Stand and Deliver
Why Do Leaders Matter? A Study of Expert Knowledge in a Superstar Setting
Amanda Goodall, Lawrence Kahn & Andrew Oswald
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper provides evidence of the importance of what might be termed ‘expert leaders'. Although it is widely assumed that leaders affect the performance of their organizations, the complexity of this social-science research area has meant that comparatively little empirical progress has been made. We deliberately choose a narrow focus. We examine a high-skill setting in which there are accurate data on performance. We argue that an influential role is played by a leader's expert knowledge. A strong predictor of a leader's success in year T is that person's level of technical attainment, in the underlying activity, in approximately year T-20. Our data are on U.S. professional basketball. The paper documents a correlation between brilliance as a player and the (much later) winning percentage and playoff success of that person as a team coach. The results reveal that leaders' effects on performance are substantial and are visible in the data within the first 12 months of a coach being hired.
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Power becomes you: The effects of implicit and explicit power on the self
Brianna Barker Caza, Larissa Tiedens & Fiona Lee
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, January 2011, Pages 15-24
Abstract:
Some power cues are explicit, obvious and salient, while others are implicit, subtle and harder to detect. Drawing from research demonstrating that people assimilate to implicit cues and contrast from explicit ones, we suggest that implicit and explicit power cues have different effects on people. Two laboratory experiments found that when power cues were implicit, people in high power conditions assimilated to stereotypes of power; they had relatively higher independent self construals, and they were more likely to see themselves as autonomous from, rather than connected to, others. The opposite effect emerged when power cues were explicit. These effects were replicated in a third study, where working adults rated their own power at work and the explicitness of power cues in their workplaces. We also found that power and cue explicitness predicted co-worker support, and that this effect was mediated by self construals. These results suggest that the way power is conveyed and expressed can influence important outcomes in organizations.
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Richard Cotton, Yan Shen & Reut Livne-Tarandach
Academy of Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
We explored the structure and content of developmental networks depicted in 62 Baseball Hall of Famer induction speeches to identify which developers and what support mattered most to their career achievement. Our analysis illustrated two new support sub-functions ("freedom-and-opportunity for skill development" and "inspiration-and-motivation") and showed that first ballot inductees had larger, more diverse developmental networks featuring greater multiplexity and more single function ties, plus greater supplementary psychosocial and complementary career support from a wider range of core and periphery career communities than later ballot inductees. We conclude with a theoretical model of Extraordinary Career Achievement.
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Equality versus differentiation: The effects of power dispersion on group interaction
Lindred Greer & Gerben van Kleef
Journal of Applied Psychology, November 2010, Pages 1032-1044
Abstract:
Power is an inherent characteristic of social interaction, yet research has yet to fully explain what power and power dispersion may mean for conflict resolution in work groups. We found in a field study of 42 organizational work groups and a laboratory study of 40 negotiating dyads that the effects of power dispersion on conflict resolution are contingent on the level of interactants' power, thereby explaining contradictory theory and findings on power dispersion. We found that when members have low power, power dispersion is positively related to conflict resolution, but when members have high power, power dispersion is negatively related to conflict resolution (i.e., power equality is better). These findings can be explained by the mediating role of intragroup power struggles. Together, these findings suggest that power hierarchies function as a heuristic solution for conflict and contribute to adaptive social dynamics in groups with low, but not high, levels of power.
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Reversing the Extraverted Leadership Advantage: The Role of Employee Proactivity
Adam Grant, Francesca Gino & David Hofmann
Academy of Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Extraversion predicts leadership emergence and effectiveness, but do groups perform more effectively under extraverted leadership? Drawing on dominance complementarity theory, we propose that although extraverted leadership enhances group performance when employees are passive, this effect reverses when employees are proactive, because extraverted leaders are less receptive to proactivity. In Study 1, pizza stores with leaders high (low) in extraversion achieved higher profits when employees were passive (proactive). Study 2 constructively replicates these findings in the laboratory: passive (proactive) groups achieved higher performance when leaders acted high (low) in extraversion. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for leadership and proactivity.
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Influence Flows in the Academy: Using Affiliation Networks to Assess Peer Effects among Researchers
Craig Rawlings & Daniel McFarland
Social Science Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Little is known about how influence flows in the academy, because of inherent difficulties in collecting data on large samples of friendship and advice-seeking networks over time. We propose taking advantage of the relative abundance of "affiliation network" data to assess aggregate patterns of how individual and dyadic characteristics channel influence among researchers. We formulate and test our approach using new data on 2,034 faculty members at Stanford University over a fifteen-year period, analyzing different affiliations as potential influence channels for changes in grant productivity. Results indicate that research productivity is more malleable to ongoing interpersonal influence processes than suggested in prior research: a strong, salient tie to a colleague in an authority position is most likely to transmit influence, and most forms of influence are likely to spill over to behaviors outside those jointly produced by collaborators. However, the genders and institutional locations of ego-alter pairs significantly affects how influence flows.
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When team members' values differ: The moderating role of team leadership
Katherine Klein, Andrew Knight, Jonathan Ziegert, Beng Chong Lim & Jessica Saltz
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, January 2011, Pages 25-36
Abstract:
Integrating theory and research on values, diversity, situational strength, and team leadership, we proposed that team leadership moderates the effects of values diversity on team conflict. In a longitudinal survey study of national service teams, we found significant, but opposite, moderating effects of task-focused and person-focused leadership. As predicted, task-focused leadership attenuated the diversity-conflict relationship, while person-focused leadership exacerbated the diversity-conflict relationship. More specifically, task-focused leadership decreased the relationship between work ethic diversity and team conflict. Person-focused leadership increased the relationship between traditionalism diversity and team conflict. Team conflict mediated the effects of the interactions of leadership and values diversity on team effectiveness.
