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You have been introduced several theories and frameworks on leadership. Which one of the theories do you think to align with the global leadership requirements? Discuss your rationale.Read this article 1 2#3 to answer this question

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Global Leadership
This text focuses on leading across cultural, economic, social, national, and political boundaries
simultaneously. Global Leadership presents the field’s latest studies and practices in a succinct and engaging
style that helps scholars, managers, and students grasp the complexities of being a global leader.
The authors begin by explaining the conceptual differences between general leadership and global leadership
before examining the various dimensions of the global leadership field, and how it will develop in the future.
Users of previous editions will notice that the book has been restructured into five new parts to provide a better
conceptual flow. Other new features include:
•A new chapter on talent management and its relationship to global leadership processes.
•Updates to the chapter on global leadership development, including material on international service
learning approaches and other “best practice” examples.
•Significant updates to the chapters on responsible global leadership and leading global teams, accounting
for recent advances in both disciplines.
This edition will prove a useful guide for graduate students of global leadership, international business, and
general leadership classes as well as scholars and managers seeking a thorough understanding of the field
today. PowerPoint slides and a list of suggested cases are available to assist instructors further.
Mark E. Mendenhall holds the J. Burton Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership in the College of
Business Administration at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, USA.
Joyce S. Osland is the Lucas Endowed Professor of Global Leadership and the Executive Director of the Global
Leadership Advancement Center in the School of Global Innovation and Leadership in the Lucas College and
Graduate School of Business at San José State University, USA.
Allan Bird is the Darla and Frederick Brodsky Trustee Professor in Global Business in the D’Amore-McKim
School of Business, at Northeastern University, USA.
Gary R. Oddou is Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Global Business Management Program at
California State University, San Marcos, USA.
Michael J. Stevens is Department Chair and Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Management at
Weber State University, USA.
Martha L. Maznevski is Professor of Organizational Behavior and Faculty Director for Executive Education at
Ivey Business School at Western University, Canada.
Günter K. Stahl is the Chair and Professor of International Management at Vienna University of Economics
and Business, Austria.
2
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Routledge Global Human Resource Management Series
Edited by Randall S. Schuler, Susan E. Jackson, and Paul Sparrow
Routledge Global Human Resource Management is an important series that examines human resources in
its global context. The series is organized into three strands: Content and issues in global human resource
management (HRM); Specific HR functions in a global context; and comparative HRM. Authored by some of
the world’s leading authorities on HRM, each book in the series aims to give readers comprehensive, in-depth
and accessible texts that combine essential theory and best practice. Topics covered include cross-border
alliances, global leadership, global legal systems, HRM in Asia, Africa and the Americas, industrial relations,
and global staffing.
International Human Resource Management (third edition)
Policies and Practices for Multinational Enterprises
Dennis R. Briscoe, Randall S. Schuler, and Lisbeth Claus
Managing Human Resources in Central and Eastern Europe
Edited by Michael J. Morley, Noreen Heraty, and Snejina Michailova
Global Careers
Michael Dickmann and Yehuda Baruch
Global Talent Management
Hugh Scullion and David Collings
International Human Resource Management (fourth edition)
Policies and Practices for Multinational Enterprises
Dennis R. Briscoe, Randall S. Schuler, and Ibraiz Tarique
Global Human Resource Management Casebook
Edited by James Hayton, Michal Biron, Liza Castro Christiansen, and Bård Kuvaas
Global Leadership (second edition)
Research, Practice, Development
Edited by Mark E. Mendenhall, Joyce Osland, Allan Bird, Gary R. Oddou, Martha L. Maznevski, Michael
Stevens, and Günter K. Stahl
Manager-Subordinate Trust
A Global Perspective
Edited by Pablo Cardona and Michael J. Morley
Managing Human Resources in Asia-Pacific (second edition)
Edited by Arup Varma and Pawan S. Budhwar
Human Resource Management and the Institutional Perspective
Edited by Geoffrey Wood, Chris Brewster, and Michael Brookes
International Human Resource Management (fifth edition)
Policies and Practices for Multinational Enterprises
Ibraiz Tarique, Dennis Briscoe, and Randall S. Schuler
Contemporary HR Issues in Europe (third edition)
Michael Dickmann, Chris Brewster, and Paul Sparrow
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Globalizing Human Resource Management (second edition)
Paul Sparrow, Chris Brewster, and Chul Chung
The Global Human Resource Management Casebook (second edition)
Edited by Liza Castro Christiansen, Michal Biron, Elaine Farndale, and Bård Kuvaas
Global Leadership (third edition)
Research, Practice, and Development
Mark E. Mendenhall, Joyce S. Osland, Allan Bird, Gary R. Oddou, Michael J. Stevens, Martha L Maznevski, and
Günter K. Stahl
5
”This new edition of Global Leadership is a must-read for professionals and students who are interested in
keeping abreast of how to lead in the global context. Authored by some of the field’s top scholars, the book is
far ranging in its treatment, and includes the latest thinking on global leadership trends and best practices.”
