Lower-level Leaders Research Articles

Hierarchical Leader-Leader Fit: Examining Authentic Leader Dyads and Implications for Junior Leader Outcomes

Leaders at lower levels do not lead in a vacuum; they must lead within the context of the leadership they experience themselves from their next higher-level leader. We propose that lower-level leaders’ thoughts and attitudes and thereby their behaviors are influenced by the level of compatibility of their own style of leadership with that of their senior leader. Drawing from person-environment fit theory, we propose the concept of hierarchical leader-leader fit by assessing the level of congruence between the authentic leadership style of senior and junior leader dyads, and the resulting effects of levels of (mis)fit on the junior leader's behaviors in the form of performance and deviance. In two samples inclusive of both business and military leaders, using polynomial regression and response surface analysis, we find that fit (misfit) between the senior leader's and junior leader's respective levels of authentic leadership in the dyad is positively (negatively) associated with the junior leader's performance and is negatively (positively) associated with the junior leader's deviance. Surprisingly, when two leaders have high levels of fit, we find similar desirable effects on performance and deviance regardless of whether both leaders practice low (low-low) or high (high-high) levels of authentic leadership. Theoretical and practical implications of the degree of fit between leaders operating at different organizational levels, and of leadership as a contextually embedded relationship are discussed.

Differences in the Preferred Trustworthiness Between High-level and Low-Level Leaders

Drawing upon implicit leadership theories (ILTs), this research argues that the trustworthiness factors of leaders perceived by subordinates may vary with hierarchical levels of leaders. Based on this argument, a scenario simulation study (220 participants), an experimental study (562 participants), and an empirical survey (193 samples) were conducted. The findings show that subordinates are more concerned with the emotional stability, extraversion, agreeableness, and benevolence-related trustworthiness factors of low-level leaders and with the ability-related trustworthiness of high-level leaders; and leaders’ integrity is the most crucial factor in trustworthiness for upward trust, while there were no obvious significant differences among different leader levels. This study contributes to the literature on trust in leadership and various ILTs and has human resource management implications.

Founder-CEOS’ procedural fairness: How and when it matters to new venture ambidexterity

Different from the typical research about procedural fairness that focuses on lower level leaders and its influence on non-managerial teams, we pay particular attention to founder-CEOs’ procedural fairness. To investigate whether and how founder-CEOs’ procedural fairness could help to promote new ventures’ competitiveness, we first link this leadership quality to new ventures’ ambidexterity and propose new venture team members’ advice-seeking behavior as a mediator. We next predict that this indirect benefit is moderated by environmental dynamism, since the association between founder-CEOs’ procedural fairness and new venture teams’ advice-seeking behavior can be lessened when environmental dynamism is not high. Results based on a multi-sourced and time-lagged survey of founder-CEOs and all new venture team members in 92 Chinese new ventures support our predictions. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.

The positive connection between dark triad traits and leadership levels in self- and other-ratings

People with high dark triad tendencies are often found in leadership positions. Yet research is lacking on whether dark triad personality traits positively correlate with the height of leadership levels (no leadership position, low-level leaders, high-level leaders, head and founder of the company). To explore this relationship between the dark triad and these leadership levels, three studies (NGermany = 137; NHungary = 333; NBothCountries = 355) were conducted, to measure dark triad scores for each leadership level. The results reveal that people in higher leadership levels display both higher self-rated and subordinate-rated dark triad scores. Further research is needed to investigate whether this finding is replicable for more objective measures and longitudinal studies as well as cultural norms, which may discourage or support dark triad traits. As the organizations are an important factor in promoting ethic-oriented behavior in individuals, one practical implication could be increased focus on developing ethical behavior during the assessment and training of leadership positions.

