Specific Leaders Research Articles

Leadership and Commitment: The Relationship Between Leaders’ Personality Traits and Organizational Commitment

Is there a relationship between leaders’ personality traits and organizational commitment among their associates? • A quantitative research design tested the relationship between leaders’ personality traits and organizational commitment Apparel and Consumer Packaged Goods organizations • New York and New Jersey markets • Leaders’ personality traits assessed utilizing the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) • Associates’ levels of organizational commitment measured utilizing the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) • Findings: There is a significant relationship between specific leaders’ personality traits and organizational commitment among their associates

Managing Creative Performance

The problem. Decades of research on performance management has been undertaken in an effort to improve both the validity of the process and the effectiveness of its outcomes (Budworth & Mann, 2011). This issue becomes even more potent when discussed in relation to those individuals attempting to foster creative efforts within organizations. The solution. This article reviews literature on creative performance in organizations and how performance management tactics can enhance the effectiveness of leaders who seek creative products and services from their employees in the new knowledge and service-based economy of the 21st century. More specifically, we attempt to integrate the findings in the literature related to creativity with the literature on leadership and performance management to offer suggestions for specific practices leaders can engage in to foster creative performance from individuals who are working in either routine (i.e., not thought of as requiring high levels of creativity) or nonroutine (i.e., generally considered creative) positions. Stakeholders. The suggestions within this article should be of interest to professionals in the HRD field, particularly those who are interested in leader development. In addition, these suggestions may be of interest to the HRD professional within an organization that intends to increase or encourage the creative capacities of both leaders and subordinates.

Is Leadership Part of Me? An Identity Approach to Understanding the Motivation to Lead

Drawing on identity and social comparison theories, we propose and test a model of motivation to lead based on two types of self-to- role comparisons (i.e., self-comparisons with specific leaders and with more abstract representations of the leadership role). We propose that these comparisons imply different identity verification purposes and have different consequences on the motivation of individuals. The results obtained by using structural equation models and response surface techniques among a sample of 180 executives support our predictions. We hypothesize and find that a perceived similarity with a significant leader has a positive effect on the motivation to lead and that this relationship is mediated by self- efficacy perceptions. We also find that the affective, but not the social-normative component, is higher when there is self-role congruence with respect to leadership dimensions such as “power” and “affiliation”. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for leadership and the subjective fit at work.

Próba implementacji benchmarkingu w zakresie funkcjonowania bibliotek

Benchmarking jest jedną z najczęściej stosowanych metod pozwalających na usprawnianie organizacji. Dążeniem jest dorównanie najlepszym, a często nawet przewyższenie wydajności osiąganej przez konkurencję. Sposób ten może stać się jednym z zasadniczych, stosowanych w bibliotekach, dążących do osiągnięcia jak najlepszej wydajności w celu zaspokojenia potrzeb swoich użytkowników. Benchmarking wymusza proces ciągłego doskonalenia, który czerpie swoje wzorce z działań liderów w określonej grupie i pozwala na przetworzenia nowych rozwiązań, inspirację i zastosowanie ich we własnym środowisku. W artykule przedstawiono płaszczyzny i etapy zastosowania benchmarkingu w bibliotekach. Zaprezentowano takie zagadnienia, jak: istota benchmarkingu, rodzaje, etapy prowadzenia projektu, dobór partnerów, zasady pozyskiwania informacji oraz wskaźniki, które mogą podlegać ocenie.