Allen Morrison, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, USA
“This book provides a comprehensive review and integration of existing research in the field of global
leadership, as well as showing the implications of this research for creating global leaders in all types of
organizations. Importantly, the authors also propose a new global leadership typology that provides a path
forward to understand better this complex and increasingly important domain of research and practice.”
Schon Beechler, INSEAD, France
“In an age crying out for responsible global leaders, we business school educators bear a critical role in their
development. For the last 30+ years I have watched with great pride the rigorous and committed scholarship of
Mendenhall, Osland, and their colleagues as they have worked meticulously to define global leadership and
explain how to develop it. All of us working to train the leaders of tomorrow are forever in their debt.”
Nakiye A. Boyacigiller, Sabancý University, Turkey
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Global Leadership
Research, Practice, and Development
Third edition
Edited by Mark E. Mendenhall, Joyce S. Osland, Allan Bird, Gary R. Oddou,
Michael J. Stevens, Martha L. Maznevski, and Günter K. Stahl
7
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Mark E. Mendenhall, Joyce S. Osland, Allan Bird, Gary R. Oddou, Michael J. Stevens, Martha L.
Maznevski, and Günter K. Stahl to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for
their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-29243-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-29244-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-23290-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Visit the companion website: www.routledge.com/textbooks/globalhrm
8
The late Professor Michael Poole was one of the founding series editors, and Professors Schuler, Jackson, and
Sparrow wish to dedicate the series to his memory.
9
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Contributors
Part I: History of the Field of Global Leadership
1 Leadership and the Birth of Global Leadership
MARK E. MENDENHALL
2 The Multidisciplinary Roots of Global Leadership
JOYCE S. OSLAND
3 An Overview of the Global Leadership Literature
JOYCE S. OSLAND
Part II: Global Leadership Competencies
4 Mapping the Content Domain of Global Leadership Competencies
ALLAN BIRD
5 Assessing Global Leadership Competencies
ALLAN BIRD AND MICHAEL J. STEVENS
Part III: Global Leadership Development
6 Process Models of Global Leadership Development
JOYCE S. OSLAND AND ALLAN BIRD
7 The Emerging Field of Global Talent Management and Its Implications for Global Leadership Development
IBRAIZ TARIQUE AND ELLEN WEISBORD
8 Global Leadership Development: Processes and Practices
GARY R. ODDOU AND MARK E. MENDENHALL
Part IV: Global Leadership Roles
9 Leading Global Teams
MARTHA L. MAZNEVSKI AND CELIA CHUI
10 Global Leadership Knowledge Creation and Transfer
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ALLAN BIRD AND GARY R. ODDOU
11 Leading Global Change
JOYCE S. OSLAND
12 Responsible Global Leadership
GÜNTER K. STAHL, NICOLA M. PLESS, THOMAS MAAK, AND CHRISTOF MISKA
Part V: The Future of Global Leadership
13 Leveraging a Typology of Global Leadership Roles to Guide Global Leadership Research
MARK E. MENDENHALL AND B. SEBASTIAN REICHE
Index
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Figures and Tables
Figures
1.1 The Blind Men and the Elephant
1.2 Evolving Views of the Construct of Leadership
3.1 Brake’s Global Leadership Triad
