Further specification of the leader political skill–leadership effectiveness relationships: Transformational and transactional leader behavior as mediators

Leadership styles and their outcomes: a study of a Nigerian hospital middle management nurses

Purpose

This study was conducted to identify and explore the leadership styles and the leadership outcomes of the middle management nurses in a large tertiary hospital in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo state of Nigeria. This study aims to explore and describe the perception of staff nurses (SNs) about their nurse managers’ (NMs) leadership styles, to investigate the leadership outcomes of NMs as perceived by their SNs and to investigate what are the best predictors of the leadership outcomes among the perceived leadership styles.

Design/methodology/approach

Thirty-six variables of the MLQ-5X were compressed into the nine psychological constructs, as proposed by Avolio and Bass (2004). Four items of each of the nine sub-scales were combined together, to form the independent variables. The nine items of the leadership outcomes were compressed into three composite variables as: the Leader’s perceived influence as being effective in leading the group variable, it has four items; the Leader’s perceived influence as being satisfactory to the group being led variable, it has two items; and lastly, the Leader’s perceived influence to encourage the staff.

Findings

When all the three leadership sub-scales were combined as one total leadership outcome, the regression analysis showed that four leadership constructs were the predictors of the leadership outcome, that is, idealized attribute (ß = 0.173, p = 0.011), intellectual stimulation (ß = 0.171, p = 0.016), individualized consideration (ß = 0.240, p = 0.001) and contingent reward (ß = 0.194, p = 0.006). The coefficients and the p-values of the remaining five leadership constructs are as shown in Table 1.

Research limitations/implications

This study has many limitations. One, the respondents were not randomly sampled, so the results cannot be generalized outside of UCH, Nigeria. It is also a one-time survey.

Practical implications

Managers who regularly practice transformational leadership (TFL) would be able to encourage their SNs to put in their best for the greater good of the organization. In this study, three sub-scales of the TFL, that is, idealized attribute, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration were found to be strong predictors of leadership outcomes. Leaders who are able to treat their staff with care and concern for the individual, able to mentor, advise, coach and develop their staff are likely to also see improved staff satisfaction and extra effort in staff performance. This is especially necessary in sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria.

Social implications

It is therefore strongly recommended that middle management nurses in UCH should continue to strive and improve on their TFL skills as well as their contingent reward styles of leadership. Vesterinen et al. (2012) said that NMs who can observe their own behaviour and its effects on employees can adjust to a better leadership style. In particular, individualized consideration skills such as coaching, mentoring, advising, developing and showing concern for the individual needs of their staff would encourage SNs to put in extra effort and be more satisfied with their leaders.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is his original research work and it has never been published elsewhere. The whole work was however submitted for a PhD thesis to the University of Salford.

Machiavellian Leader Effectiveness

Abstract. Research on the effectiveness of Machiavellian leaders has found contradictory results. By linking socioanalytic and trait activation theory to the Machiavellianism and leadership literature, we argue that political skill may explain these findings by moderating the relation between Machiavellianism and leadership effectiveness. Using a multisource design and moderated mediation analyses with 153 leaders, 287 subordinates, and 153 superiors, we show that leaders who are both strongly politically skilled and high on Machiavellianism successfully enact transformational leadership, mediating improved leader effectiveness. However, when leader political skill is low, high Machiavellianism is negatively associated with (subordinate-rated) transformational leadership, resulting in lower leader effectiveness ratings by superiors. We discuss these results in light of current research on Machiavellianism in leadership and work contexts.

Forty years of political skill and will in organizations: a review, meta-theoretical framework and directions for future research

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the scholarship on political skill and political will so that the authors might inspire future work that assesses these constructs individually and in tandem.

Design/methodology/approach

The “political skill” and “political will” concepts were introduced about 40 years ago, but they only have been measured and produced empirical results much more recently. Since that time, substantial research results have demonstrated the important roles political skill and political will play in organizational behavior. This paper provides a comprehensive review of this research, draws conclusions from this work and provides a meta-theoretical framework of political skill and political will to guide future work in this area.

Findings

Scholarship in this area has developed quite rapidly for political skill, but less so for political will. The authors hope that recent developments in a political will can set the stage for scholars to create a theoretical and empirical balance between these two related constructs.

Originality/value

The authors corral the vast and widespread literature on political skill and will and distill the information for scholars and practitioners alike.

