New perspectives in studying leadership phenomena
From 18th till 21st of October on the base of the ILSCR, the short training course “New perspectives in studying leadership phenomena” took place. The lecturer was Rolf van Dick, PhD, Professor, Scientific head of Center for Leadership and Behavior in Organizations (CLBO), Germany.
The audience of the course consisted of member of ILSCR, lecturers of Department of Organizational Psychology, staff of other HSE faculties, and students of Master program “Applied Social Psychology”. The course was also attended by students of master program “Psychology in Business”.
Following topics were presented in the course: relations between leadership and innovation, leadership and identity, leadership and values, the Identity-Transfer Model, as well as examined the interrelationships between gender and motivation to lead. Rolf van Dick discussed the Leader-Member-Exchange (LMX) Theory, which explains the qualitative difference in relationships between employees and their managers. This theory claims that leader’s decisions and his choice depend on the characteristics of his subordinates: the better leader evaluates subordinate, the more likely that he will take a decision in favor of the worker in a particular case. Various empirical studies to some extent confirm basic postulates of LMX theory.
Other studies show that leadership is influenced by combination of many factors. Leader could be more or less prototypical for a group, i.e. be an example of common features of group members. The more credibility leader has the more likely sole decision-making (it can benefit for a group or become a source of blind obedience). Concerning value system, leader doesn’t only have to display some common representations of group members, but also not to go beyond the admissibility of opposite group values. Leaders, that highly identify themselves with organizations, are seen as role models, their group- oriented actions increase job satisfaction for subordinates. Also, statistics show that for now number of men in senior management is higher than women (men show more desire to lead), but one can speak of a tendency to equalize these indicators in future. A greater percentage of men in senior management can be explained with expectations of society and role standards, but in today's world more women seek equality with men in all spheres of life.