Reflection of a career in paediatrics: A calling becomes a fulfilling profession

Reflection of a career in paediatrics: A calling becomes a fulfilling profession

Invisible Publics: Closet Dramas for the Contemporary Stage

the Foundry Theatre in a double bill with his solo performance of Gertrude Stein’s essay “Plays,” forges Stein’s poetic antitheatricalism into compulsively watchable drama, then uses it as an entryway to his own maze-like American history. Meanwhile, at P.S. 122, Sibyl Kempson’s Crime or Emergency, a histrionically expansive survey of contemporary Americana, interspersed with Bruce Springsteen songs performed as cabaret numbers, gestured toward American loneliness while conjuring grotesque imaginary theatres of American excess. In the gaps between lone performers on empty stages and the vast Americas they described, these performances gestured toward the disjuncture between historical rhetoric and historical reality, between grandiose national images and lonely individual experiences. Moving beyond the conventions of solo performance, both productions employed the theatrical tools of closet drama as figures for the national histories and mythologies they presented: Greenspan and In a recent New York Review of Books essay titled “The Tea Party Jacobins,” Mark Lilla charts the development of a new pattern of “radical individualism” in American politics—loosely affiliated groups that, like the right-wing Tea Party movement, rebel not only against specific leaders or parties, but also against government and leadership as a whole. This new populism, he writes, “fires up emotions by appealing to individual opinion, individual autonomy, and individual choice . . . It gives voice to those who feel they are being bullied, but this voice has only one, Garbo-like thing to say: I want to be left alone.”1 Lilla reveals an atomized America, where millions of solitary citizens enact private dramas in the comforts of home, untroubled by public opinion or collective needs.

Is Leadership a Part of Me? Identity Centrality, Self-Role Alignment, and the Motivation to Lead

Drawing on identity and social comparison theories, we propose and test a model of motivation to lead based on two types of self-to-role comparisons (i.e., self-comparisons with specific leaders and with more abstract representations of the leadership role). We propose that these comparisons imply different identity verification purposes and have different consequences on the motivation of individuals. The results obtained by using structural equation models and response surface techniques among a sample of 180 executives support our predictions. We hypothesize and find that a perceived similarity with a significant leader has a positive effect on the motivation to lead and that this relationship is mediated by self-efficacy perceptions. We also find that the affective, but not the social-normative component, is higher when there is self-role congruence with respect to leadership dimensions such as “power” and “affiliation”. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for leadership and the subjective fit at work.

The Role of the Operating Room Nurse Manager in the Successful Implementation of Preoperative Briefings and Postoperative Debriefings in the VHA Medical Team Training Program

To improve communication within surgical teams, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) implemented a Medical Team Training Program (MTT) based on the principles of crew resource management. One hundred two VHA facilities were analyzed. Nursing leadership participation in the planning stages of the program was compared with outcomes at follow-up. Nurse manager participation in planning was associated with higher rates of implementation of preoperative briefing and postoperative debriefing. Nurse managers are a critical component in the planning phase of team training programs focused on OR clinical staff.

Leading organizational learning: Reflections on theory and research

This essay conveys some of the author's ideas about the influence of leaders on organizational learning. Limitations of some well known leadership theories for explaining this influence are described, and ideas for developing more comprehensive and accurate theories are suggested. Examples of specific ways leaders can influence organizational learning are provided. The methods used for most of the research on the subject are evaluated, and some alternative methods are suggested.