Leading with love: learning and shared accountability

PurposeTo describe peer learning and shared accountability and their use within our management system to improve the rate of patient annual wellness visits completed by primary care physicians.Design/methodology/approachOur management system implements programs to improve performance on a measure, initially declaring the goal, roles and responsibilities. In the illustrative case in this article, primary care physicians are assigned the goal of completing annual wellness visits for 65% of their patients by the end of 2021. To support physicians, peer learning networks are established, connecting teams, physicians and others to broadly share best practices and support better performance. Shared accountability means higher-level leaders in the organization need to first set lower-level leaders up to succeed before holding lower-level leaders accountable for achieving the declared goal. Our shared accountability model describes processes of the higher-level leader to ensure lower-leader success. The accountability process if a lower-level leader does not improve performance involves 3 steps: (1) a letter; (2) meeting with hospital executives for peer review; (3) review for sanctions/disciplinary action.FindingsIn quarter 1 of calendar year 2021, we identified 30 physicians that were behind pace for reaching the 65% goal of AWVs with patients for 2021 and also had not achieved the 2020 60% goal. After step 1, 22 of 30 (73%) physicians were on target for the goal. After step 2, 3 of 8 physicians were on target for the goal.Originality/valuePeer learning and shared accountability are underdeveloped in health care, and often viewed as at odds with each other. In our framework we integrate them. Thus, we formed learning networks, connecting every level of the organization and branching out across the health system to share ideas and build capability. Our shared accountability model removes the punitive connotation often connected to accountability by aligning higher and lower-level leaders to work together as a team. This model is improving personal performance among primary care physicians, and now being used for all quality and value efforts in our health system. We believe if broadly applied, this model could help improve value in health care.

Social Learning in Empowering Leadership: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

This study suggests a comprehensive social learning model of empowering leadership by focusing on the antecedents and processes of empowering leadership. Data were obtained from subordinate–supervisor dyads from the South Korean Army. The results support the social learning of empowering leadership. Specifically, the empowering leadership of high-level leaders facilitates that of low-level leaders, and this relationship is mediated by leader-leader exchange (LLX). Additionally, the results confirm the existence of a moderated mediation relationship among the constructs of interest; that is, the exchange ideology of low-level leaders moderates the relationship between LLX and their empowering leadership, such that the relationship is stronger when the exchange ideology is weak rather than strong. Thus, a weak exchange ideology strengthens the indirect effects of the empowering leadership of high-level leaders on that of low-level leaders through LLX. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

The emotional leader: Implicit theories of leadership emotions and leadership perceptions

SummaryImplicit theories of leadership emotions (ITLEs) are individuals' schemas about emotional traits and behaviors characterizing leaders. We investigate the specific emotional content and structure of ITLEs. Five studies involving 1286 participants provide evidence for content, convergent, discriminant, criterion, and incremental validity, and internal consistency of the ITLEs instrument. ITLEs are represented by a first‐order structure (Cheer, Calm, Pride, Anger, Fear, and Remorse), and a second‐order structure (Positive and Negative ITLEs). Results revealed that female leaders elicited lower ratings on the Anger, Fear, and Remorse prototypes and higher ratings on the Cheer (but not Pride and Calm) prototype. Moreover, the relationship between ITLEs prototypes and leadership perceptions were moderated by management level, such that the relationship was significant only for high level leaders but not low level leaders. Moderated mediation results indicated that leadership perceptions of high level (but not low level) women leaders, as compared with men leaders, are more positive because they elicited lower ratings on the ITLEs prototypes of Anger and Fear and higher ratings on the ITLEs prototype of Cheer. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of ITLEs and offer future directions for this budding construct that is often implicated in leadership discourse but rarely studied explicitly.

The Relationship of Risk to Rules, Values, Virtues, and Moral Complexity: What We can Learn from the Moral Struggles of Military Leaders.

Leaders are faced with ethical and moral dilemmas daily, like those within the military who must span from large-scale combat operations to security cooperation and deterrence. For businesses, these dilemmas can include social and environmental impact such as those in mining; and for governments, the social and economic impact of their decision-making in their response to COVID-19. The move by Western defence forces to align their foundational principles, policies, and “soldier” dispositions with the changing values of the countries they serve are starkly illustrative of challenges faced by all leaders. While admirable, such changes face the apparent contradiction of enhancing individual moral agency within a hierarchical organization that maintain enforceable codes of conduct. Ethical leadership theory provides aspirational goals, but lacks empirically based guidance on how to implement policies that facilitate values-based behavior. Using a discourse theory analysis of a moral dilemma vignette with Royal Australian Air Force personnel, this research identifies important aspects of agency and subject position that must be addressed if such policies are to succeed. These findings show that the potential contradiction can be addressed by acknowledging the contrasting tendency to bureaucratic process by leaders at upper levels, while lower-level leaders address moral issues by incorporating their subjectivity and making a conscious deontological choice between humanity and comrade loyalty.