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Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries: The Role of Founder Identity in Entrepreneurship
Emmanuelle Fauchart & Marc Gruber
Academy of Management Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Drawing on social identity theory, we explore the identities, behaviors and actions of 49 firm founders in the sports-related equipment industry. Our analysis suggests the existence of three pure types of founder identities and shows how these identities systematically shape key decisions in the creation of new firms, thereby imprinting the start-ups with the founders' distinct selfconcepts. We synthesize our findings in a typology that sheds light on the heterogeneity of meanings that founders associate with new firm creation and that improves our understanding as to why fundamental differences in firm creation processes and outcomes exist.
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Was Gandhi "charismatic"? Exploring the rhetorical leadership of Mahatma Gandhi
Michelle Bligh & Jill Robinson
Leadership Quarterly, October 2010, Pages 844-855
Abstract:
This study explores a deceptively simple question: was Gandhi a "charismatic" leader? We compare Gandhi's rhetorical leadership to social movement leaders and charismatic U.S. presidents to examine whether any consistencies in charismatic rhetoric emerge across historical and cultural contexts. Our findings indicate that charismatic themes of articulating the intolerable nature of the present and appealing to values and moral justifications emerged in similar levels across all three samples. In addition, Gandhi's speeches contained comparable levels of language that emphasized his similarity to followers, followers' worth, links between the past and future, and abstract, intangible themes as compared to other leaders. In contrast, themes of collective focus and active, aggressive speech varied significantly across the three samples. Recognizing that content analysis should be utilized with caution across cultural settings, we suggest a number of possible explanations for Gandhi's pervasive appeal and implications for future research into the universality of visionary rhetoric.
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Jennifer Merolla & Elizabeth Zechmeister
Comparative Political Studies, forthcoming
Abstract:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is frequently labeled "charismatic," but this aspect of his leadership has mostly escaped direct argument and analysis. The authors offer a measure of charisma and a reciprocal account of the relationship between charisma and performance evaluations. Data from a national survey of Venezuelans confirm that perceptions of Chávez's charisma in 2007 were comparatively high. Using three-stage least squares regression analysis the authors then document a highly dynamic process, by which poor performance erodes perceptions of Chávez's charisma (and favors an opponent) while lingering beliefs in that charisma lead some to see better conditions than are perceived by those who do not subscribe to the charismatic sheen. The argument and analysis sharpen understandings of the nature, determinants, and consequences of charisma. The authors suggest that and explain why public support for Chávez is likely to recede at a slow, protracted pace rather than be abruptly withdrawn.
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Dilution and Enhancement of Celebrity Brands Through Sequential Movie Releases
Lan Luo, Xinlei (Jack) Chen, Jeanie Han & Whan Park
Journal of Marketing Research, December 2010, Pages 1114-1128
Abstract:
This article examines the effects of sequential movie releases on the dilution and enhancement of celebrity brands. The authors use favorability ratings collected over a 12-year period (1993-2005) to capture movement in the brand equity of a panel of actors. They use a dynamic panel data model to investigate how changes of brand equity are associated with the sequence of movies featuring these actors, after controlling for the possible influence from the stars' off-camera activities. The authors also examine the underlying factors that influence the magnitude and longevity of such effects. In contrast with findings from existing research in product branding, the authors find evidence that supports the general existence of dilution and enhancement effects on the equity of a celebrity brand through his or her movie appearances. They also find that star favorability erodes substantially over time. Finally, this research offers insights for actors regarding how to make movie selections strategically to maximize their brand equity.
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Radmila Prislin et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In two studies, a persuader attempted to influence multiple targets (confederates) to take his or her position on an important social issue. As the persuader advocated his or her position, targets initially provided positive (negative) feedback that placed the persuader in the majority (minority). Subsequent feedback on the persuader's continuing advocacy either kept initially established status stable or reversed it (majority ↔minority). Initial status and its stability interacted to affect persuaders' certainty, which in turn affected persuaders' efficacy assessed by coding persuaders' videotaped nonverbal behavior and strength of advocacy, respectively (Study 1). Coding and an independent audience's reactions to persuasive "blogs" created by persuaders whose initial status was kept (un)stable replicated the persuasive efficacy findings (Study 2). Thus, persuaders' ability to produce cogent messages is affected by the social context in which they operate.
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Politicians' estimated height as an indicator of their popularity
Piotr Sorokowski
European Journal of Social Psychology, December 2010, Pages 1302-1309
Abstract:
Previous research has found that an electoral candidates' height is correlated with their image. Many studies have found that height is a great asset for a candidate as height correlates with electoral outcome. In this research the previously obtained results were partially confirmed-in the first study the supporters of a given candidate estimated him as taller than his opponents (confirmed by six out of 10 candidates). The second study, conducted during the presidential elections in Poland, showed that electorate-perceived height of candidates for the Presidency changed after the first phase of elections (confirmed by three from six main candidates). These changes in electoral-perceived height depended more upon their electoral support than attitudes toward them.