Abstract

Considerable progress has been made in the field of leadership in recent years. However, we argue that this is undermined by a strong residual commitment to an older set of ideas which have been repeatedly debunked but which nevertheless resolutely refuse to die. These, we term zombie leadership. Zombie leadership lives on not because it has empirical support but because it flatters and appeals to elites, to the leadership industrial complex that supports them, and also to the anxieties of ordinary people in a world seemingly beyond their control. It is propagated in everyday discourse surrounding leadership but also by the media, popular books, consultants, HR practices, policy makers, and academics who are adept at catering to the tastes of the powerful and telling them what they like to hear. This review paper outlines eight core claims (axioms) of zombie leadership. As well as isolating the problematic metatheory which holds these ideas together, we reflect on ways in which they might finally be laid to rest.

Introduction

In his award-winning book Zombie Economics, John Quiggin shows that, although considerable progress that has been made in economic theory and modelling over the last century, the field as a whole has been held back by commitment to an older set of ideas that resolutely refuse to die. This is despite the inadequacy of those ideas having been demonstrated over and over again. Accordingly, in the face of copious evidence that they are mistaken, there is a broad class of policy makers and practitioners who continue to espouse the virtues of such things as trickle-down economics, efficient and self-correcting markets, and unfettered privatization of public assets. Quiggin’s core point is that these ideas survive not because they are supported by evidence or by careful, critical thinking but rather because they accord with the interests of particular groups (e.g., venture capitalists, the uber-wealthy, and disciples of neoliberal ideology more generally; Crouch, 2011, Peck, 2010, Stiglitz, 2018). The ideas therefore instantiate what those groups want to believe and to make true. Moreover, “being already dead they can absorb all kinds of damage and keep lumbering on towards their targets” (Quiggin, 2012, p.240).

Unfortunately, economics is not the only domain where dead ideas continue to walk amongst us. In this article we focus on another important realm in which zombie ideas abound: the field of leadership. Indeed, as with Quiggin’s zombie economics, we suggest that dead ideas are particularly prevalent in this field precisely because the stakes are so high. After all, if you control the narrative of leadership you control one of the principal engines through which power and privilege are understood and reproduced — in organizations and in society at large (Gemmill & Oakley, 1992; Pfeffer, 1992).

Discussion: Understanding and countering the threat of zombie leadership

In their paper “When Zombies Attack: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection” a University of Ottawa research team concluded that a large-scale zombie outbreak would lead to societal collapse unless dealt with quickly and aggressively. The New York Times included the work among its top ideas of 2009.

Mogk, 2011, p.44.
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of upbeat models of leadership that provide normative theoretical frameworks to guide both science and practice. Despite their differences, these frameworks are generally couched in terms that affirm the virtues of leading in particular ways (e.g., through transformational leadership, authentic leadership, respectful leadership, ethical leadership, inclusive leadership, distributed leadership, servant leadership, reflexive leadership, or identity leadership; Alvesson, 2019). Regardless of whether or not these frameworks are valid or valuable, as a range of researchers have noted — and as we noted in discussing Axiom #7 above — the realities that people encounter on the ground are often far less rosy, and routinely fail to live up to the normative expectations that these models create (Cohen, 2016, Cohen, 2016; Schyns & Schilling, 2013; Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2016). As we also noted, this has led to a range of analyses that explain how we can detect aberrant toxic leaders and how we can protect ourselves against them (e.g., Lipman-Blumen, 2005).

Abstract

Encouraging employees to share their creative ideas has been widely acknowledged as a crucial factor in enhancing organizational effectiveness. This research examines whether employees’ idea sharing depends on leadership behavior and how organizational identification and culture explain the variations in creative ideas sharing among employees. Building on social learning theory, this research postulates a positive relationship between responsible leadership and creative idea sharing directly and indirectly by the development of organizational identification; additionally, a conditional indirect effect was also proposed for this research data was collected from the nurses, medical support staffs, heads of departments, and administrative personnel from primary and secondary health care units in South-Punjab. Data from 387 subordinates and their respective 67 supervisors was collected and analyzed with partial least squares (PLS) for moderated mediation, direct effects, indirect effects, conditional indirect effects, and CFA. The results indicated that responsible leadership is positively and significantly related to employees’ creative idea-sharing directly and indirectly through the mediation of organizational identification. Organizational culture positively moderated the relationship between responsible leadership and creative idea sharing and between responsible leadership and organizational identification. Responsible leadership was positively related to organizational identification and creative idea sharing only when the organization has a highly supportive culture and negative otherwise. The relevant sections also discuss research contributions, limitations, and future research directions.