Can Humble Leaders Get Results? The Indirect and Contextual Influences of Skip-Level Leaders

We draw from social learning theory to propose a model in which humble behaviors displayed by higher-level leaders trickle down to lower-level team leaders and thereby indirectly promote team performance. We also propose that skip-level leader humility enhances the positive effect of team leader humility on team performance. Results based on time-lagged, multisource data from a sample of 128 work teams supported our model. Also, the trickle-down effect of leader humility is stronger in organizations with relatively high authority centralization. Our study thus links humble leadership of both direct and distant leaders to team performance and highlights the role of higher-level leaders in fostering humble behaviors of lower-level leaders.

A Trickle-down Model of Abusive Supervision and Firm Performance in Family and Non-Family Firms

Social-exchange theory predicts higher-level leaders’ abusive supervision to trickle-down to lower-level leaders’ abusive supervision. We develop and test an extension to this conception by suggest...

The trickle-down effect of empowering leadership: a boundary condition of performance pressure

PurposeBy taking a social learning perspective, this study examines the trickle-down effect of empowering leadership across hierarchical levels in an organization. Specifically, this study aims to demonstrate that the empowering leadership of higher-level leaders promotes the task performance of employees through the mediation of the empowering leadership of lower-level leaders. It also seeks to confirm the role of performance pressure as a boundary condition in social learning process.Design/methodology/approachUnder a moderated mediation framework, this study tests our hypotheses through a hierarchical regression analysis. The data used in the analysis is from the survey responses of 209 subordinate-supervisor dyads.FindingsThis study finds that the empowering leadership of higher-level leaders promotes the empowering leadership of lower-level leaders, which indirectly improves the task performance of employees. It also finds that performance pressure perceived by lower-level leaders moderates the relationship between the empowering leadership of higher- and lower-level leaders, thus moderating the proposed indirect effect.Research limitations/implicationsThis study complements the findings of previous studies by identifying the trickle-down effect of empowering leadership across different hierarchical levels in an organization and by highlighting its boundary condition. In addition, this study provides evidence for the presence of trickle-down effect of leadership in an Eastern culture.Practical implicationsThis study suggests the necessity of leadership education and training programs within organizations by revealing the importance of social learning process for promoting empowering leadership. In addition, it also suggests that performance pressure in an organization not only dampens empowering leadership but also has a negative effect on the task performance of employees.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates the influence mechanism of empowering leadership through a systematic verification of its trickle-down effect, which has been lacking in previous studies. It also highlights the moderating role of performance pressure, as a contextual factor, in the social learning and influence process of empowering leadership.

Effects of Measures of Emotional Intelligence on the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership

The major purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationships between two measures of emotional intelligence: performance-based ability test, self-reported measure of ability emotional intelligence, and transformational leadership. Base on a sample of 177 middle-level and low-level leaders, in 16 organizations, the study tries to explain the role of emotional intelligence in the variance of transformational leadership style, after controlling for cognitive ability and five factors of personality. Vocabulary Emotion Test (VET-3), representing performance-based ability test of emotional intelligence, and Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire (ESCQ-45), representing self-report measure of emotional intelligence, TN-10 test of fluid intelligence and BFI - inventory of personality traits were administered to all supervisors in identifying their emotional intelligence, cognitive ability and personality traits. To evaluate the transformational leadership style, the short version of a Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ X5) was used for 177 selfratings. The results show that VET-3 as the measure of ability EI has no relationship with transformational style. The results obtained in hierarchical regression analysis of self-ratings transformational leadership show that the personality traits were significant predictors but that selfreport measure of EI incrementally explained 5% of the variance of transformational leadership.

Ethical leadership begets ethical leadership: exploring situational moderators of the trickle-down effect

The current study investigated the role that perceived ethicality of one’s leader, as well as perceptions of organizational climate and justice, have in shaping one’s own ethical leadership. We expected positive perceptions of organizational climate and justice to increase the trickle-down effect of ethical leadership from higher to lower levels. We used ratings of ethical leadership from 286 followers nested within 167 leaders, who provided ratings of their own leader’s ethical leadership as well as their perception of the ethical climate and organizational justice of their organization. Contrary to expectations, multi-level modeling showed that negative perceptions of organizational climate and justice increased the trickle-down effect of ethical leadership. The discussion focuses on the possibility that the counter-intuitive finding may be due to differences in situational strength between higher and lower level leaders (i.e., less consensus at lower levels leads to unclear norms around ethics and justice and greater reliance of leadership for guidance). Further research on situational strength may better delineate when individual versus organizational variables are more influential in moderating the trickle-down effect.

