Age and leadership: comparisons of age groups in different kinds of work environment

Purpose – The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to compare the self-rated leadership behaviors, leadership-related competencies and results of the leadership of younger, mid-aged and older leaders; and second to compare these aspects among younger leaders in different kinds of the work environment and between men and women. Design/methodology/approach – Data was collected using the developmental leadership questionnaire from a sample of Swedish leadership course participants (N = 7,743). Findings – The results showed that the younger group of leaders (29 years old or younger n = 539), rated themselves more negatively than the mid-aged (30–50 years, n = 5,208) and older (51 years or older, n = 1,996) leaders. Analysis of the group of younger leaders showed that those working in the private sector scored most favorably. The gender comparison revealed that young male leaders scored higher on negative conventional (transactional) and destructive leadership behaviors. A logistic regression analysis of the younger group showed that social competence, developmental leadership and destructive leadership (negative) influenced self-rated results of leadership. Research limitations/implications – The study is based on leaders’ self-ratings only. Practical implications – The results can be used in leadership development contexts and in individualized coaching or mentoring programs. Originality/value – The results have new implications for leadership theory related to self-confidence, stereotypes, selection and organizational culture. Keywords Leadership, Work environment, Age, Theory-based measurement, Developmental Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ)publishedVersio

Leadership through the subordinates' eye: perceptions of leader behaviors in relation to age and gender

Purpose The study represents a theory-based leadership approach in exploring the subordinate's perceptions of leadership behaviors in relation to age, gender and type of work environment. The aim was (1) to compare subordinates' ratings of their respective leaders' leadership behaviors based on of the leaders' age and gender, controlling for type of work environment and (2) to analyze the relationship between the subordinates' ratings of their leaders' leadership behaviors and their ratings of the outcome of these leadership behaviors. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using the Developmental Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ) from a sample of Swedish leadership course participants (n = 10,869) and their respective subordinates (n = 97,943). The DLQ measures leadership behaviors designed to reflect the following leadership styles: developmental leadership, conventional-positive leadership, conventional-negative leadership and destructive leadership. Findings Results showed that older leaders (51 years or older) were rated less favorably than younger (29 years or younger) and mid-aged leaders. Female leaders received more positive ratings than male leaders. A 3-way analysis-of-variance showed strong main effects for age, gender, and type of work environment and no significant interaction effects. A significant model with high equivalents of R2 coefficients (Cox and Snell, 1989; Nagelkerke, 1991) was obtained in a logistic regression analysis. Developmental leadership and conventional-positive leadership made significant positive contributions to the subordinates' ratings of the outcome of their leaders' leadership behaviors. Destructive leadership behaviors contributed negatively to the outcome ratings. Research limitations/implications Weaknesses include the cross-sectional study design. The large sample size is a strength, and the results have novel implications for leadership theory related to subordinates' view on leadership. Practical implications Counter-stereotype age and gender findings may have implications for organizational decisions and processes regarding selection of managers. Development programs are suggested for all categories but for older, male leaders with a focus on reducing their use of leadership behaviors perceived negatively by their subordinates, whereas younger female leaders should be encouraged to continue to develop their positive leadership behaviors. Originality/value The theory-based approach on subordinates' perceptions of leadership behaviors with a simultaneous focus on age, gender and type of work environment, based on a large-scale data set, is new.publishedVersio

Last millennium northern hemisphere summer temperatures from tree rings: Part I: The long term context

