The role of the positive emotional attractor in vision and shared vision: toward effective leadership, relationships, and engagement

Translating purpose and mindset into positive impact through shared vision, compassion, and energy-a comparative study of seven organizations

How do organizations that explicitly state the intention to be "positive impact companies" differ from traditional entrepreneurial companies? How does the quality of relationships in those companies affect the ability to deliver positive impact? This study explores the conditions under which business leaders turn their organizations toward generating prosperity for all stakeholders, achieving positive societal outcomes, improving human wellbeing, and delivering great business results. Seven case study companies are examined based on interviews with three executives from each firm, including the CEO. All seven companies are privately owned small/medium sized businesses from a cross section of industries and diverse geographic bases, ranging from Michigan to the Pacific Northwest, to Singapore, Egypt, and Florida. Four of the companies are considered "positive impact companies" (PICs) based on their organizational affiliations, while the other three are considered traditional entrepreneurial companies (TECs). The overall findings suggest that the core of positive impact leadership resides in a shift in the mindset of leaders toward one of connectedness and purpose, and that these factors influence the quality of relationships in organizations in a positive way whether the company is considered a PIC or a TEC. The results also suggest a close relationship between several core indicators of a fundamental shift in understanding about the role of business in society: shared values of human wellbeing, a common shared vision, an emphasis on collaboration and caring in organizations, and a long-term perspective toward the creation of shared economic prosperity.

When fixing problems kills personal development: fMRI reveals conflict between Real and Ideal selves

Many coaching approaches aim to change behavior by increasing self-knowledge. However, self-knowledge can be difficult to achieve. One hypothesis (e.g., Jung, Rogers) is that self-knowledge is challenging because there is inherent conflict between different aspects of the self. This hypothesis is foundational to Boyatzis' intentional change theory (ICT). ICT holds that effective coaching requires deliberate sequencing of the client's exploration of different aspects of their self. Coaches initially encourage clients to focus exclusively on their Ideal self. The ICT approach differs from that advocated by most coaching organizations that suggest collaborative goal setting at the start of the coaching engagement, encouraging clients to focus on fixing performance deficits and problematic behaviors-aspects of the Real self. If there is conflict between thinking about Ideal and Real selves, then this strategy will be suboptimal. The hypothesis of attentional conflict therefore has significant implications for coaching practice. Previous findings establish a link between attention to Ideal vs. Real selves and global vs. local visual processing, respectively. This association alone does not imply conflict because, in naturalistic settings, global and local perceptual processes usually work in concert. However, certain stimuli such as Navon figures (letters made from many smaller letters, e.g., a large E made of small R's) create conflict due to incongruence between the global and local features. Does thinking about the self inherently generate conflict, like a Navon figure, or is it more akin to everyday perception? To answer this question the current study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the overlap in brain activity in young adults between two pairs of otherwise very dissimilar tasks: coaching interactions focused on Ideal vs. Real self; and attention to global vs. local features of Navon figures. Despite the ostensible absence of overlap in the psychological processes involved in these pairs of tasks, we find a remarkable degree of overlap in brain activity. This overlap was pronounced in higher (parietal and temporal) areas known to be involved in resolving attentional conflict. These findings provide compelling biological evidence for inherent conflict between thinking about Ideal and Real selves.

From Coaching to Neurocoaching: A Neuroscientific Approach during a Coaching Session to Assess the Relational Dynamics between Coach and Coachee-A Pilot Study

Life transitions represent moments characterized by changes that can profoundly influence individual life trajectories and subjective well-being. Recently, career coaching has become an important method of helping people expand their self-awareness, facilitate personal development, and increase their performance in the school-to-work transition. Although previous studies have confirmed that one of the most important keys to the success of a coaching program is the quality of the relationship between coach and coachee, there is a lack of knowledge regarding how to objectively measure it. In this pilot study, we adopted a neuroscientific approach to introduce objective measures of the relationship between coach and coachee through the phases of a coaching session. A sample of 14 university students and a professional coach participated in career-coaching sessions while their affective states were measured by recording brain (EEG) and physiological (Skin conductance) activity. Electroencephalographic indicators of valence, arousal, and engagement showed differences between session phases, highlighting the possibility of a neurophysiological measurement of relational dynamics. Our results provide initial evidence that neurophysiological activity can be considered a way to understand differences in the coach-coachee relationship, thereby providing information on the effectiveness of coaching interventions and facilitating a better life transition from school to work.

