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Displaying appropriate emotions enhances followers’ perceptions toward a leader. The present study examined the moderating effect of leader group-prototypicality on the relationship between leader’s emotion appropriateness and followers’ perceptions toward the leader (i.e., self-sacrifice intentions and effectiveness). Based on a set of 366 Malaysian students’ experimental survey responses, leader group-prototypicality emerged as a significant moderator. Specifically, the effect of leader’s emotion appropriateness was stronger for group-prototypical leaders than non-group-prototypical leaders. Hence, to enhance their perceived effectiveness, leaders should portray appropriate emotions and ensure that they are viewed as representative by their followers.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between leader group prototypicality and intergroup conflict, as well as its mechanisms and contextual factors using the social identity theory.

The research model was empirically tested using multi-phase, multi-source and multilevel survey data in China. The final sample consisted of 75 group leaders and 231 group members. Multilevel structural equation modelling and a Monte Carlo simulation were used for hypothesis testing.

The results showed that leader group prototypicality would engender intergroup conflict via intergroup distinctiveness. Further, leaders’ benchmarking behaviour moderated this indirect effect. In particular, leader group prototypicality resulted in higher intergroup distinctiveness and intergroup conflict, only when the leaders’ benchmarking behaviour was higher rather than lower.

First, this study addresses the question of whether leader group prototypicality would lead to intergroup conflict to provide theoretical and empirical insights to supplement extant literature. Second, the study advances the understanding of mechanisms (intergroup distinctiveness) and the consequences (intergroup conflict) of leader group prototypicality in an intergroup context. Third, the study shows that leaders’ benchmarking behaviour moderates the effect of leader group prototypicality on intergroup conflict through intergroup distinctiveness. As such, the findings are of value to future management practice by offering precise, practical interventions to manage the intergroup conflict caused by leader group prototypicality.

This study seeks to: involve team members in part of the actual design of training for their own team leaders; improve team leader knowledge and skills; and demonstrate the use of skill charting (SC) for learning and performance improvement.

Using focus groups of team members and q‐sort methodology we were able to have team members identify practical performance elements regarding the behavior of their team leaders. Integrating these performance elements into the training design for team leaders and using SC as a training tool, we were able to compare two groups of team leaders: one group (the study group) whose training focused, specifically, on the team‐generated performance elements and another group (the traditional group) whose training was focused on general, team leader performance elements.

In the perceptions of the team members, the S group team leaders, following training, performed more effectively regarding: response time, positive reinforcement, and focus on desired behavior of team members, than did the T group team leaders. Mean scores of ratings of performance were higher for S group team leaders than T group team leaders on all variables save one.

Owing to the nature of SC training, sample sizes could not be large; that is, sample sizes could not exceed 35 participants per each condition. Statistical tests are thus influenced. Other limitations involve the obvious time gap between actual training and the subsequent changes in behavior and performance. The study does offer considerable support to other research that makes use of SC training tools.

The activities undertaken in the study serve to involve team members, recognize their knowledge and skill, and empower them via decision making and personal recognition.

This study points to ways to involve team members directly in performance improvement and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether surface-level actual similarity interacts with leader-member dyadic communication agreement in predicting group member performance ratings at earlier time periods in a work group’s development. Additionally, this research examines whether deep-level perceived similarity interacts with leader-member dyadic communication agreement in predicting group member performance ratings at later time periods in a work group’s development. The relationship between shared cultural context and perceived and actual similarity is also investigated.

This research analyzes longitudinal data from the study questionnaires at five occasions in a Malaysian organization.

Results based on a sample of 28 group projects and 141 matching dyad who completed the study questionnaires at 5 occasions reveal that there is no interaction between workgroup relational ethnicity and workgroup relational gender with leader-member dyadic agreement at early time periods in a workgroup’s development. Therefore, H1 is not supported. H2 posited that deep-level perceived similarity will interact with leader-member dyadic communication agreement in predicting group member performance ratings at later time periods in a workgroup’s development. H2 is supported. Results reveal that the interaction between leader-member dyadic communication agreement and perceived similarity explains 36 percent of the variance of perceived group members’ performance ratings. This is after accounting for the control variable and the independent variables. From a cultural standpoint, the findings in this study underscore that conversations based on the Malaysian cultural norm of “budi” reflect not only a cultural basis of communication, but also that this shared cultural context leads to perceived similarity between ethnic Malay, Chinese, and Indians, and also both genders in the Malaysian workplace.

Leader-member dyadic communication agreement reflects the social appropriateness and relationship quality between individuals, as well as the context of the leader-member workgroup interactions. The findings of this study underscore the premise that conversations reflect not only a cultural basis of communication, but also that shared cultural context leads to perceived similarity. This study specifically examines the role of ethnicity in Malaysia organizational workgroup (e.g. ethnic Malay, Chinese Malay, and Indian Malay) as well as gender.