3.2 Mendenhall and Osland’s Literature Review Results: The Six Dimensions of Global Leadership and Their
Competencies
3.3 The Pyramid Model of Global Leadership
6.1 The Chattanooga Model of Global Leadership Development
6.2 A Model of Global Leadership Expertise Development
6.3 A Model for Developing Global Executives
6.4 A Process Model of Global Leadership Competency Development
7.1 Nine-Box Model of Performance-Potential
7.2 Integrative Framework of GTM in Multinational Enterprises
7.3 Macros GTM Framework
8.1 The Kozai Learning and Transformation Model
8.2 Design of PwC’s Project Ulysses Program
8.3 The Relationship of Experiential Rigor and Feedback on Global Leadership Competency Development
9.1 General Team Effectiveness Model, Highlighting Variables Salient for Global Teams
9.2 Diversity and Dispersion: Overcome Barriers to Take Advantage of Opportunities
9.3 Connected Teams
10.1 Typology of the Knowledge Creation Process
10.2 Characteristics of Repatriate Knowledge Transfer
10.3 The Repatriate Knowledge Transfer Process
12.1 Approaches to Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Organizations
12.2 Developing Responsible Global Leaders: PwC’s Project Ulysses
13.1 The Global Leadership Role Typology
13.2 Michelle Goffin’s Location in the Global Leadership Role Typology
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13
Tables
2.1 Individual Determinants of Expatriate Adjustment and Related Global Leadership Competencies
2.2 The Expatriate Transformation Process
2.3 Global Managerial Roles
2.4 Project GLOBE Leadership Traits
3.1 Examples of Foundational Global Leadership Research
3.2 A Chronological List of Empirical Research on Global Leadership
3.3 Jokinen’s Integrated Framework of Global Leadership
4.1 The Terrain of Global Leadership Constructs
4.2 Jokinen’s Synthesis of Global Leader Competencies
4.3 Competency Distribution Across the Three Primary Categories of Global Leadership Competency
4.4 Business and Organizational Acumen Competencies
4.5 Managing People and Relationships Competencies
4.6 Managing Self Competencies
4.7 A Framework of Nested Global Leadership Competencies
5.1 Comparison of Intercultural and Global Leadership Assessment Tools
6.1 The Themes and Lessons of International Experience
10.1 Comparison and Equivalency of Repatriate Knowledge Types
10.2 Repatriate Resource Capabilities and Application Potential
11.1 Cultural Dimensions Related to Change
11.2 Communication Style Differences
11.3 The Change Process and Cultural Contingencies
11.4 Contextual Effects on Creativity
12.1 Competencies Required to Support Different CSR Approaches
13.1 Representative Definitions of Global Leadership from the Literature
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Preface
MARK E. MENDENHALL, JOYCE S. OSLAND, ALLAN BIRD, GARY
R. ODDOU, MARTHA L. MAZNEVSKI, MICHAEL J. STEVENS, AND
GüNTER K. STAHL
We begin this new edition of Global Leadership: Research, Practice, and Development with the same quotation
from C.K. Prahalad that we used to introduce our 2013 edition. In 1990, he presciently wrote that future leaders
would work in
… a world where variety, complex interaction patterns among various subunits, host governments, and customers, pressures for change and
stability, and the need to re-assert individual identity in a complex web of organizational relationships are the norm. This world is one beset
with ambiguity and stress. Facts, emotions, anxieties, power and dependence, competition and collaboration, individual and team efforts are
all present … Managers have to deal with these often conflicting demands simultaneously.