"Strange showes": Spenser's Double Vision of Imperial and Papal Vanities

"Strange showes":Spenser's Double Vision of Imperial and Papal Vanities Jenny Walicek Edmund Spenser's "Visions of the worlds vanitie" was published in 1591 as one of several poems in his Complaints, which includes some translations and original works often sharing classical motifs. It is a visionary poem addressed to a "faire Ladie" and consisting of twelve stanzas, nine of which are fables about a large, vain animal or thing plagued by a small one.1 The minimal scholarly attention the poem received over its first three centuries can be summed up in W. L. Renwick's statement that "these Visions . . . [are] parables of the limitations of power [and] have little but historical interest for us. The single idea they enclose is obvious enough; I can find no line of connexion between the images, except that they all concern animals, as if Spenser had been reading his Aesop." He even cautioned against deeper readings of any of the Complaints poems, noting that their primary focus is the "fleetingness of strength and power and beauty." This scholarly stance has calcified in the last hundred years. William Sipple, in his 1984 Spenserian reference guide, observes that "the bulk of the scholarship on the individual poems [in Complaints] concerns Spenser's varied exploration of the themes of the world's vanity." Richard McCabe, commentating in 1999, finds in "Visions" merely a "series of miniature beast fables emblematically illustrating the insecurity of power but designed to lead, in the climactically positioned sonnet 11, to a perception of the value of 'mean things' or lowly persons," and in 2001 Anne Lake Prescott briefly [End Page 304] assesses the poem as a sonnet sequence that "recounts various instances of small creatures that bring down the mighty."2 In 1957, however, Alfred W. Satterthwaite cited "general critical agreement that the Visions of the worlds vanitie is 'unimportant and derivative'" but allowed there is merit in Francesco Viglione's theory that the poem may be interpreted as referring to the demise of the Church of Rome. He noted, though, that if the theory were true "one might expect to find in the sonnets themselves some clear indication, whether explicit or symbolical, of propagandistic intention. One searches in vain, however, for any implied connection between the [fabled] examples of pride and the Roman Church."3 Satterthwaite and other critics may have searched in vain, but a closer reading of each beast fable does indeed reveal exactly such connections. Each stanza is densely packed with highly specific allusions—gleaned from such Spenserian sources as Plutarch and John Lydgate—to two parallel, chronological series of mighty individuals: the most notorious leaders of the Roman Empire and of the Roman Catholic Church. In these fables we find that the vain, powerful beasts or things connote pre-Fall emperors and pre-Reformation popes, and the small, seemingly weak creatures represent the individuals of lesser stature who were responsible for their downfalls. For instance, the fifth stanza's sea monster, stabbed in the neck by a swordfish, suggests the monster Nero, who was also killed by a stab wound to the neck; in parallel, it may also connote the monstrous Borgia pope Alexander VI, vociferously condemned by the "sword of the Lord" Savonarola. The eighth stanza's pompous, tower-decorated elephant, downed by a mere ant, evokes the gift to Pope Leo X of a tower-bearing elephant which soon died; the parasite-afflicted pope's excessive mourning of his beloved beast gave Martin Luther ample fodder for his first pamphlets. Based on an abundance of similar allusions and the chronology of both parallels, I will argue that "Visions" is far more than a desultory lament about vanity or the ephemeral nature of power. It is also a prophetic commentary on specific leaders whose flaws made them and their respective institutions [End Page 305] vulnerable to demise—demise that was accelerated by seemingly insignificant "little people." Spenser, by writing a poem to a "faire Ladie" (13) that evokes specific fallen leaders in two imperial lines (one of which England considered its historical heritage and the other from which it was forcefully separating), pointedly insinuates that if she is not careful to restrain her...

Masters of Change: Transformational Growth Strategies at General Electric from 1982 to 2006

Throughout the past 2.5 decades, General Electric (GE) has consistently attained high levels of growth and profitability. GE's astonishing accomplishments were the result of several brilliant organizational transformations, a metamorphosis of sorts; from a slow industrial-based, giant elephant into a technology-based, efficient and swift cheetah. These amazing transformations are not the result of circumstance but are calculated, coordinated, and driven efforts carried out by excellent leadership, strategy, and execution. In the new millennium, GE is in the process of a transformation while continuing its rapid expansion into the global marketplace. Although rapid growth is not new to GE, management is implementing new leadership tactics and untried strategies to sustain the company's level of success. Consequently, the company has arrived at a pinnacle period in its history. This paper will evaluate GE's organizational transformations during the period from 1982 to 2006 and evaluate how its leadership positively influenced the organization's primary growth strategy. The research will assess GE's transformational strategies within the framework of four perspectives that include rational thought, revolutionary thought, resource allocation, and technological change. In addition, the research will demonstrate how GE transformed itself under two specific leaders and sustained its ability as a master of transformational change.

