A review and future agenda for behavioral research on leader–follower interactions at different temporal scopes

Abstract

Scholars are increasingly embracing innovative research designs and measures to capture actual leader and/or follower behaviors in real interactions. Our systematic review of this emerging research stream and development of a research agenda seeks to move the literature further in this direction. Specifically, we aim to inspire scholars with techniques for observing, manipulating, or training actual leadership and/or followership behaviors at different temporal scopes in the laboratory or field and identify which future research areas are worth exploring. To achieve these aims, we perform a review of existing studies in this domain according to their underlying conceptual model and temporal scope. We analyze which types of leader or follower behaviors (i.e., verbal behavior, text-based behavior, choice behavior, gaze, facial expressions, gestures, voice tone and pitch, movement cues, and unspecified nonverbal behavior) have been studied, how they have been studied (i.e., using which methodological approaches), and in which study context (i.e., laboratory or field). We distill these findings to derive six future research directions: conducting studies that connect actual and perceived leader/follower behaviors, considering temporal granularity in a nuanced manner, exploring interdependent behavioral patterns, leveraging unconventional research methods, performing multimodal behavior analyses, and conducting more studies "in the wild" (i.e., field research).

Kiss‐Up‐Kick‐Down to Get Ahead: A Resource Perspective on How, When, Why, and With Whom Middle Managers Use Ingratiatory and Exploitative Behaviours to Advance Their Careers

“…As a result, scholars need to rely on subordinates to assess kick‐down behaviours and the focal managers' colleagues to get a glimpse into kiss‐up behaviours (based on the assumption that peers often see the manager in many different interactions with superiors, and perhaps also with subordinates, and may thus be able to provide an accurate judgement of both kiss‐up and kick‐down behaviours). Given the speculative validity of such survey‐based approaches – both in general (Fischer et al, 2020) and specifically for assessing KUKD – we highly encourage scholars to instead prioritize finding creative ways of capturing middle managers' actual behaviour toward different target groups (see Hemshorn de Sanchez et al, 2022). For example, researchers could engage in shadowing or passive observations of middle managers, as well as their superiors and subordinates, across different situations and timespans.…”

The Now, New, and Next of Digital Leadership: How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Take Over and Change Leadership as We Know It

“…On the other hand, it will also require that leadership scholars summarize their assumptions about leadership in a more formalized way: Causally identified predictions in leadership theorizing with meaningful measurement units are needed to build an evidence-based foundation for the programming of algorithms responsible for leading employees. To reach this goal, leadership scholars have to seriously address critiques about former research that often conflates cause and effect when studying leadership styles (Fischer & Sitkin, 2022) and finally speak to calls to get to the behavioral level of leadership (Banks, Woznyi & Mansfield, 2021, Hemshorn de Sanchez et al, 2022; Van Quaquebeke & Felps, 2018). These debates are not exercises in academic naval gazing but crucial to remain relevant in a future in which AI is omnipresent.…”

Beyond LMX: toward a theory-based, differentiated view of leader–member relationships

“…For instance, the attachment may become stronger or weaker as the parties work together (Liao et al ., 2019). Attachment to the LMR may change as individuals' self-construal concerning the LMR (how they see themselves in the relationship, their role and how they are perceived by the other member of the dyad and observers) evolve as they think about the interaction during and between episodes, or observe or hear about relationships other team members have with the leader (de Sanchez et al ., 2022).…”