzed with multiple hierarchical regression.

Empowering leadership is positively related to employees' taking charge, whereas directive leadership is negatively associated with it. Results of the current study further support that intrinsically motivated employees exhibit more taking charge when their leader shows empowering leadership but reduce their taking charge when their leader demonstrates directive leadership.

The current empirical results could not infer causality due to a cross-sectional research design.

Organizations should develop and embrace empowering leadership if the employees' self-started and change-oriented behavior, taking charge, is particularly critical to fostering organizational effectiveness.

This study extends the literature on leadership and employee proactivity by examining different leadership styles as predictors of employees' taking charge. Based on the current study results, empowering leadership could work as a facilitator and directive leadership as a barrier to employees' taking charge.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a model linking directive and supportive leadership to group-level helping behaviors via group-level perceived organizational support (GPOS) and collective affective commitment (CAC).

Using data from 115 business units of an international retailer, the authors tested and compared the theoretical model against more parsimonious solutions using χ² difference tests. The hypotheses were examined within a structural model.

The results show that GPOS acts as a mediator in the relationship between leadership behaviors and CAC and between directive leadership and group-level helping behaviors. Supportive leadership is directly related to CAC and group-level helping behaviors.

Implications of these findings for research on supportive and directive leadership are discussed.

This paper proposed a model that examined intermediate linkages between directive and supportive leadership and group-level helping behaviors. In doing so, the authors provide a preliminary response to recent calls for examination of mediators of task-oriented and relations-oriented leadership effects (Judge et al., 2004).

Extends the transactional‐transformational model of leadership by deductively developing four theoretical behavioral types of leadership based on a historical analysis of leadership literature. Then, in an exploratory empirical phase, uses two data sets to inductively develop alternative models of leadership types. Finally, with a third data set, tests several theoretically plausible typologies using second‐order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the CFA generally support the existence of four leadership types: directive leadership, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and empowering leadership.

Although suitable leadership is crucial for chain coordinators (chief executive officers (CEOs), managing directors and heads of departments) to achieve the effectiveness of supply chain coordination (operational and social performances contributing to financial performance), the potential caveats in New Zealand-Euro agri-food supply chains are the lack of theoretical as well as empirical investigations that scrutinize the linkages between leadership styles, their interactions and the effectiveness of supply chain coordination. The purpose of this study is therefore to address the above knowledge gap.

Structural equation modelling and interaction effects are applied to the data collected from chain coordinators working in the selected New Zealand-Euro agri-food supply chains (dairy, meat, fruits and vegetables).

The results indicate that participative leadership is more strongly correlated with the effectiveness of supply chain coordination than directive leadership. The directive leadership is also significant, which leads towards the adoption of strategic leadership. Interaction effects further conclude that companies perform better when their chain coordinators apply strategic leadership practices. Moreover, operational (service quality and product quality) and social (trust in and satisfaction with supply chain partners) performances are the key determinants of financial performance (increased sales, profit and market share).

The results enhance the understanding of chain coordinators and help them to achieve coordination effectiveness among agri-food supply chain partners. Therefore, the study provides practical implications linked with contemporary international agri-food supply chains.

This study provides in-depth analysis to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework, which helps to confirm the complicated linkages between the underlying constructs, with the specific characteristics of New Zealand-Euro agri-food supply chains. Consequently, the results also clarify the earlier ambiguous findings from other industries and countries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of shared leadership on the gap between male and female leadership influence in groups.

The leadership influence of 231 members from 28 committees was studied using a social networks methodology. Gender differences in committee members’ directive and supportive leadership influence were analyzed through two ANCOVA tests.

Results confirm significant differences between men and women’s leadership influence, as rated by their peers, using directive and supportive leader behaviors. Surprisingly, shared leadership has no significant effect on reducing this gender gap.

Results cannot be extrapolated to all other types of groups, since the committees studied have very unique characteristics due to their low typical mutual interaction.

Organizations may need to consider complementary strategies in their group leadership design to prevent the emergence of strong gender gaps when leadership is shared. These strategies could involve training members to recognize gender inequalities in leadership status and assigning leadership roles formally to ensure more equal participation in leadership.

This paper examines the promise of gender equality in shared leadership and provides empirical data that shows that this promise is not being realized.