Leadership emergence is fraught with pervasive gender stereotypes, and women remain underrepresented in senior leadership roles, particularly in healthcare organisations. We apply ecological systems theory to explain how environmental factors enable or inhibit women’s leadership emergence in healthcare settings. We interviewed 17 senior female leaders in the Australian healthcare sector to explore how gender-related perceptions affected their leadership journeys. Five themes emerged that challenge existing narratives: men supported women’s advancement; women impeded other women’s progress; vulnerability was a leadership strength; ambitious women were ostracised; and women were ‘given’ leadership opportunities rather than actively pursuing them. By situating these findings within the ecological systems theory framework, we highlight the interplay of individual and contextual influences across ecosystem levels. Our study offers a novel perspective on gender stereotypes in leadership emergence, advancing ecological systems theory by extending it into a new field. We provide recommendations at individual, organisational, community, and societal levels to empower women leaders.

The focus of job satisfaction literature remains on the subordinate even though supervisors are responsible for evaluating employee performance, determining employee pay, raises, promotions, growth opportunities, etc., all of which impact employees’ subsequent performance that contributes (or not) to organizational success. Using a psychological contracts lens, we develop and test theoretical arguments predicting supervisors’ response to contributions is not uniformly positive depending on the type and amount of contribution involved. Across two studies, we ask supervisors to evaluate subordinates’ delivered contributions relative to promised contributions. Our results challenge the assumption that supervisors always desire larger amounts of work from their subordinates; excess contributions were associated with lower supervisors’ satisfaction with subordinates for some types of contributions. The results imply that subordinates’ contributions of work to supervisors may influence supervisors’ satisfaction with subordinates perhaps affecting their performance reviews and career opportunities.

Employee voice and silence research shows workers’ ability to express dissatisfaction is impeded by a range of factors. This paper focuses on two: the power asymmetry inherent in the employment relationship, and work context. It examines early career academics (ECAs) – mainly doctoral students, associate lecturers, and assistant professors – many of whom are immersed in atypical, employment or employment-like relationships that are frequently experienced as disempowering. A scoping review provides a frame for understanding ECA voice and silence. It finds there is little on ECAs in the employee voice and silence literature. However, broader concepts of voice and silence are discussed in higher education research on doctoral students and other types of ECAs. Complex work arrangements, difficult supervisory relationships, and hierarchical norms stifle ECA voice. Supervision conceptualised as co-created ‘critical friendship’ facilitates voice. Studies that expand knowledge of ECA voice and silence are recommended, especially as concerns about ECA wellbeing grow.

This research explores the theory of authentic leadership and the critiques on the theory by analyzing the portrayals of Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana, and Margaret Thatcher in season 4 of the Netflix’s series The Crown. Utilizing directed qualitative content analysis, we seek to understand how authenticity in leadership is manifested, its limitations, and the role of gender within this framework. The investigation highlights the challenges leaders face between expected role fulfillment and genuine self-expression. It explores the benefits and drawbacks of authenticity, the attribution of authenticity when the leaders deviate from the formal roles, the nature of the role as influencing the expression of authenticity (e.g., degrees of freedom associated with each role) and the complex interaction between gender and authenticity. In response to these findings, the concept of ‘leader bounded authenticity’ is proposed, suggesting a balance between adhering to the formal role and the display of authentic leadership.

Leader exemplification involves implicit and explicit claims of high moral values made by a leader. We employed a 2 × 3 experimental design with samples of 265 students in Study 1 and 142 working adults in Study 2 to examine the effects of leader exemplification (exemplification versus no exemplification) and ethical conduct (self-serving, self-sacrificial, and self-other focus) on perceived leader authenticity, trust in leader, and organizational advocacy. In Study 1, we found that exemplification produced elevated levels of perceived authenticity, trust, and advocacy in the form of employment and investment recommendations. We also showed that leader ethical conduct moderated this effect, as ratings were highest following a leader’s self-sacrificial conduct, lowest for self-serving conduct, and moderate for conduct reflecting self-other concerns. In Study 2, we replicated these findings for perceived authenticity and trust, but not organizational advocacy, which yielded mixed results. The leadership implications and future research directions are discussed.

This study examines the antecedent role of organizational culture and the mediating role of digital transformation when promoting big data analytics capabilities. Employing the Competing Values Framework, we scrutinize the influence of various cultural typologies, including digital culture on the successful deployment of digital transformation and the enhancement of big data analytics capabilities. Our analysis utilizes Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling on a dataset of 183 firms to evaluate our hypotheses. The findings reveal that adhocratic, digital and hierarchical cultures significantly foster big data analytics capabilities mediated by digital transformation, which is a dynamic process that needs supportive digital and innovative values. In contrast, market and clan cultures exhibit weaker linkages. By providing empirical evidence and practical implications, this study highlights how organizations with a strong adhocratic and digital cultures outperform those with traditional cultures in their digital transformation and big data analytics capabilities efforts.

Despite its popularity, authentic leadership remains enigmatic, with both advantages and disadvantages. The connection between authenticity (an internal process) and leadership (an external influence process) is complex. We introduce a theory that connects these processes through self-regulation, suggesting that authenticity results from managing multiple identities regulated by factors such as active self-identity. Using ironic processes theory, we propose a model that encourages leaders to focus on their active self rather than suppressing misaligned aspects. We present authenticity as a dynamic process, adaptable across individual, relational, and collective levels, with self-identity shifting contextually. This perspective offers insights into developing leader authenticity, addresses the limitations of the authentic leadership approach, and provides a roadmap for future research.

