Seeing eye to eye: can leadership training align perceptions of leadership?

There is a huge gap between how employees see leaders’ behavior and how leaders see themselves regardless of sector and functional area. Because this gap can be a serious problem in managing organizations, scholars have investigated how the gap can be reduced. This article focuses on leadership training and tests whether and under what conditions it narrows the gap. Using quantitative and qualitative data from a randomized field experiment with several hundred Danish leaders from public and private organizations, we find that a yearlong leadership training course decreases the differences between leader and employee perceptions of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors in public sector organizations but not in private organizations. The findings imply that leadership training can be one way for public organizations to align perceptions of leadership

Små, store eller måske rettere mellemstore organisationer? En undersøgelse af sammenhængen mellem ledelsesspænd, ledelsesidentitet og brugen af transformationsledelse i danske daginstitutioner

Ledere af organisationer med forskellige størrelser af ledelsesspænd har ikke nødvendigvis lige gode muligheder for at udøve ledelsesstrategier, som anses som gavnlige for medarbejderes motivation og præstationer. Mens det som leder i organisationer med store ledelsesspænd kan være vanskeligt at sikre en effektiv og individuel ledelse af alle medarbejdere, kan man som leder af organisationer med få medarbejdere være så eksponereret overfor medarbejderne og så tæt involvereret i det daglige arbejde, at det kan være svært at udvikle den generelle ledelsesidentitet, som udøvelsen af visse ledelsesstrategier kræver. Baseret på en kvantitativ undersøgelse af daginstitutionsområdet belyser artiklen, hvordan ledelsesspændet hænger sammen med lederens brug af transformationsledelse. Her kigger artiklen på, hvor meget transformationsledelse medarbejdere i organisationer med forskellige størrelser af ledelsesspænd opfatter, at deres leder udøver. Artiklen ser også på, om ledernes identitet som generel leder fremfor en identitet som fagprofessionel medarbejder medierer denne sammenhæng. Artiklen giver således et bud på betingelserne for udøvelsen af transformationsledelse i daginstitutioner med forskellige størrelser af ledelsesspænd, ligesom den også bidrager med en udvikling af den teoretiske forståelse af disse mekanismer. Artiklen finder, at niveauet af medarbejderopfattet transformationsledelse er størst i daginstitutioner med mellemstore ledelsesspænd (12-20 medarbejdere), og at forskellen på lederens identitet som generel leder fremfor identitet som fagprofessionel medarbejder forklarer forskellen mellem institutioner med små ledelsesspænd og institutioner med mellemstore ledelsesspænd

Small, big or medium sized organisations? The associations between span of control, leader identity and transformational leadership in Danish daycare

Leaders of public organizations do not always have the same opportunities to lead. Depending on the size of the span of control, leaders might either find it difficult to effectively lead all individual employees (broad spans of control) or become so familiar with the employees and involved in the daily routines (narrow spans of control) that certain leadership strategies are hard to exert. Using quantitative data from the Danish daycare sector, this article finds that the levels of employee-perceived transformational leadership is greatest in medium-sized organizations (12-20 employees), and that the daycare leaders’ general leadership identity – as opposed to an identity as a pedagogue – explains the difference between organizations with narrow and medium-sized spans of control

Ledelsesspænd og ledertilfredshed i offentlige og private organisationer

Offentlige ledere får ansvar for stadig flere medarbejdere. Forskningslitteraturen om ledelsesspænd indeholder argumenter for både positive og negative effekter af større ledelsesspænd, men der mangler empiriske studier, som direkte sammenligner betydningen af ledelsesspænd for ledelse i offentlige og private organisationer. Derudover mangler der panelstudier, som undersøger konsekvenserne af ændringer i ledelsesspænd. Artiklen fokuserer på ledertilfredshed og ser på betydningen af ledelsesspænd i en tværsnitsanalyse af 11.234 offentlige og private medarbejdere, som viser faldende ledertilfredshed med ledelsesspændet og lidt stærkere negativ betydning for ledertilfredsheden i offentlige organisationer sammenlignet med private. Derudover viser en panelanalyse af en mindre stikprøve en vis støtte til, at ændringer i ledertilfredsheden sker i forbindelse med ændringer i ledelsesspændet – især ved små ledelsesspænd

Span of control and leadership satisfaction in public and private organizations

Public leaders are managing an increasing number of employees. The literature on span of control holds arguments about positive as well as negative effects of larger spans of control, but we lack empirical studies, which directly compare the consequences of span of control in public and private organizations. Furthermore, we lack panel studies, which investigate the consequences of changes in span of control. This article focuses on leadership satisfaction and investigates the importance of span of control among 11,234 public and private employees and shows that span of control is negatively associated with leadership satisfaction, and that this negative relationship is slightly stronger in public organizations compared with private organizations. Furthermore, a panel study of a subsample provides some support for the argument that changes in leadership satisfaction occur in relation to changes in span of control –especially at lower spans of control

Seeing eye to eye: can leadership training align perceptions of leadership?

There is a huge gap between how employees see leaders' behavior and how leaders see themselves regardless of sector and functional area. Because this gap can be a serious problem in managing organizations, scholars have investigated how the gap can be reduced. This article focuses on leadership training and tests whether and under what conditions it narrows the gap. Using quantitative and qualitative data from a randomized field experiment with several hundred Danish leaders from public and private organizations, we find that a yearlong leadership training course decreases the differences between leader and employee perceptions of transformational and transactional leadership behaviors in public sector organizations but not in private organizations. The findings imply that leadership training can be one way for public organizations to align perceptions of leadership.18 month embargo; published online: 30 June 2020This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]