Introduction

The idea of responsible leadership has been gaining substantial prominence in emerging management studies (Siegel, 2014; Greige Frangieh & Khayr Yaacoub, 2017). Leadership possessing traits as responsibility and workers possessing traits as knowledge and experience are crucial resources for firms (Haque et al., 2019; Ur Rehman et al., 2023; Adeel et al., 2023). Responsible leaders are essential as mentors for motivating employees (for instance, through job involvement) (Rehman et al., 2020). Proficient members are crucial in sharing ideas, leading to mutually supporting one another in achieving organizational/ proficiency objectives (for example, with helping measures) (Cujean, 2020). A limited focus is laid on “leadership” and “idea sharing” in response to the initiatives of responsible leaders along with workers’ realization (Starratt, 2005; Adeel et al., 2022). The ability of a leader to inspire subordinates within a work environment to increase desirable inducement (also known as top-down influence) is referred to as Responsible leadership. On the contrary, idea sharing refers to how colleagues inspire each other in an effort to define their respective inducement (also known as horizontal influence) (Paulus & Yang, 2000). The ethical act of a leader engaging, communicating, enabling, and motivating staff to take part in responsible advancement and positive transformation is known as responsible leadership (Liu & Lin, 2018). Idea sharing describes the extent to which employees are enthusiastic about sharing their ideas mutually, in addition to a measure of positivity of perspectives (Cujean, 2020).

Discussion

This study examined the effect of responsible leadership on creative idea sharing, including the intermediary function of organizational identification. Further focus was laid on the extent of to which organizational culture and responsible leadership affected idea sharing. The overall findings on the effect of responsible leadership on idea sharing turned out to be positive and substantial, supporting the first hypothesis, or H1. The outcome of this hypothesis was consistent with some earlier research that produced a comparable conclusion in diverse circumstances (Bavik et al., 2017). Therefore, empirical research has demonstrated that in professional healthcare organizations, responsible leaders inspire their workforce to spread their expertise. The healthcare team can help junior staff members acquire the necessary information and expertise for accomplishing the organization’s objectives by spreading their creative ideas to their peers. H2 was also confirmed, which examined how responsible leadership affects organizational identification, as were the findings of other such studies (Abdelmotaleb et al., 2022). It indicates that responsible leaders create an atmosphere in which people feel comfortable so that they can live on their principles. This study also supported H3, which dealt with the influence of organizational identification on creative idea sharing. The outcome of H3 is consistent with previous research in addition to the investigations that produced comparable results in other circumstances (Conroy et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2021; Abdelmotaleb et al., 2022). Workers are encouraged to offer their expertise due to organizational identification, and this behavior may be crucial in attaining the organization’s objectives. Individuals are driven to exhibit creative idea-sharing behavior because their values are seen as being comparable to those of the company, giving them the respect they deserve and appreciation at the workplace. This research also corroborated H4, which proposed the mediating effect of organizational identification. As there had been no prior investigations on the subject matter, the intermediary effect of organizational identification concerning the influence of responsible leadership on creative idea sharing, the finding of H4 is a novel addition to current work. Nevertheless, the organization identification has been identified as a mediator in other research in diverse situations, and the intermediary outcome reported in this investigation also presents empirical confirmation that the fit between the two might operate as a mediator (Liu et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2016; Zhao et al., 2019; Abdelmotaleb et al., 2022).

Abstract

     Strategic leadership is a rich yet fragmented area of research. To address this gap, this article aims to consolidate and provide a state-of-the-art overview of strategic leadership research. To achieve its aim, this article conducts a bibliometric-temporal analysis of strategic leadership using bibliometric data of relevant literature available through Scopus, the largest scientific database for review endeavors. Using 6024 documents of strategic leadership research identified and retrieved from Scopus, this article reveals the performance (e.g., year, article, journal, author, country) and science (e.g., topics, themes) of strategic leadership research across four decades. Noteworthily, strategic leadership is inherently grounded in digital transformation, innovation, and the upper echelons, with a growing footprint that spans across basic management and organizational activities; competitive advantage capabilities and strategies; the multiple roles of managers; the leadership, innovative, and strategic functions of management and upper echelons, including those specific to top management teams; the strategic leader; strategic choices; strategic teams; as well as strategic succession. More importantly, the review herein this article, to the best knowledge of the authors, represents the largest consolidation effort and review of strategic leadership research using scientific methods adopted from information science in the form of a bibliometric-temporal analysis, and thus, providing a state of the art of strategic leadership.