Pretesting a political skill scale in a sample of teacher-leaders from polytechnics in northeast Nigeria

Although the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) is the benchmark measure of the political skill construct, the existence and frequent use of other measures suggest that the PSI fails to cover the content domain of the construct comprehensively. This study utilised the extant political skill measures in developing a robust and parsimonious political skill scale for assessing the political sensitivity of teacher-leaders in higher education. Cognitive tests, behaviour coding and respondent debriefing were conducted to evaluate a 38-item pool on political skill in a sample of 36 teacher-leaders drawn from nine polytechnics situated in Northeast Nigeria. The scale's interrater agreement was computed using Fleiss' κ statistic based on categorical data from five expert reviews. The results of our analyses revealed a 15-item Political Skill Scale (PSS) that reflects the social competence teacher-leaders need in performing the largely voluntary roles of teacher leadership. This work contributes towards contextual mapping of the political skill construct in an African setting. It also offers a new political skill measure.

Manager as coach characteristics for dealing with team challenge

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reference academic publications and semi-structured interviews with management experts employing a coaching style within their teams to create a platform for evaluating specific coaching mechanisms, evolving insights to the characteristics required of a manager applying coaching to deal with team challenge. A practical perspective led by managers using critical incidents to explore and highlight areas of experience and expertise in dealing with team challenge.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative assessment was derived from 30 semi-structured interviews which were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed to assist in added insight for work-based management of dealing with team challenge. Data from 30 interviews were collected via Skype, FaceTime or Zoom to create the necessary rapport and capture the experience of dealing with team challenge. An audio record of each interview was captured to create a synchronised, fully indexed transcript from which characteristics and mechanisms could be identified.

Findings

Findings illustrated that the characteristics of the work-based manager themselves is an essential part of the mix when dealing with team challenge, the application of a coaching style accentuated the competencies and characteristics required of the manager to successfully address team challenge, demanding a specific coaching mindset. The starting point is the manager themselves knowing all the details before they intervene by utilising the traditional competencies of a professional coach.

Research limitations/implications

Only one sample of 30 interviewees contributed to this research, a wider sample would be advisable, including a wider cultural base to assess characteristics in a variety of contexts. There was a wide sector representation in this research (public, private and third sector), but specific sector analysis would also be interesting to assess validity of results more rigorously.

Practical implications

The practical outputs from this research of the manager’s self-assessment can be used by managers as a check list when dealing with team challenge or by HR managers as an assessment tool to decide which managers to invest in coaching training. The characteristics may be a means of deciphering the skills of the managers. Finally the self-assessment could be used as a training tool to support work-based learning or coach training on how to address team challenge and offer a discussion prompt around these elements as being essential.

Social implications

Coaching dialogue is a social interaction and this research contributes to enhancing the quality and purpose of social interactions in the workplace. By employing a coaching style of listening, questioning and reflecting managers can utliise a standard framework for solving issues in the workplace.

Originality/value

Dealing with challenge in teams through the analysis of the coaching style applied by 30 managers is unique, the value added through this research has been an enhanced appreciation of the manager as coach role and an appreciation to the established team models of Fleishman, Katzenbach and Smith, Hackman and Edmondson. This added layer enabling managers to deal with team challenge associated with our ever changing work environment.

Why Do Leaders Express Humility and How Does This Matter: A Rational Choice Perspective

The utility of leader humility expressing behavior has been examined by several studies across multiple levels. However, our knowledge about why leaders express humility continues to be sparse. Drawing on rational choice theory, this paper proposes a model examining whether followers' capability triggers leader's humility expressing behavior and how followers' interpretations of it influence its effectiveness. Results from 278 leader-follower dyads from a time-lagged research design showed that followers' capability as perceived by the leader is positively related to leader-expressed humility and, in turn, this behavior would conditionally enhance follower trust, that is, followers will trust the humble leader less when they attribute leader's expressed humility more to serving impression management motives. Several theoretical and practical implications of this observation are discussed in this study.

Millennials and political savvy – the mediating role of political skill linking core self-evaluation, emotional intelligence and knowledge sharing behaviour

Purpose

Navigating the labyrinthine connections between people, process, technology and infrastructure is a key skill for employees in agile organisations. Political skill is imperative amongst millennials who in a continuously changing environment need to stretch their minds to accumulate and disseminate new knowledge and develop core competencies while responding to new business triggers. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a mediation model in which the effect of emotional intelligence (EI) and core self-evaluation (CSE) on knowledge-sharing intention is mediated by levels of political skill amongst millennials.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses, on mediation, were tested with data collected from prospective employees graduating from a premier management institute in Northern India. Structural equation modelling was used to test hypotheses with bootstrapping to test mediation effects.

