Most leadership theories assume that leadership is a quality of leaders (e.g., trait theory), or a response to environments (e.g., situational theory), or a combination of both…
Abstract
Most leadership theories assume that leadership is a quality of leaders (e.g., trait theory), or a response to environments (e.g., situational theory), or a combination of both (e.g., contingency theory). In all these approaches leadership is something knowable and definite. However, after years of research there is no agreed definition of what leadership is or any universal agreement about who might be regarded a leader. This paper outlines an alternative approach in which leadership is a contested construct and describes two engaging teaching techniques that align pedagogic approach with the underlying theory. In doing so this paper makes a case for the adoption of socially-constructed theories in leadership education.
This paper aims to discuss leadership development with social construction as the underpinning theory.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss leadership development with social construction as the underpinning theory.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an autoethnographic study of the author’s insights from teaching leadership from a social construction perspective.
Findings
The social construction approach to leadership looks and behaves as a threshold concept in leadership. It takes students’ learning to a higher level, opens up a new curriculum, and changes their understanding of leadership for good.
Originality/value
The discovery that the social construction approach to leadership looks and behaves as a threshold concept suggests that there is something fundamentally important with this perspective. It positions the social construction approach as an overarching theory that helps students re-evaluate, appreciate, and find value in traditional leadership theories.
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The purpose of this review is to argue that the way that perceived employee misfit (PEM) has been measured in quantitative studies does not capture the construct identified in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this review is to argue that the way that perceived employee misfit (PEM) has been measured in quantitative studies does not capture the construct identified in qualitative studies.
Design/methodology/approach
Through reverse citation analysis, this study reveals how low levels of value congruence became the currency of PEM in quantitative studies.
Findings
This study finds that in the absence of alternatives, researchers have taken low scores of value congruence as a measure of misfit. However, there is limited evidence to show that PEM relates to values, supplementary conceptualization or interactions with the organization (rather than interactions with other employees, tasks, etc.). In addition, the most commonly used instruments measure degrees of similarity, not disparity, making the interpretation of PEM-related data unclear. Combined, these factors raise construct validity concerns about most quantitative studies of PEM.
Research limitations/implications
Given the upsurge of interest in PEM, there is an urgent need for greater clarification on the nature of the construct. From the analysis, this study identifies two key dimensions of studying PEM that create four distinctly different ways of conceptualizing the construct.
Originality/value
This study highlights a series of major methodological weaknesses in the study of PEM and reveal that almost all published quantitative studies of PEM are actually studying something else; something whose nature is very unclear.
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Safoora Pitsi, Jon Billsberry and Mary Barrett
This paper contributes to leadership categorization theory by advocating a new method to surface people's implicit leadership theories. The purpose of this new approach is to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper contributes to leadership categorization theory by advocating a new method to surface people's implicit leadership theories. The purpose of this new approach is to simultaneously capture individual difference in how they conceptualize leadership but within a common framework to allow for comparison of within- and between-person effects.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct a narrative review of the implicit leadership theory, leadership categorization theory, cognitive mapping and verbal protocol literature with the purpose of surfacing a research method that will overcome the problems of over-simplification and over-individualization in existing methods.
Findings
The authors argue that using a combination of cognitive mapping and verbal protocols can capture the idiosyncrasies of individual lay theories of leadership while retaining the ability to compare people's responses through a common framework. The authors provide an example of how this method can be used to elicit people's perceptions of one aspect of implicit leadership theories, intelligence.
Research limitations/implications
This new method will provide a methodology to test the subset propositions advocated by leadership categorization theory. These include the idea that subordinate level implicit leadership theories contain a subset of attributes found in the basic-level implicit leadership theories, that there is attribute integrity in superordinate implicit leadership theories through the levels, and the idea that people define leadership differently depending on the context they are observing.
Originality/value
Whereas previous approaches to surfacing people's implicit leadership theories either heavily constrain their responses with a predetermined generic suite of attributes or are totally open-ended and idiosyncratic, the authors advocate an approach that combines the best of both.
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Jon Billsberry and Andrea North-Samardzic
This paper advocates an innovative approach to help leadership students analyze, capture, and remember the nature of their authentic leadership. This developmental activity was…
Abstract
This paper advocates an innovative approach to help leadership students analyze, capture, and remember the nature of their authentic leadership. This developmental activity was inspired by the Japanese film, Wandâfuru raifu (After Life) (Kore-Eda, Sato, & Shigenobu, 1998), in which the recently deceased are asked to recall and relate a memory that symbolizes all that is important to them. After this memory is replayed to them the recently deceased move on to the afterlife and keep the memory prominent in their minds for eternity. This activity is applied to authentic leadership by asking leadership students to recall their family, personal, and work histories as they relate to their leadership. To bring this activity up to date and into the real world, the students are asked to tell their story directly to a camera in front of a green screen. In postproduction, images related to the students’ stories are keyed in to replace the green screen thereby creating powerful memories of the factors influencing the students’ authentic leadership. This new technique is proposed as an integrative and memorable activity that captures and synthesizes insights from other authentic leadership exercises while focusing on the actionable lessons. Viewing of the film prior to the teaching event offers the additional benefit of creating an atmosphere of quiet contemplation and reflection in students’ minds.
Zoleikha Abbasi, Jon Billsberry and Mathew Todres
The purpose of this paper is to integrate research conducted on work values, political values and cultural values to develop a new heuristic model of values that can be applied to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to integrate research conducted on work values, political values and cultural values to develop a new heuristic model of values that can be applied to workplace outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper that draws upon the work values, political values and cultural values literatures and the “similarity leads to attraction” and “dissimilarity leads to repulsion” hypotheses to advocate an integrative conceptual model spanning these constructs.