The role of implicit leadership theories in the performance appraisals and promotion recommendations of leaders

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is explore the role that the implicit leadership theories held by followers and supervisors play in the performance appraisals of specific leaders, as well as in the promotion recommendations to higher levels of management that these leaders receive. In particular, the focus of this paper is on the degree of match between the general images held by supervisors and followers of how leaders are/should be (i.e. implicit leadership theories), and the concrete perceptions that these supervisors and followers have of the actual leaders in question.Design/methodology/approachSeveral propositions are established taking into account the moderating role of implicit leadership theories in the relationship between performance, on the one hand, and performance evaluation and promotion recommendations, on the other hand. These propositions are based on evidence of discrimination against women and ethnic minority groups when it comes to evaluations and promotion recommendations. Recommendations for organisational practice are derived from the issues discussed.FindingsWhen there is a poor match between a supervisor's implicit leadership theories and his or her perception of a subordinate leader, this leader's performance appraisal and promotion chances are believed to decrease. In a similar manner, the implicit leadership theories of followers may influence their appraisal of a leader's performance.Originality/valueThis is the first time that implicit leadership theories are connected to leaders’ careers. This connection is made both in the context of equal opportunities for leaders and in the context of optimising decisions in organisations. The implicit leadership theories of both followers and supervisors need to be taken into account when evaluating and promoting leaders.

An Ecological Perspective on Leadership Theory, Research, and Practice

Current theories of leadership are based mainly on the industrial paradigm emphasizing the preeminence of positional leaders and the machine-like qualities of organizations. Evolutionary and attributional biases tend to reinforce the industrial paradigm. The authors propose an ecological theory of leadership that makes 4 important assertions: (a) Effective leadership processes involve temporary resolutions of a tension between the traditional industrial approach and the neglected ecological approach; (b) specific leaders are less important than they appear because the ecological context is more important than what leaders decide to do; (c) organizations are more adaptive when there is a diversity of genuine input into decision-making processes; and (d) leadership itself is an emergent process arising from the human interactions that make up the organization.

Leadership and Decision Making: William R. Ruckelshaus and the Environmental Protection Agency

This paper applies case study methodology to analyze secondary data on the two-term EPA administrator, WR. Ruckelshaus. The paper has two objectives.. The first objective is to examine the plausibility of the proposition that leadership of real world organizations has three defining characteristics: the setting of a strategic direction or vision, concern with changing the status quo, and the energizing of others to act by swaying their expectations, aspirations, and commitments. The second objective of the paper is to demonstrate the utility of a five-component framework of leadership decision making developed by Lipshitz and Mann (2004) for studying the relatively neglected subject of the leadership process. The paper is divided into three sections. The first two sections deal with Ruckelshaus ' first and second terms as EPA administrator and consist of a brief outline of the terms' history, a description of an illustrative key decision and analysis. The concluding section discusses the utility of studying leadership from a decision making perspective. The case shows that Ruckelshaus is clearly concerned with all three issues delineated by the proposed defining characteristics.. In addition it shows that using the Lipshitz and Mann (2004) framework can generate a detailed description of the actions and differential concerns of specific leaders, highlight distinctions between different leaders, and track how the leadership of a single leader under different circumstances. Finally, it indicates that conceptualizing leadership as an influence relationship between a leader and his followers should be expanded to include a wider community of internal and external stakeholders and a wider set of "managerial" functions.

Pacifism and Fightaholism in International Politics: A Structural History of National and Dyadic Conflict, 1816-1992

