Jenny S. Wesche

Effectiveness of mission statements in organizations – A review

Even though mission statements are standard tools in organizations, their effectiveness is subject to substantial skepticism. This review integrates hitherto published research based on a broad range of objective and subjective effectiveness criteria above and beyond financial performance in for-profit as well as not-for-profit organizations. We conclude that the distal outcome effectiveness of mission statements depends on the following antecedents and intermediate outcomes: (1) the rationale underlying their development; (2) the process of their development and implementation; (3) their content and form; and (4) individual attitudes toward the mission statement. We thereby clarify preconditions of mission statement effectiveness in organizations, and reveal shortcomings in current research.

Authentic Leadership: Authentische Führung praktizieren und trainieren

Mit ‚authentischer Fuhrung‘ werden das Verhalten und die Merkmale von Fuhrungskraften beschrieben, die sich in der Interaktion mit anderen aufrichtig und transparent verhalten, eine gute Selbstkenntnis bzgl. ihrer Starken und Schwachen haben, moralische Werthaltungen internalisiert haben und sich kongruent zu diesen verhalten. In diesem Kapitel werden zunachst die theoretischen Grundlagen und die Evidenz aus der bisherigen Forschung zu authentischer Fuhrung und ihren Auswirkungen zusammengefasst. Anschliesend werden Masnahmen zur Forderung und Tipps zur praktischen Umsetzung von authentischer Fuhrung vorgestellt. Schlieslich werden zwei Instrumente diskutiert, die zur Messung der Auspragung authentischer Fuhrung und somit zur Evaluation von entsprechenden Trainingsprogrammen fur Fuhrungskrafte eingesetzt werden konnen.

Status matters: The moderating role of perceived newcomer status in leader and coworker influences on challenging organizational citizenship behaviour

Organizations often fail to encourage employees, especially newcomers, to come forward with their suggestions and implement changes to improve the status quo, that is, to engage in challenging organizational citizenship behaviour (C-OCB). In order to be able to stimulate these behaviours from the outset and throughout a career a better understanding of contextual antecedents of C-OCB is needed. This study investigates how leaders and coworkers might facilitate C-OCB of employees (N = 266) with varying perceived newcomer status. Results revealed positive main effects of coworker variables (team-member exchange and coworkers’ C-OCB) but not of empowering leadership on C-OCB. Perceived newcomer status had a negative main effect on C-OCB and moderated the effects of both coworker variables: the positive effect of team-member exchange on C-OCB was stronger for those with higher compared to those with lower perceived newcomer status. Conversely, the positive effect of coworkers’ C-OCB on participants’ C-OCB was stronger for those with lower compared to those with higher perceived newcomer status. These findings provide evidence for the important role of coworkers in addition to leaders for understanding C-OCB.