Foundational Leadership Research Articles

Leadership Development in Graduate Medical Education: A Pilot Study of Implementation of a Validated Self-assessment Instrument.

Graduate medical education programs need leadership assessments and curricula to engage residents and advance their leadership skills. The Foundational Healthcare Leadership Self-assessment (FHLS) is a validated 21-item self-assessment of leadership skills residents need to be effective team leaders in health care settings. It generates a composite score along five foundational leadership domains: accountability, collaboration, communication, team management, and self-management. Our objective was to determine whether a leadership curriculum, using the FHLS as an educational tool to support self-assessment, self-directed learning, and reflective practice, promotes self-awareness and engagement in leadership development. We conducted a qualitative pilot study in the University of Utah Family Medicine Residency Program, integrating the FHLS into our residency's longitudinal leadership curriculum using coaching, self-directed learning, and reflective practice. Family medicine residents completed the FHLS prior to their leadership rotation. Faculty met with each resident during their rotation using a coaching paradigm based on data from the FHLS to inform leadership self-awareness. Residents identified a leadership domain for self-improvement, selected resources for self-study, and submitted a written reflection. We conducted qualitative content analysis on the reflections for evidence of self-awareness and engagement in leadership development. Residents completed 27 leadership rotations between May 2019 and April 2020, generating 21 reflections. Qualitative content analysis of resident reflections grouped by FHLS leadership domains identified evidence of impact on the residents' leadership development. This qualitative pilot study supports the usefulness of the FHLS within a residency leadership curriculum to promote self-awareness and engagement in leadership development.

Foundational Leadership and Organizational Wellness (FLOW) Model: Designing leadership learning for individuals and organizations.

This article shares the foundational leadership and organizational wellness (FLOW) model, which is a leadership development model that seeks to better understand the relationship between individual leadership development and organizational development and wellness. The model is presented as a whole, followed by deep exploration by each piece of the model undergirded in existing scholarship and practical discussion throughout. Implications for practice and future research are shared to conclude the article.

Building strong foundations in leadership and management for midwifery students

This article explores the importance of leadership and management for midwifery students in their preparation to become midwives. The article combines a review of the existing literature, reflection on the authors' experiences and feedback from midwifery students on leadership and management modules at a university in Brunei Darussalam. Leadership and management skills are essential, and a requisite for every midwife to ensure coordination of structured, safe and high-quality midwifery care. Some important leadership and management competencies include decision making, managing resources, teamwork, collaborating effectively with other healthcare professionals, delegating tasks appropriately and efficient time management. Stakeholders in midwifery education, including educational institutions, public and private healthcare systems and women using midwifery services, expect newly graduated midwives to possess these foundational leadership and management proficiencies so that they can immediately perform their duties when they begin their new role as qualified midwives.

Being AND Becoming a Wise Leader

Despite the burgeoning literature around leadership there is a lack of theoretical integration as well as practical inconsistencies in terms of how its insights relate to actually a) being a leader and b) becoming a leader. Utilizing a wisdom-based template offers a path to synergistically combine academic models so to gain a holistic understanding of its higher-order mega-competencies – foundational, multidimensional and context specific leadership tools – and its subsequent meta-heuristics – capacities for matching appropriate leadership identities, roles, and behaviors to address dominant leadership challenges. As such, and specifically by focusing on ideas seeded from the foundational work of Plato’s Republic, this type of perspective represents a potentially useful approach for reconciling seemingly divergent approaches and advance how we might think about the leadership role and its intersection with transcendent ideas of reason, emotion, value, spirit, connection, and success.

Impact of Motivation and Temperament in Pre-School and School Setting. A Narrative Review

Motivation and temperament are integral determinants of a child's learning journey and social adaptation in early educational settings. This paper examines how intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors influence engagement, curiosity, and academic outcomes, while also exploring the diverse temperamental profiles, peer interactions, and propensity for leadership that children exhibit. The unique interplay between motivation and temperament has profound implications for classroom dynamics, peer interactions, and the cultivation of foundational leadership traits. Recognizing and harnessing these influences can optimize individual learning experiences, fostering both academic growth and the development of essential life skills in young learners.