Can we put labels on states due to their history of conflict involvement? Popular folklore as well as the rhetoric of politicians suggests that we can. Germany up to the end of World War II and Japan in the same period were labeled “revisionist” or “aggressive” states. President Reagan called the Soviet Union “the Evil Empire,” due to its seemingly expansionist ideology, but also due to its presumably aggressive behavior. Israel is often depicted by many of its neighbors and other countries in and outside the Middle East as “inherently expansionist.” These examples suggest a notion that states can somehow be structurally characterized, independently of specific policies, leaders, political parties or regimes in power, economic and social conditions. If we can label states in structural terms, we can also label pairs or groups of states. For example, President George W. Bush branded North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as the “Axis of Evil,” due to these countries' pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The Clinton administration identified Syria, Iran, and Iraq as a destabilizing axis in the Middle East, confronting the latter two through a policy of dual containment. The scholarly literature on international politics has identified structural patterns of warring or conflicting dyads through such concepts as protracted conflict, intractable conflicts, and—more analytically defined—the concept of enduring rivalries (Diehl and Goertz 2000; Maoz and Mor 2002). How scientifically sound are such labels? More importantly, are such labels helpful in understanding the causes, courses, and consequences of international conflicts? In other areas of human and social inquiry, structural characterization of units is of immense importance. Genetic research clearly indicates that certain people are far more prone to some diseases than others. Research on addiction attempts to identify structural propensities of drug or alcohol abuse. Research on recidivism in criminology …

Utilizing Printed Media to Understand Desired Leadership Attributes in the People's Republic of China

Using news media as a reliable source, we content analyzed stories on business leaders in two major official Chinese newspapers in three different time periods over the past 20 years. Results show that the reform has brought an increase in stories of business leaders, and in coverage of the desirable leadership attributes relating to Confucian virtues, communist ideologies, and modern management philophies. The results suggest that, by publicizing and adorning specific leaders in both government and business sectors in the official media, the government reinforces the traditional values that are consistent with communist ideologies, and at the same time, it also introduces Western management values to suit the current needs of the society. The results of our study echo the findings of empirical studies on Chinese values that used data collected using other methods. We therefore encourage future research to use the printed media as a potentially valuable source of data for tracking changes in social phenomena in a society over time.

Table of Contents

Abstract Hesselbein + Company FRANCES HESSELBEIN FINDING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Searching for ways to respond to a volatile environment E. GRADY BOGUE THE ART OF USING POWER AND AUTHORITY Most of us have much more power than we realize; the key is recognizing sources we may have overlooked. KATHLEEN R. ALLEN CREATING NEW VALUE FROM INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Intellectual property is both a source of wealth and a source of risk for companies. LOIS J. ZACHARY TURBO‐CHARGE YOUR LEADERSHIP THROUGH MENTORING Both mentoring others and being mentored offer leadership opportunities. Executive Forum GARY HAMEL INNOVATION AS A DEEP CAPABILITY Now that the bubble economy seems like a strange dream, we need to get serious about real innovation. JOHN KOTTER THE POWER OF FEELINGS Leaders need to do much more than make the rational case for change. ROBERT TERRY LEADERSHIP IN A SHIFTING WORLD As the world shifts from stable to terrifying, the meaning of leadership also changes. LARRAINE SEGIL LEADING FEARLESSLY Fear is a poison that paralyzes; here is how leaders can promote fearlessness. MICHAEL KROTH AND PATRICIA BOVERIE LEADING WITH PASSION Passion may seem mysterious, but there are specific steps leaders can take to promote it. From the Front Lines EXECUTIVE CHALLENGES SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE LEADERSHIP Doing the right thing is not only morally correct, it's necessary for corporate survival. EXECUTIVE ACCOUNTABILITY THE NEW RULES Increased scrutiny and enforcement of accountability have changed the game for CEOs. EXECUTIVE TOOLS MEASURING THE VALUE OF PEOPLE More companies are paying attention to their human capital.

The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin through Stalin (review)

