Conceptualizing leadership perceptions as attitudes: Using attitude theory to further understand the leadership process

Abstract

Leadership is one of the most examined factors in relation to understanding employee wellbeing and performance. While there are disparate approaches to studying leadership, they share a common assumption that perceptions of a leader's behavior determine reactions to the leader.The concept of leadership perception is poorly understood in most theoretical approaches. To address this, we propose that there are many benefits from examining leadership perceptions as an attitude towards the leader. In this review, we show how research examining a number of aspects of attitudes (content, structure and function) can advance understanding of leadership perceptions and how these affect work-related outcomes. Such a perspective provides a more multi-faceted understanding of leadership perceptions than previously envisaged and this can provide a more detailed understanding of how such perceptions affect outcomes. In addition, we examine some of the main theoretical and methodological implications of viewing leadership perceptions as attitudes to the wider leadership area. The cross-fertilization of research from the attitudes literature to understanding leadership perceptions provides new insights into leadership processes and potential avenues for further research.

Leadership, creativity, and innovation: A critical review and practical recommendations

“…The recent proliferation of "positive" forms of leadership (i.e., servant, authentic, empowering, and ethical leadership) has served to exacerbate the problem. The uniform pattern of small-moderate positive correlations between positive leader styles and creativity/innovation, regardless of the nature of the style, suggests that we might be measuring overall attitudes towards leaders rather than actual behaviors (Baumeister et al, 2007;Lee, Martin, Thomas, Guillaume, & Maio, 2015). Future research needs to address the lack of theoretical clarity by focusing on the distinctive elements of leadership approaches and their relative and incremental effects.…”

Empowering Leadership, Risk-Taking Behavior, and Employees’ Commitment to Organizational Change: The Mediated Moderating Role of Task Complexity

“…Leadership has a significant effect on attitudes, behaviors, and various levels of performance [12,13], including the sustainability of organizations [14]. Recent studies on leadership have discussed sustainable leadership, which focuses on a leaders' attitude and behavior towards connecting organizations to innovation and systematic change as a response to the business environment, society, business ethics, and corporate responsibility [14][15][16].…”

Virtual Leadership in Complex Multiorganizational Research and Development Programs

“…Most publications identified from top-tier publications such as Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Management, Organizational Science, and others related to leadership have acknowledged the role of leadership in influencing the organization (Dinh et al, 2014). Lee, Martin, Thomas, Guillaume, and Maio (2015) concluded that social identity of the workgroup affected a holistic view of a team, including both leader strategies and follower attitudes. A review of leadership training programs yielded no evidence of leader exposure to these modern concepts.…”

“…(Gaudet & Tremblay, 2017). Huettermann, Doering, and Boerner (2014) Contemporary researchers continue to demonstrate the need to go beyond leadership traits to understand leadership, and opportunities to improve team performance (Lee, Martin, Thomas, Guillaume, & Maio, 2015;Asrar-ul-Haq & Kuchinke, 2016). Lee et al (2015) noted that follower perceptions require a multifaceted investigation of leadership to understand how leadership strategies affect the perceptions of the followers.…”

“…Asrar-ul-Haq and Kuchinke (2016) took a similar view of the relationship of leadership to member attitudes, but from the leaders' perspective. Lee et al (2015) compared leadership research methods, such as leader-member exchange, transformation leadership, and authentic leadership, to methods that included consideration of follower attitudes. Lee et al found that organizational performance appraisal systems needed to match the expected attitude of the follower to engage the leader as expected.…”