Leadership Development Among Junior Surgery Residents: Communication and Perception.

Leadership is necessary for effective health care teams, particularly for surgeons. Trainees similarly must acquire foundational leadership skills to maximize effectiveness. However, surgical leadership is rarely formally assessed, particularly for junior trainees. We aimed to establish themes of communication, perception and engagement styles, as well as strengths and weaknesses among junior surgical residents at a single institution. The Data Dome Inc. (datadome.com) DISC personality assessment was administered in 2018-2021 to junior residents at an academic general surgery training program at a single institution. Resident demographics were recorded, and themes from deidentified reports were analyzed by year (PGY-1 and PGY-2) using JMP 16 Pro Text Explorer. PGY-1 communication was most frequently described as "accomplished best by well-defined avenues" with "duties and responsibilities of others who will be involved explained" in "friendly terms." PGY-2 communication involved "deal [ing] with people," "strong feelings about a particular problem," and being "good at giving verbal and nonverbal feedback." In ideal environments, PGY-1s self-perceived as "good listener [s]," "good-natured," and "team player [s]." However, under stress, PGY-1s were perceived by others as "poor listener [s]," "self-promoter [s]," "detached," and "insensitive." In ideal environments, PGY-2s were also "good listener [s]," "good-natured," and "team player [s]." However, under stress, PGY-2 external perception was "overly confident," "poor listener [s]," and "self-promoter [s]." Clear expectations, friendly work environments, and opportunities to succeed are key to effectively train junior surgical residents. In environments where time is often a limited resource, surgical simulation, stress training, and standardized teaching methods from attending surgeons are needed to develop competent trainees.

Transformational and transactional sales leadership during a global pandemic

Transformational (TFL) and transactional leadership (TAL) are foundational leadership styles in sales practice and have been intensively studied by past sales research. However, prior research conflicts on the effectiveness of TFL and TAL to help salespeople cope with the persisting changes of a global pandemic, such as COVID-19. Combining leadership theory with perceived uncertainty theory, we develop and test a longitudinal growth model explaining how TAL and TFL affect sales performance during the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. Using transactional and survey data of 16,275 customers and their respective salespeople during the first months of the pandemic, we show that sales performance declined and that TAL was more effective than TFL at mitigating the drop of sales performance. We ascribe this finding to salespeople’s uncertainty resulting from the persisting changes brought about by the pandemic, which requires leaders’ continuous feedback rather than a focus on long-term visions. To substantiate our findings, we conducted a second study confirming that an increase in TAL is more effective at mitigating the performance decline and that salespeople’s perceived effect uncertainty and response uncertainty moderate this effect. Our findings offer timely and valuable implications for leadership theory and practice how to manage pandemic challenges.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Systems Intelligence in Arts Leadership

This paper explores arts leadership through the lens of systems intelligence, one leadership strategy that offers new ways of thinking and behaving applicable to a rapidly changing landscape. The authors employ a systematic literature review to 1) establish a foundation and then 2) examine this knowledge through the lens of systems intelligence to fill gaps in arts leadership theory and practice. The research concludes with a conceptual model and three leadership capacities that emerge from the convergence of foundational arts leadership literature and the systems intelligence frame: shared leadership, managerial creativity, and systems-based relationship building. Ultimately, this research offers collective foundational knowledge and advances emerging theory related to the conceptualization of arts leadership.

Leader Attentive Communication: A new Communication Concept, Validation and Scale Development

Effective communication is a foundational leadership skill. Many leadership theories implicitly assume communication skills, without investigating them behaviorally. To be able to research leader communication as a building block of effective leader behavior, we propose a new concept, i.e., leader attentive communication which refers to “an open-minded, attentive demeanor while in a conversation with an employee”. Instead of focusing on the content or form of the communication, we propose to study the communication skills of the leader from the viewpoint of the employee. In this article, we both validate a questionnaire and test LAC's influence on employee wellbeing in four different studies. We use information from 1,320 employees and their leaders, in 422 teams, in 3 different datasets. The result is a 10-item questionnaire with 2 dimensions consisting of general attention (towards the employee) and attention to non-verbal cues. We also find that LAC is associated with work engagement, psychological needs and Kahn's conditions for work engagement. With this questionnaire, we contribute to calls for a more behavioral, detailed view on leader communication behavior.

