TY - JOUR
T1 - Diagnosing leadership – construction and validation of the leadership impact inventory
AU - Lappalainen, Pia
AU - Saunila, Minna
AU - Ukko, Juhani
AU - Rantanen, Hannu Juhani
AU - Rantala, Tero
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024, Pia Lappalainen, Minna Saunila, Juhani Ukko, Hannu Juhani Rantanen and Tero Rantala.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Purpose: The purpose is to examine the connection between leadership and its proximal and distal outcomes on employee, team and organization-level outcomes. As a more practical endeavor, a leadership measurement is constructed and validated. Design/methodology/approach: The study takes a quantitative approach, statistically analyzing 301 online survey responses to a survey of leader attributes and their organizational impacts. Findings: This study shows that the impact of leadership is associated more with actionable behaviors than personality traits. More specifically, leader success leans on leader dependability, management mode, emotive skills and coaching style, which relate to organizational outcomes. Additionally, preventative conflict management belongs to immediate supervisory foci, whereas already escalated conflicts ought to be outsourced to e.g. HR. Further, the findings verify that management is even more about communication than previously understood. Interestingly, employee satisfaction does not predict willingness to stay and is therefore irrelevant as a predictor of employee retention. This verifies the role of satisfaction as a proximal outcome and a post-goal state. Finally, the role of psychological safety is incoherent and equivocal in relation to organizational outcomes. Practical implications: As a practical ramification, we devise an instrument, the Leadership Impact Inventory, for (1) diagnosing the quality and effect of organizational leadership in an easy-to-adopt, cost-effective and quick manner and (2) analyzing the influence of various leadership dimensions on satisfaction and goals on individual, team and organizational levels. Originality/value: This study expands the earlier body of research on leader influence to factors promoting not only proximal outcomes that are typically post-goal states but also distal outcomes. Further, it examines outcomes on all organizational levels, as an extension to prior studies which are typically limited to the entire organization. Finally, the study does not explore leadership as a force or process separate from culture but rather appreciates their synergy through the inclusion of cultural features. This is achieved by monitoring leader success with such subjective aspects describing employee experience and organizational culture that are associated with follower performance.
AB - Purpose: The purpose is to examine the connection between leadership and its proximal and distal outcomes on employee, team and organization-level outcomes. As a more practical endeavor, a leadership measurement is constructed and validated. Design/methodology/approach: The study takes a quantitative approach, statistically analyzing 301 online survey responses to a survey of leader attributes and their organizational impacts. Findings: This study shows that the impact of leadership is associated more with actionable behaviors than personality traits. More specifically, leader success leans on leader dependability, management mode, emotive skills and coaching style, which relate to organizational outcomes. Additionally, preventative conflict management belongs to immediate supervisory foci, whereas already escalated conflicts ought to be outsourced to e.g. HR. Further, the findings verify that management is even more about communication than previously understood. Interestingly, employee satisfaction does not predict willingness to stay and is therefore irrelevant as a predictor of employee retention. This verifies the role of satisfaction as a proximal outcome and a post-goal state. Finally, the role of psychological safety is incoherent and equivocal in relation to organizational outcomes. Practical implications: As a practical ramification, we devise an instrument, the Leadership Impact Inventory, for (1) diagnosing the quality and effect of organizational leadership in an easy-to-adopt, cost-effective and quick manner and (2) analyzing the influence of various leadership dimensions on satisfaction and goals on individual, team and organizational levels. Originality/value: This study expands the earlier body of research on leader influence to factors promoting not only proximal outcomes that are typically post-goal states but also distal outcomes. Further, it examines outcomes on all organizational levels, as an extension to prior studies which are typically limited to the entire organization. Finally, the study does not explore leadership as a force or process separate from culture but rather appreciates their synergy through the inclusion of cultural features. This is achieved by monitoring leader success with such subjective aspects describing employee experience and organizational culture that are associated with follower performance.
KW - Employee experience
KW - Leadership
KW - Measurement
KW - Organizational outcomes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85208093902&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/IJPPM-05-2023-0231
DO - 10.1108/IJPPM-05-2023-0231
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85208093902
SN - 1741-0401
VL - 73
SP - 294
EP - 324
JO - International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management
JF - International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management
IS - 11
ER -