Relationships between leadership style and vision content: The moderating role of need for social approval, self-monitoring, and need for social power

This study examines the relationship between leaders' personal attributes, leadership style and vision content. One hundred eighty three corporate managers from six industries, who completed a 14-week leadership development course, provided self-reports of their need for social approval, self-monitoring, and need for social power by the second week of the course. Eight hundred and nine subordinates provided ratings of their manager's leadership style by the third week of the course. Upon completion of the course, the managers wrote vision statements which were coded using Berson, Shamir, Avolio, & Popper's [Berson, Y., Shamir, B., Avolio, B. J., & Popper, M. (2001). The relationship between vision strength, leadership style, and content. The Leadership Quarterly, 12, 53–73] vision theme categories. Charismatic leadership was most positively associated with inspirational vision themes, whereas contingent reward leadership was most positively associated with instrumental vision themes. Leaders' need for social approval, self-monitoring, and need for social power moderated these relationships.

[1]  John J. Sosik,et al.  Leadership styles and Deming's behavior factors , 1997 .

[2]  Michael B. Arthur,et al.  The rhetoric of charismatic leadership: A theoretical extension, a case study, and implications for research , 1994 .

[3]  P. Dorfman,et al.  Leadership and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies , 2004 .

[4]  D. Paulhus.  Measurement and control of response bias. , 1991 .

[5]  A. Elliot,et al.  Inspiration as a psychological construct. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  C. Leone,et al.  Assessing Contingency, Power, and Efficacy: A Psychometric Investigation of Social Motivation , 1997 .

[7]  Bruce J. Avolio,et al.  The Charismatic Relationship: A Dramaturgical Perspective , 1998 .

[8]  B. Bass.  LEADERSHIP AND PERFORMANCE BEYOND EXPECTATIONS , 1985 .

[9]  George A. Marcoulides,et al.  Modern methods for business research , 1998 .

[10]  Charisma in action: The transformational abilities of Virgin's Richard Branson and ABB's Percy Barnevik , 1998 .

[11]  D. Jung,et al.  The role of transformational leadership in enhancing organizational innovation: Hypotheses and some preliminary findings , 2003 .

[12]  John J. Sosik.  Self-concept based aspects of the charismatic leader: More than meets the eye , 1998 .

[13]  Roya Ayman,et al.  Leadership theory and research : perspectives and directions , 1993 .

[14]  A Construct Validation of the Good and Good Measure of Social-Power Motivation , 1982 .

[15]  Deidra J. Schleicher,et al.  Self-monitoring personality at work: a meta-analytic investigation of construct validity. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[16]  H. Wold.  Systems Analysis by Partial Least Squares , 1983 .

[17]  Francis J. Yammarino,et al.  Transformational leadership and performance: A longitudinal investigation , 1993 .

[18]  Michael D. Mumford,et al.  The origins of vision , 2002 .

[19]  Steven Kerr,et al.  Moderator Variables in Leadership Research , 1986 .

[20]  William L. Gardner,et al.  Perceptions of leader charisma and effectiveness: The effects of vision content, delivery, and organizational performance , 1999 .

[21]  An Objective Measure of the Motive to Attain Social Power , 1972 .

[22]  R. Verburg,et al.  Charisma and rhetoric: Communicative techniques of international business leaders , 1997 .

[23]  B. Bass,et al.  Improving Organizational Effectiveness through Transformational Leadership , 1993 .

[24]  Morgan W. McCall,et al.  Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership , 1982 .

[25]  B. Avolio,et al.  The relationship between vision strength, leadership style, and context ☆ , 2001 .

[26]  David B. Greenberger,et al.  A Test of Vision Training and Potential Antecedents to Leaders' Visioning Ability. [and] Invited Reaction: Enabling Visionary Leadership. , 1998 .

[27]  John J. Sosik,et al.  Context and Mentoring: Examining Formal and Informal Relationships in High Tech Firms and K-12 Schools , 2005 .

[28]  Jeanne Dunning,et al.  Can You See The Real Me , 2005 .

[29]  B. Bass,et al.  Re‐examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the Multifactor Leadership , 1999 .

[30]  John J. Sosik,et al.  Impression Management Strategies and Performance in Information Technology Consulting , 2003 .