Introduction

     Strategic leadership, in its simplest form, is leadership that manifests at the highest level of an organization, which includes the board of directors (BOD) and the members of the top management team (TMT), such as the c-suite (e.g., chief executive officer [CEO], chief financial officer [CFO], chief information officer [CIO], chief marketing officer [CMO], chief operating officer [COO], and chief sustainability officer [CSO]) as well as general managers (GMs) and leaders of strategic business units (SBUs). Yet, many complex definitions of strategic leadership exist (Boal and Hooijberg, 2000, Cannella et al., 2009, Rowe, 2001, Thompson, 1967, Vera and Crossan, 2004). The recent article by Samimi et al. (2022, p.3) shed light on such definitions, recognized the need to consolidate the complex definitions of strategic leadership, and proposed an encompassing definition that refers strategic leadership as “the functions performed by individuals at the top levels of an organization that are intended to have strategic consequences for the organization,” wherein such functions include “making strategic decisions, engaging with external stakeholders, performing human resource management activities, motivating and influencing, managing information, overseeing operations and administration, managing social and ethical issues, and managing conflicting demands.” When this definition is taken together with the range of leadership styles and values that may characterize strategic leaders (Carter & Greer, 2013), strategic leadership can be comprehensively described as leadership that is focused on strategic consequences (e.g., economic, environmental, social) for organizations (e.g., multinationals, small and medium enterprises), which can be driven by tasks that include but transcend beyond strategic visioning, encapsulating a wide range of high-level administrative (governance), engagement, innovation (improvement), operational, and supervisory tasks for an organization without being confined to any leadership style (e.g., authentic, autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic, transactional, transformational, servant) or value (e.g., self-regarding, other-regarding).

Conclusion

     This article delivers on its promise to unpack the bibliometric and intellectual structure of strategic leadership research over the period of four decades (1980–2020). Through its study, this article reaffirms the contention of past reviews that strategic leadership is a rich yet fragmented area of research and remedies the issue by consolidating and reviewing its literature through a scientific methodology predicated on a bibliometric-temporal analysis. In doing so, the state-of-the-art overview of strategic leadership herein reveals the performance (e.g., year, article, journal, author, country) and science (e.g., topics, themes) of strategic leadership since its research begun up to the most recent complete year at the time of review.

Abstract

     The leadership component has not been acknowledged in many of the models proposed for performance management in public sector organizations. In addition, the concept and scope of this component fall short of consistency with theoretical foundations of organizational behavior management. This situation is not favorable to render optimal performance management. Hence, three levels have been devised within this model. These levels are (1) performance management components with regards to the appropriate balance between behavioral and process aspects, (2) leadership component dimensions: leadership traits, leadership behaviors, and leadership context, and (3) leadership subcomponents for each of the above dimensions.

Introduction

     In administrative reform, focusing on performance management (PM) is a notable trend (Allegrini et al., 2021). Performance management models play a prominent role and significantly impact organizations’ improvement and performance (Mir Sepasi et al., 2013). Undoubtedly, improved performance and excellence will bring many benefits to organizations, stakeholders, and employees. In addition, the public interest can be secured by improving public sector organizations’ performance, ensuring the government’s survival and legitimacy. Sovereignty is based on legitimacy (Noori et al., 2012). Despite this issue’s significance, performance management systems are rarely implemented in an ideal manner (Maestro et al., 2020) and are scarcely updated for further improvements (Holzer et al., 2017). Although these systems are prevalent, several studies indicate that organizations do not manage their performance adequately for various reasons (Șerban & Herciu, 2019).

Conclusions, Limitations, and Future Research

     Part of the gap in organizational PM models is related to ignoring the specialized aspect of the leadership component. In other words, the leadership component is not considered independently in these models, or its concept and nature are not consistent with the scientific foundations of organizational behavior management. Just by being a manager, leaders do not act in the same and accurate way, have their own individual traits and behaviors, and lead in a different context. Although minor, these differences may lead to deep performance gaps and different organizational results if they persist. If this component is neglected in PM models, leadership will remain a black box of organizational performance.

