Kevin B. Lowe

Effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic review of the MLQ literature

A meta-analysis of the transformational leadership literature using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was conducted to (a) integrate the diverse findings, (b) compute an average effect for different leadership scales, and (c) probe for certain moderators of the leadership style-effectiveness relationship. Transformational leadership scales of the MLQ were found to be reliable and significantly predicted work unit effectiveness across the set of studies examined. Moderator variables suggested by the literature, including level of the leader (high or low), organizational setting (public or private), and operationalization of the criterion measure (subordinate perceptions or organizational measures of effectiveness), were empirically tested and found to have differential impacts on correlations between leader style and effectiveness. The operationalization of the criterion variable emerged as a powerful moderator. Unanticipated findings for type of organization and level of the leader are explored regarding the frequency of transformational leader behavior and relationships with effectiveness.

INDIVIDUAL POWER DISTANCE ORIENTATION AND FOLLOWER REACTIONS TO TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERS: A CROSS-LEVEL, CROSS-CULTURAL EXAMINATION

Using 560 followers and 174 leaders in the Peoples Republic of China and United States, we found that individual followers “power distance” orientation and their groups shared perceptions of tra...

Ten years of The leadership quarterly: Contributions and challenges for the future

This article reviews the founding of The Leadership Quarterly (LQ) and the 188 articles published in its first decade. Multiple methods were used to prepare this review including interviews with former and current LQ editors; quantitative techniques; and qualitative analysis to examine the themes, methods, and contributions of the journal during its first decade. Directions for future research are provided, which integrate a decade of LQ author directives with interviews of prominent leadership scholars and the current authors’ opinions grounded in the literature review.

Personality, transformational leadership, trust, and the 2000 U.S. presidential vote

This study of the 2000 U.S. presidential election replicates and extends Pillai and Williams‘ [Leadersh. Q. 9 (1998) 397] study of the 1996 presidential election. Data were collected at two periods from respondents across three regions of the United States to yield 342 matched sets of preelection variables and postelection measures. Transformational leadership and attributed charisma were strongly associated with reported voting behavior for candidates Bush and Gore beyond party affiliation. Important extensions to earlier findings are that perceptions of candidate proactive behavior, empathy, and need for achievement were shown to be related to transformational leadership and attributed charisma, with trust in the leader an important mediating variable between leadership perceptions and voting behavior. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed.

Benchmarking Training and Development Practices: A Multi‐Country Comparative Analysis

This study compares training and development practices within and across nine countries and one region, and addresses whether there are universal training and development practices. After a brief review of the literature on training and development for the countries and region examined, the study identifies country-specific and region-specific training and development practices. The results are descriptive in nature and discussed as benchmarks of current and desired levels of training and development practices within and across countries. While the results do not indicate any universal practices across all countries studied, they do indicate significant similarities in practices within country clusters. The common practices found within these clusters are believed to be influenced by cultural values and industry trends. The study emphasizes the importance of context and provides practitioners with guidelines in designing training and development practices across countries and researchers with insight into future research questions.

The impact of gender and location on the willingness to accept overseas assignments

Business students in two universities were queried regarding their willingness to accept international postings. In contrast to Adler’s (1984a, 19 86) findings, gender was a significant predictor when specific referent countries were identified. Country characteristics considered here included cultural distance (or the difference between the cultures of the respondent’s home country and that of the referent location) and the levels of development and political risk in the referent country. Differences among countries on indices of cultural distance and human development explained substantial variance among males and females in their willingness to accept international assignments. Political risk, however, was not significant in explaining these gender differences.

Diversity climate impact on employee of color outcomes: does justice matter?

Purpose – The purposes of this paper are three-fold: first, to examine the effect of diversity climate on professional employee of color outcomes, organizational commitment and turnover intentions; second, to investigate the moderating and mediating roles of interactional and procedural justice on the relationships between diversity climate and the outcomes; and third, to explore the interactive effect of racial awareness and diversity climate on reported psychological contract violation. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a survey of 182 professionals of color. Correlation, factor analysis, and regression were employed to test the hypotheses. Findings – Results indicate that diversity climate affects organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Interactional and procedural justice played mediating roles between diversity climate and employee outcomes. Moderated mediation analysis indicated that for turnover intentions, there was moderated mediation under both low and high procedural justice conditions. When a diversity climate was perceived to be fair, racially aware respondents reported lower levels of psychological contract violation. Research limitations/implications – Professionals of color from one US industry completed the survey, so conclusions about generalizability should be drawn with caution. Data were cross-sectional and single-source. However, the findings were consistent with past research, lending credibility to the results. Originality/value – Recent research on workforce diversity has highlighted the importance of effectively managing all organizational members. The paper shows that the diversity climate and organizational justice impact employee of color outcomes. Thus, for managers, creating and maintaining a positive, fair diversity climate will be important for attracting and retaining high-quality professionals of color in US organizations.

Benchmarking training and development practices: a multi-country comparative analysis

This study compares training and development practices within and across nine countries and one region, and addresses whether there are universal training and development practices. After a brief review of the literature on training and development for the countries and region examined, the study identifies country-specific and region-specific training and development practices. The results are descriptive in nature and discussed as benchmarks of current and desired levels of training and development practices within and across countries. While the results do not indicate any universal practices across all countries studied, they do indicate significant similarities in practices within country clusters. The common practices found within these clusters are believed to be influenced by cultural values and industry trends. The study emphasizes the importance of context and provides practitioners with guidelines in designing training and development practices across countries and researchers with insight into future research questions.

The challenge of increasing minority-group professional representation in the United States: intriguing findings

Census statistics highlight the increasing diversity of the populace in the United States. However, minority-group Americans continue to be under-represented in professional occupations. Six propositions for low minority-group professional presence in US organizations are that under-representation is due to leader racial insensitivity, discrimination, the (small) pipeline of minority-group professional employees, (un)equal opportunity theory, rational person economic theory, and low organizational diversity strategic priority. We describe and explore these six arguments with related empirical tests. Results indicated that leader-rated importance of cultural change, above and beyond leader racial awareness, influenced representation. The more specific strategies of diversity recruitment and provision of performance feedback also predicted minority-group representation, while diversity as an organizational strategic priority did not. We discuss the implications of these findings and present directions for future research.

Leadership across the Pacific ocean: A tri-national comparison

In spite of years of international management research that recognizes the crucial role played by culture, few researchers have studied how specific cultural characteristics may affect the ideal leadership styles as perceived by managers in different countries. This paper explores potential impacts of culture by examining the prevalent views of leadership in three countries that have intertwined economic interests across the Pacific Ocean: the United States, Japan, and Taiwan. These nations are similar enough in their economic systems yet differ significantly in many cultural dimensions. After identifying major attributes of desirable leadership styles in these three nations, we move ahead to trace their historical and cultural roots. Following an idiographic approach suggested by Teagarden and her colleagues, we have developed some propositions on the basis of both a literature review of the past cross-cultural research and a comparison of prevalent conceptions about leadership in three specific cultures. We argue that, although a multinational firm ought to maintain a certain degree of system-wide consistency in terms of its leadership style, the operational rules used overseas should be carefully blended into the local cultural context. Some feasible strategies that may help create a balance between globalization and localization are also discussed.