How Senior Leaders Shape the Values of Org. Members: A Trickle-down model of cultural leadership

We all know organizational culture is formed and developed by founders or executive leaders, but how that effort cascades down to lower level leaders and influence lower level managers is not so we...

A three-level examination of the cascading effects of ethical leadership on employee outcomes: A moderated mediation analysis

Based on social learning theory, we developed a moderated-mediation model of trickle-down effects to test how the ethical leadership of high-level leaders influences the ethical leadership of low-level leaders and the work outcomes of subordinate employees. Data were collected from 224 leader-employee dyads at six large companies in South Korea. The results of hierarchical regression analyses provided support for this model. Our results indicated that the ethical leadership of high-level leaders trickles down to low-level leaders, which then reduces the social loafing of employees while increasing their task performance. We also found that the self-enhancement motives of low-level leaders moderate the positive relationship between the ethical leadership of high and low-level leaders in a way that strengthens this relationship when the motives are low rather than high. This finding further suggests that low levels of self-enhancement motives strengthen the indirect effects of ethical, high-level leadership on employee social loafing and task performance.

Difference between Leaders and Subordinates of Lower Level Employees in Police on Work Motivation

This study aims at accessing the difference in Work Motivation of leaders and subordinates at lower level of police personnel. 30 leaders and 210 subordinates were selected from the lower level of police organization. The 1:7 ratio was followed to select the sample. The Work Motivation scale developed by K.G. Aggarwal (1988) was used. Mean, SD and t-test was used to analyse the data. Lower level leaders were significantly higher on work motivation than their subordinates. Leaders were higher than their subordinates on organizational orientation, work group relations, psychological work incentives, material incentives and job situations. Social locations or socially important positions (leaders) play an important role for greater work motivation both lower and higher order needs fulfillment.

KEPEMIMPINAN PARA PEREMPUAN MUSLIM DARI KERAJAAN ACEH DARUSSALAM (1641-1699)

History of Acehnese women who fought heroically and patriotic; They are not only willing to fight in the battlefield, but also in political leadership, recorded that Aceh led by sultanah (women leaders) for 59 years. This long history proves that Acehnese women have been self-serving in various fields, both as low-level leaders up to the highest leaders in society. The courage and crookedness of Acehnese women is extraordinary, especially in defending the ideals of nationality and religion. Therefore, Aceh deserves to be called the emancipation pioneer. Keywords : female leadership, the kingdom of Aceh Darussalam

What do people desire in their leaders? The role of leadership level on trait desirability

Do individuals desire different traits in leaders dependent on the leader's position in the organizational hierarchy? To address this question, participants first rated the traits they perceived their current supervisor possessed, traits they desired in their supervisor, and traits they viewed were characteristic of a leader in that role (Study 1). Next, participants rated the desirability of these same traits for 6 high-level and 6 low-level leaders (Study 2). Finally, to force them to prioritize traits, participants designed ideal high-level or low-level leaders by “purchasing” leadership traits using limited budgets of tokens (Study 3). Overall, participants highly and consistently desired trustworthiness and intelligence across leaders, yet they differentially desired other traits depending on the level of leadership. In addition, the desired–current discrepancy predicted leader–member exchange, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, even after controlling for the prototype–current discrepancy. We discuss the implications of these findings for leadership selection, development, and promotion.

A Cross Cultural Comparison of the Importance of Leadership Traits for Effective Low-level and High-level Leaders

This study compares perceptions of the importance of 18 traits for effective low-level leaders and high-level leaders. Participants were 84 full-time white-collar employees from Australia and 244 full-time white-collar employees from China. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed cultural differences in terms of which traits are regarded as important for effective leadership. For example, the Australians rated traits that attenuate leader–follower power differences (e.g. friendly and respectful) higher than did the Chinese. Consistent with previous research, traits that were regarded as more important for high-level leaders (e.g. inspirational and visionary) correspond with aspects of charismatic/visionary leadership. The findings indicate that the perceived importance of specific leadership traits is determined partly by culturally endorsed interpersonal norms and partly by the requirements of the leadership role.