     Therefore, using design science methodology in this study, researchers have sought to fill this gap and design an appropriate PM model focusing on public sector organizations. Based on this, at the first and bottom levels of the model, elements were extracted after thematic analysis of theoretical foundations (of performance management including 23 PM models and leadership including 23 sources) and semi-structured interviews with experts. Furthermore, leadership dimensions were designed at the middle level of the model using five reliable organizational behavior sources. In summary, the dimensions and components of leadership in the designed model include the following elements:

Abstract

Background

     Strengthening leadership and management competencies among national Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) teams will be critical to achieving global immunization targets and other sustainable developmental goals. However, there is little empirical evidence of the effectiveness of investments in leadership and management capacity in the context of national EPI programs. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the EPI Leadership and Management Programme (EPI LAMP), a nine-month certificate program for EPI teams in national Ministries of Health from Gavi priority countries in Anglophone and Francophone Africa and Asia.

Methods

     We used a mixed-methods longitudinal evaluation to describe EPI LAMP at four levels: (1) participant response to the training experience based on program administration records and satisfaction surveys; (2) change in management and leadership skill based on competency surveys and exit interviews; (3) change in behavior in the workplace based on exit interviews; and (4) impact of the training on EPI program performance based on the results of each delegate’s leadership project.

Results

     In the first three cohorts, the programme engaged 16 countries (63 participants) and achieved an 86% graduation rate (54 alumni). Participants demonstrated significant improvement in management and leadership competencies across eight domains with the largest improvement observed in the domain of governance and leadership. Women showed greater increases than men, especially in the domains of Operations Management and Political Advocacy and Dialogue. We observed no difference in the gains made by French-speaking delegates compared to English-speaking participants. Breakthrough projects developed by each team improved EPI program performance, as measured by metrics specific to each project.

Discussion

     Our results show that team-based leadership programs can foster improvements in management practice, collaboration, and problem-solving, and that engagement the broader policy and organizational context is needed to foster the systems thinking capacity required to address complex challenges and improve system performance.

Introduction

     Immunization is one of the most cost-effective investments in global health [1], and reaching every child with immunization is the major strategic goal of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Despite significant increase in vaccination coverage in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), 14 million children were not reached by routine immunization in 2019 [2]. EPI programs must adapt and evolve to address complexities such as reaching zero- dose children, reaching children in conflict settings and other humanitarian crises, managing an increasingly complex portfolio of routine immunizations, overcoming weaknesses in primary health care systems, and, more recently, ensuring continuity of services in light of COVID-19. Strengthening leadership and management competencies [3], [4] among national EPI teams will be critical to achieving global immunization targets and other sustainable development goals [5], [6], [7].

     In response, Gavi has developed a small but strategic portfolio of investments in leadership and management to support EPI program performance. Drawing on literature from primary health systems strengthening more broadly, leadership and management is associated with better health systems performance in LMIC settings [8], and can be improved through practical approaches to education and mentorship for healthcare professionals at all levels of the health system [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. Leadership and management trainings conducted at the facility level have been linked with the reduction of wait times and patient crowdedness in hospitals in Egypt [13] and the increase in the number of women receiving counseling during antenatal care in Cameroon [14]. At the district level, a number of studies [8], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19] reported the impact of management and leadership training on primary care system performance. However, there is little empirical evidence of the effectiveness of investments in leadership and management capacity in the context of national EPI programs.

Conclusion

     Strengthening leadership and management competencies among national EPI teams will be critical to achieving global immunization targets and other sustainable developmental goals, and can be significantly improved through participation in a team-based program customized to meet the needs of immunization professionals across Gavi-eligible countries. Programs that foster development of a cross-country learning community, engage multiple levels of hierarchy, and equip teams to address complex adaptive challenges are likely to be superior to brief training programs focused on individual participants. The results of this study may be useful to educators, practitioners, and government officials seeking to strengthen EPI programme performance, as well as policymakers and global partners seeking to invest in evidence-based management and leadership development models.

