Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether leader self-efficacy and leader role ambiguity are related to follower leader-member exchange (LMX). In addition, the authors examine whether the relationship between follower LMX and turnover intention will be mediated by need satisfaction.

Data were collected using an electronic survey tool filled out by 109 leaders and 696 followers.

Leader role ambiguity was positively related to an economic LMX relationship and negatively related to a social LMX relationship. Furthermore, the links between social and economic LMX relationships and turnover intention were mediated by satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and relatedness.

The main limitation of the study is the cross-sectional nature of the data from the followers.

Provided that the findings are generalizable organizations should provide role clarification initiatives to leaders with high role ambiguity.

Despite the centrality of role theory in the development of LMX theory, prior research has not investigated whether the extent to which leaders perceive that they meet the expectations of their leadership roles affects followers’ perception of LMX relationships.

This chapter examines the impact of adopting a global strategy upon leaders’ roles and identities in an engineering consultancy firm. Drawing upon process and social practice perspectives on leadership; our results explain leaders’ resistance to changing practices despite major process changes as due to the threats to their identity caused by the new role requirements to implement a global strategy. Our emerging process and social practice model of leadership highlights the complementary nature of process and practice change, creates a distinction between good and malign ambiguity in professional services firms and has implications for regulating the pace and timing of major changes which impact upon professional identities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of empowering leadership on contextual ambidexterity. To this end, the authors underscore the underlying mechanism of perceived organizational support (POS). Furthermore, to provide more robust insights into this indirect effect, role ambiguity was examined as a moderator.

The paper is based on a questionnaire survey. Data collected from 219 employees working in three IT small-and-medium enterprises located in Greece.

The findings indicated that empowering leadership is positively related to contextual ambidexterity through POS and, further, this indirect association is contingent on role ambiguity.

The study provides more insights into the important role of leadership in generating contextual ambidexterity. Thus, moderated mediation framework that has empirically tested considers both how and when empowering leadership affects contextual ambidexterity and provides important implications for both theory and practice.

Despite much attention being devoted to shared leadership, the negotiation of such arrangements remains underexplored. In parallel, the revival of interest in matrix structures reveals their challenges but neglects the dynamics of shared leadership. In this case study, the author analyzes the tensions experienced by senior managers of a healthcare organization transitioning from a hierarchical to matrix structure as they negotiate their leadership roles in this new arrangement.

The author interviewed 16 senior managers, observed their meetings and analyzed documents. These data were combined with secondary data including previous interviews and observations of this top leadership team. The author then conducted an inductive data analysis.

The author's analysis reveals that the tensions experienced by senior managers as they negotiate their roles reflect the co-existence of leadership surpluses (too much leadership) and deficits (too little leadership) in matrix organizations. The author argues that surpluses and deficits are not mutually exclusive but are interrelated and shows how leadership surpluses can create leadership deficits.

The author’s findings suggest that in contexts of leader abundance, actors should explore leadership voids. Particular attention should be paid to incidents of intrusion and exclusion, moments of transition and intense role negotiation, as those contexts are particularly conducive to leadership deficits.

While previous work on matrix structures focuses on leadership surpluses, the author discusses leadership deficits. The author explores how more leaders do not necessarily mean more leadership, but instead how more leaders may result in leadership voids.

Leadership is an essential contributor to employee creative self-efficacy, and past research suggests a positive relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy. However, the relationship is complex and contingent upon moderating variables, and this research examines the moderating effect of role clarity by drawing on social exchange theory and social cognitive theory.

Data collected from a survey among 116 emergency room employees is used to test the research model using moderated ordinary least squares regression.

The results confirm a positive relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy and suggest a U-shaped relationship between role clarity and creative self-efficacy. Furthermore, role clarity positively moderates the relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy.

The sample used for this research mainly consisted of highly educated employees within a specific setting. Future research is needed to study if the relationships found in this research can be generalized to other organizational settings.

This research suggests that leaders can support employees' creative self-efficacy through servant leadership, particularly when coupled with high role clarity.

Rapidly changing work environments are characterized by decreased role clarity, so attention is needed to its moderating role on the relationship between servant leadership and creative self-efficacy.

This study aims to explore the challenges reported by Israeli school vice-principals regarding their relationships with principals and teachers. The study examines two questions: (1) How do vice-principals perceive the challenges involved in their relationships with principals and teachers? and (2) How do they respond to these challenges?

The study employed a qualitative approach to explore the challenges encountered by Israeli school vice-principals in their relationships with principals and teachers. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 17 vice-principals, allowing for an in-depth understanding of their perspectives and experiences.

The findings of the study highlight three challenges mentioned by the research participants: bridging between principals and teachers, maintaining complete loyalty to both sides and middle-ground responsibility for the school.