[31]  William McKinley,et al.  Organizational Decline and Adaptation: Theoretical Controversies , 1993 .

[32]  Howard B. Lee,et al.  Foundations of Behavioral Research , 1973 .

[33]  H. Martin,et al.  A revised measure of approval motivation and its relationship to social desirability. , 1984, Journal of personality assessment.

[34]  J. C. Wofford,et al.  Measuring motive imagery contained in the vision statement , 2002 .

[35]  Edwin A. Locke,et al.  A longitudinal study of the relation of vision and vision communication to venture growth in entrepreneurial firms. , 1998 .

[36]  P. Nijkamp,et al.  Measuring the unmeasurable , 1985 .

[37]  L. R. Anderson.  Toward a Two-Track Model of Leadership Training , 1990 .

[38]  M. Arthur,et al.  The Motivational Effects of Charismatic Leadership: A Self-Concept Based Theory , 1993 .

[39]  Michael Frese,et al.  ACTION TRAINING FOR CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP: TWO EVALUATIONS OF STUDIES OF A COMMERCIAL TRAINING MODULE ON INSPIRATIONAL COMMUNICATION OF A VISION , 2003 .

[40]  Arthur G. Bedeian,et al.  Can chameleons lead , 2004 .

[41]  John J. Sosik,et al.  Beneath the mask , 2002 .

[42]  R. N. Kanungo,et al.  Charismatic leadership in organizations , 1998 .

[43]  James C. Collins,et al.  Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies , 1994 .

[44]  A. Richardson,et al.  Individual Differences in Imaging: Their Measurement, Origins, and Consequences , 1994 .

[45]  Bruce J. Avolio,et al.  “Can you see the real me?” A self-based model of authentic leader and follower development , 2005 .

[46]  M. Snyder.  Public Appearances, Private Realities: The Psychology of Self-Monitoring , 1986 .

[47]  Henry Mintzberg.  The rise and fall of strategic planning , 1993 .

[48]  Cynthia G. Emrich,et al.  Images in Words: Presidential Rhetoric, Charisma, and Greatness , 2001 .

[49]  A. Bryman.  Charisma And Leadership In Organizations , 1993 .

[50]  G. Yukl,et al.  Leadership in Organizations , 1981 .

[51]  M. V. van Engen,et al.  Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: a meta-analysis comparing women and men. , 2003, Psychological bulletin.

[52]  S. Gangestad,et al.  On the nature of self-monitoring: matters of assessment, matters of validity. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[53]  L. James,et al.  Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias. , 1984 .

[54]  John J. Sosik,et al.  Transformational leadership, learning goal orientation, and expectations for career success in mentor–protégé relationships: A multiple levels of analysis perspective , 2004 .

[55]  B. Bass,et al.  You Can Drag a Horse to Water but You Can't Make it Drink Unless it is Thirsty , 1998 .

[56]  Fn Kerlinger,et al.  Foundations of behavioral research (2nd ed. , 1973 .

[57]  L. Penner,et al.  MODERATOR VARIABLES AND DIFFERENT TYPES OF PREDICTABILITY: DO YOU HAVE A MATCH? , 1985 .

[58]  John P. Robinson,et al.  Measures Of Personality And Social Psychological Attitudes , 1991 .

[59]  Phillip L. Ackerman,et al.  Toward an interactionist taxonomy of personality and situations: An integrative situational—dispositional representation of personality traits. , 1996 .

[60]  Jane M. Howell,et al.  Personality and charismatic leadership , 1992 .

[61]  W. Reynolds.  Development of reliable and valid short forms of the marlowe-crowne social desirability scale , 1982 .

[62]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[63]  D. Marlowe,et al.  A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. , 1960, Journal of consulting psychology.

[64]  James G. Hunt,et al.  Leadership: The Cutting Edge. , 1979 .

[65]  Steven P. Brown,et al.  Self-efficacy as a moderator of information-seeking effectiveness. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[66]  B. Avolio,et al.  Context and leadership: An examination of the nine-factor full-range leadership theory using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. , 2003 .

[67]  Francis J. Yammarino,et al.  Theory testing in organizational behavior : the varient approach , 1987 .

[68]  Robert J. House,et al.  Toward the integration of transformational, charismatic, and visionary theories. , 1993 .