Influence tactics and leader effectiveness : how effective, contemporary leaders influence subordinates

Defining the difference between successful and mediocre leaders is a quest that has attracted many renowned scholars, drawing vast amounts of research effort. Yet while there are excellent theoretical explanations of what leaders should do: exhibit transformational behaviours, demonstrate authenticity, build productive relationships with followers and so on; there is still a scarcity of empirically-based research advising practicing leaders how to do these things. This study seeks to provide guidance about the fine-grained processes that effective leaders use on a daily basis to undertake the core process of all leadership activity; influencing followers. Using a grounded research approach, this study employs qualitative methods to capture the detail of effective leader behaviour and the micro-level influence processes that leaders use to create effective follower outcomes. Conducted in the health services industry with medical and allied health leaders, the study sought to answer the question: What influence methods might effective, contemporary leaders be using? The study builds on existing influence research, seeking to extend and update the typology of 11 influence tactics originally developed by Yukl and others, and which has been static since the late 1990s. Eight new influence tactics were identified, offering practicing leaders a powerful suite of potential strategies and representing a significant contribution to the field. Further research is recommended to confirm the identified influence constructs and test the generalisability of these findings to broader leader populations in health organisations and other knowledge-based organisations.

Establishing the next generation at work: Leader generativity as a moderator of the relationships between leader age, leader-member exchange, and leadership success

In this study, the authors investigated leader generativity as a moderator of the relationships between leader age, leader-member exchange, and three criteria of leadership success (follower perceptions of leader effectiveness, follower satisfaction with leader, and follower extra effort). Data came from 128 university professors paired with one research assistant each. Results showed positive relationships between leader age and leader generativity, and negative relationships between leader age and follower perceptions of leader effectiveness and follower extra effort. Consistent with expectations based on leadership categorization theory, leader generativity moderated the relationships between leader age and all three criteria of leadership success, such that leaders high in generativity were better able to maintain high levels of leadership success at higher ages than leaders low in generativity. Finally, results of mediated moderation analyses showed that leader-member exchange quality mediated these moderating effects. The findings suggest that, in combination, leader age and the age-related construct of generativity importantly influence leadership processes and outcomes. © 2011 American Psychological Association.

An examination of the relationship between emotional intelligence, leadership style and perceived leadership outcomes in Australian educational institutions

In the field of leadership studies transformational leadership theory (e.g., Bass, 1985; Avolio, Bass, & Jung, 1995) has received much attention from researchers in recent years (Hughes, Ginnet, & Curphy, 2009; Hunt, 1999). Many previous studies have found that transformational leadership is related to positive outcomes such as the satisfaction, motivation and performance of followers in organisations (Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Lowe, Kroeck, & Sivasubramaniam, 1996), including in educational institutions (Chin, 2007; Leithwoood & Jantzi, 2005). Hence, it is important to explore constructs that may predict leadership style in order to identify potential transformational leaders in leadership assessment and selection procedures. Several researchers have proposed that emotional intelligence (EI) is one construct that may account for hitherto unexplained variance in transformational leadership (Mayer, 2001; Watkin, 2000). Different models of EI exist (e.g., Goleman, 1995, 2001; Bar-On, 1997; Mayer & Salovey, 1997) but momentum is growing for the Mayer and Salovey (1997) model to be considered the most useful (Ashkanasy & Daus, 2005; Daus & Ashkanasy, 2005). Studies in non-educational settings claim to have found that EI is a useful predictor of leadership style and leader effectiveness (Harms & Crede, 2010; Mills, 2009) but there is a paucity of studies which have examined the Mayer and Salovey (1997) model of EI in educational settings. Furthermore, other predictor variables have rarely been controlled in previous studies and only self-ratings of leadership behaviours, rather than multiple ratings, have usually been obtained. Therefore, more research is required in educational settings to answer the question: to what extent is the Mayer and Salovey (1997) model of EI a useful predictor of leadership style and leadership outcomes? This project, set in Australian educational institutions, was designed to move research in the field forward by: using valid and reliable instruments, controlling for other predictors, obtaining an adequately sized sample of real leaders as participants and obtaining multiple ratings of leadership behaviours. Other variables commonly used to predict leadership behaviours (personality factors and general mental ability) were assessed and controlled in the project. Additionally, integrity was included as another potential predictor of leadership behaviours as it has previously been found to be related to transformational leadership (Parry & Proctor-Thomson, 2002). Multiple ratings of leadership behaviours were obtained from each leader and their supervisors, peers and followers. The following valid and reliable psychological tests were used to operationalise the variables of interest: leadership styles and perceived leadership outcomes (Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Avolio et al., 1995), EI (Mayer–Salovey–Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test, Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2002), personality factors (The Big Five Inventory, John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991), general mental ability (Wonderlic Personnel Test-Quicktest, Wonderlic, 2003) and integrity (Integrity Express, Vangent, 2002). A Pilot Study (N = 25 leaders and 75 raters) made a preliminary examination of the relationship between the variables included in the project. Total EI, the experiential area, and the managing emotions and perceiving emotions branches of EI, were found to be related to transformational leadership which indicated that further research was warranted. In the Main Study, 144 leaders and 432 raters were recruited as participants to assess the discriminant validity of the instruments and examine the usefulness of EI as a predictor of leadership style and perceived leadership outcomes. Scores for each leadership scale across the four rating levels (leaders, supervisors, peers and followers) were aggregated with the exception of the management-by-exception active scale of transactional leadership which had an inadequate level of interrater agreement. In the descriptive and measurement component of the Main Study, the instruments were found to demonstrate adequate discriminant validity. The impact of role and gender on leadership style and EI were also examined, and females were found to be more transformational as leaders than males. Females also engaged in more contingent reward (transactional leadership) behaviours than males, whilst males engaged in more passive/avoidant leadership behaviours than females. In the inferential component of the Main Study, multiple regression procedures were used to examine the usefulness of EI as a predictor of leadership style and perceived leadership outcomes. None of the EI branches were found to be related to transformational leadership or the perceived leadership outcomes variables included in the study. Openness, emotional stability (the inverse of neuroticism) and general mental ability (inversely) each predicted a small amount of variance in transformational leadership. Passive/avoidant leadership was inversely predicted by the understanding emotions branch of EI. Overall, EI was not found to be a useful predictor of leadership style and leadership outcomes in the Main Study of this project. Implications for researchers and human resource practitioners are discussed.

