When are transgressing leaders punitively judged? An empirical test.

Using Hollander's (1958) idiosyncrasy credit theory of leadership as the theoretical backdrop, we examined when and why organizational leaders escape punitive evaluation for their organizational transgressions. In a sample of 162 full-time employees, we found that leaders who were perceived to be more able and inspirationally motivating were less punitively evaluated by employees for leader transgressions. These effects were mediated by the leaders' LMX (leader–member exchange) with their employees. Moreover, the tendency of leaders with higher LMX to escape punitive evaluations for their transgressions was stronger when those leaders were more valued within the organization. Finally, employees who punitively evaluated their leaders were more likely to have turnover intentions and to psychologically withdraw from their organization. Theoretical and practical implications associated with relatively understudied leader-transgression dynamics are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

When leaders harass: The impact of target perceptions of organizational leadership and climate on harassment reporting and outcomes.

Using cases of harassment by leaders, the authors examined the effects of target perceptions of leader responses to sexual harassment and whether leader implementation of harassment policies made a difference beyond the impact of the policies themselves. Results showed that women who perceived that leaders made honest efforts to stop harassment felt significantly freer to report harassment, were more satisfied with the complaint process, and reported greater commitment than did those viewing leaders as more harassment tolerant. Different leadership levels had different effects, with hierarchically proximal leaders generally having the greatest impact. Leadership mediated the relationship between organizational policy and outcomes, supporting the view that a key role for leaders is establishing an ethical organizational climate that reinforces formal harassment policies through actions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Agentic women and communal leadership: How role prescriptions confer advantage to top women leaders.

The authors contribute to the ongoing debate about the existence of a female leadership advantage by specifying contextual factors that moderate the likelihood of the emergence of such an advantage. The investigation considered whether the perceived role incongruence between the female gender role and the leader role led to a female leader disadvantage (as predicted by role congruity theory) or whether instead a female leader advantage would emerge (as predicted by double standards and stereotype content research). In Study 1, it was only when success was internally attributed that women top leaders were evaluated as more agentic and more communal than men top leaders. Study 2 showed that the favorable ratings were unique to top-level positions and further showed that the effect on agentic traits was mediated by perceptions of double standards, while the effect on communal traits was mediated by expectations of feminized management skills. Finally, Study 2 showed that top women leaders were evaluated most favorably on overall leader effectiveness, and this effect was mediated by both mediators. Our results support the existence of a qualified female leadership advantage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Military Leadership Evaluations: Effects of Evaluator Sex, Leader Sex, and Gender Role Attitudes.

Despite a recent increase in women holding managerial or leadership positions, women are still underrepresented in the highest levels in business and in the military. Sex of evaluator and sex of leader have often been found to be related to leadership recommendations. Conducted at the United States Naval Academy, this study examined whether sex of evaluator and the evaluator's gender role attitudes were related to recommendations for promotion of male or female Naval lieutenant. Participants included 69 male and 39 female midshipmen who had completed the Attitudes Toward Women Scale and the Male Masculinity Role Norm Scale several weeks prior to the experimental intervention. For the intervention, participants were assigned by sex to read a fitness report for either a male or female lieutenant and to rate the lieutenant for promotion and his or her leadership characteristics. Compared with female leaders, male leaders were perceived as having fewer leadership characteristics that had an emotional component. Regardless of the sex of the evaluator, support for promotion was positively related to emotional and positive leader characteristics and negatively related to perceived negative leader characteristics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of previous leaders on the evaluation of new leaders: An alternative to prototype matching.

In 2 studies, this research demonstrated the existence of leader transference, a cognitive process whereby mental representations of previous leaders are activated and used for evaluation when new, similar leaders are encountered. The 1st study demonstrated that exposure to a new leader who was similar to a past leader led to erroneous generalization of leader characteristics and associated underlying attributions. The 2nd study showed that expectations of just treatment and abuse were also subject to transfer from old to new, similar leaders, although positive and negative affective responses were not. Results suggested that individuals exposed to a leader who was not reminiscent of an old leader were more likely to use a general leader prototype to form leader expectations, whereas individuals exposed to a leader who was similar to an old leader activated a significant other mental representation for use in making judgments. These results have implications for individual- and relational-level processes as characterized by implicit leadership theory and leader-member exchange theory as well as macro theories of leader succession and organizational culture change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Categorization of Admired and Disliked Exemplars of Admired and Disliked Racial Groups.

