U.S. CEOs of SBUs in Luxury Goods Organizations: A Mixed Methods Comparison of Ethical Decision-Making Profiles

This study involved using a mixed method research design to examine the moral philosophy difference between the ethical decision-making process of CEOs in U.S.-led and non-U.S.-led within the luxury goods industry. The study employed a MANOVA to compare the ethical profiles between the two leader types (US and non-US led) and a phenomenological qualitative process to locate themes that give indication as to the compatibility of the luxury strategy values and practices with the principles and concepts of responsible leadership and conscious capitalism. As the luxury goods industry is facing the first slowdown since 2000, pressure to achieve sales targets in the U.S. to make up for losses in other markets will place these CEOs under extreme pressure from their headquarters. These leaders must possess the ethical decision-making capability to balance legal and moral dilemmas unique to multinational luxury goods organizations while delivering business results in a challenging environment. Results of the study show no evidence of difference in the ethical decision-making profiles between the two groups of leaders. The themes and emergent findings resulting from the qualitative analysis indicate a profound incompatibility between the values informing decision-makers using the luxury strategy and those employed by leaders operating within the principles and parameters of responsible leadership and conscious capitalism. Recommendations for future research include replicating the study with a larger sample, within a different geographic region or comparing leaders using the luxury strategy to those using conscious capitalism.     

The Third Vote Experiment: Enhancing Policy Representation of a Student Parliament

Since voters are often swayed more by the personal image of politicians than by party manifestos, they may cast votes that are in opposition to their policy preferences. This results in the election of representatives who do not correspond exactly to the voters’ own views. An alternative voting procedure to avoid this type of election failure is prompted by the approach implemented in internet voting advice applications, like the German Wahl-O-Mat, which asks the user a number of questions on topical policy issues; the computer program, drawing on all the parties’ answers, finds for the user the best-matching party, the second-best-matching party, etc. Under the proposed alternative election method, the voters cast no direct votes. Rather, they are asked about their preferences on the policy issues as declared in the party manifestos (Introduce nationwide minimum wage? Yes/No; Introduce a speed limit on the motorways? Yes/No, etc.), which reveals the balance of public opinion on each issue. These embedded referenda measure the degree to which the parties’ policies match the preferences of the electorate. The parliament seats are then distributed among the parties in proportion to their indices of popularity (the average percentage of the population represented on all the issues) and universality (frequency in representing a majority). This paper reports on an experimental application of this method during the election of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Student Parliament on July 4–8, 2016. The experiment shows that the alternative election method can increase the representativeness of the Student Parliament. We also discuss some traits and bottlenecks of the method that should be taken into account when preparing elections.     

The Effects of the Dark Triad on Unethical Behavior

In the wake of a series of corporate scandals, there has been a growing call for authentic leadership in order to ensure ethical conduct in contemporary organizations. Authentic leadership, however, depends upon the ability to draw a distinction between the authentic and inauthentic leader. This paper uses Deleuze’s discussion of Platonism as a point of departure for critically scrutinizing the problem of authenticating the leader—drawing a distinction between authentic and inauthentic leaders. This will be done through a reading of Bill George’s book Authentic Leadership. Informed by Deleuze’s inverted Platonism, the paper challenges the practice by which authentic leaders are distinguished from inauthentic leaders. In conclusion, the paper suggests that an adequate concept of authentic leadership should consider how ethics can occur when the authentic leader is able to critically reflect his or her own value-commitments.     

Leading with moral courage: The interplay of guilt and courage on perceived ethical leadership and group organizational citizenship behaviors

This study uses a moderated mediation model to investigate the role of leaders’ moral courage and guilt in promoting group‐level organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Based on the idea that leaders model ethical behavior among followers, we examine whether leaders’ display of morally laden emotions weaken follower perceptions of ethical leadership, thus disrupting the influence of moral courage on followers. Two independent studies examined the proposed model. Study 1 used an experimental design to examine leaders’ moral displays, testing the interactive effects of leader moral courage, and guilt on follower perceptions of ethical leadership. Study 2 used a multisource field study with 100 leaders and 336 subordinates to explore how a leader displays of courage and guilt influenced group‐level OCB, mediated by ethical leadership. Consistent with our theoretical model, we find an indirect positive relationship between a leader’s moral courage and group OCB. However, we also find that this effect is weakened by displays of guilt by the leader.     