Abstract

     The considerable proliferation of serious games (SG) in management education necessitates an academic foundation grounded in the concepts and practice of leadership, Flow, learning and development theory. Going beyond addressing the benefits of SG, this study is the first to demonstrate the successful use of SG in two areas: (a) teaching Flow theory within management studies via dedicated software designed to train a Flow-promoting Leadership style; and (b) showing that SG can serve as an innovative tool for measuring 29 leadership skills. The article demonstrates how non-intrusive data – collected during FLIGBY gameplay by 7931 managers globally, who made 150+ simulated leadership decisions – de facto support the process of leadership skill development. The findings show the system of relationships among the four critical Flow-promoting Leadership Skills that are needed for leading a work environment with more frequent Flow experiences. The results support educators and content developers in their quest to find optimal pathways and combinations for effectively developing skills by showing the underlying complexities of Flow and Leadership. The study contributes to the application of Flow-promoting leadership theory in practice via the help of innovative SG technology.

Introduction

     Since its discovery by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1990), “Flow” research and its application have become ubiquitous in many fields of science, education, and day-to-day life. Flow is the colloquial terminology for what scientifically is known as an “optimal mental state” that can occur during an activity and is characterized by experiencing happiness, meaningfulness, learning and creativity. During the past two to three decades, we have also seen the spread of game-based learning solutions and systems and the proliferation of interactive and gamified learning environments.

     Whilst details of the general use and the benefits of serious games have been widely published (Buzady, 2017; Pérez-Pérez et al., 2021), our study will briefly showcase the application of an innovative and complex management learning system dedicated specifically to promoting the principles of a Flow-promoting leadership style and of Csikszentmihalyi’s “Good Business’ values (Csikszentmihalyi, 2003).

Summary and conclusions

     We have demonstrated the concrete and effective application of serious gaming technology for the measurement and analysis of leadership skills, including the four that promote a greater Flow experience for employees at work. We show that, beyond the traditional methods of measuring leadership skills (primarily self-assessment via questionnaires and external rating via an assessor), a third method can be effectively used. The key scientific result of the work is the introduction of gamebased psychometrics that can be used to effectively explore complex leadership skillsets and correlations thereof.

     Virtual stories and decision dilemmas in serious games enable the unbiased, objective collection and reporting of data about gamer decisions. Expert coding and decoding of the underlying patterns of leadership skills and resulting leadership styles and preferences can be used to compare strengths and weaknesses with other players in the same cohort or across larger global populations. The four Flow-promoting leadership skills by Csikszentmihalyi have thus been more deeply explored and empirical support for their interrelatedness has been provided, and a further set of strongly associated leadership skills revealed.

Abstract

     Both the healthcare and religious landscapes in the United States are rapidly changing. Despite the dynamic environment that spiritual care managers face, many do not receive management training prior to assuming their roles and many receive little or no training once they are in their roles. This study used mixed methods to examine the applicability of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) competency model to spiritual care manager roles. Interviews were conducted with 10 spiritual care managers across the country, using a Behavioral Event Interviewing (BEI) methodology. Interviews were quantitatively analyzed by using Natural Language Processing and qualitatively analyzed by thematic approach using NVIVO. The results found the EXECUTION domain to be the most discussed theme, followed by RELATIONS, TRANSFORMATION, and BOUNDARY SPANNING. Collectively these analyses suggest the NCHL Leadership Competency Model can provide a useful framework for understanding the roles and development needs of spiritual care managers.

Introduction

     Competent leadership is essential for any organization to achieve its mission, especially in a changing and challenging environment. We are in the midst of especially challenging times for managers of spiritual care programs in healthcare settings. The shift in healthcare delivery from in-patient services to population health is accelerating. The costs of delivering care must be contained while quality continues to improve. Every discipline must be able to show how they contribute to these goals. Spiritual care has historically been exempt from some of these pressures, but that is quickly changing (Handzo, Cobb, Holmes, Kelly, & Sinclair, 2014).

     While the healthcare landscape is undergoing rapid change, so is the religious landscape in the US. One of the most impactful changes is the increase in the proportion of people who report no religious affiliation: approximately 40% of people under 30 in some national surveys (Pew Research Center, 2019). However, on these same surveys, many people report having rich spiritual lives (Pew Research Center, 2019), and face serious spiritual/existential questions when experiencing illness or other life crises (Weber, Pargament, Kunik, Lomax, & Stanley, 2012).

Results

     Of the ten managers participating in this study, seven (70%) identified as female, and the remaining three (30%) identified as male. The average length of time in their management positions was 6.5 years. The median was 4.2 years, in a range from nine months to 24 years. Five of the managers (50%) worked at academic medical centers; the remaining five worked at faith-based health systems.

