Interacting Elements of Leadership: Key to Integration But Looking for Integrative Theory

Abstract

The most consensually shared insight in leadership research may be that in understanding leadership effectiveness, multiple elements of leadership should be considered: different leader behaviors, psychological traits and states, demographic attributes, etc. The notion that leadership consists of multiple elements begs the question of whether these elements have interactive effects, but the empirical study of interactive effects of elements of leadership is far less common. Studying interacting elements of leadership has particularly strong potential to bridge siloed perspectives in leadership research, however: When interactive effects concern elements drawn from different research perspectives, their interpretation requires theory bridging these perspectives. An integrative review of empirical studies of interacting elements of leadership can therefore uniquely contribute to the development of integrative theory bridging siloed perspectives in leadership research. Drawing on 117 empirical papers reporting tests of interactions of elements of leadership, we provide such a review. We identify four perspectives on such interactions, which we call the relationship, status, social identity, and congruence perspectives. We also outline how the field can build towards integration of these perspectives.