(p. 30)
The reality that C.K. Prahalad foresaw has long since arrived—globalization and its demands has shifted the
skill set necessary to lead in the 21st century, and organizations are in desperate need of finding executives
with the right mix of skills, but they are rare and difficult to find (Maznevski, Stahl, & Mendenhall, 2013). But
what are the skills that global leaders should possess in order to be successful, and what exactly is global
leadership? Companies are grappling with these issues, and social scientists are hurriedly working to produce
empirically sound insights to guide the selection, training, and ongoing development of global leaders.
The combined factors of the leadership demands of globalization on firms, firms’ responses to those demands,
and social scientists’ efforts to investigate global leadership spawned a sub-field in international management
and international human resource management: global leadership (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016). This field came
into existence in the mid-1980s and took hold firmly in the 1990s, and today, numerous scholars are actively
investigating the dimensions of global leadership (Mendenhall, Li, & Osland, 2016). Our hope is that this book
will enable students, practitioners, and scholars to have ready access to the seminal knowledge of the field and
will aid in the systematic investigation of global leadership in the future. This third edition includes new
studies and practices that have emerged since the publication of the second edition in 2013. We plan to
continue to revise the book every four years so that each new edition can serve as a valuable resource to
scholars and managers who desire to gain an in-depth understanding of what is known in the field at the
current time.
Each chapter from the second edition has been updated to reflect research that has been published since 2013.
As we reviewed the literature, we have found numerous studies that were published before 2013 as well of
which we were heretofore unaware; thus, we have cited much of this research in this edition. We also have
included a new chapter in this edition on global talent management and its relationship to global leadership
processes. We have kept the chapters from the previous edition and updated them, but decided to reorder their
sequence in this edition to provide a better conceptual flow to the book. Chapter 1, “Leadership and the Birth
of Global Leadership,” traces the heritage of leadership scholarship from which the field of global leadership
was built. It is important to review the roots of global leadership because the field of global leadership has
inherited some of the same challenges that exist in the general field of leadership as well. Chapter 1 also
explains why global leadership is conceptually different from general leadership and provides a definitional
framework for the rest of the book.
In Chapter 2, “The Multidisciplinary Roots of Global Leadership,” Joyce Osland emphasizes that in addition to
15
the general field of leadership the field of global leadership also “owes a debt of gratitude to other fields of
study that focus on bridging cultures, communicating and being effective across cultures, working overseas,
and managing and leading people from other nations.” The contributions of the fields of intercultural
communication competence, expatriation, global management, and comparative leadership upon the global
leadership literature are reviewed in this chapter. In Chapter 3, she then discusses and reviews the primary
studies and models of global leadership that currently exist in the field.
In Chapter 4 Allan Bird integrates the current research on global leadership competencies and provides a
framework to map the global competency content domain, and in Chapter 5 he, along with coauthor Michael
Stevens, reviews the assessment tools and methods that scholars have used to measure global leadership
competencies. Current tools that are used are reviewed, as well as other assessment tools that exist and could
be applied fruitfully to the study of global leadership competencies. Because some scholars have approached
the conceptualization of global leadership from a process rather than a content model-building perspective,
Joyce Osland and Allan Bird review the extant process models of global leadership development in Chapter 6.
Chapter 7, “The Emerging Field of Global Talent Management and Its Implications for Global Leadership
Development” is a new chapter in this edition (written by Ibraiz Tarique and Ellen Weisbord) and provides an
overview of the field of global talent management followed by a discussion of the implications of this field for
research and practice in global leadership, and provides context for how global leaders are developed, which is
the topic addressed in Chapter 8. In Chapter 8, Gary Oddou and Mark Mendenhall broach the critical human
resource management issue of how to best go about training and developing global leaders. “Best practice”
global leadership development practices are reviewed and critiqued, followed by a discussion of the
implications of research findings for the design of global leadership development programs.