Findings

The findings demonstrate that the relationship between EI, CSE and knowledge-sharing intention is mediated by political skill. Theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research are followed.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on knowledge sharing by providing a basis for understanding the mediating mechanism through which EI and CSE influence knowledge sharing. This is the first attempt examining the role of political skill as a mediator in the study of knowledge sharing, a critical lever for agile organisations to flourish. By investigating the underlying mechanisms through which individual differences impact knowledge-sharing behaviour, this study significantly supplements current research on knowledge management.

Reorganizing Organizational Politics Research: A Review of the Literature and Identification of Future Research Directions

Organizational politics has been an oft-studied phenomenon for nearly four decades. Prior reviews have described research in this stream as aligning with one of three categories: perceptions of organizational politics (POPs), political behavior, or political skill. We suggest that because these categories are at the construct level research on organizational politics has been artificially constrained. Thus, we suggest a new framework with higher-level categories within which to classify organizational politics research: political characteristics, political actions, and political outcomes. We then provide a broad review of the literature applicable to these new categories and discuss the possibilities for future research within each expanded category. Finally, we close with a discussion of future directions for organizational politics research across the categories.

Political Skill and Manager Performance: Exponential and Asymptotic Relationships Due to Differing Levels of Enterprising Job Demands

Political skill, a social competence that enables individuals to achieve goals due to their understanding of and influence upon others at work, can play an important role in manager performance. We argue that the political skill–manager performance relationship varies as a nonlinear function of differing levels of enterprising job demands (i.e., working with and through people). A large number of occupations have some enterprising features, but, across occupations, management roles typically contain even greater enterprising expectations. However, relatively few studies have examined the enterprising work context (e.g., enterprising demands) of managers. Specifically, under conditions of high enterprising job demands, we argue and find that, as political skill increases, there is an associated exponential increase in enterprising performance, with growth beyond the mean of political skill resulting in outsized performance gains. Whereas, under conditions of low (relative to other managers) enterprising job demands, political skill will have an asymptotic relationship with enterprising job performance, such that the positive relationship becomes weaker as political skill grows, with increases on political skill beyond the mean resulting in minimal performance improvements. Our hypotheses are generally supported, and these findings have important implications for managers, as the performance gains in managerial roles were shown to be a joint function of manager political skill and enterprising job demands.

Conceptualising sustainable leadership

Purpose

Literature encompassing sustainable leadership and developing leaders sustainably are still in infancy (Lambert, 2011). Nevertheless indications identify leadership as a vital cog in achieving sustainable organisations. Sustainable leadership can allow a fast, resilient response which is competitive and appealing to all stakeholders (Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a, b). Arguably, organisations’ need to stop considering leadership as a control function (Casserley and Critchley, 2010; Crews, 2010) and instead focus on dialogue and mutual-interdependency between leaders and their followers (Barr and Dowding, 2012). The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse the concept of sustainable leadership to present a conceptual framework surrounding sustainable leadership.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper will review the existing frameworks of sustainable leadership and present a conceptualisation of the frameworks. This conceptualisation synthesises frameworks and literature surrounding the concept of sustainable leadership which involves work from Casserley and Critchley (2010), Avery and Bergsteiner (2011a, b), Hargreaves and Fink (2006), Davies (2007) and Lambert (2011). Seminal themes from the synthesised frameworks are presented in order to attempt to unify the conceptualisation of sustainable leadership.

Findings

Within leadership literature, stakeholder approaches (Groves and LaRocca, 2011; Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a); discourses underlining the importance of relationship between leaders and followers (Barr and Dowding, 2012); and discussions about the need to develop reflexive and participative leadership models (Kopp and Martinuzzi, 2013) have become prominent. Sustainable leadership embraces all of these new components. The concept advocates organisations should shift emphasis from a traditional singular focus on finances, to a view that organisations are contributors to wider environmental and social influences (Crews, 2010; Avery and Bergsteiner, 2011a).

Originality/value

This paper explores the theoretical frameworks which surround sustainable leadership and will synthesise and present commonly referenced facets of the concept within the internal and external factors influencing sustainable leadership.