Large-scale millennial length Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperature reconstructions have been progressively improved over the last 20 years as new datasets have been developed. This paper, and its companion (Part II, Anchukaitis et al. in prep), details the latest tree-ring (TR) based NH land air temperature reconstruction from a temporal and spatial perspective. This work is the first product of a consortium called N-TREND (Northern Hemisphere Tree-Ring Network Development) which brings together dendroclimatologists to identify a collective strategy for improving large-scale summer temperature reconstructions. The new reconstruction, N-TREND2015, utilises 54 records, a significant expansion compared with previous TR studies, and yields an improved reconstruction with stronger statistical calibration metrics. N-TREND2015 is relatively insensitive to the compositing method and spatial weighting used and validation metrics indicate that the new record portrays reasonable coherence with large scale summer temperatures and is robust at all time-scales from 918 to 2004 where at least 3 TR records exist from each major continental mass. N-TREND2015 indicates a longer and warmer medieval period (∼900–1170) than portrayed by previous TR NH reconstructions and by the CMIP5 model ensemble, but with better overall agreement between records for the last 600 years. Future dendroclimatic projects should focus on developing new long records from data-sparse regions such as North America and eastern Eurasia as well as ensuring the measurement of parameters related to latewood density to complement ring-width records which can improve local based calibration substantially

Facilitating tree-ring dating of historic conifer timbers using Blue Intensity

The Scottish pine network expansion has been an ongoing task since 2006 and funding must be acknowledged to the following projects: EU project ‘Millennium’ (017008-2), Leverhulme Trust project ‘RELiC: Reconstructing 8000 years of Environmental and Landscape change in the Cairngorms (F/00268/BG)’, the Native Oak and Pine project or ‘NOAP’ (Historic Scotland) and the NERC project ‘SCOT2K:Reconstructing 2000 years of Scottish climate from tree rings (NE/K003097/1)’. Further PhD funding for Milos Rydval is acknowledged from The Carnegie Trust.Dendroarchaeology almost exclusively uses ring-width (RW) data for dating historical structures and artefacts. Such data can be used to date tree-ring sequences when regional climate dominates RW variability. However, the signal in RW data can be obscured due to site specific ecological influences (natural and anthropogenic) that impact crossdating success. In this paper, using data from Scotland, we introduce a novel tree-ring parameter (Blue Intensity – BI) and explore its utility for facilitating dendro historical dating of conifer samples. BI is similar to latewood density as they both reflect the combined hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin content in the latewood cell walls of conifer species and the amount of these compounds is strongly controlled, at least for trees growing in temperature limited locations, by late summer temperatures. BI not only expresses a strong climate signal, but is also less impacted by site specific ecological influences. It can be concurrently produced with RW data from images of finely sanded conifer samples but at a significantly reduced cost compared to traditional latewood density. Our study shows that the probability of successfully crossdating historical samples is greatly increased using BI compared to RW. Furthermore, due to the large spatial extent of the summer temperature signal expressed by such data, a sparse multi-species conifer network of long BI chronologies across Europe could be used to date and loosely provenance imported material.PostprintPeer reviewe

Academic papers and theses - to write and present and to act as an opponent

An educational method that is becoming all the more common at colleges and universities is that of the seminar. In the seminar, students write academic papers and reports, present them, and act as opponents on each other’s work. The book covers all the sections that are normally included in the seminar. The learning environment of the seminar is based on a scientific way of thinking and on scientific methods. With its point of departure in this foundation, the book aims to provide easily accessible information and advice about the ways in which academic work can be organized and carried out. Furthermore, the book takes up issues regarding layout, presentation of one’s work, opposition, and cheating, as well as criteria used to assess academic papers and theses. The book is intended for use on first-cycle levels at university colleges and universities, and within other forms of post-secondary school education. There is also a Swedish version of the book with the title: Seminarieboken – att skriva, presentera och opponera

Seminarieboken : att skriva, presentera och opponera. 2. uppl.