Leaders’ Personal Wisdom and Leader–Member Exchange Quality: The Role of Individualized Consideration

Business scholars have recently proposed that the virtue of personal wisdom may predict leadership behaviors and the quality of leader–follower relationships. This study investigated relationships among leaders’ personal wisdom—defined as the integration of advanced cognitive, reflective, and affective personality characteristics (Ardelt, Hum Dev 47:257–285, 2004)—transformational leadership behaviors, and leader–member exchange (LMX) quality. It was hypothesized that leaders’ personal wisdom positively predicts LMX quality and that intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, two dimensions of transformational leadership, mediate this relationship. Data came from 75 religious leaders and 1–3 employees of each leader (N = 158). Results showed that leaders’ personal wisdom had a positive indirect effect on follower ratings of LMX quality through individualized consideration, even after controlling for Big Five personality traits, emotional intelligence, and narcissism. In contrast, intellectual stimulation and the other two dimensions of transformational leadership (idealized influence and inspirational motivation) did not mediate the positive relationship between leaders’ personal wisdom and LMX quality. Implications for future research on personal wisdom and leadership are discussed, and some tentative suggestions for leadership development are outlined.     

The Leadership Archetype: A Jungian Analysis of Similarities between Modern Leadership Theory and the Abraham Myth in the Judaic–Christian Tradition

Archetypal psychology suggests the possibility of a leadership archetype representing the unconscious preferences of human beings as a species about the appropriate relationships between leaders and followers. Mythological analysis compared God’s leadership in the Abraham myth with modern visionary, ethical and situational leadership to find similarities reflecting continuities in human thinking about leadership over as long as 3600 years. God’s leadership behavior is very modern except that God is generally more relationship oriented. The leadership archetype that emerges is of a leader that develops his/her follower by reliably maintaining a vision, behaving according to firm ethical values even when it weakens the leader’s authority, accepting suffering when the follower is unreliable, and always forgiving even when the follower behaves with hubris in an attempt to overthrow the leader. If God’s leadership principles were mandatory in management, many dysfunctional leaders would be disqualified and many of the negative consequences of poor leadership might be averted. Neil Remington Abramson is an Associate Professor of Strategy, Specialist in building effective business relationships in comparative management contexts.     

Information,individual errors,and collective performance: Empirical evidence on the Condorcet Jury Theorem

The Condorcet Jury Theorem implies that the collective performance of a group, in arriving at a “correct” judgment on the basis of majority or plurality rule, will be superior to the average performance of individual members of the group, if certain apparently plausible conditions hold. Variants of the Jury Theorem are reviewed, particularly including the politically relevant variant that allows for conflicting interests within the group. We then examine two kinds of empirical data. First, we compare individual and collective performance in a large number of multiple-choice tests, and we find that collective performance invariably and substantially exceeds average individual performance. Second, we analyze American National Election Study data to create dichotomous-choice tests concerning positions of candidates on a variety of political issues; Condorcet-like effects are again evident. Finally, continuing to use NES data, we construct, on each political issue, a simulated referendum (direct voting on the issue) and election (indirect voting on the issue by voting for candidates on the basis of their perceived positions on the issue), and we compare the two results. Despite high rates of individual error, electoral error is quite small, and collective performance is fairly high, providing evidence of Condorcet-like effects in situations of conflicting preferences.     

