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1 – 10 of 10Maj S. Fausing, Hans Jeppe Jeppesen, Thomas S. Jønsson, Joshua Lewandowski and Michelle C. Bligh
Previous studies show that sharing leadership in teams offers potential performance benefits across various contexts. This paper aims to investigate moderators of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous studies show that sharing leadership in teams offers potential performance benefits across various contexts. This paper aims to investigate moderators of the effectiveness of shared leadership. In particular, it seeks to explore the moderating effects of team work function – manufacturing versus knowledge team work – and team autonomy.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to test the hypotheses, the authors conducted hierarchical regression analyses and ran moderated two‐way regression analyses using a field sample of 552 employees comprising 81 teams in a Danish manufacturing company.
Findings
Contrary to expectations, the results demonstrated a non‐significant relationship between shared leadership and team performance. However, as expected, work function significantly moderated this relationship such that shared leadership exhibited a negative relationship with manufacturing team performance and a positive relationship with knowledge team performance. Moreover, team autonomy was positively related to performance, and it significantly moderated the relationship between shared leadership and team performance.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides a potentially useful framework for understanding boundary conditions for the effectiveness of shared leadership. However, since the design of the study is cross‐sectional, direct causation cannot be inferred. Moreover, the study took place within a single organization in a Danish context and, therefore, care must be taken in generalizing the findings without additional evidence from further research.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, the study is the first to obtain evidence which indicates that the success of shared leadership may depend on the team work function and the level of team autonomy.
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Michelle C. Bligh, Craig L. Pearce and Jeffrey C. Kohles
To address the increasing need for novel approaches to leadership that deal with the challenges organizations face as they flatten, diversify, and confront increasingly complex…
Abstract
Purpose
To address the increasing need for novel approaches to leadership that deal with the challenges organizations face as they flatten, diversify, and confront increasingly complex problems.
Design/methodology/approach
A meso‐level theoretical model is developed that outlines the relationship between self‐ and shared leadership, focusing on the intermediary processes of trust, potency, and commitment that may lead to the development of shared leadership and ultimately more innovative knowledge creation.
Findings
Nine propositions are developed, addressing the relationships between self‐ and shared leadership, concluding with some of the theoretical and practical implications of the model and specific recommendations for future empirical work in this area.
Research limitations/implications
An important boundary condition of the model is that it assumes team and organizational incentives are in place to encourage team building and the facilitation of team over individual achievements.
Practical implications
Conceptualizing leadership in this way leads to numerous unanswered questions regarding how team dynamics influence, and are influenced by, various forms of leadership (including lateral, upward, and downward influence attempts). Greater dialogue between the team dynamics literature and the leadership literature may lead to new insights into how shared leadership is influenced by a variety of team characteristics, including team ability, size, member maturity, familiarity, likeability, cohesion, etc., all of which are potential areas for future research.
Originality/value
Important research questions that stem from consideration of these two theories in concert will prove critical in understanding the complex interrelationships among self‐leadership, shared leadership, and the creation of new knowledge in today's complex and dynamic organizations.
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Melissa Lewis‐Duarte and Michelle C. Bligh
Executive coaching is commonly utilized in organizations to facilitate the personal and professional growth of executives. Executive coaches utilize a variety of proactive…
Abstract
Purpose
Executive coaching is commonly utilized in organizations to facilitate the personal and professional growth of executives. Executive coaches utilize a variety of proactive influence tactics to create behavioral change in their clients. The current study aimed to examine coaches' perceived use and effectiveness of the outcome, timing, and objective of proactive influence tactics in coaching relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Members of ten organizations affiliated with executive coaching were targeted for participation. A total of 110 participants completed the online survey.
Findings
Influence tactics including coalition, consultation, inspirational appeals, and rational persuasion were more frequently associated with client commitment. Consultation was more frequently utilized during initial influence attempts; pressure was more frequently utilized during follow‐up attempts. Coaches also reported using different tactics depending on the desired outcome of the influence attempt: coalition and pressure were utilized to change behavior, whereas coaches used consultation and rational persuasion to both change behavior and assign work.
