Dimensionality of Leadership in the Perceptions of Senior Human Resource Executives in Poland

• Authors: Anna Pawłowska , Michał Zdziarski
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Purpose: Sixty-five HR general managers representing companies from a variety of industries took part in the research that we conducted between April and October 2013. They had identified leadership development as the most significant factor in the growth of the top firms in Poland’s economy. We have conducted in-depth interviews to understand the perception of the leadership concept. We have found that they tend to focus on the following dimensions of leadership: conveying a vision, inspiring, being charismatic, being credible, being able to manage others, and having good interpersonal skills. Research limitations and implications: The main limitation of the research is that it does not allow for generalization of findings on perceived dimensionality of leadership on larger population of HR Executives. Our findings imply that leadership development will soon be a strong priority among HR teams of 500 largest companies, but several dimensions are not present in their description of leadership. Originality/value: Our paper makes three contributions to the literature. We have developed a managerial attention view of the firm by surveying senior HR executives. CEOs, CFOs, and top management teams tend to be subject of studies in this theoretical tradition more often than HR executives, Another contribution is the use of mixed methods that is rather rare yet offering vast opportunities for triangulation and knowledge building in the discipline. Our third contribution is that we applied a standard scale of the multidimensional leadership concept.

Keywords

EN

Leadership; strategic priorities; managerial attention; leadership development; HRM

• Publisher: Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
• Journal: Management and Business Administration. Central Europe
• Year: 2015
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 49-68

Dates

published

2015-03-15

Contributors

author

Anna Pawłowska

• University of Warsaw

author

Michał Zdziarski

• University of Warsaw

References

• Adamska, K. (2011). Kontrakt psychologiczny w organizacji – Kwestionariusz Kontraktu Psychologicznego. Psychologia Społeczna, 63(18): 267–283.
• Adams, K. and Galanes, G.J. (2008). Komunikacja w grupach. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
• Avolio, B. (2007). Promoting More Integrative Strategies for Leadership Theory-Building. American Psychologist, 62: 25–33.
• Bennis, W. (2007) The Challenges of Leadership in the Modern World. American Psychologist, 62: 2–5.
• Day, D. and Feenor, J.A. (2014). Advances in Leader and Leadership Development: A Review of 25 Years of Research Theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25: 63–82.
• Dinh, J., Lord, R., Gardner, W., Meuser, J.D., Liden, R. C. and Hu, J. (2014). Leadership Theory and Research in the New Millennium: Current Theoretical Trends andChanging Perspectives. The Leadership Quarterly, 25: 36–62.
• Dries, N. and Pepermans, R. (2012). How to Identify Leadership Potential: Development and Testing of a Consensus Model. Human Resource Management, 51(3): 361–385, doi: 10.1002/hrm.21473.
• Gardner, J.W. (1999). On Leadership. New York: The Free Press.
• Ocasio, W. (1997). Towards an Attention–Based View of the Firm. Strategic Management Journal, 18: 187–206.
• Morgan, G. (1997). Obrazy organizacji. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
• Wellin, M. (2010). Zarządzanie kontraktem psychologicznym. Zaangażowanie pracowników w zwiększenie wydajności firmy. Warszawa: Wolters Kluwer Business.
• Woodrow, C. and Guest, E. (2014) When good HR gets bad results: exploring the challenge of HR implementation in the case of workplace bullying. Human Resource Management Journal, 24: 38–56.