The role of empathy in shared intentionality: Contributions from Inter-Processual Self theory

Research in psychology related to the conceptualization of empathy has been on the rise in the last decades. However, we argue that there is still space for further research to help capture the important notion of empathy and its theoretical and conceptual depth. Following a critical review of the current state of the research that conceptualizes and measures empathy, we focus on works that highlight the importance of a shared vision and its relevance in psychology and neuroscience. Considering the state of the art of current neuroscientific and psychological approaches to empathy, we argue for the relevance of shared intention and shared vision in empathy-related actions. Upon review of different models that emphasize a shared vision for informing research on empathy, we suggest that a newly developed theory of self, human growth and action–the so-called Inter-Processual Self theory (IPS)–can significantly and novelly inform the theorization on empathy beyond what the literature has stated to date. Then, we show how an understanding of integrity as a relational act that requires empathy is an essential mechanism for current key research on empathy and its related concepts and models. Ultimately, we aim to present IPS as a distinctive proposal to expand upon the conceptualization of empathy.

When Normal is Not Normal: A Theory of the Non-Linear and Discontinuous Process of Desired Change and its Managerial Implications

Desirable change may appear chaotic, slow, or not sustainable. We may expect linear, continuous change, but it eludes us. Measurement and statistical analysis about behavior change often requires data showing continuity and having normal (i.e., Gaussian) distributions. When we encounter phenomenon that does not fit this expectation, we seek to transform the data to render it compatible with our method of analysis. We move from actual behavior to perception of it through surveys or transformations of the data. We believe this ignores “naturally” occurring data and what it says. Such techniques are convenient for statistics but may hide important features of the real phenomenon. Furthermore, desired behavior change is often nonlinear with a power curve distribution of the data. We explain why this occurs. We suggest how research and practice would be improved by using theories and methods that incorporate properties of non-normal distributions and discontinuous emergence.

The impact of emotional contagion on workplace safety: Investigating the roles of sleep, health, and production pressure

Using emotional contagion theory and the Job Demands-Resources model as a theoretical foundation, we tested the proposition that higher levels of contagion of anger (i.e., a demand) vs. higher levels of contagion of joy (i.e., a resource) will be associated respectively with more vs. fewer sleep disturbances and health problems, which in turn are related to more workplace accidents and injuries. Moreover, we examined the moderating impact of production pressure (i.e., a contextual demand) on the relationship between emotional contagion and employee poor sleep and health. Data from 1000 employees in Italy showed that the conditional indirect effects of contagion of anger, but not of joy, on accidents and injuries via sleep and health problems were intensified as levels of production pressure increased. Furthermore, contagion of anger was positively associated with both sleep disturbances and health problems whereas contagion of joy was negatively related to only sleep disturbances. These findings suggest that the effect of anger that employees absorb during social interactions at work likely persists when coming at home and represents an emotional demand that impairs the physiological functions that regulate restorative sleep and energies recharging; and, this effect is even stronger among employees who perceived higher levels of organizational production pressure.

Is Cross-Shareholding Conducive to Corporate Sustainability? Evidence From the Environmental Investment of Chinese Listed Firms

This article examines the impact of cross-shareholding on corporate environmental investment (Env) using Chinese listed firms from 2014 to 2019 as the research setting. The results show that there is a positive impact of cross-shareholding on corporate environmental investment. The finding remains robust to a battery of robustness checks. In addition, the heterogeneity analysis illustrates that the positive impact of cross-shareholding on corporate environmental investment is more pronounced in state-owned firms and high-polluting industries when compared to non-state-owned firms and low-polluting industries, respectively. This study extends the research on cross-shareholding and provides practical implications for corporate sustainable development.

Executive coaching: an exploration of the coachee's perceived value

Purpose

The goal of this qualitative study is to explore how different elements of the coach–coachee setting can affect the perceived outcome from coaching sessions by the coachee.