The present work examined the influence of affective fit in the racial categorization process. Study 1 tested whether famous exemplars of stigmatized and nonstigmatized racial groups are categorized by race at differential rates, depending on whether they are admired or disliked. Using an inverted-face paradigm, Study 2 examined whether racial categorization accuracy differs for admired and disliked exemplars of these groups. Study 3 examined the influence of collective self-esteem on Whites' tendency to differentially categorize admired and disliked Black and White exemplars. Last, Study 4 replicated the pattern of results found in the previous studies for White participants, making use of unknown exemplars about whom participants learned either positive or negative information prior to categorizing them. Taken together, the results suggested that phenotypically irrelevant affective information regarding exemplars and their social group memberships influences the racial categorization process. Implications for prejudice and stereotyping are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Establishing the next generation at work: Leader generativity as a moderator of the relationships between leader age, leader-member exchange, and leadership success.

In this study, the authors investigated leader generativity as a moderator of the relationships between leader age, leader-member exchange, and three criteria of leadership success (follower perceptions of leader effectiveness, follower satisfaction with leader, and follower extra effort). Data came from 128 university professors paired with one research assistant each. Results showed positive relationships between leader age and leader generativity, and negative relationships between leader age and follower perceptions of leader effectiveness and follower extra effort. Consistent with expectations based on leadership categorization theory, leader generativity moderated the relationships between leader age and all three criteria of leadership success, such that leaders high in generativity were better able to maintain high levels of leadership success at higher ages than leaders low in generativity. Finally, results of mediated moderation analyses showed that leader-member exchange quality mediated these moderating effects. The findings suggest that, in combination, leader age and the age-related construct of generativity importantly influence leadership processes and outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Women and women of color in leadership: Complexity, identity, and intersectionality.

This article describes the challenges that women and women of color face in their quest to achieve and perform in leadership roles in work settings. We discuss the barriers that women encounter and specifically address the dimensions of gender and race and their impact on leadership. We identify the factors associated with gender evaluations of leaders and the stereotypes and other challenges faced by White women and women of color. We use ideas concerning identity and the intersection of multiple identities to understand the way in which gender mediates and shapes the experience of women in the workplace. We conclude with suggestions for research and theory development that may more fully capture the complex experience of women who serve as leaders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of perceived race and gender in the evaluation of college teaching on RateMyProfessors.Com.

The present study examined whether student evaluations of college teaching (SETs) reflected a bias predicated on the perceived race and gender of the instructor. Using anonymous, peer-generated evaluations of teaching obtained from RateMyProfessors.com, the present study examined SETs from 3,079 White; 142 Black; 238 Asian; 130 Latino; and 128 Other race faculty at the 25 highest ranked liberal arts colleges. Results showed that racial minority faculty, particularly Blacks and Asians, were evaluated more negatively than White faculty in terms of overall quality, helpfulness, and clarity, but were rated higher on easiness. A two-stage cluster analysis demonstrated that the very best instructors were likely to be White, whereas the very worst were more likely to be Black or Asian. Few effects of gender were observed, but several interactions emerged showing that Black male faculty were rated more negatively than other faculty. The results of the present study are consistent with the negative racial stereotypes of racial minorities and have implications for the tenure and promotion of racial minority faculty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trait-based perspectives of leadership.

The trait-based perspective of leadership has a long but checkered history. Trait approaches dominated the initial decades of scientific leadership research. Later, they were disdained for their inability to offer clear distinctions between leaders and nonleaders and for their failure to account for situational variance in leadership behavior. Recently, driven by greater conceptual, methodological, and statistical sophistication, such approaches have again risen to prominence. However, their contributions are likely to remain limited unless leadership researchers who adopt this perspective address several fundamental issues. The author argues that combinations of traits and attributes, integrated in conceptually meaningful ways, are more likely to predict leadership than additive or independent contributions of several single traits. Furthermore, a defining core of these dominant leader trait patterns reflects a stable tendency to lead in different ways across disparate organizational domains. Finally, the author summarizes a multistage model that specifies some leader traits as having more distal influences on leadership processes and performance, whereas others have more proximal effects that are integrated with, and influenced by, situational parameters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leader Self-Sacrifice and Leadership Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Leader Prototypicality.

Self-sacrificing behavior of the leader and the extent to which the leader is representative of the group (i.e., group prototypical) are proposed to interact to influence leadership effectiveness. The authors expected self-sacrificing leaders to be considered more effective and to be able to push subordinates to a higher performance level than non-self-sacrificing leaders, and these effects were expected to be more pronounced for less prototypical leaders than for more prototypical leaders. The results of a laboratory experiment showed that, as expected, productivity levels, effectiveness ratings, and perceived leader group-orientedness and charisma were positively affected by leader self-sacrifice, especially when leader prototypicality was low. The main results were replicated in a scenario experiment and 2 surveys. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Duration, satisfaction, and perceived effectiveness of cross-cultural counseling.