This study enriches the existing literature on vice-principals by investigating their distinct position as intermediaries bridging teachers and principals. It offers valuable insights into the challenges they encounter in their interactions with both parties, as well as their strategies to tackle these issues. Through the application of role theory, the research deepens comprehension of the intricate nature of the vice-principals' role, providing pragmatic suggestions for improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to inform readers on what is known on information processing in virtual teams and to discuss the consequences of these findings for the management of virtual teams.

Systematic review of the literature on information processing in virtual teams based on a general information processing model for teams.

An overview of the most relevant factors that influence the effectiveness of virtual teams is provided.

The review is based on existing literature on virtual teams and it discusses future research directions opened by the conceptualization of virtual teams as information processing systems.

The paper identifies the factors that can improve the effectiveness of information processing in virtual teams.

The general information‐processing model for teams enables a systematic integration of the fragmented literature on virtual teams.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between job tension (JT) and the use of intimidation in the workplace, as well as positive and negative affectivity as two potential personality trait moderators of this relationship.

The paper hypothesizes that employees would use more intimidation when they perceive higher levels of JT based on a fight response. Furthermore, it hypothesizes that when JT was high, people high in negative affectivity would use more intimidation in the workplace due to trait activation, whereas individuals high in positive affectivity would use less intimidation due to greater resource pools. The hypotheses was tested with a sample of 134 employees from a wide range of occupations and industries who completed an online survey measuring their levels of felt JT, usage of intimidation behaviors, and self‐reported affectivity.

Hierarchical moderated regression analyses revealed that JT was positively related to intimidation usage. The analyses also showed support for negative affectivity as a moderator, such that high levels of intimidation occurred when JT and negative affectivity were both high. Positive affectivity did not moderate the relationship.

Although persons high in negative affectivity are particularly vulnerable to the effects of JT, organizations must be aware of the potential for behaviors (e.g. intimidation) that can result from felt tension. Prior research has primarily viewed tension as an outcome variable; the research conceptualizes tension as an antecedent in the stressor‐strain‐outcome paradigm. Intimidation is shown to be an outcome of workplace tension – a behavioral reaction to psychological strain that is an attempt to protect valued resources.

The purpose of this paper is to compare and integrate leader-member exchange (LMX) and leader identification (LID) as concurrently functioning mediators between three leadership styles (individual-focused transformational, contingent reward, and benevolent paternalistic) and two citizenship behaviors (helping and taking charge).

Data included 395 stable, independent leader-follower dyads from numerous Chinese organizations. Partial least squares structural equation modeling and relative weight analysis were used in data analyses.

In established, steady-state leader-member alliances, LMX was the dominant explanation between various leadership styles and helping; whereas LID explained leadership effects on taking charge. Three-stage indirect effects of leadership-LMX-LID-taking charge were found. Also, LMX and LID related to the three focal leadership styles in distinct ways.

Limitations include cross-sectional data. Strengths include a large, multi-source field sample. Implications include that LMX and LID provide different prosocial motivations; LMX indirectly engenders stronger other-orientation through LID; and the nature of indirect leadership effects via LID is more sensitive to the nature of the focal leadership styles. LMX and LID together provide a package of prosocial motivations.

Leaders interested in increasing employees’ helping vs taking charge behaviors can be more effective by understanding the different motivational potentials of LMX vs LID. Leaders also need to choose appropriate behavioral styles when they activate LMX vis-à-vis LID.

This study integrates multiple leadership theories to provide a nuanced account of how social exchange and self-concept explain leadership at the interpersonal level when leadership styles, LMX, and LID are stable.

The purpose of this paper, on self-efficacy and leadership, has two objectives. First, it comprehensively reviews approximately 25 years of research on leadership self-efficacy (LSE), beginning with LSE measurement and related criticisms. Findings concerning LSE’s relationships with leader effectiveness criteria, as well as individual and contextual influences on LSE, are presented. Second, it examines the evidence on efficacy enhancement interventions and offers some preliminary recommendations for increasing LSE through leadership development programs.

The author conducted a comprehensive literature review of the existing research on LSE, covering the main contributors to this research stream and their findings.

The review revealed substantial diversity in LSE construct development and measurement approaches. Regarding LSE and leader effectiveness, many studies reported positive relationships with potential, performance and behavioral ratings of leaders. Collective (team) efficacy has emerged as a significant mediator between LSE and group performance. Influences on LSE include several of the Big Five personality traits, while contextual antecedents are under-researched, and potentially fruitful areas for further study. Executive coaching and mentoring, as well as cognitive modeling techniques and training in constructive thought patterns, received support for enhancing LSE in developing leaders.

This paper’s review and implications should be of substantial value to current and future LSE researchers, as it summarizes past research, synthesizes the findings to draw out common themes and consistent, corroborated findings, and identifies opportunities for future research. For practitioners, the reviewed research on interventions for increasing LSE through leadership development programs provides practical guidance.