Next, in Chapter 9, Martha Maznevski and Celia Chui delineate principles derived from empirical research that
are critical to successfully leading global teams while in Chapter 10, Allan Bird and Gary Oddou address the
outcomes of global leadership development: the role of global leaders in knowledge creation and knowledge
transfer. In this chapter, the concept that global leaders act as repositories of knowledge, and thus become key
components of a firm’s human capital, is delineated.
By all accounts in the general leadership literature, one important aspect of leadership is to initiate change, and
thus, a key function of global leaders is to lead global change efforts. In Chapter 11, Joyce Osland discusses the
universal aspects of managing change as well as the factors that seem particularly important in global change
efforts, and since innovation and change go hand in hand, how global leaders can promote and lead innovation
is addressed.
Chapter 12 addresses the research stream of responsible global leadership that has gained traction in the field
since 2010. Günter Stahl, Nicola Pless, Thomas Maak, and Christof Miska address the ethical/corporate social
responsibility dimension of global leadership and emerging research findings related to it. Mark Mendenhall
and Sebastian Reiche look to the future of the field in Chapter 13, where they explore its research gaps, and the
areas of the field that require more attention from scholars and managers. The chapter focuses on the
importance of construct definition and of investigating global leadership roles in future research.
We hope that you enjoy this new edition and find it useful in your work. Please feel free to contact any of the
authors with your feedback or queries.
16
References
Bird, A., & Mendenhall, M.E. 2016. From cross-cultural management to global leadership: Evolution and
adaptation. Journal of World Business, 51(1): 115–126.
Maznevski, M.L., Stahl, G.K., & Mendenhall, M.E. 2013. Towards an integration of global leadership practice
and scholarship: Repairing disconnects and heightening mutual understanding. European Journal of
Management, 7(5): 493–499.
Mendenhall, M.E., Li, M., & Osland, J.S. 2016. Five years of global leadership research, 2010–2014: Patterns,
themes, and future directions. In J.S. Osland, Li, M., & Mendenhall, M.E. (eds.) Advances in Global
Leadership(volume 9). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing: 401–426.
Prahalad, C.K. 1990. Globalization: The intellectual and managerial challenges. Human Resource Management,
29(1): 27–37.
17
Acknowledgments
We would like to express our deep appreciation to Erin Arata for her expertise and wisdom in shepherding this
project to its final publication.
We also would like to thank the generous support of the following institutions for their support of this project:
•The Dixie Group (Daniel K. Frierson, CEO)
• J. Burton Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership at the University of Tennessee,
The
Chattanooga
•The Donald and Sally Lucas Family Foundation and the Global Leadership Advancement Center at San Jose
State University
•The Darla and Frederick Brodsky Trustee Professorship in Global Business at Northeastern University
•The International Organizations Network (ION)
Finally, and most importantly, we would like to thank some very special people in our lives:
Allan: My special people: Olivia, Cole, Evan, Emma, and Mattie.
Gary: The little loves of my life—Pouce, Bouldoze, Explo, Chef, Maite, Pistache, and Jacques.
Günter: Dorit and Hannah-Borey.
Joyce: Asbjorn, Jessica, Joe, Zoe, Lucy, Michael, Anna, Jacob, Gavin, Katrina, Scott, Isabelle, and June.
Mark: Always Janet; and to my grandchildren: William, Thomas, Amy, James, and Timothy.
Martha: Xander, Arielle, Julianna, Katie, Andrea, Hadley, and Brian.
Michael: Cheri, Nicole, Brad, Jackie, Jessica, Patrick, Devin, Stephanie, and William.
