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1 – 10 of 683This chapter deals with the issue of distance between leaders and followers. I claim that distance from a leader is not only a reflection of time and space (i.e., objective…
Abstract
This chapter deals with the issue of distance between leaders and followers. I claim that distance from a leader is not only a reflection of time and space (i.e., objective distance) but also connected to followers’ emotions toward the leader manifested in their construal of their leaders. I report the findings of initial investigations that demonstrate how the patterns of construal of leaders as close or distant can be explained by construal level theory as well as through psychological theories of emotions. Finally, I discuss implications to theories of leadership and followership.
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The article addresses the relationship between social distance and charismatic leadership. Current theories of charismatic leadership in organizations have borrowed ideas from the…
Abstract
The article addresses the relationship between social distance and charismatic leadership. Current theories of charismatic leadership in organizations have borrowed ideas from the literature on socially distant charismatic leaders and applied them to leadership situations that involve direct contacts between leaders and their immediate subordinates. This article argues that while social distance is not a necessary condition for charismatic leadership, there are fundamental differences between distant charismatic leadership and close charismatic leadership. The article attempts to identify these differences through a theoretical analysis of the two leadership situations and through an exploratory content analysis of interviews about close and distant charismatic leaders.
Nazia Rafiq, Ambreen Sarwar and Maria Rasheed
The fear of COVID-19, being an emerging research variable and a parcel of the ongoing pandemic, has not yet been fully studied with respect to leadership and employee family life…
Abstract
Purpose
The fear of COVID-19, being an emerging research variable and a parcel of the ongoing pandemic, has not yet been fully studied with respect to leadership and employee family life. Based on the conservation of resources theory, the current study aims to investigate the relationship between despotic leadership and work-family conflict under the context of fear prevailing due to COVID-19. The paper also highlights the mediating role of emotional exhaustion between the two variables.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected in two waves by using a time-lagged design from 225 nurses from hospitals in the Central Punjab region in Pakistan. Analysis was done through process macro in SPSS.
Findings
Results showed that despotic leadership is positively related to work-family conflict directly and through emotional exhaustion indirectly. Furthermore, the moderation of fear of COVID-19 has also been noted such that its increase strengthened the direct as well as the indirect relationship between despotic leadership and work-family conflict.
Originality/value
During the days of COVID-19, the pandemic posed a strong threat to employees' family lives, especially in the presence of despotic leaders at the workplace. Amidst the widespread fear and harmful effects of COVID-19 on economies and organizations, this study provides novel implications for policymakers, researchers and practitioners for mitigating the impact of despotic leadership on employees' family lives.
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What happens when leaders are unable to keep leading? Leaders are often expected to be enthusiastic, innovative and help lead their organization forward. However, sometimes they…
Abstract
What happens when leaders are unable to keep leading? Leaders are often expected to be enthusiastic, innovative and help lead their organization forward. However, sometimes they can find themselves so emotionally and physically depleted that they are unable to function, even at the most basic level. Years of stress, heavy responsibilities, personal issues and unhealthy work hours can take a toll in the form of ‘burnout’. The battery is flat and the car cannot start. There are many contributing factors to burnout. It comes at a high cost to the leader, his family and his organization. This chapter will look at the nature of burnout and examine how the leader’s personality, work role, leadership style and life experiences can all contribute to the development of this condition. The impact of burnout, pathways to recovery and some preventative measures will also be examined combining current research findings with the author’s own experience of burnout. This chapter aims to highlight the need for leaders to look after themselves and for organizations to help support their leaders in an effective way. Although recovery from burnout may be a difficult and long journey, leaders can regain their strength and motivation and return to the role stronger and with more effective coping strategies.
Ronald Busse and Georg Weidner
Environments coined as “VUCA” (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) are hotbeds for new modi operandi in organisations that involve a shift from face-to-face towards…
Abstract
Purpose
Environments coined as “VUCA” (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) are hotbeds for new modi operandi in organisations that involve a shift from face-to-face towards distant leadership, as well as from “classical” towards agile organisation principles.
Design/methodology/approach
At the same time, digital collaboration tools have found their way into daily business operations. As the above changes arguably leave deep imprints on performance indicators, our work accordingly illuminates potential impacts on employee engagement. Based on a German sample, we conduct a qualitative investigation featuring in-depth interviews.