Creation of a pharmacy leadership certificate program for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians using an innovative, low-cost framework.

To describe the creation of a statewide leadership training program for practicing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. The 2 overarching goals were to (1) enable learners to develop foundational leadership skills that could be used at their place of work or would enable them to take on a new or advanced role and (2) help foster sustainability within our state pharmacy society through incorporation of the learners on committees and projects, bringing awareness to board member roles and functions. Overall, the program's mission was to empower practicing pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to take on leadership roles within their organization and the state pharmacy society. Leadership training for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can be variable, elusive, and costly. We provide our experiences in establishing a 1-year leadership certificate program affiliated with the state pharmacy society. In the first 4 years, a total of 15 program fellows have graduated, with 8 more set to finish in September 2022. Since completion of the program, a majority of the graduates have taken on new leadership positions (65% have accepted new leadership positions and 35% have been elected to state pharmacy society board positions). Implementation of a statewide pharmacy leadership program provided a low-cost, high-value option to develop local leaders, in affiliation with a state pharmacy society.

Small Business Leadership and Ethical Attributes That Influence Employee Job Satisfaction

Organizational leadership studies acknowledge that leadership styles positively affect job satisfaction. Currently, there are limited ethical, theoretical studies to investigate the relationship with job satisfaction. Therefore, there is a need for additional ethical leadership theories to explain conditions that may improve on negative organizational phenomena. This study investigated the relationship between the foundational leadership theory and job satisfaction. Foundational leadership is an inward (internal) and outward (employee perceived) examination of ethical decisions based on integrity, assurance, and pragmatism. The findings were based on 330 full-time entry and mid-level employees between ages 18 - 60+ across various industries in the United States. Cronbach’s alpha confirmed that integrity, assurance, and pragmatism is reliable measurement for ethical leadership. Pearson correlation revealed that the foundational leadership attributes of integrity, assurance, and pragmatism significantly correlate with employee job satisfaction. Finally, multiple linear regression results determine that ethical leadership training programs can teach Foundational Leadership to create job satisfaction. However, recurring leadership training should reinforce foundational leadership assurance (FLA) to foster job satisfaction within the leader-member exchange relationship.

Employee Perception of Leadership Tolerance of Deviance and the Moral Disengagement from Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Organizational leaders set the example for “what is acceptable” ethical behavior and encourage organizational citizenship behavior among employees. Organizational citizenship behavior is the willingness to go above and beyond regular duties and responsibilities without using formal reward systems. However, employees who use social comparisons or repeatedly witness leaders who tolerate deviant behaviors are more likely to morally disengage from the positive attributes associated with organizational citizenship behavior. This research aims to determine ethical leadership attributes that resist the negative impact of perceived deviance tolerance on employee organizational citizenship behavior. The Leadership Ethic and Decision-making (LEAD) model is grounded in the foundational leadership theory which suggests that leaders should conduct an inward examination using integrity and assurance with an outward examination based on pragmatism to improve employee perception of ethical decision-making. The result of this study is based on responses from 378 full-time employees in the United States. The findings reveal that LEAD is a reliable, ethical leadership model and pragmatism is resistant to negative moderation of perceived tolerance of deviant behavior on employee contributions in the workplace. Therefore, leaders, managers, and HR professionals who apply the LEAD model will influence organizational citizenship behavior while reducing the deviant behaviors associated with the perceived tolerance of deviance.