1- Introduction

2- Theoretical foundation and hypotheses development

3- Research method

4- Results

5- Discussion

6- Conclusion

References

Abstract

Because no prior studies investigated that green intrinsic and extrinsic motivation influence green creativity, this study aims to bridge this research gap and offers two novel constructs: green intrinsic motivation and green extrinsic motivation. A survey approach is employed to get insights from the information technology (I.T) industry located in Dalian, China. Using structural equation modeling (variance-based), the authors analyzed 298 respondents. The findings revealed that green transformational leadership has a substantial influence on green intrinsic motivation and green creativity, which are needed for employees to produce clean and green products and services. In addition, green intrinsic motivation partially mediates the relationship between green transformational leadership and green creativity. On the contrary, green extrinsic motivation as a moderator slightly undermines the green intrinsic motivation for green creative behavior. Therefore, leadership in organizations should raise the green motivation of employees so that they may innovate environment-friendly and sustainable products and services.

Introduction

Recently, greening the management and organizational philosophy has gained popularity both among the industry and the scholars in order to reduce the impact of industrial waste and hazards produced by organizations and conventional products. Stakeholders and scholars have pressured organizations to strategize policies to attain social, economic, and environmental outcomes. For instance, a few recent studies proposed that greening the information technology and computer practices can help to reduce carbon wastage, disposal activities, and energy consumption in organizations (Bai et al., 2017; Ojo et al., 2019). Thus, in academic areas and industries, focus of research is shifting from a general deliberation on green business into greening the functional areas, such as green innovation (Zailani et al., 2015), green finance (Przychodzen et al., 2018), green human resource management (Yong et al., 2019) and green creativity (Awan et al., 2019).

1- Introduction

2- Authentic leadership

3- Experiential learning

4- The case of the Leadership in action course

5- Impacts of the leadership course: method and results

6- The collaborative action game as a trigger to develop AL components

7- Experiential learning at the service of SDGs

8- Some challenges to game-based approach

9- Conclusion

References

Abstract

To attain sustainable development goals (SDGs), organizations need authentic leaders. Authentic leaders are self-aware and are guided by a strong set of ethical values that drive their actions. They create a climate of trust that stimulates the personal development of subordinates and organizational performance. Experiential learning is recognized as a promising strategy for developing the skills required for authentic leadership. This paper describes an original leadership course in management master’s programs at a Canadian university. This course incorporates an intensive off-campus leadership camp whose main strategy involves collaborative action games. This article proposes a threefold contribution. First, it provides a detailed description of a proven educational approach based on experiential learning. Second, it assesses the value of this approach in developing certain key authentic leadership skills, including self-awareness, which is identified as an essential characteristic of a responsible manager. Third, it demonstrates that the intensive leadership camp constitutes an original and relevant pedagogical approach to foster students’ learning of authentic leadership, provided that a rigorous process, including a reflexivity mechanism, is followed.

Introduction

Adopted in 2015, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set an ambitious agenda to resolve problems ranging from extreme poverty to climate change, human rights and corruption (Parkes, Buono, & Howaidy, 2017; Storey, Killian, & O’Regan, 2017; United Nations, 2015). Businesses are considered key actors in the attainment of these objectives because of their direct impact on all issues addressed by SDGs, through their operations, investments or business models (Parkes et al., 2017; Storey et al., 2017; Weybrecht, 2017). They are thus being encouraged to redefine their relations with society in order to play a significant role in preventing human, financial or ecological crisis (Storey et al., 2017). For the new paradigm to permeate businesses, and eventually entire sectors of the economy, executives must become agents of change (Borges, Ferreira, Borges de Oliveira, Macini, & Caldana, 2017; Haertle, Parkes, Murray, & Hayes, 2017), leaders with conviction who will serve as “moral compasses” (Moon, Walmsley, & Apostolopoulos, 2018, p. 172) in organizational transformation. These organizations can eventually become participants fully engaged in this movement. To contribute to this effort, and thus to achieve the goals set by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015), institutions of higher education have an important role to play in training these executives. Notably, the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) (PRME, 2007) highlight the need to incorporate the values of social responsibility into curricula and academic activities (Principle 2: Values).