Findings
Our findings indicate a curvilinear inverted (approximate) U-shaped relation between what we dub “leadership richness continuum” (including specific characteristics of leadership, agility, as well as the application of a digital collaboration tool) and engagement.
Originality/value
Although our work may inspire practicing managers, we also contribute to theory development providing a new theoretical model for employee engagement.
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Dirk De Clercq, Sadia Jahanzeb and Tasneem Fatima
With a theoretical anchoring in the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study investigates how employees' exposure to abusive supervision ultimately might lead to…
Abstract
Purpose
With a theoretical anchoring in the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study investigates how employees' exposure to abusive supervision ultimately might lead to enhanced supervisor ratings of their job performance because employees react with defensive silence. Employees' neuroticism also might catalyze this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Multi-source, three-wave data were collected from employees and their supervisors in the power-distant, collectivistic country of Pakistan.
Findings
Beliefs about the presence of verbally abusive leaders, somewhat ironically, mitigate the risk of diminished supervisor-rated performance evaluations to the extent that those beliefs prompt employees to engage in self-protective behaviors to avoid confrontations with the abusive leaders. This mediating role of defensive silence is invigorated to the extent that employees' personalities make them more sensitive to stressful work situations.
Practical implications
For practitioners, this study identifies self-protective silence as a key, potentially worrisome mechanism that employees in power-distant, collectivistic countries may use to avoid negative performance ratings by leaders they perceive as abusive, and it reveals how this process tends to vary across different employees.
Originality/value
This research cites a critical, unexplored factor through which verbally abused employees can avoid negative performance evaluations, by engaging in defensive silence, not only as a potentially detrimental solution but also as an effective short-term solution. It further clarifies that this process is more likely to occur among neurotic employees.
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This article aims to use a new model and three case studies to illustrate what takes place when the emotional pressures on leaders become too great. The author seeks to argue that…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to use a new model and three case studies to illustrate what takes place when the emotional pressures on leaders become too great. The author seeks to argue that a level of anxiety is triggered that tips them into unskillful or dysfunctional behavior. Even the most seasoned leaders are prey to this process, which has potentially destructive and far‐reaching consequences for themselves and their organizations. By illustrating how anxious leaders can be helped to retain or regain their most effective selves through coaching, the article aims to contribute to best practice in leadership development.
Design/methodology/approach
The emotional profiles triangle (EPT) model emerged from the author's first‐hand experience over 20 years in the field of leadership development. A senior executive coach, she observed a clear pattern among her clients, which showed that when leaders feel anxious or threatened, their behavior changes in one of three specific and consistent ways. The EPT draws on psychodynamic psychology, which emphasizes the importance of emotion in driving behavior, often unconsciously. It also draws on neuroscience which explains the hardwiring that drives the human response to “danger signals”.
Findings
The EPT identifies and describes three emotional profiles, which comprise a related set of functional and dysfunctional leadership behaviors. Through exploring their profile, individual leaders can learn to play to their strengths while managing their anxiety and behavior more effectively. The EPT has been extensively tested since 2009 with coaching clients and boards, and at conferences and on leadership development programs. This article includes three brief case studies that illustrate its application.
Originality/value
This original model has received consistently positive feedback from leaders, coaches and HR professionals. Users have particularly valued its clarity, accessibility and practical value as a development tool.
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This study set out to empirically investigate the direct effects of leader emotional expressivity on visionary leadership, as well as the moderating effect of leader emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
This study set out to empirically investigate the direct effects of leader emotional expressivity on visionary leadership, as well as the moderating effect of leader emotional expressivity on the relationship between visionary leadership and organizational change magnitude.
Design/methodology/approach
Cross‐sectional data from 108 senior organizational leaders and 325 of their direct followers were collected from 64 organizations across numerous industries. Leaders completed measures of emotional expressivity and organizational change magnitude, while followers provided ratings of visionary leadership, leadership effectiveness, and organizational change magnitude.
Findings
Consistent with expectations, leader emotional expressivity was strongly related to visionary leadership, while leader emotional expressivity moderated the relationship between visionary leadership and organizational change magnitude. Visionary leaders with high emotional expressivity skills facilitated the greatest organizational changes in their respective organizations.
Research limitations/implications
The cross‐sectional research design precludes causal conclusions among the variables of interest, and also suggests the possibility of reverse causality such that perceptions of organizational change may have influenced ratings of visionary leadership.