Political skill dimensions and transformational leadership in China

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the sub-dimensions of political skill and transformational leadership, arguing that in a Chinese sample, social astuteness, networking ability, and interpersonal influence will have a stronger impact than apparent sincerity. Additionally, transformational leadership is argued to mediate the relationship between leader political skill and subordinate job performance.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study used a dyadic, cross-sectional design where all data were collected at a single point in time and supervisors were matched to their followers.

Findings

– The results support that transformational leadership mediates the relationship between leader political skill and follower performance. Additionally, social astuteness was positively related to leader charisma, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation; whereas, interpersonal influence was related to leader charisma and intellectual stimulation. Apparent sincerity was not related to perceptions of transformational leadership.

Practical implications

– The findings imply that the authors might be able to design more customized training to reduce the costs of leadership development programs. Specially, in China, focus should be paid to increasing social astuteness and interpersonal influence only.

Originality/value

– This study is one of the few to examine the relationship between the sub-dimensions of political skill and transformational leadership. This is especially noteworthy in the context of the Chinese sample employed, as most political skill research has been done in western contexts.

Transactional Leader–Member Exchange Relationships and Followers’ Work Performance

In this study, we test whether leader political skill moderates the relationship between more transactional leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships and follower work performance. A field study was conducted among 753 followers and 153 leaders from several Norwegian business organizations. The results showed that the negative relationship between more transactional LMX relationships and follower work performance was weaker for employees with a highly politically skilled leader. Thus, leader political skill seemed in part to mitigate the negative effects of transactional LMX. This is an important observation, since finding alternative routes to enhanced work performance of followers in less favorable transactional LMX relationships is essential. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Social Influence and Politics in Organizational Research

This special issue of the Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies addresses the topic of “Social Influence and Politics in Organizational Research,” a topic which spans more than a century and represents one of the oldest areas of inquiry in the field. In this article, we first review the literature to extract what we seem to know about this area of the field, and then we shift to an identification of some areas about which we still need to know more. Nine articles were selected to be published in this special issue, and they reflect different aspects of some these “need to know more” areas of social influence and politics in organizations. We believe these articles represent solid contributions to new knowledge in this area, and we hope they stimulate further and renewed scholarly interest.

Expatriate leadership competencies and performance: a qualitative study

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate leadership competencies of expatriate managers working within the UAE and identify if these competencies are unique from those needed in their home country. Additionally, the paper aims to identify how new competencies expatriate leaders have developed while in their current position and how this enhances their ability to better manage staff in the UAE. Leadership competencies are skills and behaviors that contribute to enhanced performance. While some leadership competencies are essential to all firms, some distinctive leadership attributes may be particularly relevant to organizations possessing a large expatriate community.

Design/methodology/approach

– Personal interviews and stratified sampling were used to examine the qualities and skills relating to expatriate managers’ success in leading UAE organizations. The research design did not differentiate between the origins and ethnicities of the leaders. The leaders, whether American, European, Indo-Pakistani or Asian, were treated as one entity.

Findings

– Factors such as communication ability, team building qualities and ability to handle local nationals were found to have a significant effect on expatriate adjustment and success in managing UAE organizations.

Practical implications

– By investigating specific competencies and skills that expatriate managers need to lead organizations in the UAE and the broader Gulf region, the study informs organizations on how they can better identify and develop leadership skills that lead to enhanced performance.

Originality/value

– The study focuses on leadership competencies within the expatriate community of the UAE.

Leader Behaviors as Mediators of the Leader Characteristics - Follower Satisfaction Relationship

This study examined two potential mediators through which leaders transmit their position power into an effectiveness outcome. Drawing upon recent work integrating trait, situational, and behavioral theories of leadership effectiveness, we hypothesized and tested a model specifying that the interactive effects of leader position power and leader political skill on follower satisfaction would be mediated by followers’ perceptions of leaders’ initiating structure and consideration behaviors. Specifically, this model indicates that leaders who are both in powerful positions and politically skilled are perceived to initiate more structure and demonstrate more consideration for their followers than their nonpolitically skilled counterparts, which, in turn, positively impacts followers’ satisfaction (i.e., an indication of subjective leadership effectiveness). Utilizing 190 leaders and 476 followers, we found support for the hypothesized model. Contributions to various literatures, strengths, limitations, and practical implications are discussed.