Research limitations/implications
The results offer insights into executive coaching engagements, areas for potential training and development of practicing coaches, and techniques for creating more successful outcomes with coaching clients. The findings are limited by sample size, self‐report measures, and the lack of contextual or organizational information. Future research should expand these findings to provide additional information regarding the use of influence tactics in the executive coaching industry.
Originality/value
There is little empirical data regarding how executive coaches effectively influence behavioral change in their clients. The current study applies research on proactive influence tactics to the context of executive coaching, bridging these two previously disparate streams of research.
Michelle C. Bligh and Melissa K. Carsten
Previous research on psychological contracts has assumed that managers play a unidimensional role as either a contractual agent or an employee of the organization. These…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research on psychological contracts has assumed that managers play a unidimensional role as either a contractual agent or an employee of the organization. These assumptions are examined in light of a recent article advocating a “multiple foci” conceptualization of psychological contracts.
Design/methodology/approach
As psychological contracts become increasingly salient in times of rapid change, qualitative data from 16 nurse managers in a post‐merger hospital consolidation were examined.
Findings
Results indicate that managers have a bi‐directional obligation with both the organization and their subordinates. Specifically, managers have strong upward contracts with top management with regard to material support, resources, and strategic communication. Manager‐to‐subordinate contracts, on the other hand, reflect a greater emphasis on the areas of employee involvement and emotional support.
Practical implications
These findings challenge researchers and practitioners to explicitly consider a multiple foci conceptualization of psychological contracts, particularly in the context of organizational change. In practice, this means that one must dedicate more attention to uncovering the constituents with whom managers hold psychological contracts, as well as how managers prioritize their multiple contracts within the organization.
Originality/value
Given the conflictual role managers often face in a post‐merger environment, it may be increasingly difficult to understand managerial contracts using traditional approaches. Although exploratory, this study provides the first empirical support for the above recent argument, and suggests that taking into account the multifaceted content and structure of managerial contracts may play a critical role in successful change initiatives.
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Muhammad Haroon Shoukat, Syed Asim Shah and Dilnaz Muneeb
This study aims to examine the role of shared leadership (SL) practices in improving team performance (TP) in health-care producer organizations by mediating the roles of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the role of shared leadership (SL) practices in improving team performance (TP) in health-care producer organizations by mediating the roles of intellectual capital (IC) and team learning (TL).
Design/methodology/approach
Conceptual model was proposed using social learning theory and resource-based view theory. The structured questionnaire was administered to respondents of Pakistani health-care producer organizations using a cross-sectional approach. Data was collected from 23 team leaders and 203 team members from 23 different teams. PLS-structural equation modeling was applied to SmartPLS 3.2.9.
Findings
The findings revealed that SL and IC are positively associated with TP, while TL has no association with TP. Further, SL is positively associated with IC and TL. This study also found that IC significantly mediates between SL and TP. Still, no mediating role of TL between SL and TP was found.
Practical implications
The findings suggest health-care producer organizations adopt shared leader practices where team members are given a say in decision-making to boost their morale, leading to effective TP.
Originality/value
The conceptual model was created using social learning and resource-based view theories. This is an early attempt to examine the role of SL in health-care producer organizations.
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Maj Schoeler Fausing, Thomas Skriver Joensson, Joshua Lewandowski and Michelle Bligh
Shared leadership describes leadership as a collective and reciprocal activity distributed among the members of a team (Carson et al., 2007). The purpose of this paper is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Shared leadership describes leadership as a collective and reciprocal activity distributed among the members of a team (Carson et al., 2007). The purpose of this paper is to investigate variables assumed to be antecedents for this leadership approach. In particular, the authors examine the importance of external empowering leadership and task and goal interdependence for shared leadership as well as the relationship between shared leadership and team performance.
Design/methodology/approach
In order to test the hypotheses, the authors applied structural equation modeling using a field sample of 81 knowledge and manufacturing teams from a Danish company.
Findings
Results indicated that an external empowering team leader and interdependence in the team significantly predicted the extent of shared leadership, which, in turn, was positively related to team leader ratings of team performance.