Liderazgo, poder y calidad de vida profesional en un contexto hospitalario

El propósito de este estudio es describir la relación entre los estilos de liderazgo, la percepción que tiene el personal asistencial en relación con las tácticas de influencia y la percepción de la calidad de vida profesional de los trabajadores de un hospital de cuarto nivel de la ciudad de Bogotá. Para ello, se utilizaron tres instrumentos: MLQ -5X, IBQ y CVP35 respectivamente. Se encontraron relaciones positivas entre dos componentes de la calidad de vida profesional, asociaciones fuertes entre las tácticas de influencia que se caracterizan por basarse en el conocimiento como mediador en el trabajo y, en relación con los estilos de liderazgo, las tácticas de legitimación y presión se relacionan con el estilo transaccional.

Identificación y descripción de las características de un líder global

El liderazgo ha sido definido de diferentes maneras por cientos de autores debido al contexto en el que estudian este concepto. Ninguna de estas definiciones es errónea pero algunas han tomado mayor importancia debido a los diferentes factores que enfrenta la sociedad. Desde hace unos años los países se han abierto a diferentes mercados lo cual les ha permitido eliminar las barreras políticas, económicas y culturales existentes. Esto ha llevado a que los líderes deban evaluar la nueva forma de dirigir y direccionar las organizaciones. Este es tan solo uno de los ejemplos que han llevado a modificar el concepto de liderazgo, añadiendo los nuevos retos a los que se ven enfrentados los líderes. En este trabajo de grado se estudia el que se considera uno de los mayores retos de los siglos XX y XXI: la globalización. Este fenómeno ha acercado al mundo a través del intercambio de información, de bienes, de servicios, de conocimientos y sobre todo de cultura. Esto se ha logrado a través de nuevas tecnologías, nuevos servicios de comunicación y transporte, de la ciencia y los avances de la industria. El nuevo líder debe romper la barrera nacional y abrirse a mercados extranjeros, para esto debe contar con ciertas características que le permitirán entender los diferentes mercados y a las personas que se encuentran en este. En este trabajo se identifican las que se consideran las principales características de un líder global; estas son el resultado de la investigación de diferentes autores y estudios.

Leadership and performance in multicultural business environments a qualitative study in German-Colombian teams

Multicultural leadership is a topic a great interest in nowadays globalized work environment. Colombia emerges as an attractive marketplace with appealing business opportunities, especially for German enterprises. After presenting Colombia’s current political, social and economic situation, the thesis elaborates the complex subject of cultural differences while focusing on the peculiarities of German and Colombian national cultures. The resulting implications for a team’s collaboration and leader effectiveness are theoretically supported with reference to the landmark studies of Hofstede and GLOBE. By utilizing semi-structured interview techniques, a qualitative research enriches the previous findings and gives an all-encompassing insight in German-Colombian teamwork. The investigation identifies distinctive behavioral patterns and relations, which imply challenges and factors of success for multicultural team leaders. Finally, a categorical analysis examines the influence of cultural traits on team performance and evaluates the effectiveness of the applied leadership style.