Effective leadership in unexpected places: A sociohistorical analysis of the Red Tops dance orchestra

The Red Tops, an African-American dance orchestra that performed in southern states during the period spanning two decades before and after the U.S. civil rights movement, might seem a rather unexpected source for the study of effective leadership. Nonetheless, Walter Osborne's management of the group provides an exceedingly appropriate case for just that. In this article, we examine the phenomenon of team leadership using a sociohistorical paradigm to identify and describe effective team leadership, draw lessons for organizational leaders, and demonstrate the power of sociohistorical analysis. In our endeavor, we used the framework proposed by Morgeson, Lindoerfer, and Loring to explain how the team needs of the Red Tops were met by the team leadership of Osborne, the band's elected manager. The main lesson for business team leaders is to ensure that every member feels free to express his or her own identity, while still preserving the shared identity of the team. The team's ability to function and remain intact over a long period of time is enhanced by the ability of the team leader to meet team needs—in terms of trust, fairness, and equality—such that each member may experience what it means to be a true part of the group.     

Rule-Inequality-Aversion Preference and Conditional Cooperation in Public Goods Experiments: Economic Experiment Evidence from China

We provide an experimental investigation of the fair rule preference and its effect on anonymous cooperation, intending to test the hypothesis that people who exhibit high degrees of rule inequality aversion—consider “equality and mutual obligation under the social contract” as justified, are disgusted with free-rider behavior in the public goods game and are more likely to be conditional cooperators and make conditional contributions. Based on experimental work related to rule-preferences Chlaß and Moffatt (Giving in dictator games: experimenter demand effect or preference over the rules of the game? (No. 2012, 044). Jena Economic Research Papers, 2012) and the public goods game Fischbacher et al. (Am Econ Rev 100(1):541–556, 2010), we designed a dictator game with the option of buying a veto (when the veto was purchased, the level of rule inequality decreased, making it an ultimatum game) to measure rule preference, i.e., rule inequality aversion, and conducted a two-stage public goods experiment to identify the cooperation preferences and repeated cooperation levels of participants. We investigated the relationship between rule preferences and cooperative preferences (conditional reciprocal preference) and tried to explain the adjustments people made when making repeated contributions of public goods (conditional cooperation behavior) from a rule preference perspective. The results show that: (1) Heterogeneous rule-inequality-aversion preferences are found in lab; (2) The stronger the rule-inequality-aversion preference is, the higher the probability is for the individual to become a conditional cooperator in public goods experiment; (3) Individuals who have stronger rule-inequality-aversion are more sensitive to the contributions that are deviated from the norm. Compared to the theory of conditional cooperation types, rule-inequality-aversion preference has a better explanation power when it comes to the behavior adjustment in repeated public goods contribution.     

Political Opinion Leadership and Electoral Behavior

SUMMARY

A micro-model that focuses on political opinion leadership within an extended nomological network is developed and tested. Data were gathered from a sample of voters in an election. The results indicate that political opinion leadership played a central role in the voting behavior. Key antecedents to opinion leadership were voter involvement, subjective knowledge, and indirectly, information seeking behavior. Important consequences were voting stability, perceived risk and political satisfaction.     

Space for the informal tourism economy

ABSTRACT

In developing countries, many informal economy service providers obtain their livelihoods from tourism, and occupy and share public spaces to do so. As such, these actors must develop ‘rules in use’ that allow them to work alongside other providers, both formal and informal, in these shared spaces. These actors engage in coopetition, a mix of cooperation and competition, with each other. This paper provides a case study of informal sector service providers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to examine how these actors access resources and interact. Snowball sampling was adopted to identify actors and 47 in-depth interviews with pedicab drivers and street vendors were conducted and supplemented with naturalistic observation. Results indicate the public spaces occupied by the informal sector may be classified as common pool resources, collective goods, or semi-private goods. Further, the interaction among the actors in these public spaces is based on the types of, and capacity in, providing goods and services, and trust generated from the actors’ interactions. This research identified the formal and informal ‘rules in use’ that govern the behaviours of the actors related to the use of spaces. Suggestions for how informal economy actors can manage such spaces to enhance their livelihoods are provided.     

