SummaryMultilevel marketing organizations (MLMs) are a rapidly growing organizational type enlisting nearly 10 million members and producing over 20 billion dollars in sales annually. Despite their remarkable recent growth, few studies have examined these unusual organizations, and none of these have addressed issues of transformational leadership. In MLMs, the key leadership relationships are those between individual member distributors and the members who recruited them into the organization (i.e., their`sponsors'). Although sponsors are expected to provide leadership to the members they recruit, they possess no direct supervisory resultingÐauthority in an uncertain`quasi-leadership' role. Using a sample of 736 female MLM members, the present study empirically tests an important explanatory component of transformational leadership theory: that belief in the higher purpose of one's work is a mechanism through which transformational leadership achieves its positive outcomes on cohesion, satisfaction, effort, and performance. The results offer support to the notion that transformational leadership indeed transforms' followers by encouraging them to see the higher purposes in their work. Additionally, the results show positive relationships between belief in a higher purpose of one's work and job satisfaction, unit cohesion, and effort.

Multilevel marketing organizations (MLMs) are a rapidly growing but often controversial marketing organizational type boasting nearly 10 million members and over $20 billion in annual sales. The success of the MLM business model rests largely on forming cooperative social networks of member distributors. Socialization of new members to the norms and values of the MLM plays a key role in eliciting that cooperative behavior. However, the member cooperation that produces successful networks may inhibit the financial performance of individual distributors. Drawing upon social identity theory, this study investigates whether communication of the MLM's behavioral norms during the socialization of members affects the degree to which members cooperate with each other and how that cooperation affects the sales performance of individual distributorships. The results of a survey of MLM members suggest that both effects occur. Socialization communication positively affects member cooperation, which produces direct and indirect effects on sales. Cooperation, measured by several organizational citizenship behaviors, exerts a positive direct effect on sales, but a negative indirect effect when the relationship is mediated by group cohesion.

This paper reviews conceptual developments related to the stakeholder approach, identifies some critical research needs, presents a methodological approach that we are currently using to study this phenomenon, raises managerial issues related to the implementation of the concept, details one firms utilization of the concept, and makes recommendations for research.

Public education is operating in an era of intensifying competition. In addition, state governments and local communities are increasingly demanding that schools demonstrate tangible evidence of improvement over time. How can educational leaders improve their districts’ performance in this competition and accountability-focused era? The authors explore the impact of four elements of strategic planning: strategic positioning, external and internal analysis, measurable objectives, and evaluation with corrective action. Examining both the literature that guides districts in the development of strategic plans and actual district plans, the authors identify areas of weakness and suggest ways districts can create a competitive advantage.