What are we measuring? Convergence of leadership with interpersonal and non-interpersonal personality.

Since leadership styles have been most commonly defined in terms of interpersonal influence, one would assume that they have their main projections on the interpersonal circumplex. In this study, the relations between leadership styles from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire and both interpersonal and HEXACO personality scales are investigated. As expected, charismatic leadership and leader's consideration have strong projections on the interpersonal circumplex, with main projections on the warm-agreeable octant. Transactional leadership, passive leadership, and task-oriented leadership have considerably weaker or no projections on the circumplex. Leader's consideration is most strongly related to interpersonal personality while both transactional and passive leadership are most strongly related to non-interpersonal personality. It is concluded that especially charismatic leadership and leader's consideration are captured almost fully by the HEXACO personality inventory. Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications

Leadership = Communication? The relations of leaders' communication styles with leadership styles, knowledge sharing and leadership outcomes

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between leaders' communication styles and charismatic leadership, human-oriented leadership (leader's consideration), task-oriented leadership (leader's initiating structure), and leadership outcomes. Methodology: A survey was conducted among 279 employees of a governmental organization. The following six main communication styles were operationalized: verbal aggressiveness, expressiveness, preciseness, assuredness, supportiveness, and argumentativeness. Regression analyses were employed to test three main hypotheses. Findings: In line with expectations, the study showed that charismatic and human-oriented leadership are mainly communicative, while task-oriented leadership is significantly less communicative. The communication styles were strongly and differentially related to knowledge sharing behaviors, perceived leader performance, satisfaction with the leader, and subordinate's team commitment. Multiple regression analyses showed that the leadership styles mediated the relations between the communication styles and leadership outcomes. However, leader's preciseness explained variance in perceived leader performance and satisfaction with the leader above and beyond the leadership style variables. Implications: This study offers potentially invaluable input for leadership training programs by showing the importance of leader's supportiveness, assuredness, and preciseness when communicating with subordinates. Originality/value: Although one of the core elements of leadership is interpersonal communication, this study is one of the first to use a comprehensive communication styles instrument in the study of leadership. © 2009 The Author(s)

Eigenbelang en het gebruik van het passief en actief kiesrecht bij hogeschoolstudenten:Self interest and the use of passive and active suffrage by university college students

In dit artikel gaan we na hoe eigenbelang een rol speelt in de participatiebereidheid van studenten in de hogeschool, zoals in hun gebruik van het passief kiesrecht (kandideren als studentvertegenwoordiger) en van het actief kiesrecht (stemmen voor kandidaat-studentvertegenwoordigers). Hiervoor zijn studenten uit eenVlaamse hogeschool betrokken in twee vignetexperimenten (N1 = 366 en N2 = 288). De resultaten wijzen uit dat hun bereidheid tot kandideren en stemmen toeneemt naarmate ze meer invloed hebben in de raden. Indien in de raden studieonderwerpen worden behandeld, is deze participatiebereidheid hoger dan bij algemene beleidsonderwerpen. Het compenseren van het vertegenwoordigerswerk bevordert enkel de bereidheid tot kandideren. Compensaties (voornamelijk geld) stimuleren de kandidaatstelling, vooral wanneer studieonderwerpen in de raden aan bod komen, of wanneer studenten er veel invloed hebben. In het gebruik van het actief kiesrecht heeft het voorzien van compensaties geen effect. Indien studenten het interpersoonlijk contact in de medezeggenschapscontext als respectvol beoordelen, dan is de bereidheid om zowel te kandideren als te stemmen hoger dan wanneer dit niet het geval is. Tot slot concluderen we dat het gebruik van het passief kiesrecht mede verklaard wordt door de inschatting van de eigen medezeggenschapscompetenties bij de studenten. Deze onderzoeksbevindingen bevestigen dat het eigenbelang van studenten een belangrijke rol speelt in hun bereidheid om te participeren in medezeggenschap. Het medezeggenschapsbeleid van een hogeschool moet niet alleen rekening houden met de belangen en behoeften van de studenten, maar ook met hun participatiecompetenties