Design/methodology/approach

Using thematic analysis on 197 semi-structured interviews of bank executives, the authors suggest an evidence-based sequential model on how the perceived value of the coaching process might be contingent on four elements.

Findings

As a result of the exploratory analysis, the authors’ suggest that the coach's guidance, coach's reliableness, coachee's willingness and coachee's self-awareness can determine the coachees' perceived effectiveness or usefulness from their coaching sessions.

Originality/value

There is little empirical data regarding the coachee's perceived value. The current study attempts to fill the gap in the existing literature by considering the coaching outcomes with particular regard to the executive's perceived value of coaching. This research adds to the literature on how to deliver effective coaching in organizations and provides empirical evidence to practitioners on how coachees perceive value from coaching.

Characteristics and Success Factors of Rural Community Leadership in Malaysia: A Focus Group Analysis

The leadership aspects of rural leaders in Malaysia are still unclear, and a consensus of the characteristics of credible rural community leaders has not been achieved. In addition, there is still a lack of specific and in-depth research on community leadership in rural areas in Malaysia. Therefore, a study was conducted to deepen understanding of leadership, specifically in the rural community leadership characteristics and success factors. The current study used a qualitative approach via a focus group discussion method involving 15 informants from the Village Development and Security Committee (JPKK) to gain in-depth information. The major themes that emerged from findings include inborn leadership, leadership quality, leadership characteristics, leadership motivation, and leadership training, referred to as leaders’ success factors. The current study hopes that the government can provide focused and comprehensive leadership training programs to ensure leaders perform their duties effectively and efficiently.

Focusing on Resilience and Renewal From Stress: The Role of Emotional and Social Intelligence Competencies

Individuals are subject to stressful events from daily chronic stress to traumatic life-changing experiences and the resulting impairment. Efforts to reduce stress or stressors are misdirected. Instead, bouncing back or recovering from such experiences, often called resilience is a far more potent way to ameliorate the ravages of chronic stress and move to a state of renewal, thriving and flourishing. Because we infect each other with stress or renewal through emotional contagion, each person's ability to manage their own emotions as well as those of others and their relationships becomes key to health. These capabilities are called emotional and social intelligence. At the trait level, they are personal dispositions but at the behavioral level they are patterns of behavior we call emotional and social intelligence competencies (ESI). This paper is a review addressing the role of emotional and social intelligence competencies in resilience. By focusing on the behavioral level of ESI, designs for more precise research and practical applications as to how to develop ESI and resilience are offered.

Unraveling the Role of Shared Vision and Trust in Constructive Conflict Management of Family Firms. An Empirical Study From a Mixed Methods Approach

Family firms are a unique setting to study constructive conflict management due to the influence of family ties of the owning family imprinting a sense of common purpose and shared destiny, and high levels of trust. We study the relationship between shared vision and trust that intervene in the adoption of constructive conflict management. To achieve our purpose, we carried out a systematic indirect observation using a mixed methods approach. We used the narratives of 17 semi-structured interviews, audio-recorded and transcribed, of family and non-family managers or directors from five Spanish family firms in the siblings' partnership stage, combined with documentary data obtained from different sources. Intra- and inter-observer reliability were confirmed. Results show a dynamic relationship between shared vision and specific components of trust (benevolence and ability) at different levels of conflict management. We also provide evidence of specific processes of concurrence-seeking and open-mindedness in family and ownership forums accounting for the relevance of family governance in these type of organizations. Family firms are a sum of several subsystems which exhibit a particular resources configuration. This study sheds light on constructive conflict management in family firms opening interesting avenues for further research and offering practical implications to managers, owners, and advisors.

Towards a Model of Leader Character Development: Insights From Anatomy and Music Therapy

Leader character has emerged as a critical foundation for leadership. In spite of the view that leader character can be developed, there has been limited holistic attention to what it takes to develop character. Character requires conscious development, and that conscious development not only requires an understanding of what character is, but how the anatomy of character enables and inhibits character development and expression. By anatomy, we refer to the four underlying anatomical systems—physiology, affect, behavior, and cognition (PABC)—that function independently, and in an interrelated manner, to support the development of character. For illustration, we offer the practice of listening to music as a means to develop character, highlighting the links between the PABC systems and character development.