18
Contributors
Allan Bird
Darla and Frederick Brodsky Trustee Professor in Global Business
Northeastern University
Celia Chui
Postdoctoral Researcher
Université de Lausanne
Thomas Maak
Head, School of Management and Chair in Responsible Leadership
University of South Australia
Martha L. Maznevski
Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Faculty Director for Executive Education
Ivey Business School
Mark E. Mendenhall
J. Burton Frierson Chair of Excellence in Business Leadership
University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
Christof Miska
Assistant Professor
Vienna University of Economics and Business
Gary R. Oddou
Partner
The Kozai Group, LLC
Joyce S. Osland
Lucas Endowed Professor of Global Leadership and Executive Director of the Global Leadership Advancement
Center
San José State University
Nicola M. Pless
Professor of Management and Chair of Positive Business
University of South Australia
B. Sebastian Reiche
Associate Professor and Head of Department of Managing People in Organizations
IESE Business School
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Günter K. Stahl
Professor of International Management
Vienna University of Economics and Business
Michael J. Stevens
Department Chair and Professor of Human Resource Management
Weber State University
Ibraiz Tarique
Professor of Human Resources and Talent Management and Director of Global HRM Programs
Pace University
Ellen Weisbord
Professor and Academic Director, Executive MBA Program
Pace University
20
Part I
History of the Field of Global Leadership
21
1
Leadership and the Birth of Global Leadership
MARK E. MENDENHALL
Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.
—James MacGregor Burns (1978: 2)
The purpose of this book is to introduce you to research that has focused on leaders and leadership in the
context of global business and globalization. The field of global leadership has burgeoned since its inception in
the late 1980s and early 1990s (Mendenhall, Li, & Osland, 2016). However, before a proper introduction to the
field of global leadership can be undertaken, it will first be necessary to review the field from which the
discipline of global leadership evolved: leadership.
It was not until the beginning of the 20th century, when scholars began applying the scientific method to social
processes, that the study of leadership became widespread both in academe and in the business world (Yukl,
2013: 18). Before this time period, leadership had been studied mostly via historical analysis, within military
studies, and through biography (Bass, 1990; Yukl, 2013). The vast majority of empirical work in the 1930s to the
1970s was undertaken by North American and British scholars (Bass, 1990), and the context of their study of
leadership was primarily domestic in nature; that is, from the early part of the 20th century through the 1970s,
the vast majority of social scientific studies of leadership, and concomitant theoretical developments in the
field, were firmly housed in Anglo-North American contexts. In the 1980s, European and Japanese social
scientists began making contributions to the study of leadership in English language academic journals, which
extended the reach of the influence of their findings among scholars globally (Bass, 1990: xiv). By 1990 Bass
would note that there were over 7,500 scholarly studies of leadership extant. The output of research studies on
leadership in the 21st century has not diminished (Day and Antonakis, 2011: 3).
The empirical findings within the leadership field are complex, paradoxical, intriguing, and at times,
problematic. Various scholars have undertaken reviews and categorizations of the plethora of empirical studies
that exist in the field. I have chosen to rely on the work of Bass (1990), Day and Antonakis (2011), Rost (1993),
and Yukl (2006, 2013) due to the comprehensive nature of their work and the scope of the studies they covered
in their analyses of the field.
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Approaches to the Study of Leadership
Scholars are not all cut from the same cloth, and thus they embark on the study of leadership from different
perspectives and purposes when they ascertain what type of overall research approach they will use in their
investigations of leadership. From these differing vantage points of the study of leadership have come varying
approaches to the study of the phenomenon. These varying approaches can be categorized in a variety of ways
(Day & Antonakis, 2011); however, I will primarily rely on Yukl’s categorizations to provide an overview of the
field (Yukl, 2013). In his review of the leadership literature domain, he subsumed the complexity of these
approaches into five general types: 1) the trait approach; 2) the behavior approach; 3) the power-influence
approach; 4) the situational approach; and 5) the integrative approach (Yukl, 2013: 28–29).