Leadership and Management Preparedness after Completing Induction Programme for Newly Graduate Nurses: A Cross- Sectional Study

Background: Leadership and management skills are essential and foundational in nursing, yetthey arevery complex and built through years of work experiences.Aim: Toexamine newly graduate nurses’ preparedness of their knowledge, attitude and practice ofleadership and managementskills after aone-year induction programme in the clinical setting.Methods:A cross-sectional study on newly graduated Registered Nurses in Brunei Darussalamusingsurvey developed from key indicators ofthe Nursing Board for Brunei Darussalam and InternationalCouncil of Nurses.Results:Knowledge level of leadership and management skills ranged from 66.1% to 100%. Attitudescore was between 15.2% to 93.2%. Practice score was between 19.0% to 94.9%. The results showedthat nurses with clinical experiences are more prepared in terms of knowledge, attitude and practiceof various leadership and management skills compared to those immediately working in managerialposition. Some leadership and management skills (such as task-oriented management and conflictmanagement) were enhanced, and yet certain essential skills (such as advocacy and communicationwith patients) were diminished as nurses acquired more work experiences.Conclusion: A well-defined framework on foundational leadership and management skills is deemedimportant that should commence from nursing educational preparation and consistently assessed andmonitored throughout the nursing profession.

Foundational Leadership Theory: A New Ethical Approach to Reducing Knowledge-Hiding Practices Among Employees

Knowledge hiding is a destructive behavior that degrades organizational success. Knowledge hiding is the intentional withholding of information from another employee. It has been reported that 76% of U.S. employees hide knowledge from each other. The displaced aggression theory suggests that employees are more likely to hide knowledge from others in the presence of mistreatment by a leader. Therefore, there was a need to investigate new ethical theories that have been shown to influence organizational commitment and potentially decrease knowledge-hiding practices among employees. This research used foundational leadership theory (FLT) developed by Fuller in 2021 to examine the overall influence on knowledge hiding. The sample consisted of 306 full-time employees across various industries throughout the United States. The results indicated that FLT had a significant negative relationship (-0.64); regression analysis indicated that, as FLT increased, knowledge hiding decreased by 0.57. Therefore, leadership training programs that teach ethical leaders based on integrity, assurance, and pragmatism will likely reduce knowledge hiding tactics among employees and create a strategic advantage among competitors.

Positive and proactive leadership: disentangling the relationships between stress, resilience, leadership style and leader satisfaction/well-being

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the relationships between leader resilience, leadership style, stress and life satisfaction. It reflects an emerging theoretical framework that positions resilience as a capacity that can be developed vs a response mechanism driven by innate traits.Design/methodology/approachTo test three research hypotheses, online survey data were collected from 101 E.M.B.A. alumni of a US-based university using a cross-sectional, correlational research design. The results were analyzed using multiple linear regression. The authors assessed resilience, leadership style, stress and satisfaction/well-being using standardized inventories.FindingsThe results support previous research that has identified a significant relationship between resilience and positive leadership. Unique to this study, however, is the finding that work process behaviors (e.g. time management, cooperation, receptiveness) rather than traits (e.g. optimism, self-esteem, locus of control) are the resilience factors most associated with a positive leadership style. Work process skills significantly interacted with stress level to moderate leadership style. Additionally, a positive leadership style moderated the impact of stressful life events on leader satisfaction/well-being.Research limitations/implicationsKey limitations are sample size and the risk of common method variance. Though numerous procedural steps were taken to control for these issues, future research with a larger and more diverse sample is needed.Practical implicationsOrganizational stress is pervasive, and resilience is increasingly recognized as a foundational leadership skill. This study provides empirical data documenting positive relationships between resilience, constructive leadership and leader satisfaction/well-being. This research also identifies work process behaviors (e.g. time management, cooperation and receptiveness) as the primary resiliency factors associated with sustaining positive leadership behaviors in times of stress. These results support previous research findings that have positioned resiliency as a capacity that can be developed, providing further support for investing in resiliency training for leaders.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature by analyzing resilience more comprehensively than previous studies. It extends the theoretical understanding of resilience beyond traits using an 160-item inventory that assesses four discrete domains of resilience. The results provide support for the importance of developing process skills in leaders to increase resiliency; thus, increasing the probability, they will model constructive leadership behaviors in times of significant stress.

