Leader-follower Interactions Research Articles

Leadership, followers' mental health and job performance in organizations: A comprehensive meta‐analysis from an occupational health perspective

SummaryThe present meta‐analysis investigates the associations between leadership, followers' mental health, and job performance by taking into account different groups of leadership constructs including transformational leadership, relations‐oriented leadership, task‐oriented leadership, destructive leadership, and leader–member exchange. Six categories of mental health‐related outcomes are considered representing both negative and positive mental health states of followers, namely, affective symptoms, burnout, stress, well‐being, psychological functioning, and health complaints. Meta‐analytic models are used to estimate the association between these categories of leadership and mental health. Our results reveal that transformational leadership, a high quality of relations‐oriented and task‐oriented leadership behavior, as well as a high quality of leader–follower interaction are positively associated with mental health. In contrast, destructive leadership is strongly negatively associated with mental health. In addition, the mediation effects of leadership on job performance via mental health are estimated. Results partially support the mediating role of mental health concerning the relationship between leadership and job performance. Our results emphasize the importance of leadership as an occupational health factor, and they may serve as basis for the planning and designing of occupational health policies and interventions despite existing research limitations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Diversity as a contributor to leadership effectiveness

Purpose This article aims to focus on leader–follower interactions in contexts where diversity plays an important role, and it provides practical advice for implementing inclusiveness in the workplace through different leadership styles. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings Theories on leadership that take diversity into account are more inclusive and, currently, necessary in view of modern social contexts and global concerns. Current leadership theories should acknowledge and promote diversity as an added value and identify in which way inclusive leadership principles shape inclusiveness climates in organisations which value, affirm and support diversity. Practical implications The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organisations. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most-pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

The Two-Faced Leader: Effects of Leader Emotional Inconsistency on Follower Creative Performance

Based on a review of the literatures pertaining to leadership, affect, and creative performance, the studies conducted as part of this thesis aim at testing a research model that examines how and under which conditions leader emotional inconsistency between happiness and anger is related to follower creative performance. For an experimental test of the proposed research model I collected data from 94 followers for whom a leader-follower interaction was simulated using a video manipulation. Moderated mediation analyses revealed that leader emotional inconsistency was positively associated with follower creative performance via increases in creative process engagement, but only for followers with high levels of epistemic motivation, which sheds light on the importance of follower’s information processing capabilities when faced with complex emotional leadership. I replicated the results of the first study in a second experiment where a leader-follower interaction was simulated using a scenario manipulation. Using data collected from 81 followers, moderated mediation analyses showed that leader displays of emotional inconsistency were positively related to creative performance via increases in creative process engagement for followers with high levels of epistemic motivation. Both experimental studies provide evidence towards the directionality of the examined interrelationships across different types of experimental manipulations employed. Finally, I replicated the research model of this thesis in a field setting using a measurement scale of leader emotional inconsistency specifically developed for this study. Week-level data was collected from 60 leader-follower dyads working in two organisations and providing a total of 253 matched weekly leader and follower responses. Multilevel moderated mediation analyses showed that follower weekly creative performance follows from weekly leader displays of emotional inconsistency via increases in weekly creative process engagement for followers with high epistemic motivation. Taken together, the studies conducted provide both internal and external validity to the theoretically derived research model of this thesis.

THE CHALLENGES POLITICAL LEADERSHIP FACES IN THE MODERN WORLD

Political leadership is a concept central to understanding political processes and outcomes, yet its definition is elusive. The study of political leadership has a long history. Many disciplines have contributed to this study, including history, philosophy, political theory, psychology etc. Leadership is a process in which leaders and followers interact dynamically in a particular situation or context. Leaders must be able to connect with followers to understand their mood and their initiative. There are essential and operational differences between a leader and a manager. Managerial effectiveness is related to an emphasis on rationality and organizational structure. Leadership effectiveness is linked to symbols and culture. The interactive nature of leader-followers-situation can help us better understand the changing nature of the leaderfollower relationship and the increasingly greater complexity of situations leaders and followers face in contemporary world. Good leadership makes a difference, and it can be enhanced through greater awareness of the important factors influencing the leadership process. The changes we are facing in today’s world demand a new breed of political leaders, new forms and mechanisms of leader-follower interaction that provide effective leadership.