Corporate Sustainability: It’s Mine! Effect of Green Product Psychological Ownership on the Environmental Behavior and Performance of Employees

Green shared vision (GSV) has provided a research prototype for past green management research topics; however, few studies have examined the confusion related to environmental issues among employees. Therefore, to fill the aforementioned research gap, this study used psychological ownership theory and expectancy–valence theory to establish a research framework for GSV. This study explored the relationships of GSV with employee green confusion (EGC) and employee environmental performance (EEP) as well as the mediating effect of green product psychological ownership (GPPO) on these relationships. The research results indicate that GSV positively affects GPPO, EGC, and EEP. Moreover, GSV also influences behavior and performance through personal psychological processes. Thus, if an enterprise wishes to establish GSV, it must adopt a series of supporting measures, including improving members’ GPPO, to effectively reduce EGC and improve EEP to realize the goal of sustainable development.

Sustainable Development and Its Dependence on Local Community Behavior

The purpose of this article is to simplify and facilitate the bottom-up sustainable development of a local society where the dominant element is the residents’ vision. Thus, the primary questions that we investigate here refer to the fundamental components and the derived difficulties that influence the behavior change attitudes. Following a literature review and discourse analysis, the components participating in the intervention system emerge by issuing suitable surveys, which are quantified by using conventional statistical methodology. The estimated desire for change was continuously monitored to dynamically exclude the cognitive bias in the nine-step change process. Coming from the business management area, a structural formulation analysis simplified and remodeled the equation of change used and revealed the factors to interpret the outputs. A pilot case study is presented followed by an extensive discussion of the results. The proposed methodology provides a powerful cognitive tool and may be further utilized and developed. In a local community, a strict distinction should be made between the trend to envision a change and the implementation of a real one. The results foster the discussion of a novel governance paradigm transition towards a transversal approach.

Corporate Sustainable Development Strategy: Effect of Green Shared Vision on Organization Members' Behavior

In this study, expectancy-valence theory was used from the perspective of corporate green management to investigate green shared vision (GSV). Moreover, organizational identity theory and psychological ownership theory were combined to propose an integrated conceptual framework. To fill research gaps, an investigation was also conducted with frontline R & D and sales employees to further examine the effect of GSV on organization members' psychology and behavior. The research results indicate that when under the following circumstances, corporate members can enhance organizational citizenship behavior for the environment (OCBE) to improve green management performance, gain the favor of green consumers and achieve sustainable consumption goals. First, enterprises should focus on environmental issues and develop their GSV. Second, enterprises should implement the GSV in different aspects, such as product design, processing, marketing and management. Finally, corporate GSV should be in line with the expectations and values of organization members on environmental issues to motivate their OCBE. Therefore, enterprises must implement their GSV to strengthen the green organizational identity and green product psychological ownership of their members.

Relational Climate in the Workplace: Dimensions, Measurement, and Validation

Relationships are the fundamental building blocks of organizations, yet the field lacks a validated and comprehensive measure of how employees perceive the quality of the relationships in their organization. In this paper, we develop and validate a scale to measure the perceived relational climate in an organization. We operationalize relational climate as a second-order latent construct reflected by three first-order constructs: shared vision, compassion, and relational energy. In Study 1, we develop an item pool consisting of 51 items and then use a Q-sort procedure to assess content validity. In Study 2, the item pool is further reduced using exploratory factor analysis. This is followed by a confirmatory factor analysis that finds initial support for the three-dimensional structure of relational climate. Study 3 provides further evidence of convergent and discriminant validity and assesses the criterion validity of the construct in relation to leader-member social exchange (LMSX), perceived organizational support, and procedural justice (all positive relationships). Finally, in Study 4, the factor structure of the quality-of-relationships scale is successfully replicated, and criterion validity is further assessed in relation to instrumental ethical climate (negative relationship) and affective organizational commitment (positive relationship). This paper contributes a new validated measure to the literature that will allow organizations to capture an important aspect of their work environment-the nature of the interpersonal relationships. Implications for theory, limitations, and future research are discussed.

