Favorability of representative and visionary leaders following an organizational crisis
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Riley L. McCallus (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Thomas Ford
Abstract: Effective leaders are critical in ensuring the success of organizations. Particularly in crisis situations, employees look to leaders to guide the organization through hardships and achieve success in the face of challenges. I discuss and explore two main types of leadership style: visionary leadership and representative leadership. The present research consists of two experiments that investigate group members’ preference for one type of leader over another. Experiment 1 replicated Halevy et al.’s (2011) research exploring general preferences for visionary and representative leaders, comparing Halevy et al.’s (2011) original leader profiles and revised versions of leader profiles that equalize competence across the visionary and representative leaders. Results partially supported the hypothesis, showing that when competence is equalized across leadership styles, there is no significant difference in favorability between a visionary and representative leader. Experiment 2 explored people’s preferences for these two types of leaders in both an intragroup crisis and an intergroup crisis, extending the existing research. Results did not support the hypothesis, revealing no significant differences in leader style favorability in either an intragroup crisis or an intergroup crisis. In the control (no crisis) condition, participants significantly preferred a representative leader. However, when crisis condition was collapsed across type of condition, participants significantly preferred a representative leader. This preference was less robust than in a no crisis scenario, indicating a possible openness to a visionary leader in a crisis compared to no crisis.
Favorability of representative and visionary leaders following an organizational crisis
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Created on 4/1/2018
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2018
- Keywords
- Psychology, Organizational behavior
- Subjects
- Leadership
- Executive ability
- Crisis management