What matters most in leader selection? The role of personality and implicit leadership theories

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Carnes ◽  
Jeffery D. Houghton ◽  
Christopher N. Ellison
Keyword(s):  
Selection Process ◽  
Selection Methods ◽  
Leadership Theories ◽  
Leadership Selection ◽  
Implicit Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implicit Leadership Theories ◽  
Future Leaders ◽  
Formal Leadership ◽  
Leader Selection

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the primary basis upon which raters make decisions in the context of selection for formal leadership positions. Specifically, this paper examines the applicant’s personality, the rater’s personality, and the congruence between the applicant’s personality and the rater’s implicit leadership theories (ILTs) as predictors of interview scores. Design/methodology/approach – The hypotheses were tested via random coefficient modeling analyses using HLM software with the control variables included in Step 1 and the main effects entered in Step 2, and interaction effects in Step 3 as appropriate. Findings – Analyses suggest that both applicant and rater personality impact interview scores, but raters do not appear to select leaders on the basis of their conceptualization of an ideal leader. Research limitations/implications – The results suggest that raters may not consider their own ILTs when attempting to identify future leaders. Given this lack of a natural tendency toward selecting individuals that match one’s perceptions of an ideal leader, future research should focus on adapting current selection methods to leader selection and the development of new selection methods that are more valid. Practical implications – These findings suggest that current staffing practices may not encompass the most effective tools for selecting future leaders of the organization. These results highlight the importance of clarifying the outcome goals of the selection process in advance by giving raters a clear representation of the qualities and ideals that should be present in potential leaders. Originality/value – This study is among the first to examine the relationships between personality and ILTs in the context of a formal leadership selection process and makes a significant contribution to the literature by providing insight into the influence of both rater and applicant personality differences along with rater conceptualizations of ideal leadership in the context of formal leadership selection.

scholarly journals Being suspicious in the workplace: the role of suspicion and negative views of others in the workplace in the perception of abusive supervision

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Schyns
Keyword(s):  
Implicit Theories ◽  
Abusive Supervision ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
Destructive Leadership ◽  
Leadership Theories ◽  
Implicit Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implicit Leadership Theories ◽  
Leadership Perception ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeResearch reported in this manuscript focuses on the relationship between trait suspicion and the perception of abusive supervision. Based on previous research, the authors assume that suspicion is positively related to the perception of abusive supervision. The role implicit theories play in this relationship is examined.Design/methodology/approachTwo studies are presented to examine the relationship between trait suspicion and the perception of abusive supervision as moderated by implicit leadership theories. The first study is a survey study, and the second study is an experimental vignette study.FindingsResults of both studies indicate that suspicion is positively related to the perception of abusive supervision and that implicit leadership theories moderate the relationship between suspicion and the perception of abusive supervision.Research limitations/implicationsResults are interpreted in terms of biases in leadership perception as well as the reversing-the-lens perspective.Originality/valueWhile there is progress in taking into account follower characteristics and the resulting perceptual biases in the study of constructive leadership phenomena such as transformational leadership, less is know about the follower perception aspect of destructive leadership phenomena. With this research, the authors extend research into the influence of follower characteristics on the perception of abusive supervision and also look at boundary conditions of this relationship by including implicit leadership theories as a moderator.

scholarly journals Development Of Implicit Leadership Theories Prior To Training Or Employment

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean E. Frost
Keyword(s):  
Life Experience ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Leadership Theories ◽  
Implicit Leadership ◽  
Implicit Leadership Theories ◽  
Student Leader ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Activity Groups ◽  
Formal Leadership

This empirical study explored the development of implicit leadership theories among 16 to 18 year-old students in secondary schools prior to any formal leadership training or full-time employment.  Students from governance, athletics, clubs, performance groups, and part-time work groups completed interviews and questionnaires.  Adult leaders of activity groups also completed questionnaires.  Results were analyzed by activity and role (e.g., student leader, student group member, and adult supervisor) for three separate dependent variables: Adult Leaders, Leaders in General, and Student Leaders.  Results show that adolescents categorize leader behavior into similar constructs that have been previously established by research with adult samples experienced in organizational life.  Experience in groups but not necessarily as a leader contributes to developing implicit leadership theories and type of activity guides such leadership attributions.  Gender differences in the expectations for leaders were found and support the existence of early socialization into gender-specific leadership role stereotypes.