Are We Making Progress? Assessing Goal-Directed Behaviors in Leadership Development Programs

Leadership development programs increasingly help participants engage in their career transitions. Therefore, these programs lead participants to establish not only development goals, which usually involve the improvement of a specific leadership competency, but also goals that relate to career advancement or to achieving a more general life aspiration. Assessing goal attainment, as a measure of program impact, may take years as goals vary greatly in terms of nature, timeframe, and domain. The purpose of this study was to overcome this challenge by providing a measure of goal progress as a necessary antecedent of goal attainment, and which we operationalize through a general scale of goal-directed behaviors. Subject-matter experts assessed the content validity of the measure. Factor analysis, using three samples, revealed four dimensions identified as Sharing Information, Seeking Information, Revising the Plan, and Enacting the Plan. This new scale allows data collection as early as a few months after setting the goals, which can provide practitioners with an earlier indication of program impact and facilitate future academic studies in this field.

The Evolution of Performance Management: Searching for Value

This article reviews the history of performance management (PM), beginning with performance evaluation. We discuss various strategies that have been used to enable accurate ratings as well as cognitive processes and contextual factors that have been shown to significantly impact ratings. We raise questions about the concept of true performance and whether raters can be enabled and motivated to make accurate ratings. We progress to discussing more structured and comprehensive PM processes that typically involve cascading goals, goal setting, competency modeling, evaluation of behavior and results, and implementation. These systems have proven to be tedious and low-value, resulting in unprecedented, wide-spread experimentation with innovative practices to move companies away from heavy PM processes to simpler, cost-effective strategies that actually drive performance. These have ranged from abandoning ratings to implementing innovations in goal-setting, real-time feedback, coaching, and PM behavior change. Directions for future research and practice are discussed.

High Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Professionalism (HELP): A New Resource for Workers in the 21st Century

World of work in the 21st century is characterized by instability, insecurity, and continuous change. To face these challenges of the post-modern era, workers are required to use their personal resources. A new construct called high entrepreneurship, leadership, and professionalism (HELP) is a preventive resource that helps maintain, improve, and find work in uncertain or dynamic conditions. This study aims to examine the personality correlates of HELP in Italian workers and identify different clusters based on HELP and other variables, such as workplace relational civility and flourishing. To this end, the following instruments were administered to 204 Italian workers: the HELP questionnaire, the Big Five Questionnaire, the Workplace Relational Civility Scale, and the Flourishing Scale. The personality correlates of HELP underscored the role of conscientiousness (and its subdimension perseverance) and extraversion (and its subdimension dominance). The cluster analysis identified three clusters characterized by high, average, and low HELP scores. Participants in the first cluster with high HELP scores appeared to possess higher perseverance, dominance, workplace relational civility, especially readiness, and higher flourishing than those in the other two groups. The present results can open new opportunities for future research and interventions in a primary prevention perspective to foster resources for workers and healthy organizations in the 21st century.

The effectiveness of leadership styles among academic and research librarians in Eastern and Southern Africa

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the leadership styles that academic and research librarians apply as well as their effectiveness in meeting their institutions’ strategic objectives. The study also compared and contrasted the leadership styles and their corresponding impact in the effective delivery of academic and research library services in Kenya and South Africa.

Design/methodology/approach

The study applied a survey research technique to garner the opinions of the librarians about the leadership styles of their leaders. Primary data were collected through key informant interviews with academic and research librarians. Additional data were collected through documentary analysis. The data were analysed and processed through content analysis.

Findings

The findings indicate that most academic and research library leaders in South Africa and Kenya embrace a democratic leadership style. The results also show that most academic and research librarians hold the view that the leadership styles of their managers have a great impact on their individual performance and overall organisational effectiveness.

Practical implications

The results of the study can be used to recommend or adopt leadership styles which have a higher potential of making a greater impact in Kenyan and South African academic and research libraries. The results can also be used as the basis for relevant curricula and policy development.

Originality/value

The role of university librarians as leaders and the determinants of the effectiveness of academic and research library leaders, including leadership styles, have received minimal attention from scholars, particularly those in Africa. This study addresses the gap as it investigated the impact of the leadership styles of academic and research librarians on the effectiveness of their institutions, compared the academic and research library leadership scenarios in South Africa with Kenya, and makes recommendations on how to enhance leadership effectiveness.