Tourism literature has presented the effects of leadership style on staff efficiency yet few have examined the causal relationship between leadership style and newcomer outcomes at the hotel workplace context. This study examined the underlying mechanism regarding how transformational leadership can facilitate hotel newcomers to exhibit better performance and retention. Using the structural equation model, this study tested research hypotheses using valid data collected from 234 hotel newcomers with their supervisors from 63 tourist hotels rated above four-star in Taiwan. Based on emotion in feedback system theory, this study noted that hotel newcomers displayed higher supervisor-triggered positive affect due to the transformational leadership of their supervisors. In turn, this led to newcomers’ high performance and motivation to continue working. Adapting social exchange theory, this study found that transformational leadership has led to the development of a higher perceived supervisor support, which facilitated better performance among newcomers at hotel organizations.

Introduction

One of the critical challenges faced by organizational managers is the task of providing support to newcomers so that they can quickly adapt to a new work environment (Haueter, Macan, & Winter, 2003; Morrison, 1993; Saks & Gruman, 2018; Yan, Francesco, Wu, & Wang, 2017). Especially in the hospitality industry, tourism organizational managers have high expectations of newcomers, who must be able to quickly learn their work roles and contribute toward increased performance and service quality (Song, Chon, Ding, & Gu, 2015). Past studies have indicated that supervisors can help newcomers in the process of adjusting to a new work organization and increasing their performance in the early stage (Chen & Klimoski, 2003; Wondra & Ellsworth, 2015; Yuan, Li, Mai, Ye, & Yu, 2017). Moreover, in accordance with the principle of social exchange theory (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005), individuals are likely to voluntarily exhibit beneficial behaviors based on the treatment they received from their hotel supervisors. An increasing number of empirical studies on hospitality organizations have reported that supervisors display certain leadership behaviors to motivate their employees and change their behaviors at work (Barling, Weber, & Kelloway, 1996; Chen, Zhu, & Zhou, 2015; Tuan, 2018). For this reason, transformational leadership is considered as comprising leadership behaviors that can change hospitality organization employees’ behaviors and attitudes, which are associated with hotel employees’ work stress, organizational citizenship behaviors, service performance, workplace deviance, and other attitudinal and behavioral outcomes (Chen & Wu, 2017; Grant, 2012; Judge & Piccolo, 2004; Patiar & Wang, 2016; Uen, Wu, Teng, & Liu, 2012; Yukl, 1999).

Customer incivility toward frontline employees (FLEs) is a widespread phenomenon within tourism and hospitality industries, severely depleting the psychological resources of FLEs and delivered customer service. Drawing on the job demands-resources and conservation of resources frameworks, the current research compares the effects of the two most common forms of customer incivility on FLEs’ psychological responses and behavioral intentions (study 1). Moreover, this work explores the degree to which supervisor leadership style can mitigate the depleting effects of these two forms of customer incivility on FLEs (study 2). Findings demonstrate that FLEs’ responses to customer incivility episodes remain contingent upon supervisor’s leadership style and acknowledge that an empowering (vs. laissez-faire) leadership style can better mitigate the depleting effects of both customer incivility forms on FLEs’ role stress, rumination, retaliation and withdrawal intentions. The implications of these findings for tourism and hospitality theory and practicing managers are discussed.

Introduction

Chick-fil-A restaurant, Washington D. C, September 2018: A customer verbally attacks an order taker in front of other customers and other members of staff; the shift manager intervenes kindly asking the yelling customer to leave the restaurant. In response, the customer escalates into a fight with the employee, with other customers becoming involved, resulting in the shift manager physically attacking the perpetrator. Customer-captured videos of the event go viral, undermining Chick-Fil-A’s long-standing reputation as the most friendly fast-food restaurant chain across the US (The Washington Post, 2018). As the above incident showcases, customer incivility, defined as “the low-quality interpersonal treatment that employees receive from their customers during service interactions” (Koopmann, Wang, Liu, & Song, 2015), can have detrimental effects on employees, customer service experience, and the overall reputation of the brand. Customer incivility is a global phenomenon with a national survey of fast food workers in Australia revealing that 87% of them have been treated uncivilly by their customers (ABC News, 2018). Likewise, the 2017 Gallup survey among employees in the US, places mistreatment in the workplace by managers, coworkers and customers as the number one cause of burnout (Gallup, 2018), whereas Porath and Pearson (2012) report from a sample of thousands of employees surveyed over 14- years, an astonishing 98% has repeatedly experienced uncivil behaviors.