Defining respectful leadership

Research shows that employees value respectful leadership very highly. But what is it exactly? Can it be measured, and is it possible for managers to determine if they give it to their employees

How Embodied Cognitions Affect Judgments: Height-Related Attribution Bias in Football Foul Calls

Many fouls committed in football (called soccer in some countries) are ambiguous, and there is no objective way of determining who is the “true” perpetrator or the “true” victim. Consequently, fans as well as referees often rely on a variety of decision cues when judging such foul situations. Based on embodiment research, which links perceptions of height to concepts of strength, power, and aggression, we argue that height is going to be one of the decision cues used. As a result, people are more likely to attribute a foul in an ambiguous tackle situation to the taller of two players. We find consistent support for our hypothesis, not only in field data spanning the last seven UEFA Champions League and German Bundesliga seasons, as well as the last three FIFA World Cups, but also in two experimental studies. The resulting dilemma for refereeing in practice is discussed

Who cares? The importance of interpersonal respect in employees' work values and organizational practices

"Two large online surveys were conducted among employees in Germany to explore the importance employees and organizations lay on aspects of interpersonal respect in relation to other work values. The first study (N1 = 589) extracted a general ranking of work values, showing that issues of respect which involve supervisors are rated particularly high among employees. The second study (N2 = 373) replicated the previous value ranking by and large. However, it is shown that the value priorities indicated by employees are not always matched by organizational practices. Especially respect issues which involve employees' supervisors diverge strongly negative. Consequences and potentials for change in organizations are discussed." (author's abstract

Outside-In: eine Perspektivbestimmung zum Umgang mit Wissen in der Sozialpsychologie

"Ausgehend von der Betrachtung, dass Wissen das zentralste Medium einer Wissenschaft ist, widmet sich dieser Beitrag einer Status- und Entwicklungsanalyse für die Wissensstrukturen der Sozialpsychologie. Anhand verschiedener wissensbasierter Prozesse werden konkrete Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt, die sowohl nachhaltig zum Erkenntnisgewinn in unserer Disziplin beitragen, als auch der mitunter breit aufgestellten Sozialpsychologie wieder eine geteilte Perspektive geben könnten. Vorausgesetzt, wir finden den Mut, uns nicht nur inhaltlich, sondern auch strukturell zu entwickeln." (Autorenreferat)"Indicating that knowledge is the foremost central medium of a science, this article provides an investigation of the current status and a developmental outlook on knowledge structures within Social Psychology. Looking at different knowledge-processes specific opportunities for change are pointed out, which on the one hand might contribute substantially to the processes of understanding and on the other might also unify the sometimes extensively construed Social Psychology under a shared perspective. Provided that we have the guts, to not only develop the content but also the structures of our discipline." (author's abstract

Orchestrating coordination among humanitarian organizations

Disasters mobilize hundreds of organizations, but coordination among them remains a challenge. This is why the United Nations has formed clusters to facilitate information and resource exchange among humanitarian organizations. Yet, coordination failures in prior disasters raise questions as to the effectiveness of the cluster approach in coordinating relief efforts. To better understand barriers to coordination, we developed a grounded theory and augmented the theory with an agent-based simulation. Our theory discerns a cluster lead's roles of facilitating coordination, but also investing in its own ground operations. We find that specifically serving such a dual role impairs swift trust and consequent coordination among cluster members. The additional simulation findings generalize the detrimental effect of the cluster lead's dual role versus a pure facilitator role and specify it against various boundary conditions

Tango in the Dark: The Interplay of Leader’s and Follower’s Level of Self-Construal and its Impact on Ethical Leadership

In line with romantic views on leadership, leaders are traditionally held responsible for any kind of ethical misconduct in organizations. Through explicating the influence of followers on their leaders' (unethical) decision-making, we aim to add some nuances to this view with the present chapter. To begin with, we suggest that people generally regard leadership as ethical when the leader takes the collective into account, while only focusing on own gains is largely regarded as unethical. We then posit that the degree to which leaders' decisions are directed towards the one versus the other outcome depends on the leaders’ level of self-construal, that is, the way how they see themselves in relation to others. Looking at leader's ethical decision making through this lens suggests that it is open to external influence, in that leaders’ self-construal is susceptible to external cues. In particular, followers form an important part of such external cues for a leader's level of self-construal. We thus suggest various mechanisms via which followers indirectly influence their leaders' ethical decision making. In sum, we put forward a model in which we show how leaders and followers reciprocally affect their level of self-construal and thus ultimately the degree to which ethical leadership is enacted