Historias y Realidades: ¿Qué hacen los directivos?

El propósito central del estudio consiste en descifrar, entender, contextualizar y reinventar el trabajo directivo actual. En el inicio del texto se busca comprender las realidades sobre el trabajo directivo desde la perspectiva y estudios de dos autores principales, Henry Mintzberg y Stefan Tengblad, los cuales exponen desde otro ángulo el día a día de los directivos; posteriormente se presenta la influencia que tiene el contexto nacional en los diferentes comportamientos y modelos de dirección, haciendo una comparación entre los directivos Suecos y Estado Unidenses para concluir las variables culturales, económicas, políticas y sociales que modifican y personalizan el trabajo directivo; finalmente en la última sección, después de comprender el trabajo directivo desde su naturaleza y sus fuentes externas de influencia, se propone reinventarlo o desde diferentes postulados y modelos, entendiendo que no existe una solución o fórmula mágica, sino unas herramientas que cada directivo debe definir y construir a lo largo de su vida.

The role of self-regulation as a meta-competency in developing leaders: a longitudinal field experimental study

The question of how to develop leaders so that they are more effective in a variety of situations, roles and levels has inspired a voluminous amount of research. While leader development programs such as executive coaching and 360-degree feedback have been widely practiced to meet this demand within organisations, the research in this area has only scratched the surface. Drawing from the past literature and leadership practices, the current research conceptualised self-regulation, as a metacompetency that would assist leaders to further develop the specific competencies needed to perform effectively in their leadership role, leading to an increased rating of leader effectiveness and to enhanced group performance. To test this conceptualisation, a longitudinal field experimental study was conducted across ten months with a pre- and two post-test intervention designs with a matched control group. This longitudinal field experimental compared the difference in leader and team performance after receiving self-regulation intervention that was delivered by an executive coach. Leaders in experimental group also received feedback reports from 360-degree feedback at each stage. Participants were 40 leaders, 155 followers and 8 supervisors. Leaders’ performance was measured using a multi-source perceptual measure of leader performance and objective measures of team financial and assessment performance. Analyses using repeated measure of ANCOVA on pre-test and two post-tests responses showed a significant difference between leader and team performance between experimental and control group. Furthermore, leader competencies mediated the relationship between self-regulation and performance. The implications of these findings for the theory and practice of leadership development training programs and the impact on organisational performance are discussed.

El liderazgo en Colombia : un análisis de la investigación empírica en contextos organizacionales

El objetivo de este estudio fue establecer las diferentes tendencias de la investigación sobre el Liderazgo en las organizaciones colombianas, mediante un estudio bibliométrico donde se analizaron 21 artículos publicados en revistas de Publindex, dentro de las categorías a1, a2, b y c. Para el análisis de los artículos se realizó una matriz en Excel que permitió registrar variables como estilos de liderazgo, resultados, años de publicación, revistas y autores. De acuerdo con los resultados se evidenció que el tema ha sido estudiado de forma significativa pero aún son pocas las conclusiones que permiten esclarecer el liderazgo como concepto en Colombia. Sin embargo, hay hallazgos importantes como los estilos de liderazgo predominantes: transformacional y transaccional; se encuentran variables psicológicas asociadas al estudio de liderazgo más comunes como inteligencia emocional, clima organizacional, cultura organizacional y los instrumentos más utilizados: entrevistas y cuestionarios. Se concluye que Colombia es un país que si investiga sobre esta temática, sin embargo, no hay acuerdos y hallazgos unificados. Se espera que en el futuro se continúe promoviendo una co-contrucción del concepto.

Leader-organization fit: comparing the effectiveness of paternalistic and transformational leadership in different organizational cultures

Research on paternalistic leadership (PL) has been based exclusively on national cultures´ differences. However there are cues that other contextual variables can add to the explanation of this construct. Due to its capacity to influence expectations of individuals in organizations, organizational culture can contribute to fill this gap. To test if organizational culture influences the effectiveness of leadership style, we conducted two experimental studies using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, comparing effects of paternalistic and transformational leadership on followers’ outcomes. Using video clips and vignettes, we found that PL is better related to followers´ outcomes in cultures oriented to people than outcome, and that TL has a better relationship in cultures oriented to innovation than stability. The results suggest that organizational culture helps in explaining PL endorsement, and that further analysis of the influence of this variable to PL can provide a better understanding of the expression of this leadership style in organizations.