The Trait Approach
Early studies of leadership from the 1900s through the 1940s focused primarily on the discovery of key traits
that separated leaders from their peers. The assumption was that internal traits, motives, personality
characteristics, skills, and values of leaders were critical to leader emergence and would predict who would
and would not emerge as leaders (Day & Antonakis, 2011). Numerous studies have been carried out using this
approach, and after reviewing their findings, Bass noted that it was “reasonable to conclude that personality
traits differentiate leaders from followers, successful from unsuccessful leaders, and high-level from low-level
leaders” (1990: 86). The following traits were correlative to leadership emergence and managerial success (Bass,
1990: 87):
•strong drive for responsibility and completion of tasks
•vigor and persistence in the pursuit of goals
•
venturesomeness
and originality in problem solving
•
drive
to exercise initiative in social situations
•
self-confidence
and a sense of personal identity
•
willingness
to accept the consequences of his or her decisions and actions
•readiness to absorb interpersonal stress
•willingness to tolerate frustration and delay
•ability to influence other people’s behavior
•
capacity
to structure social interaction systems to the purpose at hand
While these general findings correlated with leadership behavior, they were insufficient for predictive
purposes; in other words, while some traits tended to correlate with leadership, they did not predict leadership
behavior strongly enough to make them useful to real-world organizations. For example, an individual may
score high in all or most of these traits yet may not wind up emerging as a leader in the workplace or some
other social situation. Thus, traits may be necessary but insufficient in and of themselves, for leader emergence
and effective leadership. Scholars realized that while traits play a role in leadership, other variables are also at
play that likely influence the enactment of effective leadership (Yukl, 2013: 144). Bass concluded that, “who
emerges as a leader and who is successful and effective is due to traits of consequence in the situation, some is
due to situational effects, and some is due to the interaction of traits and situation” (1990: 87). For more indepth treatment of the trait approach, please see the reviews of Judge, Bono, Ilies, and Gerhardt (2002) and
Zaccaro (2007).
23
The Behavior Approach
In partial reaction to the general failure of the trait approach as a singular method for understanding leadership
dynamics, many scholars began instead to focus on the study of actual leadership behavior vs. the internal
mechanisms within a person that might cause leadership behavior (Bass, 1990: 511). The focus of these scholars
was to better understand what managers and leaders actually do while on the job and to ascertain which of
these behaviors reflect effective versus ineffective leadership (Yukl, 2013: 28). This approach began in the 1950s
and elicited hundreds of studies, and the pioneering research that emerged especially from Ohio State
University and the University of Michigan during the decade of the 1950s had a significant impact on the field
(Bass, 1990: 511). The Ohio State studies found the repertoire of managers’ behaviors can be linked to one of
two core dimensions: 1) “initiating structure” (task-oriented) or “consideration” (people-oriented). More
specifically, initiating structure “shows the extent to which a leader initiates activity in the group, organizes it,
and defines the way work is to be done” (Bass, 1990: 512). It involves the maintenance of performance
standards, meeting deadlines, decision-making regarding job assignments, establishment of communication
and work organization, etc. Consideration “describes the extent to which a leader exhibits concern for the
welfare of the other members of the group” (Bass, 1990: 511). It involves expressing appreciation for
performance, focusing on workers’ job satisfaction, paying attention to self-esteem levels of workers, making
workers feel at ease, listening to and acting on subordinates’ suggestions, etc. (Bass, 1990: 511).
Scholars found that there is no one specific configuration or balance of these two dimensions that predicts
leadership effectiveness across social and work situations. For example, initiating structure becomes more
critical to effective leadership when there is less structure within the group (Bass, 1990). Additionally, these
two factors (initiating structure and consideration) and their interactions influence effective leadership; for
example, “the initiation of structure by the leader (if structure is low) improves the subordinates’ performance,
which, in turn, increases the leader’s subsequent consideration and reduces the leader’s initiation of structure”
(Bass, 1990: 543). The studies carried out at the University of Michigan produced similar findings to thos