The Social Identity Approach to Effective Leadership: An Overview and Some Ideas on Cross-Cultural Generalizability

When employees identify with the groups and organizations they work for, this typically has positive implications for work-related attitudes and behaviors. The present paper provides a focused overview of the social identity approach to leadership and some ideas on its cross-cultural generalizability. To this end, we will first outline the basic tenets of the social identity approach and summarize the relations of organizational identification with work-related variables. Then, we will discuss the role of social identity-related concepts for effective leadership. In particular, we will present empirical studies on the following three aspects: (1) the transfer of leader identification onto their followers, (2) the role of leader prototypicality, and (3) the ways for leaders to actively manage the identities of the groups they lead. Finally, we will provide some suggestions on how to implement the principles of identity management into practice and offer suggestions for future research, with a special focus on China.     

Kollegin betäubt – Krankenschwester verurteilt

Gef?hrliche K?rperverletzung - Zu Jahresbeginn hielt ein aufsehenerregender Fall das Amtsgericht Frankfurt/Main in Atem: Eine Krankenschwester hatte einer Kollegin wegen angeblichen Mobbings über Wochen immer wieder ein starkes Bet?ubungsmittel in ihre Getr?nke gemischt und sie damit gef?hrdet. Jetzt wurde sie dafür zu einer mehrj?hrigen Haftstrafe verurteilt.     

Organizational identification as a determinant of customer orientation in service organizations

The marketing literature suggests that frontline employees are the central determinant of how customer-oriented a service organization is perceived to be by its customers. However, little is known about the contingencies of employees’ customer orientation (CO) beyond personality traits and broadly construed work attitudes. Based on the social identity approach, the present article develops a multilevel model whereby CO is the result of identity-based management of frontline employees. Two empirical studies in the travel industry show that employees’ CO depends on employees’ organizational identification and their leaders’ acting as role models of CO.     

The Changing Face of Entrepreneurship in Germany

This paper explains individual start-up activities on the basis of both person-related characteristics and the regional context. The analysis is based upon micro data from the GEM adult population survey. Both individual and regional variables have an influence on the decision to become self-employed. There are considerable differences between nascent opportunity entrepreneurship and nascent necessity entrepreneurship. Whereas the results for opportunity entrepreneurship are in line with theoretical predictions the factors influencing necessity entrepreneurship are far more difficult to determine. The most significant change between 2001 and 2003/2004 is the reversal of the influence of a change in the regional rate of unemployment on nascent entrepreneurship activities.      

Understanding the Dynamics of Nascent Entrepreneurship—Prestart‐Up Experience,Intentions, and Entrepreneurial Success

Understanding the factors driving the successful founding of new firms is a subject of ongoing interest. We link prestart‐up experience and intentions of nascent entrepreneurs to the shape of the entrepreneurial gestation process and eventually to successful founding. By experience, we mean previous entrepreneurial activities, labor market experience, and formal education, and by intentions, we mean commitment and ability expectations. We test our predictions on a longitudinal data set that tracks nascent entrepreneurs' venture creation efforts over a five‐year time span and find evidence supporting them. Against this background, our findings also show that when controlling for the possible endogeneity of the activities carried out, a later temporal concentration of organizing activities enhances the probability of successfully founding. Our research contributes to a better understanding of contextual antecedents of the shape of gestation process and the way experience and intentions affect the successful creation of new ventures. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Motives of multis in Germany

This article which — like the subsequent one — is essentially based on a recently concluded expertise¹, is concerned with the different motivational structures of German and foreign multinational corporations (MNCs). Whereas German direct investments abroad reveal an offensive character, the policy of foreign MNCs in the Federal Republic of Germany is much more defensive. There are also significant differences between German and foreign MNCs as regards the internal division of labour.