Impact of leader-follower interactions and employee satisfaction: mediating effect of employee empowerment

This study endeavours to explore the leadership styles deployed in print media in Pakistan. The study has been planned to find out the relationship between the leadership styles and employee job satisfaction, and to observe the mediating effect of employee empowerment. The two leadership styles used in this study are transformational leadership style and transactional leadership style. This study was conducted in top five print media offices of Rawalpindi and Islamabad cities of Pakistan. A final sample of 240 respondents was used for final analysis using a self-administered questionnaire. Statistical techniques of correlation and regression analysis were used to test the hypotheses. The findings show that both leadership styles are positively related to employee job satisfaction. Similarly, employee empowerment is positively related to employee job satisfaction. Lastly, it was found that the employee empowerment has mediating effect in building relationship between leadership style and job satisfaction. This research has implications for researchers and practitioners.

Contextualizing leaders' interpretations of proactive followership

SummaryAlthough proactive followership behavior is often viewed as instrumental to group success, leaders do not always respond favorably to the actions of overly eager followers. Guided by a constructivist perspective, we investigated how interpretations of followership differ across the settings in which acts of leadership and followership emerge. In thematically analyzing data from semi‐structured interviews with leaders of high‐performing teams, we depict how the construal of follower behaviors relates to various contextual factors underscoring leader–follower interactions. Prototypical characteristics were described in relation to ideal followership (i.e., active independent thought, ability to process self‐related information accurately, collective orientation, and relational transparency). However, proactive followership behaviors were subject to the situational and relational demands that were salient during leader–follower interactions. Notably, the presence of third‐party observers, the demands of the task, stage in the decision‐making process, suitability of the targeted issue, and relational dynamics influenced which follower behaviors were viewed as appropriate from the leader's perspective. These findings provide insight into when leaders are more likely to endorse proactive followership, suggesting that proactive followership requires an awareness of how to calibrate one's actions in accordance with prevailing circumstances. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A transfer entropy analysis of leader-follower interactions in flying bats

In this paper, we present a transfer entropy analysis applied to the 3D paths of bats flying in pairs. The 3D trajectories are one-dimensionally characterized as inverse curvature time series to allow for entropy calculations. In addition to a traditional formulation of information flow between pair members, a path coupling hypothesis is pursued with time-delay modifications implemented in such a way as to not change the Markovianity of the process. With this modification, we find trends that suggest a leader-follower interaction between the front bat and the rear bat, although statistical significance is not reached due in part to the small number of pairs considered.

Psychodynamic Issues in Organizational Leadership

Scholars and leaders who seek to understand the complexities of leader-follower interactions are not interested in idealistic, trend-driven theories of organizational analysis, transformation and change; instead, they look for realistic approaches. They are curious about the hidden undercurrents that affect human behavior. They realize that only by accepting the fact that leaders, like the rest of us, are not paragons of rationality can we begin to understand why many well-laid plans and strategies derail, or conversely, why great leaders sometimes come from very unexpected places.

A game-theoretical approach for policing decision support

Recently, many security-related problems have gained increasing attention from a quantitative perspective. In this paper, we propose a game-theoretical approach to model the interaction between police forces and delinquents in public places. In the well-known Stackelberg game, a leader is faced with only one follower. However, in our application, the police are simultaneously faced with many offenders, who may be organized or act independently of each other. This application motivates the development of two games: a classical leader-follower interaction between police and organized criminals on the one hand and a novel approach between the leader and selfishly acting offenders on the other. It is of special interest that the effect of crime displacement under police surveillance be anticipated by the proposed models. Results using data from a simulated environment emphasise how these models can provide decision support for policing outperforming traditional strategies.

Tight knit under stress: colony resilience to the loss of tandem leaders during relocation in an Indian ant.

The movement of colonies from one nest to another is a frequent event in the lives of many social insects and is important for their survival and propagation. This goal-oriented task is accomplished by means of tandem running in some ant species, such as Diacamma indicum. Tandem leaders are central to this process as they know the location of the new nest and lead colony members to it. Relocations involving targeted removal of leaders were compared with unmanipulated and random member removal relocations. Behavioural observations were integrated with network analysis to examine the differences in the pattern of task organization at the level of individuals and that of the colony. All colonies completed relocation successfully and leaders who substituted the removed tandem leaders conducted the task at a similar rate having redistributed the task in a less skewed manner. In terms of network structure, this resilience was due to significantly higher density and outcloseness indicating increased interaction between substitute leaders. By contrast, leader–follower interactions and random removal networks showed no discernible changes. Similar explorations of other goal-oriented tasks in other societies will possibly unveil new facets in the interplay between individuals that enable the group to respond effectively to stress.

Interactional leader-follower sensorimotor communication strategies during repetitive joint actions.

