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Research reported in this manuscript focuses on the relationship between trait suspicion and the perception of abusive supervision. Based on previous research, the authors assume that suspicion is positively related to the perception of abusive supervision. The role implicit theories play in this relationship is examined.

Two studies are presented to examine the relationship between trait suspicion and the perception of abusive supervision as moderated by implicit leadership theories. The first study is a survey study, and the second study is an experimental vignette study.

Results of both studies indicate that suspicion is positively related to the perception of abusive supervision and that implicit leadership theories moderate the relationship between suspicion and the perception of abusive supervision.

Results are interpreted in terms of biases in leadership perception as well as the reversing-the-lens perspective.

While there is progress in taking into account follower characteristics and the resulting perceptual biases in the study of constructive leadership phenomena such as transformational leadership, less is know about the follower perception aspect of destructive leadership phenomena. With this research, the authors extend research into the influence of follower characteristics on the perception of abusive supervision and also look at boundary conditions of this relationship by including implicit leadership theories as a moderator.

The purpose of this paper is to examine psychological attachment styles (secure, anxious, and avoidant) as antecedents to leader-member exchange (LMX) quality both directly and through their impact on employees’ efforts to build high quality LMX relationships. Employees with secure attachment styles are proposed to be successful at building high quality LMX relationships while employees with anxious and avoidant styles are proposed to display the opposite effect.

Data were collected through a survey of 213 employees nested in 37 work groups. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel modeling within MPlus.

Results indicated that secure and anxious attachment styles were associated with LMX only by impacting the exertion of effort specifically aimed at relationship development with the manager. Alternatively, the avoidant style was directly and negatively linked to LMX but not associated with effort undertaken to build a high quality relationship.

The effects of attachment style on effort to develop high quality LMX relationships reveal that subordinate attachment style may impact those subordinates’ ability and interest in developing positive LMX relationships. Therefore, managers may need to purposively deviate from typical LMX development processes in order to create a more conducive environment for developing high quality relationships with subordinates of differing attachment styles.

This study is one of the first to examine the mediating impact of effort to build high quality LMX relationships given personal propensities (attachment style) to form relationships in the workplace.

In this introduction of the special issue “Trust, conflict and cooperative behaviour” the focus of the special issue is introduced: because al lot of attitudinal and behavioural employees' outcomes are based on reciprocity, they should be examined as a characteristic of relationships instead of a characteristic of employees.

On a theoretical level reciprocity within organizations is considered by means of the social embeddedness approach and by means of leader member exchange.

Although reciprocity in relationships is well recognised in the academic literature seemingly little empirical work has been conducted on reciprocity in manager‐subordinate and subordinate‐subordinate relationships.

In this special issue, we try to fill in this gap and focus on the reciprocity within relationships to explain trust, conflict and cooperative behaviour within organisations.

This study focuses on the relationship between cohesion, consensus in the perception of leadership style of the supervisor within teams and solidarity behaviour of employees towards their supervisor (vertical solidarity behaviour) and towards other team members (horizontal solidarity behaviour).

According to the self‐categorisation theory, which elaborates on the social identity theory, hypotheses for the relationship between consensus in perception within teams, cohesiveness within the teams and vertical and horizontal solidarity behaviour of employees were formulated. The hypotheses were tested in a study with 193 employees within 35 teams in a Dutch Ministry.

As expected, consensus in leaders' perception and cohesiveness within the team were positively related for transformational leadership style. Results from multi‐level analyses showed, as expected, a positive relationship between cohesiveness and horizontal solidarity behaviour. For vertical solidarity behaviour an interaction effect was found: the relationship between cohesiveness and vertical solidarity behaviour is positive if employees perceive their supervisor as high transformational, but is slightly negative if employees perceive their supervisor as low transformational.

The finding that consensus in transformational leader's perception within teams is related to the cohesiveness of a team support the self‐categorization theory. On the other hand cohesiveness is only related to vertical solidarity behaviour when the supervisor is perceived as high transformational.

The different results mean that it make sense to distinguish between horizontal and vertical solidarity behaviour. In addition, they show the impact of consensus in the perception of leadership style on cohesion.

In this final chapter, we summarize the core challenges to leadership in complex organizational systems as well as the lessons that we believe leaders can learn from the contributions presented in this book. Building on Complexity Leadership Theory (Uhl-Bien & Marion, 2009), we argue that high levels of complexity characterize the contexts described, and that they are unusual because they deviate from the setting of standard business organizations. Since these contexts are not often discussed in the general leadership literature, there seems to be a largely unused potential in terms of leadership learning. Specifically, in order to better contextualize leadership, scholars and practitioners need to take organizational complexity into account. With reference to the underlying structure of the book, core challenges to leadership are proposed, clustering around four main foci: sports and competition, high risk, creativity and innovation, care and community. Subsequently, we derive six lessons for leadership: adaptability, perseverance, handling paradox, leading with values, inventing the future, and sharing responsibility. We thereby hope to stimulate fruitful discussions that put leadership into context and capitalize on complexity theory as an innovative approach to leadership research and practice.

