CEOs and corporate leaders come from diverse backgrounds, with a broad range of childhood experiences. While some CEOs were raised in affluent families, with all the privileges and opportunities that such an upbringing offers, other CEOs had difficult childhoods marked by poverty and challenging family situations. A team of researchers studying the impact of different […]
Companies recognize today that helping employees find meaning and purpose in their work will maximize employee satisfaction, motivation, engagement, and performance. The challenge for leaders is how to increase meaning at work. A team of researchers from five leading U.S. business schools (Virginia Darden, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Berkeley Haas, Chicago Booth, and Harvard) make the case […]
Empathy entails making the effort to understand others’ perspectives and emotions, and demonstrating that understanding through care and concern. In the workplace, leadership empathy is manifested through actions ranging from flexible work-at-home options to a concerted effort to create an inclusive environment for workers of all races, genders and sexual orientations. A study from Catalyst, […]
A new study of employee misconduct in the financial services field reveals that supervisors have the most significant impact—negative or positive—on employee misconduct in their firms. Based on 10 years of data from broker-dealer investment firms, the study by Zachary Kowaleski of University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, Andrew Sutherland of the MIT Sloan School […]
Craft was long seen as a primitive form of work organization rendered obsolete by the Industrial Age. However, the concept of craft is making an energetic resurgence, influencing the making of products, services and even decisions. A new paper from a team of researchers led by Jochem Kroezen of the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business […]
What is charisma? Much of past research focuses on the outcomes of charisma and often within the context of leaders in an organizational setting—e.g., charismatic leaders generate emotions that inspire others to follow them. However, leaders are not the only people in our lives who exhibit charisma, argues a team of researchers from the University […]
Research on power in organizations often treats power as unidirectional—how subordinates deal with superiors or how superiors deal with subordinates. Two researchers challenge this static, unidirectional perspective with a new theory of power framework built on the concept of a continuum of a sense of power. In their interactions with others, individuals are not always […]
Most attempts at persuasion are met by wary resistance. People are naturally suspicious of the motives of persuaders, ready to believe that persuaders will use devious means to achieve their goal of persuasion. Previous research has focused on linguistic cues—that is, the words that persuaders can use to overcome this natural resistance. However, in their […]
To become successful leaders, individuals must identify as leaders—that is, they must see themselves as legitimate leaders who have earned the right to be leaders. The path to claiming a leadership identity is varied. For example, some people believe that leadership is part of their personalities. They have always considered themselves as leaders of others, […]
The theory of evolution argues that survival depends on adaptation to the environment. Biological, psychological and behavioural characteristics in living things evolve or emerge in an ongoing battle to survive in a changing environment. Through the prism of evolution, leadership emerged because of the social needs of groups—that is, leadership is necessary for groups to […]