Leadership through love and fear: an effective combination

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 326-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia C. Dahm ◽  
Bruce E. Greenbaum
Keyword(s):  
Polynomial Regression ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Leader Effectiveness ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Leadership Theories ◽  
Implicit Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implicit Leadership Theories ◽  
Effective Combination ◽  
Multi Level

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how employees’ sentiments of fear and companionate love toward their leaders relate to leader effectiveness and follower loyalty. Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses multi-level survey data (n=728) from a professional services firm. Proposed relationships are examined using multi-level modeling, polynomial regression and response surface analysis. Findings Companionate love moderates the relationship between fear of a leader and leader effectiveness and follower loyalty. At high levels of companionate love, leader effectiveness and loyalty increase with fear, but at low levels of companionate love, fear negatively relates to leader effectiveness and loyalty. There are diminishing returns at relatively high levels of love and fear or when love becomes relatively much greater than fear. Research limitations/implications Findings suggest that employees may incorporate sentiments of love and fear into their implicit leadership theories (ILTs), though the authors do not measure ILTs. Practical implications Leaders may consider incorporating behaviors that elicit sentiments of both love and fear for greatest follower loyalty and effectiveness. Originality/value This study is the first to examine the combination of sentiments of love and fear. In contrast to the extant literature, which posits that fear has primarily negative effects, the results suggest that fear may have a more nuanced relationship with perceptions of the leader.

scholarly journals Host country employees’ negative perceptions of successive expatriate leadership: the role of leadership transference and implicit leadership theories

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylwia Ciuk ◽  
Doris Schedlitzki
Keyword(s):  
Host Country ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Leadership Theories ◽  
Implicit Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implicit Leadership Theories ◽  
Negative Perceptions ◽  
Expatriate Assignments ◽  
Past Experiences

PurposeDrawing on socio-cognitively orientated leadership studies, this paper aims to contribute to our understanding of host country employees’ (HCEs) negative perceptions of successive expatriate leadership by exploring how their memories of shared past experiences affect these perceptions. Contrary to previous work which tends to focus on HCEs’ attitudes towards individual expatriates, the authors shift attention to successive executive expatriate assignments within a single subsidiary.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on an intrinsic case study carried out in a Polish subsidiary of an American multinational pharmaceutical company which had been managed by four successive expatriate General Managers and one local executive. The authors draw on interview data with 40 HCEs. Twenty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff who had been managed by at least three of the subsidiary’s expatriate leaders.FindingsThe authors demonstrate how transference triggered by past experiences with expatriate leaders as well as HCEs’ implicit leadership theories affect HCEs’ negative perceptions of expatriate leadership and lead to the emergence of expatriate leadership schema.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the role of transference and implicit leadership theories in HCEs’ perceptions of successive executive expatriate assignments. By focussing on retrospective accounts of HCEs who had been managed by a series of successive expatriate leaders, our study has generated a more nuanced and contextualised understanding of the role of HCEs’ shared past experiences in shaping their perceptions of expatriate leadership. The authors propose a new concept – expatriate leadership schema – which describes HCEs’ cognitive structures, developed during past experiences with successive expatriate leaders, which specify what HCEs believe expatriate leadership to look like and what they expect from it.

Ideal and Confucian implicit leadership profiles in China

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Solansky ◽  
Vipin Gupta ◽  
Jifu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Leadership Theories ◽  
Indigenous Leadership ◽  
Cultural Center ◽  
Implicit Leadership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Implicit Leadership Theories ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Leadership Research

Purpose This paper is a regional exploratory study of implicit leadership theories in two regions of China. The purpose of this paper is to compare ideal vs Confucian leadership profiles and explore the possibility of a cultural hybrid perspective of leadership. Design/methodology/approach This study empirically explores leadership profiles through indigenous leadership research and compares implicit leadership theories of Confucian leadership and ideal leadership among a group of 128 managers representing two regions in mainland China. In doing so, measures developed by Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness that were translated into the local language are employed. Findings The results empirically show that a region known to have a deeper cultural entrenchment interprets Confucian ideology as ideal leadership, while a region more disconnected from the cultural center transforms its ideology based on more globally accepted leadership ideals. Practical implications The findings of this study caution leadership researchers (whether universally-etic or specifically-emic focused) from making generalizations regarding leadership. Although there might be some broad universals of leadership, context-specific leadership practices are deeply rooted between and within cultures. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by providing insight on implicit leadership theories in China and by proposing a culturally hybrid perspective of leadership based on globalization and cultural entrenchment forces.

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