The relationship between cultural dissimilarity and the duration, satisfaction, and perceived effectiveness of counseling was studied in the context of 70 actual treatment dyads that varied as to the race of the counselor and the client (White or non-White). White counselors provided fewer sessions than non-White counselors, and non-White clients expressed lower levels of overall satisfaction with counseling, regardless of counselor race. No differences in counseling effectiveness were observed as measured by counselor and client ratings of perceived relief, understanding, and coping. Relative to other treatment dyads, however, White clients seeing White counselors attributed their change more to counseling than to other, outside factors. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of transformational and change leadership on employees' commitment to a change: A multilevel study.

The effects of transformational leadership on the outcomes of specific change initiatives are not well understood. Conversely, organizational change studies have examined leader behaviors during specific change implementations yet have failed to link these to broader leadership theories. In this study, the authors investigate the relationship between transformational and change leadership and followers' commitment to a particular change initiative as a function of the personal impact of the changes. Transformational leadership was found to be more strongly related to followers' change commitment than change-specific leadership practices, especially when the change had significant personal impact. For leaders who were not viewed as transformational, good change-management practices were found to be associated with higher levels of change commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for hypodescent and racial hierarchy in the categorization and perception of biracial individuals.

Individuals who qualify equally for membership in two racial groups provide a rare window into social categorization and perception. In 5 experiments, we tested the extent to which a rule of hypodescent, whereby biracial individuals are assigned the status of their socially subordinate parent group, would govern perceptions of Asian–White and Black–White targets. In Experiment 1, in spite of posing explicit questions concerning Asian–White and Black–White targets, hypodescent was observed in both cases and more strongly in Black–White social categorization. Experiments 2A and 2B used a speeded response task and again revealed evidence of hypodescent in both cases, as well as a stronger effect in the Black–White target condition. In Experiments 3A and 3B, social perception was studied with a face-morphing task. Participants required a face to be lower in proportion minority to be perceived as minority than in proportion White to be perceived as White. Again, the threshold for being perceived as White was higher for Black–White than for Asian–White targets. An independent categorization task in Experiment 3B further confirmed the rule of hypodescent and variation in it that reflected the current racial hierarchy in the United States. These results documenting biases in the social categorization and perception of biracials have implications for resistance to change in the American racial hierarchy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Advice and Influence Networks of Transformational Leaders.

Existing transformational leadership research has focused primarily on the behaviors of leaders and their effects on followers. The authors extended this research by examining the social networks of managers who exhibit transformational leadership behaviors. Their focus was on the network of relationships that managers develop and whether they hold key positions in the organization's informal social networks. In a field study using data from 39 managers and 130 nonmanagement employees of 6 organizations, the authors found that managers who score higher on transformational leadership tend to hold more central positions in organizational advice and influence networks. Furthermore, the direct reports of these leaders were also more central in informal organizational networks. These results illuminate one of the ways that managers who exhibit transformational leadership behaviors may exert influence in organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Diversity and leadership in a changing world.

Scholars of leadership have infrequently addressed the diversity of leaders and followers in terms of culture, gender, race and ethnicity, or sexual orientation. This omission has weakened the ability of research and theory to address some of the most provocative aspects of contemporary leadership, including (a) the limited access of individuals from diverse identity groups to leadership roles; (b) the shaping of leaders’ behavior by their dual identities as leaders and members of gender, racial, ethnic, or other identity groups; and (c) the potential of individuals from groups formerly excluded from leadership roles to provide excellent leadership because of their differences from traditional leaders. In addressing such issues, we argue that the joining of the two bodies of theory and research—one pertaining to leadership and the other to diversity—enriches both domains of knowledge and provides guidelines for optimizing leadership in contemporary organizations and nations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behind the door: Keeping business leaders focused on how they lead.

The importance of how leaders lead (i.e., the individual behavioral dimension of leadership), is emphasized as a necessary component of comprehensive leadership development initiatives. Key practice factors and meta themes of an insight-oriented development model designed to influence executive behavior are presented, as well as a possible typology for recognizing certain behavioral states among business leaders. Several vignettes of executive cases in poetic form are also provided to illustrate these behavioral states, to emphasize the psychological effects on others of both effective and dysfunctional leader behavior, and more broadly to suggest the potential value of metaphorical thought as a consulting tool for influencing the effective behavior of senior business executives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moving Beyond the Great Leader Model.

This article challenges some fundamental assumptions of the predominant model for leadership in modern organizations. The great leader model is typified by high levels of deference to, and expectations for, the ideas, visions, and values of an individual or small group designated as leaders. A more systems-oriented perspective of leadership that acknowledges that different situations may require very different types of leadership is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)