Exploring the effects of creative CEO leadership on innovation in high-technology firms.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t This study introduces two dimensions of strategic leadership, termed operational and creative specifically developed for top executives of high-technology firms. Creative leadership reflects a CEO's emphasis on developing social and human capital and investing in the firm's internal knowledge development. We contrast this with operational leadership which reflects a CEO's ability to explore new paths of growth as well as exploit existing ones by redefining and extending the boundaries of the firm to new product and market domains. Hypotheses relating these two dimensions of leadership with innovation quantity, innovation resonance and novelty are tested using a sample of 77 high-technology firms. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: More than half of economic growth during 1945-2002 is attributed to innovations within the high-technology sector (Leary, 2002). For high-technology firms, innovation, organizational learning and the creation of new knowledge are vital for long-term survival and renewal because they have to deal with rapid and discontinuous change (Makri, Lane, & Gomez-Mejia, 2006). As such, executive leaders are constantly challenged to leverage the intellectual capital of their firms. This scenario raises the question: how might creative leadership behaviors must executives of technology-intensive 2 organizations balance in order to enhance innovation quantity, innovation quality and innovation novelty? Although leadership and the influence tactics leaders use affect follower's willingness to engage in creative ventures (Mumford, Scott, Gaddos, & Strange, 2002), research in the area of leader influence on creativity and innovation has been scarce (e.g. Cummings & Oldham, 1997; Mumford et al., 2002; Tierney, Farmer, & Graen, 1999). Most studies in strategic leadership that looked at this issue (e.g. Elenkov, Judge, & Wright, 2005; Jung, Chow, & Wu, 2003) have used the traditional conceptualizations of transactional and transformational leadership (e.g. Bass, 1985) to capture CEO leadership characteristics. While these traditional conceptualizations can reflect the CEO's relationship with followers, the concept of strategic leadership in the context of hightechnology firms calls for constructs reflective of the CEO's overall effectiveness in spearheading invention, innovation and commercialization. More specifically, there is a need for refinement of the constructs that measure creative leadership to reflect the CEO's ability to create new knowledge as well as commercialize existing knowledge and derive profit from it. In this study, we examine the relationship between innovation quantity, quality, and novelty and creative leadership. Because the innovation value chain involves idea generation (invention), idea development, and idea commercialization, effective leaders are those who can simultaneously explore and exploit, while at the same time can lead creatively and operationally. The contribution of our research is twofold. First, we bridge the existing gap between creative leadership and organizational innovation (Bontis, Crossan, & Hulland, 2002; Jung et al., 2003; Vera & Crossan, 2004). While several studies examined the relationship between CEO leadership and firm performance, only a handful addressed the effects of leadership on innovation albeit using the traditional measures of transactional and transformational leadership (Elenkov & Manev, 2005; Elenkov et al., 2005; Jung The Leadership Quarterly 21 (2010) 2 Consistent with much of the literature, we use the terms "high technology," "technology intensive," and "R&D-intensive" interchangeably. 1048-9843/$ -see front matte

Beyond the Myths and Magic of Mentoring

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Management today

Today's ever-evolving workplace requires managers to hone new skills so they can make informed decisions, manage diverse teams, and lead change. Management Today: Best Practices for the Modern Workplace cuts through the noise by introducing students to evidence-based management theories, models, and strategies. Experiential activities, critical thinking questions, and self-assessments provide students with hands-on opportunities to practice essential management skills. Authors Terri A. Scandura and Kim Gower provide best practices and explore timely issues like emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence, and virtual teams. Real-world cases explore good and bad examples of management, including the college admissions scandal, Theranos, and Walmart. In depth-coverage of big data, data analytics, and technology ensures students are ready to thrive in today's workplace

Research Note Mentorship and career mobility: An empirical investigation Summary

The literature on mentorship is briefly reviewed, revealing that many studies have documented the functions that mentors provide to proteges, including vocational and psychosocial support. This study investigates the link between these functions and the career mobility outcomes of proteges. Results from a random sample of 244 manufacturing managers supports previous research on the dimensions of mentoring. Further, vocational (coaching) and psycho-social (social support) were found to be related to managers' salary level and promotions. Implications of these results for future studies of mentoring are discussed

Essentials of organizational behavior : an evidence-based approach

xxxiv, 438 p. ; 26 cm

Improving classroom discussion of self-assessments through polling

Providing students with feedback on their own personality traits and attitudes is an essential part of experiential learning in management and organizational behavior courses. Students respond very positively to learning about themselves. However, the use of self-assessments may have issues when students do not want to disclose personal information in front of their classmates. This chapter notes some of the challenges to class discussions of self-assessments. Next, a remedy for these challenges is offered through a free Internet platform, Poll Everywhere. An example of a poll used in a class discussion is presented. Finally, the use of Poll Everywhere in the online classroom environment is discussed

Mentoring and Organizational Justice: An Empirical Investigation

Current perspectives on organizational justice are reviewed and integrated with mentoring theory to develop a new fairness “frame” through which the mentoring process can be viewed. Hypotheses derived from this framework are tested in a sample of 197 managers from Australian organizations. Results indicated that proteges perceived more procedural justice than nonproteges. For those mentored, however, career development, psycho-social, and role modeling functions of mentoring were significantly and positively related to both distributive and procedural justice. Also, mentoring functions made unique contributions to explained variance in protege career expectations, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, after controlling for organizational justice variables

Rethinking leader-member exchange: An organizational justice perspective

The literature on leader-member exchange (LMX) is examined from an organizational justice perspective. The concepts of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice expand the LMX model to consider social comparison processes operating within work groups. A model of LMX development over time is presented that suggests that the differentiation of work groups into in-groups and out-groups has implications for the emergence of organizational justice. New research propositions based upon the model are offered to encourage further research integrating LMX and organizational justice