Abstract
Leadership roles in sustaining effective management have recently become paramount due to the need to keep up with the fast technical and societal developments. Moreover, business sectors in the postcommunist transformation settings are facing distinct leadership challenges suggesting a different pattern of leadership behaviour. The main contribution of this study was to build on follower-centric approach in leadership and investigate followers’ diversity in regard to leader behaviour preferences as a means to benchmark followers’ attitudes in the post-communist country still undergoing societal cultural shift. The purpose of the study was to investigate the leadership behaviours in Lithuanian cultural context. This study used 129 responses to the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire XII in order to identify the followers’ preferences of the leadership behaviour. ANOVA and correlation analyses were used to identify how followers’ age, level of education, and gender are related to leadership behaviour. The results indicated significant differences in regard to gender and education level of the follower towards the desired leader behaviour. However, the age of the follower did not affect leader behaviour preferences. This indicates that followers in Lithuania have diverse attitudes towards perception of effective leadership. Studying leader behaviour within the context of the followers’ socio-demographic characteristics contributes to the increase of knowledge about leadership behaviour in post-communist emerging economies.
Highlights
Even though “more articles and books have been written about leadership than any other topic in the field of management” (Steers et al, 2012, p. 479), we still know veryFor a very long time leadership research focused on leaders and endured criticism for this narrow approach (Snaebjornsson, 2016a)
The questionnaire was developed at The Ohio State Studies by compiling a questionnaire from 1800 items condensed into 150 questions (Hemphill & Coons, 1957), which were later reduced to 100 questions (Stogdill, 1963)
The largest age group in the sample is 30-39 years. 88% of participants have a university degree. This is congruent with statistical data, showing educational levels in Lithuania to be among the highest in Europe, with Lithuanian women being the most educated among all the EU countries (The Baltic Course, 2015)
Summary
Even though “more articles and books have been written about leadership than any other topic in the field of management” (Steers et al, 2012, p. 479), we still know veryFor a very long time leadership research focused on leaders and endured criticism for this narrow approach (Snaebjornsson, 2016a). The most dramatic shift in the field came as a result of the criticism related to the call to “reverse the lenses” (Shamir, 2007) and give attention to the role of the follower in leadership inquiry. The above mentioned triggered interest towards closer attention on followers’ attitudes, when defining effective leadership (Andreesc & Vito, 2010) as well as universally effective leadership (House et al, 2004). This description is useful in management practice as it serves as guidelines for management in understanding the perceptions of the employees regarding what constitutes a desired, preferred or ideal leader. Members of a particular group (e.g. culture) are more likely to interpret and evaluate situations and events in a similar manner and differently than those of different groups (Erez & Earley, 1993), investigation of group effects on perceived ideal leadership is of particular value in leadership research as it can make leadership practice more effective
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