Non-verbal communication is the basis of animal interactions. In dyadic leader-follower interactions, leaders master the ability to carve their motor behaviour in order to 'signal' their future actions and internal plans while these signals influence the behaviour of follower partners, who automatically tend to imitate the leader even in complementary interactions. Despite their usefulness, signalling and imitation have a biomechanical cost, and it is unclear how this cost-benefits trade-off is managed during repetitive dyadic interactions that present learnable regularities. We studied signalling and imitation dynamics (indexed by movement kinematics) in pairs of leaders and followers during a repetitive, rule-based, joint action. Trial-by-trial Bayesian model comparison was used to evaluate the relation between signalling, imitation and pair performance. The different models incorporate different hypotheses concerning the factors (past interactions versus online movements) influencing the leader's signalling (or follower's imitation) kinematics. This approach showed that (i) leaders' signalling strategy improves future couple performance, (ii) leaders used the history of past interactions to shape their signalling, (iii) followers' imitative behaviour is more strongly affected by the online movement of the leader. This study elucidates the ways online sensorimotor communication help individuals align their task representations and ultimately improves joint action performance.

To whom does transformational leadership matter more? An examination of neurotic and introverted followers and their organizational citizenship behavior

Despite the massive amount of transformational leadership research, the role of followers has not been well-examined in the transformational leadership literature. To understand how leader–follower interactions influence follower organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), we examined the cross-level interactions between transformational leadership and two follower personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion). Using a sample of 215 leaders and 1284 followers, results showed that follower neuroticism moderated the relationships between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior directed toward other individuals (OCB-I) and toward the organization (OCB-O), such that relationships were stronger for those high in neuroticism. Further, follower extraversion moderated the relationships between transformational leadership and OCB-I and OCB-O, such that relationships were stronger for those low in extraversion. Therefore, the inspirational and developmental nature of transformational leaders can offset follower neuroticism and introversion and guide these employees to perform more OCB despite their tendencies to worry, lack confidence, and be shy and withdrawn.

The emotional link: Leadership and the role of implicit and explicit emotional contagion processes across multiple organizational levels

Emotional contagion processes influence a wide range of organizational and leadership outcomes. In this paper, I review emotional contagion research as it relates to multiple levels of analysis within an organization and discuss the extent to which this process can be managed by leaders. The review begins with an explanation of the processes underpinning the emotional contagion process, highlighting the neurological mechanisms that give rise to implicit and explicit forms of emotional contagion. In the following section, I discuss some individual differences that moderate the experience of these two forms of emotional contagion. Subsequently, I review how emotional contagion processes impact leadership outcomes at the interpersonal, group and finally, organizational levels. The purpose of the current review is threefold. The first is to refine understandings of the emotional dynamics of leadership influence from a neurological perspective, highlighting how implicit and explicit emotional contagion underpins much of leader-follower interactions. Second, the review extends on conceptualizations of emotional contagion in leadership interactions often captured at the interpersonal level, and illustrates how the process is relevant in influencing group level organizational leadership outcomes. Third, the review also highlights themes emerging from this area of research, and concludes with directions for further research. Ultimately, the review aims to show how emotional contagion processes are implicated as the ‘emotional links’ across multiple levels in organizations and organizational leadership.

Corrigendum

Corrigendum: Editorial Authors: Svante Lifvergren, Tony Huzzard, and Andreas Hellström Published in Action Research 2015, Volume 13 Issue 1, pages 3–8, DOI: 10.1177/1476750314568210 . Link: http://arj.sagepub.com/content/13/1/3.full.pdf+html In the aforementioned Editorial: On page 5, the first line should be “In the first article, Olsson and Lau use participatory action research (PAR) to co-create improved preventive healthcare services.” On page 6, second last paragraph, 9th line from the bottom should be “Moving away from overly leader-centric approaches to leadership, they report on an AR project that enabled them to explore how leadership practice, as leader-follower interaction, was constituted, enacted and reflected upon to make improvements in Norwegian primary care. As previously noted, it has been a great pleasure to edit the special issue on healthcare published in March. However, and despite our very good intentions, these errors made their way into the final version of our Editorial. We are truly sorry for these mistakes and we are the ones responsible for not having detected the mistakes. Svante Lifvergren, Tony Huzzard, and Andreas Hellström Guest Editors of the Special issue on Action Research and Healthcare.

Gossiping as a response to conflict with the boss: alternative conflict management behavior?

