Leadership Research Revisited: A Comparative Study among Managers in Europe

Charlotte Bühler Fellowship H 155 Comparative Study among Managers in Europe on Leadership Erna SZABO 26.6.2000 This habilitation project explores the links between behaviour and potential underlying causes, such as values and implicit theories concerning behaviour, in the area of managerial leadership in eight European countries. Most leadership research concentrates on either behaviour or traits and few integrative approaches aim at bridging the gap between the two. This study will build on the empirical results of three existing quantitative leadership studies that cover both areas, namely the Vroom/Yetton study (intended leadership behaviour), the Event Management study (reflected leadership behaviour), and the GLOBE project (leadership ideals). The findings from these studies serve as "triggers" to examine potential links. The investigation into the relationship between these conceptions is an exploratory first inquiry in a new area and therefore, qualitative methodology will be used. To narrow the range of leadership aspects, the study will concentrate an participation in managerial decision making as one particular area of leadership. The first aim of the study concerns the exploration of the "black box" between behaviour and traits: How do participatory values and implicit leadership theories translate into action? What are the guiding forces behind participative behaviour? What is the role of contextual and situational factors? The second aim of the study is related to the culture dependency of these forces and factors. What is the role of culture related to the intrapersonal concepts and manifestations of participation? Qualitative methodology will be used to answer these two research questions: Managers in eight European countries will be confronted with the quantitative findings (their own individual results as well as the country means) of the three initial studies. Using these data as "triggers", the interviewees will be asked to expand on a series of themes related to participation and bring in their own experience. The interview data will be analysed within countries as a first step, and compared between the countries as a second step.