Karl W. Kuhnert

Leader Emergence: The Case of the Narcissistic Leader:

These studies investigate whether individuals with high narcissism scores would be more likely to emerge as leaders during leaderless group discussions. The authors hypothesized that narcissists would emerge as group leaders. In three studies, participants completed personality questionnaires and engaged in four-person leaderless group discussions. Results from all three studies reveal a link between narcissism and leader emergence. Studies 1 and 2 further reveal that the power dimension of narcissism predicted reported leader emergence while controlling for sex, self-esteem, and the Big Five personality traits. Study 3 demonstrates an association between narcissism and expert ratings of leader emergence in a group of executives. The implications of the propensity of narcissists to emerge as leaders are discussed.

The Relationship Between Job Security and Employee Health

The relationship between perceived job security and employee health was examined in two manufacturing organizations. A significant relationship was found between health and job security using global measures of both constructs. Closer examination of the correlations among the subscales of the measures of health and perceived job security revealed different patterns of subscale relationships in two organizations. These results suggest that job security is an important determinant of employee health, and that inclusion of this construct in general models of stress and well-being may help to improve our understanding of work performance.

The influence of supervisory‐support climate and unemployment rate on part‐time employee retention

Purpose – Using “districts” nested within “regions”, this multi‐level analysis research aims to examine whether a climate of supervisory‐support at a “district”‐level (as measured by perceived supervisor support (PSS)), and “region”‐level unemployment rates were related to “district”‐level retention rates of blue‐collar part‐time employees (PTEs).Design/methodology/approach – Blue‐collar PTE retention rates (from company records) and PSS levels (from a company‐wide survey) of a large global service provider were gathered. “Regional” unemployment rates were collected via publicly‐accessible government statistics.Findings – The study finds that PSS levels of blue‐collar PTEs were related to retention rates. Additionally, through the nested relationship of the study, the “region”‐level unemployment rate was also related to PTE retention levels.Research limitation/implications – Limitations of the study included generalization to other companies, inability to collect demographic data, sample size and sampling...

USING SOCIOMETRY TO PREDICT TEAM PERFORMANCE IN THE WORK PLACE

Abstract Teams are becoming an increasingly popular way to improve performance and quality in the work place. Little research, however, has addressed the question of how to predict high performance from individuals who are placed on teams. Sociometry can provide an alternative to previous methods by measuring preferred pairings among team members across a number of tasks or settings. The choices given and received among members within a social network can reveal the degree of mutual preference for working together, and is referred to as the groups density. In this study, the survey method was used to measure 29 squads at a military college for their density as well as for the level of satisfaction and perceived cohesion among team members. Sociometric strong or dense teams were found to perform better across a combination of several different criterion measures. Implications for future research and applied uses in organizations are discussed.

Leader Narcissism and Ethical Context: Effects on Ethical Leadership and Leader Effectiveness

The link between leader narcissism and follower perceptions of ethical leadership and leader effectiveness, including the potential moderating role of ethical context was investigated. Associations between narcissism and follower perceptions of both ethical and effective leadership were not significant. In highly ethical contexts, however, narcissistic leaders were perceived as ineffective and unethical. These results are interpreted in the context of the fit between leader personality and organizational ethical climate. Implications for research investigating the role that narcissism plays in leadership, as well as organizational responses to narcissistic leaders, are highlighted.

Barnard on authority and zone of indifference: Toward perspectives on the decline of managerialism

In the context of the ongoing decline of managerialism which has stood as a dominant ideology for the past half-century and more, this essay proposes a critical analysis of two major concepts in Barnards The Functions of the Executive-authority and the related notion of a zone of indifference. This acknowledges Barnards central role in the ideology of managerialism, and seeks to assess how selected aspects of his argument may now contribute to the ongoing decline of that ideology, as they once gave it strength. A case is made to that effect. Internal inconsistencies and exuberances in Barnards argument are related to four possible influencing factors. These encourage viewing Barnards argument as oriented toward the status quo ante, and as a kind of lawyers brief in a very difficult case--where persuasiveness seeks to avoid the worst outcomes, in an adversarial setting, unconstrained by responsibility for balance or for pointing-up internal weaknesses in ones argument. Barnard always had a good press...

New frontiers in management selection systems: Where measurement technologies and theory collide

Abstract The argument is made that meta-analytic results have liberated the field from an indentured relationship with criterion-related validity. Three major approaches to managerial selection are reviewed with special attention paid to construct validity and theory development efforts. Emphasis is given to meaningful historical trends in the evolution of each approach. Where available, metaanalytic results are reported. Specific directions for future research aimed at increasing our understanding of why current selection systems predict managerial job performance are discussed.

Adult Developpement and Transformational Leader

Executive Summary

The Latent and Manifest Consequences of Work

ABSTRACT Jahodas (1979) distinction between manifest and latent consequences of work was tested on samples of employed and unemployed persons to determine if such a dichotomy can help explain the psychosocial effects of unemployment. Confirmatory factor analysis on data from 393 individuals from two large American cities failed to support the two consequences of work proposed by Jahoda. Instead, these data indicate that an intrinsic versus extrinsic model of work rewards can more accurately account for the patterns among ratings. The model of best fit was equally accurate for the employed and unemployed samples, suggesting that these groups have similar reactions to and reasons for working (or wanting to work). These results indicate that more than financial loss is suffered when jobs are lost involuntarily, and that we can fully understand the debilitating effects of unemployment only when we recognize the full scope of reasons why people work.

Looking toward 2000, and beyond: Some developmental tendencies in organizations

Based on our combined readings of partially overlapping literatures, and spiced by our consulting experience and instructional work with employees at all levels, this essay identifies 14 developmental tendencies that seem to have a reasonable chance of becoming dominant features of our exploring organizational landscapes. The effort can be labelled “future scan,” with the focal length varying from tendencies that are already observable in numbers of cases to those that seem noteworthy despite their rarity.