Effective Leadership
Leaders are essential factors for an organization’s success. Leader’s influence on their followers’ motivation and performance is well-proven. Furthermore, being dissatisfied with one’s leader is one of the major reasons for leaving an organization. Leaders also have an important influence on an organization’s climate – no matter whether in service, security or innovation. In our research we could show, for example, that leaders significantly influence their followers’ identification with the organization. Leaders who strongly identify with their organization, also induce a higher level of identification among their followers. Employees strongly identifying with their organization, are more satisfied, increase their customers’ satisfaction and even have a positive influence on the organization’s financial performance.
Central questions:
- How do effective leaders differ from less effective ones?
- Is it possible to learn leading skills and qualities?
- Which training methods can successfully, positively influence a leader’s effectiveness?
References:
- Ullrich, J., Christ, O., & van Dick, R. (2009). Substitutes for procedural fairness: Prototypical leaders are endorsed whether they are fair or not. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 235-244.
- Hirst, G., van Dick, R., & van Knippenberg, D. (2009). A social identity perspective on leadership and employee creativity. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30, 963-982.
- van Dick, R., Hirst, G., Grojean, M.W., & Wieseke, J. (2007). Relationships between leader and follower organizational identification and implications for follower attitudes and behaviour. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 133-150.
