Emotional and interpersonal competencies and leader development

A variety of recent leader development programs have focused on improving leaders' emotional and interpersonal competencies. Decades of leadership research suggest that these “people skills” are crucial for leader effectiveness. This paper reviews the history of these leader development programs as well as research on emotional and interpersonal competencies. Suggestions for grounding leader development programs in sound research on emotional and social competencies, as well as an agenda for future research on the development of leader emotional and interpersonal skills, are provided.     

悖论思维对创造力的“过犹不及”效应研究

悖论思维帮助个体发现对立事物间的联系,有利于创造性想法或创意的生成,但过高水平的悖论思维极易导致认知过载,使个体无暇顾及需要想象力和灵感的创造性活动。基于"过犹不及效应",本文提出悖论思维对员工创造力产生非线性影响。同时,根据能力-动机-机会(AMO)的理论框架,探索个人学习能力在这一关系中的中介作用,以及领导调节聚焦行为的调节作用。本文认为:悖论思维与员工创造力呈倒U型关系,个人学习能力在上述关系中起中介传导作用,领导促进型聚焦行为强化了变量间的间接关系,而领导防御型聚焦行为削弱了变量间的间接关系。通过对313名员工的三阶段调查分析,数据支持了本研究提出的假设。虽然适度的悖论思维有助于员工提升学习能力,但过度的悖论思维反而会降低员工学习效率进而削弱员工创造力,领导调节聚焦行为决定了员工是否能完成学习能力到创造力的转化。研究结论为员工创造力的影响因素研究提供了新思路,引导企业通过甄选员工和调整领导行为来激发员工创造力。     

Developing holistic leaders: Four domains for leadership development and practice

Leadership development and practice have traditionally been quite narrow, with a decided focus on the analytical realm of leadership. However, the contemporary climate of corporate scandal and resultant loss of societal confidence, coupled with the evolving demands, needs, and expectations of employees, point to the potential need for a more holistic approach to leadership. Thus, this article proposes how management education and leadership development programs can develop holistic leaders that are adept at operating in the analytical, conceptual, emotional, and spiritual domains of leadership practice. An integrated model for holistic leadership development and practice that addresses all four of these domains is proposed, and grounded in both established and emerging leadership development theory. Additionally, a leadership development classification scheme is proposed based on classroom, job, and organizational contexts.     

A multilevel, identity-based approach to leadership development

A frontier of leadership development is examined involving the respective roles of levels-of-analysis and identity in constructing an integrated development system. An approach is described in which individual and relational leadership identities are the focus of developmental efforts at lower organizational levels (e.g., individual contributor and first-level supervisor) but collective identities become the focus at higher levels (e.g., general manager and above). The separate areas of levels-of-analysis and leader identities are first discussed in terms of their respective relevance to leadership development. These are then discussed jointly in elaborating on a proposed development approach that integrates across organizational levels as well as levels of development (i.e., leader development and leadership development). In developing collective leadership identities, processes that involve participants in engaging across boundaries (functional, hierarchical, geographical) are recommended.     

Accelerating leadership performance at the top: Lessons from the Bank of America's executive on-boarding process

This article examines the critical role that on-boarding processes play in the successful development of executive leadership talent. It is based on an in-depth case analysis of one organization's sophisticated on-boarding intervention. Specifically, we explore the potential of these interventions both to pre-empt leadership failures and to accelerate the knowledge and relationships necessary to step into an executive role. Lessons are provided on designing on-boarding interventions for senior leaders.     

Antecedents and consequences of knowledge sharing in international tourist hotels

The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate factors which influence knowledge sharing, organizational learning and effectiveness. Of self-completed questionnaires collected from international tourist hotels in Taiwan, 615 were usable for data analysis. The structural equation modeling results showed that leaders played the roles of mentor, facilitator and innovator, and nurtured a supportive environment at the levels of workgroup, immediate superior and organization. In addition, employees had a positive attitude towards learning and to sharing. All of these contributions facilitate transformation of collective individual knowledge to organizational knowledge, resulting in the advancement of organizational learning, and thus, greater organizational effectiveness.     

Rethinking managership,leadership, followership,and partnership

Organizations underperform, or fail, when members avoid partnering with managers—whether through subtle resistance, disagreement, protest, or walkout—to achieve common purpose. Managers should boost partnering not by affecting a pretense of leadership but through a nuanced balance of managerial authority and understanding of members’ points of view. The objective of this article is to sharpen attention on the concept of partnership with organization members and how it relates to some of the important previous literature. We also argue that some of the previous scholarly work contributes to misconceptions related to these concepts. Our work is forward-looking in that it is motivated by the dangerous societal and cultural differences evident in the world, differences that surround management’s decisions and that may induce an overuse of authority to quash disquiet. Using our experiences in both industry and academia, we argue that the crucial link between managers and members is leadership—not leadership thought of as directional and inspirational, but leadership as building a relationship toward common purpose through partnership. “Lead” and “leader” are sorely misused terms, and worse, substituting “leader” for “manager” is just plain wrong. We believe that managers become leaders only when followers agree to follow, not when the managers simply step forward energetically with direction. Managers are cheated by mistaken definitions. Reviewing past perspectives about what makes good leaders and managers, we rethink ways to enhance organizational harmony through a clearer understanding of managership, leadership, followership, and partnership. Only by thinking and acting as partners in common purpose can managers and members form the core of success in organizational endeavors.     

What would Don Draper do? Rules for restoring the contemporary agency mojo

What are the timeless truths of advertising? How can agency leaders manage their teams, their creative talent, and clients? To answer these and other questions, the mythology of the ‘Golden Age of Advertising’ is examined and analyzed herein. Specifically, using ad man Don Draper—protagonist of the fictional, but already culturally iconic, television series Mad Men—as a mythic archetype, lessons are extracted for contemporary advertising practitioners. Ten timeless rules are proposed and explicated in the areas of (1) managing intra-agency leadership processes, (2) managing creative processes, and (3) managing client relationships.     

Discretionary effort of regional hospitality small business employees: Impact of non-monetary work factors

This research examines the impact of non-monetary work environment factors on employee discretionary effort within the hospitality sector in the South West Region of Western Australia. Limited qualitative research has previously examined the factors that drive employee discretionary effort especially in the regional hospitality sector. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 hospitality employees using purposive sampling. While the findings are preliminary, they do highlight important aspects of discretionary effort within a regional context. Critically, two previously un-identified factors, employees’ professional identity and perception of the hospitality sector have been found to have important implications for employees’ discretionary effort and need to be further explored. Additionally, the findings support the direct influence of organisational culture, job design, interpersonal relationships, on discretionary effort. Finally, the research confirms that a paternalistic leadership approach has a significant influence on hospitality employees’ discretionary effort. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are outlined.     

Understanding the leadership perceptions of staff in China's hotel industry: Integrating the macro- and micro-aspects of leadership contexts

The objective of this paper is to understand the leadership perceptions of staff in China's hotel industry. This study integrates the macro- and micro-aspects of leadership contexts by identifying the contextual variables that affect leadership perceptions. In leadership research, industry setting, the hierarchical levels of an organization, and national culture are recognized as the contextual constraints that affect leadership perceptions, and these constraints were used in this empirical study. Four factors emerged from the factor analysis of a survey study: professionalism; integrity; masculinity or yang; and femininity or yin. A key finding indicates that both the industry setting and the hierarchical levels of an organization affect professionalism. Implications for the training and development of future international hospitality leaders and local staff are considered.