Implications of Debunking the "Critical Positivity Ratio" for Humanistic Psychology: Introduction to Special Issue

An extraordinary claim was made by one of the leading researchers within positive psychology, namely, there is a universal–invariant ratio between positive to negative emotions that serves as a unique tipping point between flourishing and languishing in individuals, marriages, organizations, and other human systems across all cultures and times. Known as the “critical positivity ratio,” this finding was supposedly derived from the famous Lorenz equation in physics by using the mathematics of nonlinear dynamic systems, and was defined precisely as “2.9013.” This exact number was widely touted as a great discovery by many leaders of positive psychology, had tremendous impact in various applied areas of psychology, and, more broadly, and was extensively cited in both the scientific literature and in the global popular media. However, this finding has been demonstrated to be bogus. Since its advent as a relatively new subdiscipline, positive psychology has claimed superiority to its precursor, the subdiscipline of humanistic psychology, in terms of supposedly both using more rigorous science and avoiding popularizing nonsense. The debunking of the critical positivity ratio demonstrates that positive psychology did not live up to these claims, and this has important implications, which are discussed in terms of “romantic scientism” and “voodoo science.” In addition, articles in the special issue on the “Implications of Debunking the ‘Critical Positivity Ratio’ for Humanistic Psychology” are introduced, as they also delve into these concerns.

Gender differences in retirement planning: A longitudinal study among Spanish Registered Nurses

BACKGROUND

Consistent patterns of gender differences in retirement planning behaviours have been shown but little is known about these behaviours among nurses.

AIMS

To analyse the antecedents of the behaviours to prepare for retirement in nurses older than 55 and to identify differences as a function of gender.

METHODS

A two-wave longitudinal study with Spanish nurses (n = 132).

RESULTS

Statistically significant gender differences were revealed. Specifically, paths from financial knowledge to public protection and self-insurance as well as paths from goals clarity to public protection all differed by gender.

CONCLUSIONS

Patterns of retirement planning differentiated by gender apparently continue to emerge.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

The study adds evidence showing that female nurses continue to rely on public protection as a solid support for their retirement. Despite their greater awareness of the importance of health care and social relations, savings and finance are more neglected by female nurses. Intervention should be aimed at fostering financial literacy of the entire nursing population, but particularly, the access of women to this training. Secondly, given that the differences persist, advance planning of social actions to protect those who will be living alone and economically helpless in old age.

Financial Planning for Retirement: A Psychosocial Perspective

Retirement is a time of life that has grown ever longer in the developed world, and the number of pensioners has increased accordingly, questioning the strength of Social Security systems and the social safety net in general. Financial Planning for Retirement (FRP) consists of the series of activities involved in the accumulation of wealth to cover needs in the post-retirement stage of life. The negative short-, mid-, and long-term consequences of inadequate Financial Planning for Retirement do not only affect individuals, but also their extended families, homes, eventually producing an unwanted impact on the entire society. The Capacity-Willingness-Opportunity Model has been proposed to understand FPR, combined with Intentional Change Theory, a framework for understanding the process, antecedents and consequences of FPR. From this perspective, we propose this promising model, but there are a large number of variables that have not been included that offer novel ways to deepen our understanding of FPR. A focus on each dimension of the model, the role of age and psychosocial variables associated with demographic indicators such as gender, health status, and migration, allow us to provide a proposal of scientific advancement of FPR.

Using Leadership Competencies as a Framework for Career Readiness

This chapter provides an overview of how a leadership competency approach grounded in emotional and social intelligence can help educators promote career readiness for students. Strategies and approaches for building leadership competencies will be reviewed.

Emotional contagion and burnout among nurses and doctors: Do joy and anger from different sources of stakeholders matter?

