Craig E Johnson

Self‐construal orientation: Validation of an instrument and a study of the relationship to leadership communication style

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to test rigorously the measurement equivalence of the Independent and Interdependent Self‐Construal Scales (Gudykunst et al., 1994) across three cultural groups and for males and females, and (b) to determine the comparative amount of variance in self‐perceived leadership communication style that can be predicted by self‐construal orientation, culture, and biological sex. College students from the United States (n = 224), New Zealand (n = 218), and the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan (n = 228) responded to the self‐construal scales and the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (Hemphill & Coons, 1957). Results of confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the Independent and Interdependent Self‐Constnial Scales should be considered as tzvo distinct one‐factor solutions rather than two factors of the same construct as previously assumed. Multiple groups comparisons indicated that, with one minor exception, measurement on each of the self‐construal scales...

The Rise and Fall of Carly Fiorina: An Ethical Case Study

This study examines the controversial tenure of former Hewlett-Packard (HP) CEO Carly Fiorina using the ethical leadership construct. Fiorina rose quickly through the ranks at AT&T and Lucent Technologies to become the most powerful businesswoman in the United States when she took the helm at HP in 1999. She prevailed in a bitter proxy fight over the firms merger with Compaq Computer. However, she was abruptly fired in 2005. Both the CEO and members of the HP board failed as moral persons and as moral managers, leading to Fiorinas ouster and the subsequent HP spying scandal. HP went from one of the worlds most admired companies to the target of criminal investigations and public criticism. Implications for leadership ethics are drawn from the experience of HP, and limitations of the ethical leadership construct are identified.

Enron’s Ethical Collapse: Lessons for Leadership Educators

Top officials at Enron abused their power and privileges, manipulated information, engaged in inconsistent treatment of internal and external constituencies, put their own interests above those of their employees and the public, and failed to exercise proper oversight or shoulder responsibility for ethical failings. Followers were all too quick to follow their example. Therefore, implications for teaching leadership ethics include, educators must: (a) share some of the blame for what happened at Enron, (b) integrate ethics into the rest of the curriculum, (c) highlight the responsibilities of both leaders and followers, (d) address both individual and contextual variables that encourage corruption, (e) recognize the importance of trust and credibility in the leader-follower relationship, and (f) hold followers as well as leaders accountable for ethical misdeeds.

Taoist Leadership Ethics

This essay addresses ethical issues raised by the growing popularity of Taoist leadership concepts. Western leaders seeking the benefits of Taoism should first consider its assumptions and how these presuppositions impact ethical decision-making. In philosophical Taoism, principles revealed in creation, not laws or moral codes, guide ethical choices. Ideal leaders exert minimal influence and model their behavior after such metaphors as the uncarved block, the clay pot, the child, the valley, and water. Ethical implications of Taoist leadership include: 1) nature as the ultimate ethical standard; 2) evil as blindness and a belief in the goodness of natural humankind; 3) a focus on being rather than doing; 4) multiple ways of understanding and the importance of multiple perspectives; 5) an emphasis on soft tactics and service; and 6) the spiritual dimension of the leader-follower relationship. Taoism addresses many of the ethical shortcomings of dominant Western culture but those who would follow Taoist teaching may need to abandon their belief in the traditional distinction between right and wrong, moral absolutes, the importance of moral reasoning, deism, punishment of evildoers, and active influence. At the very least, leaders need to recognize that Taoism is an integrated philosophical system with its own set of assumptions about the origins of the universe, human nature, ways of understanding, and spirituality.

Correlates of talkaholism in New Zealand: An intracultural analysis of the compulsive communication construct

This study focused on correlates of the compulsive communication construct in New Zealand. Participants were 216 New Zealand university students who completed the Talkaholic Scale to measure their tendency to be compulsive communicators. Self‐reports of communication apprehension, willingness to communicate, argumentativeness, innovativeness, and self‐monitoring were also completed. Results indicated a weak negative correlation with communication apprehension and weak positive correlations with argumentativeness and self‐monitoring. Differences in talkaholism between males and females were significant, but the amount of variance accounted for by biological sex was very small. This study provides further support for the distinctiveness of the compulsive communication construct and its measurement through the Talkaholic Scale.

The use of written transcripts in powerful and powerless language research

This study tested the salience of hesitations and hedges in a simulated student government situation. Subjects reported more hesitations in writing but noted more hedges on tape. Award amounts were significantly higher when powerless testimony was delivered orally rather than in writing. No similar effect was found for credibility ratings. Implications of these findings in light of the “hammer effect”; are discussed.

Introducing Followership into the Leadership Classroom: An Integrative Approach.

Developing followers is just as important as developing leaders. This brief outlines strategies for integrating material on followership into three leadership course units: introduction to leadership, leadership theories, and leadership ethics. Instructors can highlight the importance of followership by emphasizing that (a) leaders and followers have an interdependent relationship, (b) followers are essential to group success, (c) followers are an important component in many leadership theories, and (d) followers are responsible for their moral choices and face their own set of ethical challenges.

Placement and frequency of powerless talk and impression formation

Study One examined the influence of initial use of hesitations and hedges on evaluations of witnesses and their persuasiveness in a budget hearing context. Results indicate that the negative attributions generated by the use of powerless language cannot be overcome by subsequent use of powerful talk. Study Two examined the relationship between the frequency of powerless language use and impression formation. For award/character and dynamism a perceptual threshold appeared to operate. The results of both studies suggest that auditors are very sensitive to the influence of powerless talk in formal settings.

Why "Good" Followers Go "Bad": The Power of Moral Disengagement

Moral disengagement answers the question of why “good” followers (those with high personal standards) go “bad” (engage in unethical and illegal activities). In moral disengagement, actors set aside the self-condemnation they would normally experience in order to engage in immoral activities with a clear conscience. Moral disengagement mechanisms encourage individuals to justify harmful behavior, to minimize personal responsibility for harm, and to devalue victims. The follower role makes individuals more vulnerable to moral disengagement. While all followers are susceptible to moral disengagement, some are more vulnerable than others due to such personal antecedents as lack of empathy, rigid and authoritarian beliefs, low self-esteem, and fear and anxiety. Retaining a sense of moral agency is the key to resisting moral disengagement. Exercise of moral agency can be encouraged by recognizing personal vulnerability; by never losing sight of the fact that “I” am at the center of any action, and by the on-going practice of self-questioning, such as modeled by the Quakers (Society of Friends).

Book Review: The Art of Framing: Managing the Language of Leadership Gail T. Fairhurst and Robert A. Sarr San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1996, 213 pp.

This book should not be the first book on chaos theory a reader examines. Though it is clearly written and very friendly to those who are unfamiliar with the mathematics and &dquo;hard science&dquo; that support chaos theory, Stacey jumps right into the science of complexity. I feel readers can better appreciate where he is going if they have at least been afforded the background provided by Gleick (1987) and Wheatley (1992). Either before of after reading this book, the reader should read both Heifetz (1994) and Rost (1991). Stacey’s discussion about leadership as it relates to the science of complexity would have been much more relevant if he had been influenced by those two authors, especially Rost. That shortfall aside, this excellent book makes an important contribution to the leadership literature as we move into Rost’s postindustrial paradigm, which I believe will reflect what we are learning about the world through chaos theory.