A Multi-level Investigation of Authentic Leadership as an Antecedent of Helping Behavior

We develop and test a trickle-down model of how authentic leadership at the department level flows down the organizational hierarchy to encourage team leader authentic leadership and consequently, promotes team and individual-level supervisor-directed helping behavior. Analyses of multi-level and multi-source data collected from a total of 487 employees comprising 122 teams, 47 departments, and 4 different working areas of a major public sector organization in Taiwan show that team leaders’ authentic leadership mediates the relationship between departmental authentic leadership and individual-level leader–member exchange (LMX). We also found that intra-team trust completely mediates the influence of team authentic leadership on both team helping behavior and individual-level supervisor-directed helping behavior. Finally, the results reveal that self-concordance mediates the influence of team authentic leadership on individual-level supervisor helping behavior as well as the influence of individual-level LMX on individual-level supervisor-directed helping behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Unraveling the Competence Development of Corporate Social Responsibility Leaders: The Importance of Peer Learning,Learning Goal Orientation,and Learning Climate

The implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives within companies is often managed by a CSR leader or a small team of CSR leaders. The effectiveness of these CSR leaders depends to a large extent on their competencies. Previous studies have identified the competencies these professionals need, yet it remains unclear how these competencies can be developed. Therefore, the aim of this survey study was to reveal how CSR leaders develop their competencies and to explore which learning activities CSR leaders (N = 176) engage in. The results showed that informal learning activities that center on learning with and from peers outside the company are particularly emphasized. In addition, this study examines whether and how dimensions of companies’ learning climates (i.e., facilitating, awarding, and error-avoiding learning climates) and CSR leaders’ learning goal orientation (LGO) affect the competence of CSR leaders. We found significant interaction effects between the learning climate dimensions. Furthermore, we found an even stronger and positive connection between LGO and CSR competence, highlighting the importance of attracting CSR leaders with a strong LGO for driving the CSR implementation process. Moreover, a supportive learning climate further stimulates CSR leaders’ engagement in continuous learning, which is necessary for coping with the complexities associated with implementing CSR.     

Toward a Unified Framework of Perceived Negative Leader Behaviors Insights from French and British Educational Sectors

In this paper, we challenge the commonly held assumption that actors in the education sector are largely ethical, and that there is therefore little need to scrutinize leader behaviors in this sector. We also overcome past scholars’ tendencies to either focus selectively on positive leader behaviors, or to stay content with categorizing leader behaviors into effective and ineffective (if at all they do focus on negative leader behaviors). Using data (Critical Incidents) from three case studies previously conducted in eight British and French academic establishments, we show that not only do negative leader behaviors abound in the education sector, but they can also be differentiated into three types: (1) behaviors emanating from leaders’ lack of functional skills i.e., ineffective behaviors, (2) behaviors emanating from leaders’ insouciance toward harming the organization and its members i.e., dysfunctional behaviors, and (3) behaviors emanating from leaders’ lack of honesty, integrity, ethicality, and transparency i.e., unauthentic behaviors. We enrich current understanding on ineffective, dysfunctional, and unauthentic leader behaviors, and offer a unified (yet differentiated) framework of negative leader behaviors in the academic sector. Since each type of negative behavior emanates from different motivational drivers, different measures are required to curb them. These are also discussed. A comparison of our findings with those from leadership studies in other sectors reveals that negative leader behaviors in the education sector are quite similar to those in other sectors.     

EXPLAINING PRIVATE PROVISION OF PUBLIC GOODS BY CONDITIONAL COOPERATION: AN INDIRECT EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

We adopt an indirect evolutionary approach to investigate whether and when conditional cooperation can explain the voluntary contribution phenomenon often observed in public goods experiments and in real life. Formally, conditional cooperation is captured by a guilt parameter describing how much an individual feels guilty about contributing less than the average. We find that the evolutionary stability of conditional cooperation depends on what is known about the (individual) guilt parameter of other group members.     