Findings
Integrating the three types of values with the underlying hypotheses of “similarity leads to attraction” and “dissimilarity leads to repulsion”, an internally consistent two-factor model of values is developed. This heuristic model argues that one set of factors causes value congruence and its associated outcomes and a different set of factors causes value incongruence and its associated outcomes. By conceptualizing value congruence and value incongruence as a two-factor theory, the idea is advanced that people do not assess value similarity and value dissimilarity unidimensionally, but these are two separate dimensions supported by different theoretical hypotheses and processes.
Originality/value
Previous conceptual work on values has isolated different types of values and considered them separately. A contribution is made by integrating the three main streams of values research. The paper is the first to advocate a two-factor theory to values and the first to incorporate the “similarity leads to attraction” and “dissimilarity leads to repulsion” hypotheses. The model repositions the focus for future research on value congruence and incongruence.
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Adrian Tootell, Elias Kyriazis, Jon Billsberry, Véronique Ambrosini, Sam Garrett-Jones and Gordon Wallace
This study aims to explore the factors undergirding knowledge creation in the university-industry complex inter-organizational arrangement. It builds upon social capital and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the factors undergirding knowledge creation in the university-industry complex inter-organizational arrangement. It builds upon social capital and relationship marketing theories.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a qualitative research design. In total, 36 innovation champions involved in knowledge creation were interviewed to provide detailed insights into the process. A thematic analysis of the in-depth interviews was conducted.
Findings
The principal finding was that opportunistic behavior was a significant barrier to knowledge creation. In severe cases, the knowledge creation process was destroyed, resulting in lost investment. Principled behavior and investment in affect-based and cognition-based trust, through five critical trust development activities, provided the best path to successful knowledge creation.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the knowledge management literature by providing insights into the enablers and barriers to the formation of cooperation, a crucial antecedent to knowledge creation literature. It also affords practical implications for innovation managers and policymakers on how they can improve knowledge creation by using social capital and relationship marketing theory in complex inter-organizational arrangements.
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Maria Jacinta Arquisola, Ambika Zutshi, Ruth Rentschler and Jon Billsberry
The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanisms that explain the complexities Indonesian higher education (HE) academic leaders (ALs) experience in performing leadership…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanisms that explain the complexities Indonesian higher education (HE) academic leaders (ALs) experience in performing leadership roles. The research addresses the questions: How do Indonesian ALs perceive their roles in HE? What are the challenges facing Indonesian ALs in their roles in the Indonesian HE context? To what extent does gender impact how ALs act and are perceived?
Design/methodology/approach
In sum, 35 ALs from six Indonesian universities representing top executive positions were interviewed. Data were analysed thematically using a retroductive process followed by a series of on-site member-checking activities to establish credibility and authenticity of the findings.
Findings
The religious principles of amanah (the “altruistic calling” of their functions needing dedication, commitment, and passion) unique to the Indonesian cultural experience influence ALs views of leadership. ALs face role constraints due to resource limitations, experiencing a double bind, while harmonising differences due to ascribed social status and position.
Research limitations/implications
Supportive structures effective for academic leadership practice must be created, further studies on male ALs’ roles in promoting the leadership ascent of female ALs and promoting work-life balance will improve ALs’ visibility and salience in steering institutional growth.
Originality/value
This is the first study to focus a critical lens on the complexities of context-based leadership practice as it is influenced by amanah. Layers of constraints confronting female ALs were documented due to exigencies of gender role expectations and resource limitations, yet they exhibited paternal navigational skills beyond the maternal and pastoral calling of their roles.
This paper seeks to report an empirical test of Schneider's attraction proposition that organizations attract similar types of people.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to report an empirical test of Schneider's attraction proposition that organizations attract similar types of people.
Design/methodology/approach
The person‐people (PP), person‐group (PG) and person‐organization (PO) fit of applicants to eight utility firms were compared with the similar fits of members of a suitable comparison group.
Findings
The results show an effect for person‐vocation (PV) fit but, once this is controlled for, all significant effects disappear. In other words, the PP, PG and PO fits of applicants to the utilities were no different from those in the comparison group once PV fit was controlled for.
Research limitations/implications
These results suggest that applicants choose which organization to apply to based on their desire for a particular type of work rather than their attraction for particular companies, which is contrary to Schneider's attraction proposition. One reason for this might be the nature of graduates who are largely unaware of the organizational environments to which they are applying. Drawing from the interpersonal attraction literature, it is argued that applicants need familiarity, proximity and exposure to the organization for Schneider's attraction proposition to appear.
Practical implications
These results suggest graduates choose vocations over organizations and that, if organizations wish to attract people who share their values, they need to put more effort into their recruitment efforts than those described in this study. The absence of an attraction effect suggests that, when applicants make attraction decisions based on their perceived fit, they may not be supported by an actual congruence.
Originality/value
This study extends previous work by including multiple conceptualizations of fit, by including person‐group and person‐people fits in addition to person‐organization fit.
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The purpose of the paper is to introduce the special issue that brings together six papers exploring aspects of person‐organization fit.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to introduce the special issue that brings together six papers exploring aspects of person‐organization fit.
Design/methodology/approach
This overarching paper contextualizes the theme and introduces the selected papers.
Findings
The findings in this paper vary according to the core theme of each of the six contributions.
Originality/value
Combined the papers explore new avenues of enquiry in the person‐organization (P‐O) fit domain and showcase international theoretical and empirical work on the P‐O fit construct.