The X-Factor: On the Relevance of Implicit Leadership and Followership Theories for Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Agreement

While Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) research shows that leaders engage in different kinds of relationships with different followers, it remains somewhat of an enigma why one and the same relationship is often rated differently by a leader and the respective follower. We seek to fill that conceptual void by explaining when and why such LMX disagreement is likely to occur. To do so, we reconsider antecedents of LMX quality perceptions and outline how each party’s LMX quality perception is primarily dependent on the perceived contributions of the other party, moderated by perceived own contributions. We then integrate the notion of Implicit Leadership and Followership Theories (ILTs and IFTs) to argue that the currencies of contributions differ between leaders and followers. This dyadic model sets the stage to explain that LMX disagreement can stem from (1) differences in both parties’ ILTs as well as both parties’ IFTs, but also from (2) differences in perceptions of own and other’s behavior. We conclude by discussing communication as a means of overcoming LMX disagreement and propose an array of potential studies along the lines of our conceptualization

Sind Sie mein Führungstyp? Entwicklung und Validierung zweier Instrumente zur Erfassung von Führungskraft-Kategorisierung auf der Basis von impliziten Führungstheorien

"Derzeitige Ansätze der Führungsforschung deuten darauf hin, dass die generellen Vorstellungen der Mitarbeiter über Führungskräfte und Führungsprozesse maßgeblich bestimmen wie diese auf ihre tatsächlichen Führungskräfte im Alltag reagieren. Die zur Analyse dieses Prozesses zur Verfügung stehenden Instrumente sind bisher jedoch für die Forschung hierzulande wenig geeignet. Im vorliegenden Artikel werden zwei effiziente und für deutsche Organisationsforschung adäquatere Instrumente zur Erfassung von Führungskraft-Kategorisierung vorgestellt. Zum einen wurde ein Messinstrument auf der Basis einer Reanalyse des deutschen GLOBE Datensatzes mit 471 Führungskräften entwickelt, zum anderen wurde ein piktorales Messinstrument für selbigen Kontext adaptiert. Eine Untersuchung in einem Unternehmen (N = 104) bestätigt die konvergente wie auch die Kriteriumsvalidität der beiden Instrumente sowie die Anwendbarkeit zur Aufklärung abhängiger Maße wie etwa der personalen Identifikation mit der Führungskraft sowie affektivem Commitment und Respekt dieser gegenüber. Eine weitere Studie (N = 524) repliziert diese Ergebnisse an einer heterogenen Arbeitnehmerstichprobe. Die zukünftigen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten beider Instrumente werden diskutiert."[Autorenreferat]"Current approaches in leadership research suggest that subordinates’ general images of leaders and the leadership process determine how they will eventually react towards their actual leaders. Yet, so far, the underlying leader prototype scales which can be used to measure this process do not seem suitable for organizational research in Germany. The present article thus presents two more efficient and for organizational research in Germany more adequate instruments to measure leader categorization processes. We developed one scale based upon a reanalysis of the German GLOBE dataset with 471 leaders, and another scale by adapting a pictorial Venn-diagram measurement. In a first organizational study (N = 104), we confirm the convergent and criterion validity of both instruments and further demonstrate how they can be used to explain dependent measures such as subordinates’ personal identification with and their affective commitment towards leaders as well as their respect for their leaders. Another study among a more heterogeneous sample of employees (N = 524) replicated the results. The future possibilities for the application of both scales are discussed."[author´s abstract

Two Independent Value Orientations: Ideal and Counter-Ideal Leader Values and Their Impact on Followers' Respect for and Identification with Their Leaders

__Abstract__ Traditionally, conceptualizations of human values are based on the assumption that individuals possess a single integrated value system comprising those values that people are attracted by and strive for. Recently, however, van Quaquebeke et al. (in J Bus Ethics 93:293-305, 2010) proposed that a value system might consist of two largely independent value orientations-an orientation of ideal values and an orientation of counter-ideal values (values that individuals are repelled by), and that both orientations exhibit antithetic effects on people's responses to the social world. Following a call for further research on this distinction, we conducted two studies to assess the independent effects of ideal and counter-ideal values in leadership settings. Study 1 (N = 131) finds both value orientations to explain unique variance in followers' vertical respect for their leaders. Study 2 (N = 136) confirms these results and additionally shows an analogous effect for followers' identification with their leaders. Most importantly, we find that both value orientations exhibit their effects only independently when the content of the two orientations pertain to different value types in Schwartz's (in J Soc Issues 50:19-46, 1994) circumplex model. Implications for theory and practice are discussed