In the swirl of subjects that are studied intensively in that bizarre but unforgettable experiment in human social engineering called the Soviet Union, religion is usually neglected. One can count on one hand the significant books focusing on religion in the USSR, works by Dimitry Pospielovsky, Nathaniel Davis, Walter Kolarz, and Bohdan Bociurkiw, but with any other subject, from foreign policy to economics to military affairs, the major publications are numerous, too many in fact to list. Needless to say, when it comes to books on specific religions, let alone religion in general, the field is even smaller. Among one of the least studied religions is Catholicism. There is no general book on the Catholic Church in the Soviet Union. In fact, there is no standard study of the Catholic Church in Russia, whether it is the Tsarist or Soviet period. Of course, there is monographic literature dealing with specific times, leaders, and religious groups--particularly the Jesuits, and some of these are very good. There is also a fair amount of periodical literature, but again nothing that provides an overview. The Reverend Christopher Lawrence Zugger, pastor of the Byzantine [End Page 140] Catholic Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has not filled this void, but he has produced a thorough, well-researched study of the Catholic Church--in both its Latin and Byzantine rites--during the years of Lenin and Stalin's tenure. What is most impressive about Zugger's work is the encyclopedic nature of the information. In addition, to ferret out the facts, he examined just about everything published, particularly in English, on the Catholic Church and Catholics in Soviet Russia during the years from 1917 to 1953. For some inexplicable reason, he did not consult Russian literature or the recently opened Soviet archives. Admittedly, much Soviet literature, as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, is worthless, but there are recently published documents that provide valuable information on Catholicism during World War II and the immediate postwar period, including Organy gosudarstvennoi bezoprasnosti SSSR v velikoi otechestvennoi voine: Sbornik dokumentove. Vol. 1: Nakanune. Book 2 (January 1-June 21, 1941) (Moscow, 1995); V. I. Pasat, Trudnye stranitsy istorii Moldovy 1940-1950 (Moscow, 1994); and Federal'naia sluzhba bezoprasnosti rossii sluzhba vneshnei razvedki rossii, and Moskovskoie gorodskoe ob'edienie arkhivov, Sikrety Gitlera na stole Stalinia: Razvedka I kontrrazvedka o podgotovke germanskoi agressii protive SSSR mart-iiun' 1941g. (Moscow, 1995). And although counting Catholics in the USSR is not an exact science, the author tends to exaggerate their number, which the Vatican's Annuario Pontificio also does. Studying Russian publications would have made the story more complete and added important information, but, nonetheless, Zugger has done a very good job. His interest and style are more pastoral than historical, but he has the basic story of persecution right. I have already found myself using his work to find out some arcane fact.

Obstacles to collaborative quality improvement: the case of ambulatory general medical care.

To assess the effectiveness of inter-site collaboration and report-card style feedback of quality measures on quality improvement in the outpatient setting and to identify major barriers to improvement. A collaborative quality improvement effort consisting of a large cross-sectional data collection effort (chart reviews and patient surveys), feedback of comparative quality of care data to improvement teams, and collaboration between sites. Eleven primary care sites in the Boston area. Quality improvement teams at each site with physician leaders. Education about techniques of rapid-cycle quality improvement, coaching of on-site teams, and report-card style feedback of comparative site-specific quality of care data. Multiple quality improvement projects were undertaken through this collaboration. However, though we were careful to educate teams on methods of continuous quality improvement and to name specific clinical leaders, the degree of collaboration and quality improvement fell short of expectations. Major impediments to improvement included lack of team members' time and resources, lack of incentives, and unempowered team leadership. The primary obstacle to collaboration was the diversity of sites and inability of teams to create interventions that were relevant to other sites. Despite ample quality of care data, quality improvement education, and a structured collaborative process, achieving quality improvement in the ambulatory setting is still a difficult challenge. Organizations need to find ways of overcoming the obstacles faced by improvement teams in order to maximize quality improvement.

Leadership and innovation in the administrative state

The field of public administration, as well as the social science upon which it is based, has given little serious attention to the importance of vigorous leadership by career as well as non-career public administrators. The field tends to focus on the rigidities of political behavior and the obstacles to change. To reclaim an understanding of the importance of individual leadership the author suggests the use of biography and life history. The behavior and personality of the entrepreneur is an especially helpful perspective on the connection between leadership and organizational or institutional innovation. The case of Julius Henry Cohen, who played a pivotal role in the development of the New York Port Authority, is used to illustrate the connection between the entrepreneurial personality or perspective and innovation. In the social sciences—and especially in the study of American political institutions—primary attention is given to the role of interest groups and to bureaucratic routines and other inst...