Foundational Leadership Theory: The Inward and Outward Approach to Examine Ethical Decision-Making

Western societies tend to rely on societal norms to guide decision making. However, decisions based solely on societal norms may fluctuate between acceptable/unacceptable. As a result, leaders are paying heavy fines, asked to resign and in some cases found guilty in courts due to these fluctuations. This has become problematic for ethical leadership decision-making. This study introduces the foundational leadership theory which builds on ethic position theory by applying leader-member exchange concepts. Research confirmed that foundational leadership-integrity, assurance and pragmatism significantly predict organization commitment. Therefore, foundational leadership theory establishes employees’ ethical perception of their leader and influences organizational commitment. CEOs, leaders, managers and supervisors should apply this foundational leadership model to evaluate ethical decision-making.

DrPHers Building Back Better the Public Health Leadership Pipeline

The public health workforce is dependent on well-trained and diverse professionals that possess the necessary knowledge, competencies, and leadership to advance the field of public health and address the urgent and persistent problems faced by individuals and communities. Communities that have been historically marginalized and disadvantaged rely on respected and trusted leadership willing to understand and confront the vestiges of enduring racist cultural perceptions and beliefs that prevent optimal and equitable health and healthcare. DrPH programs have created opportunities for students to gain foundational and concentration-specific competencies and leadership to apply their learning towards research, intervention, and policy solutions that transform health inequalities leading to health equity.

Foundational Leadership Theory: An Ethical Leadership Approach to Developing Positive Employee Work Engagement

Organizational commitment has a significant positive association with employee work engagement. Comparatively, organizational leaders recognize the value and competitive advantage of inspiring employee work engagement for sustainability in their industry. Numerous studies confirm that ethical leadership predicts organizational commitment. However, as of 2019, research suggested that alternative ethical leadership theories were needed to explain the influence on work engagement better. This study aimed to investigate the predictive power of Foundational Leadership Theory (FLT) developed by Fuller in 2021. FLT is an inward (internal) and outward (employee perceived) examination of ethical decisions based on integrity, assurance, and pragmatism. The findings were based on responses from 248 full-time employees across various industries in the United States of America. Pearson correlation and regression analysis revealed that integrity, assurance, and pragmatism predicted positive employee work engagement. FLT is a new theory and advances our understanding of employee commitment and work engagement in an organization. Human resource managers (HRM) recognized that employee enthusiasm is reflected in their work engagement. Therefore, leaders who rely on FLT are more likely to maintain a competitive advantage by creating or improving employee enthusiasm and engagement on the job.

Ahab, a Charismatic Leader?: A Study on Ahab’s Leadership in Moby-Dick Using Robert J. House’s Charismatic Leadership Theory

This paper attempts to find an answer to the question “how could Ahab lead his subordinates to the destruction by Moby Dick?” It also checks if Ahab can be called a charismatic leader as many critics have done so, in most cases, without a clear understanding of the concept of charisma. It focuses on the critical scenes of Chapter 36 “The Quarter-Deck” in which he succeeds in securing the supports of the sailors of the Pequod. Using Robert J. House’s much-cited foundational Charismatic Leadership theory in which he introduces four characteristics —dominance, self-confidence, n Influence, and moral conviction—that a charismatic leader has, the paper investigates whether those characteristics are found in the depiction of Ahab in the chapter. Ahab seems to show those charismatic characteristics there more than any other parts in the novel, which suggests that he is behaving temporarily like a charismatic leader particularly in this chapter in order to get what he needs.

The Philosophical Foundations of Fundamental Leadership Competencies

Leadership is a perennially important activity insofar as leaders exert asymmetrical influence on organizational processes and their outcomes. However despite its burgeoning literature there is an imbalance between theoretical differentiation and integration, as well as critical inconsistencies in terms of how it relates to a) being a leader and b) becoming a leader. Exploring a wisdom-based template for leadership, based on ancient philosophic insights, offers a path to synergistically combine academic theories to model a holistic understanding of its higher-order mega-competencies – foundational, multidimensional and context specific leadership tools – and its subsequent meta-heuristics – capacities for matching appropriate leadership identities, roles, and behaviors to address dominant leadership challenges. As such, and specifically by focusing on ideas seeded from the foundational work of Plato’s Republic, this type of perspective represents a potentially useful approach for reconciling seemingly divergent leadership approaches and advance how we might think about the leadership role. Taken together, the resultant framework will then be shown to suggest how wisdom’s inclusion might help advance our understanding, teaching, and practice of leadership.