This study systematically examines the influence of actual and perceived similarity in leader-member dyadic communication from a longitudinal and multilevel standpoint.

The innumerable accounts of successful implementation of kaizen in Japan during more than 40 years has led to the expectation that continuous improvement (CI) might offer companies a means to gain and maintain a competitive advantage in the turbulent 1980s and 1990s. However, the majority of CI initiatives within the US and Europe died within a few years. While explanations as to why these efforts have not been successful can be found in the literature, methods for rejuvenating stagnant CI programs are still lacking. In this paper, experiences from a longitudinal action research project with a middle management group are presented to illustrate how a process of facilitated self‐assessment was used to identify and address barriers to CI implementation. Through this process, a better understanding of CI implementation issues was gained and CI implementation within the company revitalized.

This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.

This article highlights and discusses numerous, specific leadership attributes that contribute greatly to enabling a university faculty member to be an effective leader of a group of their peers. As such, this article provides additional insights into the important construct of “transcollegial leadership” (Burns and Mooney, 2018).

The personal “reflections on practice” (Schon, 1983) presented here are based on 40+ years of observing and experiencing university faculty leading groups of peers as well as numerous personal experiences of serving in such a leadership role.

This article presents a robust array of specific, real-world-based insights that can contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of a leader of peers in a higher education institutional setting. Moreover, the ideas presented are offered to leaders of academic institutions as foci for potential faculty development initiatives and discussions. The ideas presented are clustered into six categories – process, resolve, integrity, mindset, excitement/energy, and respect.

The actions and ideas presented pertaining to a university faculty member's capability to effectively lead a group of peers are widely and immediately actionable. The insights presented are also amenable to ongoing faculty development activities and discussions.

This article addresses the common challenge of effectively leading a group of one's faculty peers in an academic setting. As such, the article extends and embellishes the conceptual, institutional-level perspective presented by Burns and Mooney (2018) in this journal.

Purpose – Leadership is a very large topic with a long history of scholarship. Despite this, existing theories of leadership have been mostly silent about group-level phenomena and challenges that leaders of small teams face. Our chapter begins to address this problem by specifying four functions or challenges that any theory of group leadership should address if it is to be helpful to small-group scholars looking for answers about leading teams.

Approach – In order to identify main group functions that should be managed by leaders and be developed into refined leadership theories, we review both leadership and team studies. Based on the four functions that we establish, we briefly review a selection of major leadership theories that we believe can provide the foundations for new and better group-level leadership theories.

Findings – By using two theoretical categorization (managing individual group members vs. managing group; affective/motivational vs. cognitive functions), we suggest that leaders of small groups deal with the four key leadership functions – (1) managing within-group interpersonal dynamics, (2) within-group coordination of information/resources, (3) group-level affect management, and (4) managing group boundaries for information/resources flow and group identity.

Value – This chapter provides specific group functions that groups and teams scholars can use as a foundation to develop better theory of small-group leadership.

The social relations model (SRM; Kenny, 1994) explicitly proposes that leadership simultaneously operates at three levels of analysis: group, dyad, and individual (perceiver and target). With this model, researchers can empirically determine the amount of variance at each level as well as those factors that explain variance at these different levels. This chapter shows how the SRM can be used to address many theoretically important questions in the study of leadership and can be used to advance both the theory of and research in leadership. First, based on analysis of leadership ratings from seven studies, we find that there is substantial agreement (i.e., target variance) about who in the group is the leader and little or no reciprocity in the perceptions of leadership. We then consider correlations of leadership perceptions. In one analysis, we examine the correlations between task-oriented and socioemotional leadership. In another analysis, we examine the effect of gender and gender composition on the perception of leadership. We also explore how self-ratings of leadership differ from member perceptions of leadership. Finally, we discuss how the model can be estimated using conventional software.

The clear specification of leadership efforts spanning levels of analysis has lagged behind leadership research in general. Simulation modeling, such as agent-based modeling, provides research platforms for exploring these interesting issues. This chapter uses agent-based models, along with Dionne and Dionne's (2009) choices of leadership styles, to examine the impact of those styles on the generation of an emergent group resource, context-for-learning (CFL), instead of the specific task outcome (group decision making) described by Dionne and Dionne. Consistent effectiveness is found across leadership styles for workgroups with high and slightly lower initial individual levels of a CFL. A second agent-based model includes the ability of agents to forget previous learned skills and reveals a reduced effectiveness of all leadership styles. However, the effectiveness of the leadership styles differs between the two outcomes (the specific group task model and the emergent group resource model). Reasons for these differences are explored, and implications from the comparisons of the two models are delineated.