Remote Leadership,Communication Effectiveness and Leader Performance

As remote work arrangements have gained in popularity, workforce dispersion has become increasingly widespread. Little research to date has examined how physical distance influences leader–follower communication effectiveness or leader performance. Building on top of transformational leadership theory, this paper explores how perceived leader performance is influenced by leadership style, physical distance, and communication effectiveness between leaders and followers. A survey of 138 followers, reporting to a total of 41 leaders, was conducted and data were analyzed at the individual follower-level using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique. Our model explained 45% of the variance in communication effectiveness and 67% of the variance in perceived leader performance. Consistent with past empirical findings, transformational leadership was associated more strongly with perceived leader performance than transactional contingent reward leadership. Communication effectiveness was also a strong predictor of leader performance, and furthermore acted as a mediator of leadership behavior on performance. Surprisingly, distance had no influence on either communication effectiveness or perceived leader performance. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Integrating Leadership Development with Ignatian Spirituality: A Model for Designing a Spiritual Leader Development Practice

Prominent scholars note that current approaches to leader development in business are insufficient in at least three ways, and call for approaches that teach leaders to process and reflect, take personal ownership, and develop their capacities for both proficient and morally centered leadership. This paper explores three related research questions: Can we use evidence from management research to build a process-based model of leader self-development? Does the spiritual leadership literature offer implications for integrating moral development into such a model? Can spiritual development processes from a long-standing tradition be integrated, to further bring spiritual and moral development into leader development? Based on the leader and leadership development, spiritual leadership, and Ignatian literatures, one approach to building a spiritual leader development practice is presented. Using this model, business leaders are guided in forming leader development practices based on six categories of interdependent developmental activities: planning with discernment, experiences based on vocation, reflection including spiritual notes, assessment including examining present faults, education including on the lives of moral and effective leaders, and relationships including spiritual direction. This approach is differentiated from other approaches to leader development and to spiritual leadership. The role of the specific spiritual practices used here versus other traditions and the interplay of religion and spirituality in leader development are discussed, along with limitations of this approach and suggestions for further research.     

Servant leadership,transformational leadership,and customer satisfaction: An implicit leadership theories perspective

Drawing on implicit leadership theory (ILT) research, we develop and test a model that explains why integrating transformational leadership and servant leadership may achieve enhanced leader effectiveness. Using a sample of 237 hairstylists and 474 of their customers representing 31 salons, we confirm the augmentation effects of transformational leadership and servant leadership on followers' perceptions of leader stereotypicality (i.e., the extent to which a leader matches followers' implicit theories of leaders) and on customer satisfaction. However, we do not find the hypothesized interaction effect of transformational and servant leadership. Implications are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.     

Thoughts on Business Leadership in Emerging Markets: A Side Effect of Economic Colonialism or Simply Poor Management?

The strategic function of a top business leader, with its vision‐forming, persuading, and control abilities, spans much of what has been traditionally viewed as the field of leadership research. While some leaders speak or write about leadership without having led many businesses, others who have led lack the capacity for reflection which is necessary to explain what it is that they do. Yet, most leaders seem to have something to say, and they find eager listeners. Are MBA candidates being misled by the business press and thus are unable to tell a real leader from a fraud? Or is it that those we call business leaders today are only figureheads propelled by those toiling beneath them? This commentary focuses on thoughts centered on the rim of contention: business leadership in Brazil. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Crafting solutions to leadership demands for well-being and effectiveness

Leadership is a prominent function within organizations and social entities, and research suggests leadership that is more active tends to be more effective. However, emerging research contends that more active leadership can place stressful demands on leaders, which can jeopardize their well-being and eventual effectiveness. In this article, we draw from research on job demands, job resources, and stress coping to outline an applied framework of leader strain management. The model explains how leadership demands (i.e., the challenges/hindrances leaders face) can influence leader strains (i.e., negative implications of the demands) and how leader resources (i.e., tangible/intangible assets) can be leveraged through coping activities to resolve demands or reduce strains. We propose five guidelines for leaders seeking to balance engaging their leadership responsibilities with maintaining their well-being and sustaining their effectiveness over time.