Assessing leadership styles and organisational context

Abstract

Purpose -To investigate the new leadership dimensions questionnaire (LDQ) and a related framework for assessing an individual's leadership style in relation to the context in which the leader works; the three new LDQ sub-scales designed to measure organisational context, follower commitment and leader performance; and the relationship between personality and leadership. Design/methodology/approach -Research is reported on LDQ data from a large sample of leaders and managers (n 222) from a range of public and private organisations. A style score was calculated and then related to data on respondents' biographical -job function, gender, sector and nationality -and FFM personality data. Findings -Results show a reasonably even allocation across all three leadership styles and that the styles are independent of the four important biographical variables. They also show that the five FFM personality factors do not account for any additional variance on any of the styles at a significant level. Results on the factor structure of the organisational context, follower commitment and leader performance scales show them to be reliable scales. Research limitations/implications -A majority of the sample were from the UK, from the private sector and were male. This study did not incorporate measures of job performance or investigate the style and context link. The self-assessed, not the 3608 version of LDQ was used. Practical implications -Some support is provided for the LDQ's use for leadership assessment and development, and for identifying potential, in both public and private sector organisations, with a standardisation sample of more than 1,000 now available. Results also show that the LDQ can be used without losing significant personality-related variance. Originality/value -LDQ provides a unique opportunity for managers to relate leadership dimensions to three different leadership styles -engaging, goal-oriented and involving -and, in turn, to the degree of organisational volatility faced by the leader, thus enabling respondents to identify the most appropriate style. Leader performance and follower commitment sub-scales should facilitate further research by academics into leadership performance.

Task and person-focused leadership behaviors and team performance: A meta-analysis

“…Coaching focused leaders are supportive and provide non-defensive responses to questions and challenges (Savelsbergh et al, 2015). They invest time and effort in guiding the followers, identify new tasks and roles to develop their competencies, and believe that critical feedback and challenge are important (Dulewicz & Higgs, 2005).…”

Women's Access to Managerial Positions: An Experimental Study of Leadership Styles and Gender

“…The results revealed that, according to their subordinates, women displayed "feminine" leadership behaviors to a greater extent in organizations "numerically dominated by women" and dedicated to "typically feminine" activities than in the opposite case (male leaders, in organizations "numerically dominated by men" and dedicated to "typically masculine" activities). Recently, Dulewicz and Higgs (2005) investigated leadership style in relation to the leaders' sector, gender, function, nationality, and personality traits. The results revealed that the leadership styles were independent of these variables.…”

HR Challenges of Project Managers

“…Some researches suggest that in comparison with functional managers, project managers are assumed to have higher abilities in some areas such as crisis management and risk taking [6] [8]. They also argue that project managers are assumed to have a high degree of self esteem, EQ, and IQ to overcome above mentioned challenges.…”

“…On the other hand, a project manager"s job in most cases has a cross-functional nature which brings together experts from various functional groups into a team of diverse personalities and backgrounds [5]. Besides the mentioned differences, project managers are different from other managers in style of leadership and required competencies [6] [7] [8].…”