How do leadership motives affect informal and formal leadership emergence?

To what extent and in what ways do leadership motives of potential leaders predict their informal and formal leadership assignments? To address these questions, we conducted two studies in a military setting. In the first study (n = 215), we examined a mediated‐moderation model in which we hypothesized that the motivation to lead (MTL) of candidates to an elite unit would predict their teamwork behaviors and their tendency to emerge as leaders of their peers. We further hypothesized that cognitive ability would interact with MTL to predict teamwork behaviors and that teamwork behaviors would mediate the relationship between this interaction and leadership emergence. In Study 2, we followed up 60 candidates who were selected to the unit and examined whether MTL would predict the extent to which they achieved formal leadership roles. The findings of Study 1 supported the hypotheses included in the moderated mediation model. In Study 2, as expected, MTL predicted formal leadership emergence. We discuss several theoretical implications of these findings. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acciphilia on the road: An analysis of severe collisions

Introduction

Although prior studies of road traffic accidents have found between-group differences in risk, little attention has been given to the encounter between drivers involved in severe collisions.

Method

The present study empirically evaluates two different possible causes of "social accidents," which are defined as collisions between two or more drivers where some faulty social interaction might be assumed, and which are the most prevalent cause of road injuries. The analyses use merged Israeli collision records from 1983 to 2004 with data from two national censuses, thus providing an unprecedented empirical basis to study the social foundations of car accidents. The data are used to adjudicate between two alternative hypotheses: the heterogeneity hypothesis (socially different drivers tend to collide) versus the homogeneity hypothesis (socially similar drivers tend to collide).

Results

Multivariate analyses provide preliminary support for the latter hypothesis. Given an accident, there are more collisions among drivers from the same broad educational group, and the factors that influence this correlation are independent of geography. The paper thus leads to the idea that severe collisions reflect a sociological or ecological process that is akin to acciphilia.

Impact on Industry

The preliminary findings suggest that variation between drivers may be preferable to similarity, since apparently there is a greater tendency toward collisions between similar drivers.     

CEO values,organizational culture and firm outcomes

Few empirical works have examined the process through which CEO dispositions relate to organizational outcomes. In this study we examined the relationships between CEO values and organizational culture, and between organizational culture and firm performance. Data were collected from different sources (26 CEOs, 71 Senior Vice Presidents and 185 other organizational members), and include organizational financial performance data collected at two points in time. In support of our hypotheses, CEO self‐directive values were associated with innovation‐oriented cultures, security values were associated with bureaucratic cultures and benevolence values were related to supportive cultures. In turn, cultural dimensions showed differential associations with subsequent company sales growth, an index of organizational efficiency and assessments of employee satisfaction. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.