En undervisningsform som blir allt vanligare vid högskolor och universitet är seminariet. Där deltar de studerande aktivt genom att skriva uppsatser, rapporter eller pm och sedan presentera och diskutera dessa. Detta kursmoment skiljer sig på många sätt från de kursmoment där tyngdpunkten ligger på inläsning med kunskaps¬kontroll i form av skriftliga tentamina där studenterna besvarar ställda frågor. Genom seminarieformen ges en möjlighet för den studerande att samla in, analysera och presentera information med ett bredare innehåll. Studenterna får även möjlighet att skapa någonting nytt genom att kombinera ihop olika idéer och att värdera olika lösningsalternativ och handlingsvägar. De tränas även i vetenskapligt tänkesätt och vetenskapliga metoder. Vid betygssättningen tas hänsyn till det skrivna, hur detta presenterats och försvarats samt hur oppositionen genomförts. Ibland tar man vid betygssättning även hänsyn till hur processen sett ut där aspekter såsom hållande av tidplaner, delinlämningar och aktivt deltagande vid handledningstillfällen vägs in. Vanligtvis behandlas dessa delar i separata böcker. Denna seminariebok täcker dock alla de delar som normalt ingår i seminariemomentet. En grundläggande idé för boken är nämligen att den ska vara heltäckande i meningen att alla de olika komponenter som är relevanta för seminarier med rapport- eller uppsatsskrivande ska finnas i boken. En annan grundläggande idé är att boken ska vara kortfattad. Trots att den spänner över många olika områden vill vi att den ska ha ett begränsat sidantal. Slutligen vill vi att boken ska vara enkel. Därför har vi lagt in olika figurer och exempel samt försökt skriva lättfattligt och rakt på sak. Boken är tänkt att användas på högskolor, universitet och inom annan eftergymnasial utbildning. På lägre nivåer eller mindre utbildningsmoment kan den utgöra den enda metodboken, på högre nivåer eller större utbildningsmoment kan den kompletteras med andra mer specialiserade och djupgående metodböcker. I boken ges allmän, praktisk information om hur ett uppsatsarbete lämpligen kan läggas upp, genomföras och avslutas. Boken vänder sig främst till studerande, men det är vår förhoppning att även handledare och andra ska finna den givande. I boken behandlas de traditionella metodfrågorna. Fokus i metod-avsnittet ligger på att medvetandegöra och kritiskt reflektera kring hur val av tillvägagångssätt vid insamlande och bearbetning av information/material påverkar studien på olika sätt. Vetenskaps¬teori behandlas endast perifert. Boken ger också råd och praktiska tips om hur en uppsats kan presenteras. Även layoutfrågor behand¬las. Dessutom tas frågorna om opposition och uppsatsbedömning upp. I anslutning till bedömningsavsnittet behandlas även frågan om fusk. I den löpande texten finns exempel insprängda som illustrerar den förda diskussionen. Dessa exempel är konstruerade, men baseras på våra erfarenheter som handledare och examinatorer

Age and leadership: comparisons of age groups in different kinds of work environment

Purpose – The purpose of this study is twofold. First, to compare the self-rated leadership behaviors, leadership-related competencies and results of the leadership of younger, mid-aged and older leaders; and second to compare these aspects among younger leaders in different kinds of the work environment and between men and women. Design/methodology/approach – Data was collected using the developmental leadership questionnaire from a sample of Swedish leadership course participants (N = 7,743). Findings – The results showed that the younger group of leaders (29 years old or younger n = 539), rated themselves more negatively than the mid-aged (30–50 years, n = 5,208) and older (51 years or older, n = 1,996) leaders. Analysis of the group of younger leaders showed that those working in the private sector scored most favorably. The gender comparison revealed that young male leaders scored higher on negative conventional (transactional) and destructive leadership behaviors. A logistic regression analysis of the younger group showed that social competence, developmental leadership and destructive leadership (negative) influenced self-rated results of leadership. Research limitations/implications – The study is based on leaders’ self-ratings only. Practical implications – The results can be used in leadership development contexts and in individualized coaching or mentoring programs. Originality/value – The results have new implications for leadership theory related to self-confidence, stereotypes, selection and organizational culture. Keywords Leadership, Work environment, Age, Theory-based measurement, Developmental Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ

Historiska fiktioner : En antologi om film, tv och historia

En antologi med artiklar om dels filmhistoria, dels film och historia