Tag Archives: relational leadership

Evolutionary Origins of Leadership and Followership

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Giorgio Bertini

Drawing upon evolutionary logic, leadership is reconceptualized in terms of the outcome of strategic interactions among individuals who are following different, yet complementary, decision rules to solve recurrent coordination problems. This article uses the vast psychological literature on leadership as a database to test several evolutionary hypotheses about the origins of leadership and followership in humans. As expected, leadership correlates with initiative taking, trait measures of intelligence, specific task competencies, and several indicators of generosity. The review finds no link between leadership and dominance. The evolutionary analysis accounts for reliable age, health, and sex differences in leadership emergence. In general, evolutionary theory provides a useful, integrative framework for studying leader-follower relationships and generates various novel research hypotheses. Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Followers, Leadership, Relational leadership | Tagged evolution, followers, leadership, relational leadership | Comments Off

Social Network Approaches to Leadership: An Integrative Conceptual Review

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Giorgio Bertini

Contemporary definitions of leadership advance a view of the phenomenon as relational, situated in specific social contexts, involving patterned emergent processes, and encompassing both formal and informal influence. Paralleling these views is a growing interest in leveraging social network approaches … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Leadership emergence, Organizational leadership, Relational leadership, Social network | Tagged leadership, leadership emergence, organizational leadership, relational leadership, social network | Comments Off

Relational Behavior of Leaders

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Giorgio Bertini

Organizational researchers widely acknowledge that positive relational behavior is associated with leadership effectiveness. In this exploratory study, we seek to extend previous research examining contextual factors that influence leadership style based on the characteristics of person–vocation fit. Our research also … Continue reading →

Posted in Leadership, Organizations, Relational leadership, Relational research, Relational sociology, Social skills | Tagged leadership, organizations, relational leadership, relational research, relational sociology, relationships, social skills | Comments Off

Exploring Social Constructions of Followership

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Giorgio Bertini

This study adopts a qualitative approach to deconstruct the meaning of followership. Interviews were conducted with employees in various industries to examine how individuals socially construct their roles as followers and to explore followership schemas and contextual influences that relate … Continue reading →

Posted in Followers, Leadership, Relational leadership | Tagged followers, leadership, relational leadership | Comments Off

Follower-Centered Perspectives on Leadership

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Giorgio Bertini

The majority of leadership theories and studies have tended to emphasize the personal background, personality traits, perceptions, and actions of leaders. From this perspective, the followers have been viewed as recipients or moderators of the leader’s influence, and as vehicles … Continue reading →

Posted in Followers, Leadership, Relational leadership | Tagged followers, leadership, relational leadership | Leave a comment

Advancing Relational Leadership Research: A Dialogue Among Perspectives

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Giorgio Bertini

Leaders and followers live in a relational world—a world in which leadership occurs in complex webs of relationships and dynamically changing contexts. Despite this, our theories of leadership are grounded in assumptions of individuality and linear causality. If we are … Continue reading →