Toward a unified theory of task -oriented and relationship -oriented leader behavior: A multi -country generalizability study

The theoretical foundation of this study comes from the significant recurrence throughout the leadership literature of two distinct behaviors, task orientation and relationship orientation. Task orientation and relationship orientation are assumed to be generic behaviors, which are universally observed and applied in organizations, even though they may be uniquely enacted in organizations across cultures. The lack of empirical evidence supporting these assumptions provided the impetus to hypothetically develop and empirically confirm the universal application of task orientation and relationship orientation and the generalizability of their measurement in a cross-cultural setting. Task orientation and relationship orientation are operationalized through consideration and initiation of structure, two well-established theoretical leadership constructs. Multiple-group mean and covariance structures (MACS) analyses are used to simultaneously validate the generalizability of the two hypothesized constructs across the 12 cultural groups and to assess whether the similarities and differences discovered are measurement and scaling artifacts or reflect true cross-cultural differences. The data were collected by the author and others as part of a larger international research project. The data are comprised of 2341 managers from 12 countries/regions. The results provide compelling evidence that task orientation and relationship orientation, reliably and validly operationalized through consideration and initiation of structure, are generalizable across the countries/regions sampled. But the results also reveal significant differences in the perception of these behaviors, suggesting that some aspects of task orientation and relationship orientation are strongly affected by cultural influences. These (similarities and) differences reflect directly interpretable, error-free effects among the constructs at the behavioral level. Thus, task orientation and relationship orientation can demonstrate different relations among cultures, yet still be defined equivalently across the 11 cultures studied. The differences found in this study are true differences and may contain information about cultural influences characterizing each cultural context (i.e. group). The nature of such influences should be examined before the results can be meaningfully interpreted. To examine the effects of cultural characteristics on the constructs, additional hypotheses on the constructs' latent parameters can be tested across groups. Construct-level tests are illustrated in hypothetical examples in light of the study's results. The study contributes significantly to the theoretical understanding of the nature and generalizability of psychological constructs. The theoretical and practical implications of embedding context into a unified theory of task orientated and relationship oriented leader behavior are proposed. Limitations and contributions are also discussed. ^

Essays on investment, growth and income distribution

In this dissertation, I examine both theoretically and empirically the relationship between stock prices and income distribution using an endogenous growth model with social status impatience.^ The theoretical part looks into how status impatience and current economic status jointly determine time preference, savings, future economic status, stock prices, growth and wealth distribution in the steady state. This work builds on Burgstaller and Karayalcin (1996).^ More specifically, I look at (i) the effects of the distribution of status impatience levels on the distribution of steady state assets, incomes and consumption and (ii) the effects of changes in relative levels of status impatience on stock prices. Therefore, from (i) and (ii), I derive the correlation between stock prices, incomes and asset distribution. Also, the analysis of the stack market is undertaken in the presence of adjustment costs to investments.^ The empirical chapter looks at (i) the correlation between income inequality and long run economic growth on the one hand and (ii) the correlation between stock market prices and income inequality on the other. The role of stock prices and social status is examined to better understand the forces that enable a country to grow overtime and to determine why output per capita varies across countries. The data are from Summers and Heston (1988), Barro and Wolf (1989), Alesina and Rodrik (1994), Global financial Database (1997) and the World Bank. Data for social status are collected through a primary sample survey on the internet. Twenty-five developed and developing countries are included in the sample.^ The model developed in this study was specified as a system of simultaneous equations, in which per capita growth rate and income inequality were endogenous variables. Additionally, stock price index and social status measures were also incorporated. The results indicate that income inequality is inversely related to economic growth. In addition, increase in income inequality arising from higher stock prices constrains growth. Moreover, where social status is determined by income levels, it influences long run growth. Therefore, these results support findings of Persson and Tabellini (1994) and Alesina and Rodrik (1994). ^

The political economy of inequality and growth: Essays on sovereign debt, democracy and saving

This dissertation addresses three issues in the political economy of growth literature. The first study empirically tests the hypothesis that income inequality influences the size of a country's sovereign debt for a sample of developing countries for the period 1970–1990. The argument examined is that governments tend to yield to popular pressures to engage in redistributive policies, partially financed by foreign borrowing. Facing increased risk of default, international creditors limit the credit they extend, with the result that borrowing countries invest less and grow at a slower pace. The findings do not seem to support the negative relationship between inequality and sovereign debt, as there is evidence of increases in multilateral, countercyclical flows until the mid 1980s in Latin America. The hypothesis would hold for the period 1983–1990. Debt flows and levels seem to be positively correlated with growth as expected. ^ The second study empirically investigates the hypothesis that pronounced levels of inequality lead to unconsolidated democracies. We test the existence of a nonmonotonic relationship between inequality and democracy for a sample of Latin American countries for the period 1970–2000, where democracy appears to consolidate at some intermediate level of inequality. We find that the nonmonotonic relationship holds using instrumental variables methods. Bolivia seems to be a case of unconsolidated democracy. The positive relationship between per capita income and democracy disappears once fixed effects are introduced. ^ The third study explores the nonlinear relationship between per capita income and private saving levels in Latin America. Several estimation methods are presented; however, only the estimation of a dynamic specification through a state-of-the-art general method of moments estimator yields consistent estimates with increased efficiency. Results support the hypothesis that income positively affects private saving, while system GMM reveals nonlinear effects at income levels that exceed the ones included in this sample for the period 1960–1994. We also find that growth, government dissaving, and tightening of credit constraints have a highly significant and positive effect on private saving. ^

Essays on openness, economic integration, and *growth

This dissertation examines the relationship between the degree of openness to international trade and the level of growth experienced by a country. More precisely, it explores how trade liberalization and economic integration can lead to specialization in production, affect national levels of welfare, productivity, and competition and at the same time reinforce deflationary efforts. A large part of this investigation is carried out using industry-level data from Spain. ^