The present study adds novel knowledge to the literature on emotional contagion (EC), discrete emotions, job burnout, and the management of healthcare professionals by simultaneously considering EC as both a job demand and a job resource with multiple social pathways. Integrating EC into the job demands-resource model, we develop and test a conceptual model wherein multiple stakeholder sources of emotional exchanges (i.e., leaders, colleagues, patients) play a differential role in predicting caregivers' absorption of positive (i.e., joy) and negative (i.e., anger) emotions, and in turn, burnout. We tested this nomological network using structural equation modeling and invariance analyses on a sample of 252 nurses and 102 doctors from diverse healthcare wards in three Italian hospitals. Our findings show that not all emotional exchange sources contribute to the EC experience or likelihood of burnout. Specifically, we found that doctors absorbed joy and anger from their colleagues but not from their leaders or patients. In contrast, nurses absorbed joy and anger from leaders, colleagues, and patients. Surprisingly, we found that joy-absorbed and anger-absorbed were related to doctors' exhaustion and cynicism, but only to nurses' cynicism. We conclude with suggestions for advancing research and practice in the management of emotions for preventing burnout.

Associations between a Leader's Work Passion and an Employee's Work Passion: A Moderated Mediation Model

Based on the theory of emotional contagion and goal content, this study explored the positive associations between a leader's work passion and employees' work passion. This study investigated 364 employees and their immediate leaders from China, constructed a moderated mediation model, and used SPSS-PROCESS in conjunction with the Johnson-Neyman technique to analyze the data. The results showed that a leader's work passion was transferred to employees via emotional contagion, and the contagion process was moderated by leader–employee goal content congruence. This study provides a potential way to stimulate employees' work passion from the perspective of leader–employee interactions. Moreover, the limitations of the study and potential topics for future research are discussed.

Leadership paradigms and performance in small service firms

The effects of employee-perceived leadership paradigms on multiple measures of firm performance collected from managers and customers in small businesses were examined. Four leadership paradigms operating in Australian retail pharmacies were assessed against six performance measures – financial outcomes, staff and customer satisfaction, productivity, retaining staff, and manager retention. Structural equation modeling, regression, and analysis of variance were employed to test the hypotheses. Predictions that firms characterized by visionary and organic/distributed leadership would outperform those using classical and transactional leadership were supported on all measures. Furthermore, the emerging organic leadership paradigm outperformed the others on every measure.

Understanding Cognitive-Emotional Processing Through a Coaching Process

This study is based on intentional change theory and supports cognitive-emotion and social complexity perspectives regarding positive and negative affect. We examine how a coaching experience guided by a specific theoretical approach within a leadership development program at a European business school influences cognitive-emotional processing of MBA students with regard to their levels of personal vision comprehensiveness and strength, goal-directed energy, and resilience. A within-subjects pre–post Non-Equivalent Dependent Variables design with a total of 76 students was conducted using survey methods. A rigorous analysis sheds light on how intentional change theory–based coaching enhances individual self-development processes. Participants stated higher levels of personal vision, goal-directed energy, and resilience postcoaching. A series of moderator effects were identified regarding the quality of the coaching connection (i.e., overall emotional saliency) and the general self-efficacy of participants. Implications concerning how coaching processes may be enriched through the establishment of high-quality coaching connections are discussed.

Emotional contagion and proto-organizing in human interaction dynamics

This paper combines the complexity notions of phase transitions and tipping points with recent advances in cognitive neuroscience to propose a general theory of human proto-organizing. It takes as a premise that a necessary prerequisite for organizing, or “proto-organizing,” occurs through emotional contagion in subpopulations of human interaction dynamics in complex ecosystems. Emotional contagion is posited to engender emotional understanding and identification with others, a social process that acts as a mechanism that enables (or precludes) cooperative responses to opportunities and risks. Propositions are offered and further research is suggested.

Vision-based coaching: optimizing resources for leader development

Leaders develop in the direction of their dreams, not in the direction of their deficits. Yet many coaching interactions intended to promote a leader's development fail to leverage the benefits of the individual's personal vision. Drawing on intentional change theory, this article postulates that coaching interactions that emphasize a leader's personal vision (future aspirations and core identity) evoke a psychophysiological state characterized by positive emotions, cognitive openness, and optimal neurobiological functioning for complex goal pursuit. Vision-based coaching, via this psychophysiological state, generates a host of relational and motivational resources critical to the developmental process. These resources include: formation of a positive coaching relationship, expansion of the leader's identity, increased vitality, activation of learning goals, and a promotion-orientation. Organizational outcomes as well as limitations to vision-based coaching are discussed.