Systematic variation in organizationally-shared cognitive prototypes of effective leadership based on organizational form

Abstract

This study examined whether the content of organizationally-shared cognitive prototypes of effective leadership varies in predictable fashion according to the degree to which organizations are mechanistic or organic. Data for this study come from the GLOBE Project [House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W., & Gupta V. (Eds.) (2004). Culture, leadership, and organizanizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage]. First, we identified several different styles of leadership, and tested whether there is within-organization consensus in the perceived effectiveness of these different styles of leadership (i.e., whether cognitive prototypes of effective leadership are shared within organizations). We then investigated whether the organizationally-shared perception of effective leadership was related to the degree to which organizational cultures were characterized as having mechanistic or organic policies and practices or shared values. Results indicated that the organizationally-shared prototypes of effective leadership varied, in some cases, based on the degree to which organizations reflected mechanistic or organic organizational forms. Implications regarding the linkages between organizational factors and prototypes of effective leadership are discussed.