Practical implications
Managerial selection, promotion, and development practices would benefit from focused assessments of senior leaders' emotional communication and visionary leadership skills.
Originality/value
While prior research includes mostly laboratory studies that manipulate visionary leadership and emotional expressiveness using trained actors, the present study examined a diverse range of senior leaders and their followers from numerous organizations. Addressing a neglected stream of research, findings also demonstrate much needed support for the interactive effects of emotional expressivity and visionary leadership on organizational change magnitude.
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Hongqin Li, Oswald Jones, William S. Harvey and Jie Yang
This article examines the influence of Daoist nothingness on leadership in growing Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Daoism is based on a “letting-go” approach through…
Abstract
Purpose
This article examines the influence of Daoist nothingness on leadership in growing Chinese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Daoism is based on a “letting-go” approach through maintaining inherent openness, which challenges goal-oriented and hierarchical approaches typical of Western and Confucian leadership theories. This facilitates the cross-fertilization of ideas related to the effective management of smaller firms.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focuses on SME leaders in a group of 12 growing SMEs in the Shanghai logistics industry in China. Narrative and semi-structured interviews explored emerging aspects beyond the established model of leadership associated with reputation-building. This led to in-depth, thick descriptions, broadening our understanding of leadership and reputation-building.
Findings
SME leaders follow nothingness by continuously adopting a letting-go approach which spontaneously fosters reputation-building. By maintaining inherent openness, nothingness functions as an enabling principle that mobilizes multi-beings leading to reputation-building in unintended ways.
Research limitations/implications
A greater plurality of empirical and methodological contexts in Western and non-Western countries helps to understand the dynamics and intersection of Daoist nothingness, leadership and reputation-building.
Practical implications
SME leaders recounted how they discursively practised nothingness for extended periods in their everyday practice. The study shows the significance of nothingness for SME leaders who aspire to grow their businesses by reputation-building among salient stakeholders.
Social implications
Daoist nothingness provides insights into the distinctive approach of Chinese SME leaders and their relationships with local and distant stakeholders. By engaging in active non-action they relax pre-determined intentions and immerse themselves in the process of leading, where the connections between goals and processes are automatically animated. Such an approach differs from the top-down and goal-oriented approach to leadership adopted in many Western SMEs.
Originality/value
This paper makes two theoretical contributions. First, it indicates the powerful influence of Daoist nothingness on leadership by drawing on the broader context of entrepreneurship in Chinese SMEs. Secondly, it enriches existing concepts such as reputation by endowment and reputation borrowing by demonstrating how Daoist nothingness silently fosters both local reputation and generalized reputation.
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Samia Jamshed and Nauman Majeed
Research unveiled that interdisciplinary health-care teams are often found to be ineffective because of deprived team mechanisms. Considering effective team functioning, a leader…
Abstract
Purpose
Research unveiled that interdisciplinary health-care teams are often found to be ineffective because of deprived team mechanisms. Considering effective team functioning, a leader’s non-cognitive abilities, knowledge-sharing behavior and the role of culture remain central concerns of health-care teams. This study aims to investigate how a leader’s emotional intelligence (EI) in a prevailing team culture can nurture the sharing of knowledge and enhance team EI that influences team performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used multisource data representing a sample of 195 teams (735 respondents) to examine the hypothesized relationships by using the analytic strategy of partial least squares-structural equation modeling. This study bridged the methodological gap by using the repeated indicator approach that includes the reflective-formative second-order hierarchical latent variable model.
Findings
The results revealed a standpoint that leaders practicing the ability of EI influences team performance by understanding each other emotions in the leader–member relationship. Further, culture adds value and maps knowledge-sharing behavior which is tailored and beneficial for effective team outcomes.
Practical implications
This study provides valuable inputs by articulating uniquely modeled variables for health-care teams confronting high work demands. This study highlights that leaders' EI can enhance understanding of the emotions of the team and can exchange information by harnessing knowledge-sharing behavior amongst professionals.
Originality/value
This study provides a novel contribution by integrating leaders’ EI, knowledge-sharing behavior, the role of culture and team performance in a single framework. The integrated theoretical model sheds light on team working in the health-care setting and advances the understanding of a leader’s EI and team culture through mapping knowledge sharing particularly being central to enhancing team performance.
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