Purpose– The current paper aims to argue that it is important for conflict management research to start focusing on leader–follower conflict as a “special case” of conflict because the relationship between leaders and followers is, by definition, characterized by divergence of interest and, second, because it is asymmetric in terms of power and vulnerability. Moreover, it is argued that conflict management research should start to examine the various behaviors that people engage in as a response to conflict, in a broader sense, than has been done until now. Research on conflict management increasingly recognizes the significance of interpersonal relations in the workplace.Design/methodology/approach– As a case in point, a survey study among 97 Dutch police officers is presented. Leaders’ conflict management behaviors as assessed by followers is measured. In addition, followers’ experienced interactional justice and the extent to which they indicated that they would engage in negative and/or positive gossip about their leader was measured.Findings– Results demonstrate that more forcing and avoiding leader conflict management behavior was related to more negative and less positive gossip about leaders. Moreover, more problem-solving and yielding leader conflict management behavior was related to less negative and more positive gossip. All relationships between leader conflict management behavior and follower gossip were mediated by followers’ experienced interactional justice.Originality/value– It is hoped that the findings put research on the broader implications of interactional justice in leader–follower interactions, and on gossip, on the research agenda of conflict researchers.

Perceptions of leadership success from nonverbal cues communicated by orchestra conductors

Research has suggested that people can extract information relevant to leadership from thin slices of behavior. Nearly all of this research has been conducted in the context of large organizations where the relationships between leaders and followers are relatively indirect, however. We therefore examined here whether participants could extract similar information about leadership success from contexts with direct leader–follower interactions: conductors of orchestras. We found that perceivers could accurately discern conductors' success from brief video clips and that perceptions of expressiveness and age formed the basis for this accuracy. Thus, the current work demonstrates that leadership success is perceptible from nonverbal cues not only for the leaders of large organizations, but also in the context of groups where leaders and followers must continually and dynamically interact to produce successful outcomes.

Embodied leadership: Moving from leader competencies to leaderful practices

The aim of this study is to illustrate the rich potential of using a phenomenological lens to forefront leader–follower interactions in an intercultural and dangerous context, thus providing a more situational, relational, and integral understanding of leadership practices. An interdisciplinary approach that used a phenomenological ontology and a leadership practice epistemology was applied to re-analyze a competency framework previously identified in a larger case study of Australian military advisers during the Vietnam War. We demonstrate the rich promise of an embodied perspective through the words of the practitioner and their own (bodily) interpretations of leading. In so doing, we challenge the Cartesian mind–body dichotomy and acontextual approach that underpins most mainstream leadership studies. The (re)analysis locates two “leaderful practices” and identifies the influence of in situ context in which leader–follower relations are situated. Our results signal the explanatory potential of embodiment and the related influence of context on the processual nature of leadership.

Leaders' and subordinates' attachment orientations, emotion regulation capabilities and affect at work: A multilevel analysis

Two studies examined relationships between leaders' and subordinates' attachment orientations, emotion regulation capabilities, and affective experience and satisfaction at work. As expected, supervisors' and subordinates' insecure attachment orientations (higher anxiety and avoidance) were associated with own positive affect and satisfaction at work. Supervisors' anxious attachment orientation was associated with subordinates' lower positive affect and satisfaction at work. Contrary to hypotheses, supervisors' higher avoidance was associated with subordinates' lower negative affect and higher job satisfaction. Supervisors' emotion regulation capabilities did not mediate relationships between supervisors' insecure attachment orientations and supervisors' own or subordinates' affect and job satisfaction as expected. However, subordinates' emotion regulation capabilities interacted with supervisors' attachment orientations to predict subordinates' emotion experience at work. The results contribute to an understanding of attachment orientations' emotion dynamics in leader–follower interaction, pointing in particular to perceptual and affect-related processes at different levels of analysis.

The impact of leader–follower interactions on the radicalization of terrorists: A case study of the Bali bombers

Leaders figure significantly in radicalization processes that can ultimately lead to terrorism. This article attempts to explain radicalization as a process of interaction between leaders and their followers. We argue that the process of radicalization includes five stages: pre‐radicalization, self‐identification, indoctrination, commitment, and jihad ideologization. In the case of the Bali bombers, the process was strengthened by external environmental conditions that enabled leaders to gain broad support from the community. In our analysis we rely on a combination of interviews with convicted terrorists and previously unexamined documentary evidence.

License to be real: The effect of authentic leadership on followers' authenticity

This research explores the effect of authentic leadership on followers' authenticity in leader-follower relationships and employee-customer interactions. In Study 1, comprising 162 leader-follower ...