Leader or Leaderess? Consequences of Using Feminatives for the Perception of Leadership

According to the Implicit Leadership Theory, leadership roles are assigned in the process of social construction and depend upon the level of congruence with the cognitive representation of a leader. Previous studies show that this cognitive representation is much more likely to involve a leader being a male rather than a female. The article presents the results of an experiment aimed at tentatively verifying whether the use of the feminine forms could increase the cognitive availability of the representation of a woman as a leader. In the experiment, 135 teams (N = 307 respondents) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: 1) generic instruction (without the use of feminatives, “Please, draw a leader”), 2) inclusive instruction (using feminatives, “Please, draw a leader/leaderess”). The results showed a significant interaction between the experimental manipulation and the proportion of women in the team. The use of feminine forms increased the percentage of females drawn as leaders only in teams with a high female-to-male ratio.

Democratic leadership as a political weapon: competition between fictions and practices

PurposeThis article aims to analyze possible interpretations of democratic leadership by revealing the implicit leadership theory (ILT) of a moral, a material and a political ideal of democracy, namely deliberative–participatory democracy (DPD), aggregative–pluralist democracy (APD) and leader democracy (LD). As special “filters,” ILT helps the author to organize and compare conflicting premises and assumptions democratic theories hold about exemplary leadership and followership.Design/methodology/approachIn order to reconstruct the possible meanings of ideal leadership (challenges and political knowledge) and the ideal followership (power relations, interactions and roles) portrayed by theories, the article sets a specific template for conceptual analysis.FindingsThe author argues that there is a contest over the meaning of democratic leadership. Political leaders use leadership fictions as political weapons to mobilize possible followers, legitimize their actions and discredit opponents. The article creates a heuristic typology providing a “plural” or nonessentialist reading of actual political situations and democratic practices.Originality/valueThe literature usually aims to find an absolute moral understanding of leadership fitted in democracy or to reconcile the idea of leadership with democracy. Extending J. Thomas Wren's approach, this article examines competing fictions of democratic leadership by blending leadership and democracy theories.

Implicit leadership theory: principals' sense-making and cognitive complexity

PurposeThis conceptual paper explores a novel model explaining teachers' perceptions of their effective leader through the lens of implicit leadership theory (ILT), using the concepts of school principals' sense-making and cognitive complexity (CC).Design/methodology/approachThe sense-making framework and CC theory were used to explain ILT, which focuses on individuals' perceptions of leaders' prototypical and anti-prototypical attributes.FindingsThe theoretical model suggests that school principals as sense-makers with high levels of CC will be perceived by teachers as effective in terms of leadership prototypes, whereas teachers' perceptions of principals with low levels of CC will be related to leadership anti-prototypes.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper suggests a model for a multidimensional understanding of the relationship between principals' sense-making and CC and their influence on teachers' perceptions of an effective leader.Originality/valueOpening avenues for future research into employee perceptions of different leadership characteristics, this model emphasizes the cognitive aspects of school principals within implicit leadership theories. This theoretical model should be further examined empirically, and other types of CC, such as social and behavioral aspects, or affective complexity and self-complexity, should be considered.

First-Time Leaders and Implicit Leadership Theory

First-time leaders may find themselves thrust into very stressful situations for their teams and organizations at large. First-time leaders in corporations, the classroom, sports, the military, and politics should understand how stress changes the way followers perceive their leader and the ideal traits for a leader through changing leadership prototype schemas. Implicit leadership theories, social information processing, and cognitive psychology suggest that stress can influence the activation of schema. Changing leadership prototype schemas of followers may affect subsequent productivity and efficiency. This chapter examines if leadership prototype schemas change under stress and recommends ways first-time leaders can respond to these changing schemas, including how female first-time leaders who are often initially perceived as more sensitive leaders can utilize changing perceptions and ideal leader prototypes under stressful conditions.

Who Might Support a Tyrant? An Exploration of Links Between Adolescent Family Conflict and Endorsement of Tyrannical Implicit Leadership Theories

This research takes an exploratory approach to shed light on the paradox that negative leader characteristics, such as pushy, obnoxious, and manipulative, appeal to some individuals. We employ social learning theory to argue how parents can model conflict for their adolescents, which may shape implicit leadership theories later in life. Spanning 21 years, this longitudinal study examines adolescent family environment and parents’ gender attitudes as antecedents of adult tyrannical implicit leadership theories using a sample of 102 individuals and their parents. Findings from multiple regression analyses suggest that high family conflict during formative years may predispose individuals to endorse the implicit leadership theory dimension known as tyranny. Furthermore, fathers’ egalitarian gender attitudes, as well as mothers’ masculine sex-types, may amplify this effect. Results inform the literature on leadership perceptions by surfacing the early life antecedents of paradoxical leadership preferences.

Is the meaning of ethical leadership constant across cultures? A test of cross-cultural measurement invariance

PurposeThis paper empirically addresses the question of whether the meaning of ethical leadership is constant across cultures. Drawing on the implicit leadership theory (ILT), we examine whether people in Australia and Pakistan respond to perceived ethical leadership in a similar or different manner. By comparing employees' interpretation of the key attributes associated with ethical leadership, we advance construct-specific knowledge in cross-national contexts.Design/methodology/approachSince meaningful cross-country comparisons of a research construct require an equivalent measurement of it, we examine the issue of cross-cultural measurement invariance of ethical leadership. Specifically, this study explores the configural, metric and scalar invariance of ethical leadership by obtaining data from matched international samples.FindingsThe findings broadly support cross-cultural generalisability of the construct's meaning and cross-cultural transferability of the ethical leadership scale (ELS). They suggest that measures of ethical leadership constructs should be used in different cultures with caution because significant differences may exist at the item level.Originality/valueThis study provides cross-cultural endorsement to the construal of ethical leadership by presenting evidence that supports convergence in the construct's meaning across Eastern and Western cultures. The study has enhanced the construct validity of ethical leadership through the use of the refined multiple-sample analytical approach. Previous studies have assumed that measures of ethical leadership are invariant across various contexts. However, this is the first study to employ a robust methodological technique (metric and path invariance) that demonstrates the significant difference between each item and path and generalises the validity of ethical leadership construct and its measures by using international samples.