Research limitations/implications
Overall, the study supports previous findings that the act of sharing leadership in a team may contribute to increased team performance. In addition, the study provides an initial understanding of antecedent conditions for the successful development of shared leadership. However, as the study was cross-sectional and conducted within a single organization, care must be taken in making causal claims or in generalizing the results without additional evidence.
Originality/value
Few studies focus on the antecedents of sharing leadership. The authors obtained evidence, which suggests that the development of shared leadership may depend on the presence of an empowering team leader as well as task and goal interdependence in the team.
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The paper seeks to use the experience of the author, a veteran consultant and author of many articles on leadership, who aims to summarize several fundamental concepts that have…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper seeks to use the experience of the author, a veteran consultant and author of many articles on leadership, who aims to summarize several fundamental concepts that have shaped the current debate about leaders and leadership. The author's goal is to dispel some leadership myths and offer some advice to leaders about how to perform more effectively in their roles.
Design/methodology/approach
Taking the long view, the author concludes that leadership actually emerges or develops over time – not at a unique specific instant. It seems to appear and then disappear; it is elusive.
Findings
Invisible forces act on the leadership process: the expectations of the followers, the culture of the organization and the circumstances. The task at hand and the context seem to dictate when and how leadership appears. The leadership dynamic thus depends on the situation.
Practical implications
The primary role of the leader must be to develop a culture that enables individuals to coalesce around the shared purpose of the enterprise.
Originality/value
Leaders act like Higgs bosons, activating and energizing the members of the organization as they interact. And like the boson, leadership may show up in the power it imparts to effective, committed followers.
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During my early years as a junior high school librarian, I was frequently beseiged with requests for heart‐throbbing love stories and mysteries. However, as the years passed and…
Abstract
During my early years as a junior high school librarian, I was frequently beseiged with requests for heart‐throbbing love stories and mysteries. However, as the years passed and the divorce rate increased, I began to encounter students who specifically asked for books about “mean stepparents” or “families where there are problems.” I initially wondered whether these new entreaties emanated from a small minority or from a more substantial cross‐section of the school population. Several well‐received book talks concerning the impact of divorce and a few discreet inquiries regarding the number of single‐parent families at my school convinced me that a general need existed.
Asif Hussain Samo, Sarah Wali Qazi and Wafa Mansoor Buriro
The purpose of this paper is to discover stereotypical beliefs of followers about female leadership and their possible outcomes in an organizational setting.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discover stereotypical beliefs of followers about female leadership and their possible outcomes in an organizational setting.
Design/methodology/approach
With phenomenological methodology, this study used a qualitative approach, and credible data were gathered through semi-structured interviews from the employees of the education industry of Pakistan. Stereotypical beliefs and their outcomes were extracted through thematic analysis.
Findings
The results show that female leaders are considered less fit for leadership role, which results in a reluctance in followership, the gap in communication and ineffective performance. Followers also tend to believe that women are less fit for pressure, resulting in a lack of trust and an intergroup conflict. The third stereotype that emerged from the results is that women are considered less fit for professionalism, which culminates in personal expectations, adverse effect on tasks and miscommunications.
Research limitations/implications
This study is confined to the local context, and the results suggest that while female leaders are mild and a personal approach may have a positive effect on followers but in Pakistani society, they are considered less fit for an overall leadership role. Moreover, these stereotypes breed prejudgment and overshadow women’s identity as leaders. This paves the way forward for further exploratory inquiry of female leadership and the empirical test of these stereotypes and their outcomes.
Practical implications
This study is a standpoint for organizations, present and potential female leaders to be conscious of existing stereotypes and their dire outcomes. It can also be used in government policymaking for initiatives to mitigate these stereotypes to harvest diversity and female empowerment. The leading leadership trainers of Pakistan can also be benefited from the contextual scientific information about female leadership.
Social implications
A society like that of Pakistan, which is striving to mitigate the gender inequality gap in every walk of life, needs to scientifically know the assumptions in the minds of people regarding women. The present study serves this purpose for women in a leadership capacity in an organizational setting.
Originality/value
This study is the first of its kind in the local context and paves the way for further research in diversity in leadership.
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