Person-oriented approaches to leadership: a roadmap forward

Dynamic viewpoints on implicit leadership and followership theories: Approaches, findings, and future directions

“…That is, the person-approach acknowledges that variables can combine differently for some types of individuals than they do for others. Thus, rather than focusing on the variables per se, and how they relate within the population as a whole, person-oriented research identifies and compares subgroups of individuals sharing similar patterns of variables within a population (Foti & McCusker, 2017). Adopting a pattern-oriented approach allows researchers to gain a more in-depth examination of the interplay between content and structure of implicit theories, thus enhancing understanding of the relationship between implicit theories .…”

Connectionism in action: Exploring the links between leader prototypes, leader gender, and perceptions of authentic leadership

“…It is also important to note that while the findings of this study tested predictions based on person-oriented theory, we analyzed the data using variable-oriented methods. Scholars in the Running head: LEADER PROTOTYPES AND GENDER 24 leadership field increasingly recognize the value of person-oriented theory and methods (for details see Foti & McCusker, 2017). As opposed to the common variable-oriented approach in organizational psychology, the person-oriented approach treats the individual as the main unit of theorizing and analysis.…”

A Unifying Framework to Study Workplace Decision-Making Aptitude and Performance

“…LPA and LCA differ from classic cluster analysis methods in that they assume the existence of underlying, latent subpopulations that give rise to the observed data (Oberski, 2016). They also differ in that they are model-based approaches that produce fit estimates of profiles/classes and then classify individuals based on relative probability estimates only after the profiles or classes have been identified (Foti & McCusker, 2017). That is, latent profiles/classes of individuals with similar patterns of dimensions are identified and organized into meaningful subgroups based on the relative probability that an individual belongs to a particular subgroup (Bergman & Wångby, 2014).…”

“…Compared to variable-oriented methods, where the unit of analysis is a single variable score, the unit of analysis in pattern-oriented methods is a profile or class representing a latent subgroup assigned to an individual based on a probability calculated from the combination of scores on multiple variables (Meyer et al, 2013). Although we recognize that pattern-oriented and variable-oriented approaches differ both theoretically and methodologically (Bergman & Trost, 2006), for the purpose of this paper, we focus on the techniques' methodological aspects (see Foti & McCusker, 2017 for a review of the theory-method distinction). Instead of focusing on the relationships between individual variables and outcomes, pattern-oriented approaches focus on the relationships between sets of variables and outcomes.…”