Embodying who we are:leader group prototypicality and leadership effectiveness

Leadership is a process enacted in the context of a shared group membership, and leadership effectiveness is contingent on followers' perceptions of the leader as a group member. Addressing this role of group membership, the social identity theory of leadership puts leader group prototypicality, the extent to which the leader is perceived to embody group identity, center-stage in leadership effectiveness. I review empirical research in leader group prototypicality, concluding there is a robust empirical basis for the key propositions of the social identity theory of leadership. I also identify newer developments that extend and enrich the social identity analysis of leadership, including attention to the roles of uncertainty, leader fairness, leader–follower relationship, leader self-perceived prototypicality, and leadership of creativity and innovation.

Executive coaching : investigating effects of leader-empowering behaviours and psychological empowerment

Executive coaching is a rapidly expanding approach to leadership development which has grown at a rate that warrants extensive examination of its effects (Wasylyshyn, 2003). This thesis has therefore examined both behavioural and psychological effects based on a nine month executive coaching intervention within a large not-for-profit organisation. The intervention was a part of a larger ongoing integrated organisational strategy to create an organisational coaching culture. In order to examine the effectiveness of the nine month executive coaching intervention two studies were conducted. A quantitative study used a pre and post questionnaire to examine leaders and their team members‘ responses before and after the coaching intervention. The research examined leader-empowering behaviours, psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and affective commitment. Significant results were demonstrated from leaders‘ self-reports on leader-empowering behaviours and their team members‘ self-reports revealed a significant flow on effect of psychological empowerment. The second part of the investigation involved a qualitative study which explored the developmental nature of psychological empowerment through executive coaching. The examination dissected psychological empowerment into its widely accepted four facets of meaning, impact, competency and self-determination and investigated, through semi-structured interviews, leaders‘ perspectives of the effect of executive coaching upon them (Spreitzer, 1992). It was discovered that a number of the common practices within executive coaching, including goal-setting, accountability and action-reflection, contributed to the production of outcomes that developed higher levels of psychological empowerment. Careful attention was also given to organisational context and its influence upon the outcomes.

Voices from higher up the ladder:Exploring the team leader role in call centres

This paper focuses on an under-researched employee category in the call centre literature-the team leader. The paper, drawing on data from nine Australian call centres, finds that the team leader role is integral to the effectiveness of call centres, yet it is a role that consists of considerable complexity and contradictions. The research demonstrates the critical role performed by team leaders: coach, mentor, trainer, performance evaluator, communicator and supervisor. It also shows team leaders as being far more positive about many of the features of the call centre work environment compared with those on the front line. However, there does appear to be a need for greater acknowledgement of their challenging role, the contradictions that are inherent in the job and the need, in many cases, for increased support being made available to assist. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The principal in the high school: effectiveness in a climate of sharing

This pilot study developed a climate instrument which was administered in a sample of high schools in one board of education. Several tests were conducted i n order to determine the reliability and internal consistency of the instrument . The ability of the instrument to identify the demographic differences of school and gender was also tested. The relationship between leadership styles and an effective use of authority in creating a productive and rewarding work environment was the f ocus of t his study. Attitudes to leadership and perceived school morale were investigated in a demographic study, a climate survey, as well as a body of related literature. In light of the empirical research, an attempt was made to determine the extent to which the authority figure's behaviour and adopted leadership style contributed to a positive school climate : one in which t eachers were motivated to achieve to t he best of their abilities by way of their commitment and service. The tone of authority assumed by t he leader not only shapes the mood of the school environment but ultimately determines the efficiency and morale of t he teaching staff.

On paternalistic leadership fit: exploring cross-cultural endorsement, leader-follower fit, and the boundary role of organizational culture

Although cross-cultural leadership research has thrived in international business literature, little attention has been devoted to understanding the effectiveness of non-western theories beyond their original contexts. The purpose of this study is to examine the cross-cultural endorsement of paternalistic leadership, an emerging non-western leadership theory, using data from GLOBE project. Using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses we found measurement equivalence of a scale derived from GLOBE’s data, which enabled us to compare the endorsement of paternalistic leadership dimensions across 10 cultural clusters and 55 societies. Our study revealed that there are significant differences in the importance societies give to each dimension, suggesting that paternalism as leadership style is not universally nor homogeneously endorsed. Furthermore, results suggest that different patterns of endorsement of each of these dimensions give rise to idiosyncratic shades of paternalistic leadership across societies. Implications for theory and future research on international business are discussed.