Research has overwhelmingly focused on the positive side of leadership in the past. However, research into negative aspects of leadership is picking up pace. This chapter will provide an overview of two prominent aspects of negative leadership, namely, abusive supervision and laissez-faire leadership. Research has shown that both types of leadership have significant negative consequences both for organisations as a whole as well as individual followers. Examples include lower job satisfaction, stress, as well as lowered performances and a higher likelihood of counter-productive work behaviour. Both abusive supervision and laissez-faire researchers acknowledge that these leadership styles take effect through the perception of followers. That is, they consider that the same behaviour can be interpreted differently by different followers and will, hence, lead to different follower-related outcomes. Abusive supervision and laissez-faire are, however, very different in terms of the actual leader behaviours described. While abusive supervision is a style that is actively destructive, laissez-faire is destructive via lack of support for followers' goal achievement. We end the chapter with an outlook for future research, notably an attempt to systematise future research into destructive leadership with respect to the different forms it can take.

The purpose of this paper is to report a study of the relationship between Leader‐Member Exchange (LMX) and span of control. The paper argues that depending on their extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, some leaders will find it easier to establish and maintain LMX relationships with their followers in larger groups.

A survey was conducted among 52 leaders and 389 followers. As matched data were used, the final sample consisted of 244 individual employees who worked in 41 different groups.

Results show that extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness moderate the relationship between span of control and various dimensions of LMX. The results for agreeableness, however, were in the opposite direction than expected.

The moderation effects that were found for leader personality indicate that organizations could foster LMX relationships by selecting leaders with certain personality patterns for larger groups or taking care to train leaders who do not show this pattern to overcome possible problems of low LMX relationships in large groups.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to address the relationship between span of control and LMX dimensions, and the first to examine the effects of leader personality on that relationship.

This study aims to focus on the perception of leader‐member exchange (LMX). It is assumed that the perceived quality of the relationship is not only related to the actual quality of the relationship, but also to followers' expectancies and preferences. However, little is known about person characteristics that are related to LMX perceptions. This study seeks to examine how far followers' leadership‐related characteristics (romance of leadership, idealised supervisor, need for leadership and dependence) are related to the perception of LMX.

A sample of 588 Dutch employees from different professions filled in questionnaires on romance of leadership, idealised supervisor, need for leadership and dependence and their perception of LMX.

Results indicate a positive relationship between need for leadership/dependence and the perception of LMX, thought not for romance of leadership/idealised supervisor and the perception of LMX. An interaction was found between idealised supervisor and dependence on the perception of LMX.

The study only focuses on four antecedents, although many others could have an effect on the perception of LMX. The study comprised a one‐dimensional assessment of LMX. For future research, a multi‐dimensional assessment is recommended.

The results of this study imply that organisations need to address the expectations that followers have towards their leaders in order to avoid disappointments.

This paper focuses on the perception of LMX and how follower characteristics are related to the perception of LMX. It extends prior research on the perception of leadership into LMX research. Similar to effect on the perception of leadership behaviour, effects on the perception of LMX are important to take into account when LMX is assessed through follower ratings in order to avoid making incorrect conclusions.

“Turnover intention” is defined as an employee's intention to voluntarily change jobs or companies. The purpose of this paper is to set “turnover intention” in relation to “preparedness for change”. The former relates to the change of jobs or companies, the latter to employees' willingness to change their current workplace. Both phenomena relate to employability, i.e. an employee's adaptability to changing internal (i.e. the current employer) and external labour market demands. The main aim of this paper is to compare both phenomena and identify antecedents of employability, namely, leader‐member exchange (LMX) and occupational self‐efficacy.

A questionnaire study was conducted in two samples of German and Dutch employees.

Results indicate that the two concepts (turnover intention, preparedness for change) are, to some extent, related and show, to some extent, similar relationships to the antecedents.

In both samples, self‐reported data were used as well as a cross‐sectional design.

The results highlight that the direct supervisor of employees may serve as an organization's agent, with a determining influence on the employees' attitudes and behaviours towards the respective organization.

For the first time, turnover intention and “preparedness for change” are considered in one study and the mutual relationship is investigated.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between leadership‐relevant attributes and occupational self‐efficacy in management students. It is assumed that leadership‐relevant attributes are related to high self‐efficacy beliefs.

In the present study management students from three different countries, namely Germany, Australia, and India, described to what degree they possess task‐ and person‐oriented leadership attributes and indicate their occupational self‐efficacy for their future profession. Data were analysed using regression analyses.

As expected, leadership‐relevant attributes were related to occupational self‐efficacy. Some support was found for the assumption that ratings of the importance of relevant attributes moderates the relationship between reported leadership‐relevant attributes and occupational self‐efficacy but only for task‐oriented attributes.

The sample size was small so that comparisons between subgroups were not possible. All data were self‐reported.

The results are relevant for career counselling. Looking at self‐description of individuals in terms of attributes relevant to their future job rather than working directly on their occupational self‐efficacy could be emphasised.

The study provides initial hints at the relationship between self‐description and occupational self‐efficacy in connection with future managers.