Historically, the higher education curriculum in business degrees has contained little or no Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (herein ‘Indigenous’) content. With the increase in awareness at the societal level, Australian university business schools need to change and design the curriculum, so that students graduate with the capability to engage with Indigenous businesses, individuals, and communities while understanding contemporary policy and business including sustainability, Human Resources, supply chain, and governance. First, secondary data from Australian Department of Education, Skills, and Employment were collected on Indigenous and non-Indigenous higher education students is presented to establish the current levels of student’s access and completion rates in management, commerce and business areas. Secondly, focus groups were held to gain the views of educators who have taught Indigenous curriculum in Foundation business and commerce curriculum and share their perceptions of the impact of this on students and themselves. The secondary data presented show the imperative of providing strategies to support and opportunities to Indigenous students and that by embedding Indigenous knowledge students can build awareness and connection leading to short and long term improvements. Information gathered from the research can be used to support the largely positive impact teaching Indigenous curriculum thereby addressing government policies in closing the gap of education and employment.

Scholarly and practitioner interest in authentic leadership has grown at an accelerating rate over the last decade, resulting in a proliferation of publications across diverse social science disciplines. Accompanying this interest has been criticism of authentic leadership theory and the methods used to explore it. We conducted a systematic review of 303 scholarly articles published from 2010 to 2023 to critically assess the conceptual and empirical strengths and limitations of this literature and map the nomological network of the authentic leadership construct. Results indicate that much of the extant research does not follow best practices in terms of research design and analysis. Based on the findings obtained, an agenda for advancing authentic leadership theory and research that embraces a signaling theory perspective is proposed.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 significantly impacted Australia’s resources sector, particularly mining, oil, and gas industries, posing challenges for operational leaders. This study applied Adaptive Crisis Management Theory (ACMT) to understand how these leaders adapted during the crisis. Through interviews with 32 operational leaders, it was found that their roles evolved as crisis demands changed. Initially, they addressed immediate needs, then shifted focus to remote work facilitation and digital transformation, and finally emphasised recovery, trust, and resilience. These adaptations influenced leaders’ behaviours, highlighting the importance of flexibility in supporting employee wellbeing and organisational continuity during crises.

The neurodiversity movement takes a societal view of individual differences by suggesting that people should be respected and not necessarily medically treated based on personal attributes. This commentary article discusses how human differences in intellectual capacities should be considered as another form of diversity with the requirement for medical intervention needing to be considered in terms of overall social change. As a significant portion of the overall workforce could be considered as people with some form of neurological disability this article analyses how co-creation processes occur meaning neurodiverse individuals should be accepted in society regardless of their differences. This article contributes to societal discussions around managing diversity as in society the socio-demographic categories such as age and gender are well established, but newer categories such as neurodiversity are required.

This study tests the role of the full range leadership model’s leadership styles in employees’ job-stress-related presenteeism (JSRP). Further, the study tests a model that introduces mediating variables in the relationship between absent leaders and JSRP. Employees from four different types of organizations: police (N = 148), public service (N = 479, not-for-profit (N = 96), and construction (N = 214) completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire on their direct supervisor, as well as a self-report measures of JSRP, psychological distress, and work–life balance. Correlations and hierarchical linear regression models showed that laissez-faire leadership had the strongest influence on JSRP for all four organizations. The parallel mediation model results showed that both employee psychological distress and work–life balance partially mediated the relationship between laissez-faire leadership style and employees’ JSRP. These results underscore the importance of looking at absent leaders and how they affect employees negatively.

Authentic leadership studies are often criticised for the limited use of causally defined research designs. To advance scholarship is this area, this article presents a scoping review on the use of experimental designs to examine causality in authentic leadership. Eleven publications were identified, which presented 16 experiments that met the inclusion criteria. Generally, these experiments tested authentic leadership as an antecedent; were conducted online; used a one-factor design; involved large samples, typically of working adults or residents; involved a manipulation check; involved the use of written vignettes to manipulate levels of authentic leadership; included counterfactual conditions; culminated with outcomes pertaining to followers; and established the causal effects of authentic leadership on the outcome(s) of interest. These findings suggest the value of: written vignettes; multi-method approaches; and online experiments. They also highlight opportunities to advance authentic leadership research through the use of sequential experiments and immersive technologies.

This study extends the upper echelons literature by shedding light on the role of top management team (TMT) dissimilarity, a specific conceptualization of team diversity. TMTs are typically composed of members from different functional areas who have unique information and values. The perception of the degree to which TMT members view themselves as dissimilar from other team members affects the TMT’s decision-making and, therefore, organizational outcomes. However, research does not address this perspective of TMT diversity. We examine how informational and value dissimilarity among TMT members is associated with incremental and radical innovation capability. We survey top managers from various industries and use partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis to explore the association between TMT dissimilarity and innovation capability empirically. The findings show that informational dissimilarity is positively associated with incremental innovation capability. Value dissimilarity is negatively associated with incremental innovation capability, whereas it is positively associated with radical innovation capability.

Charisma, often seen as an innate trait, is now understood as leader signaling grounded in values, symbols, and emotions, suggesting it can be developed through interventions. However, the method for cultivating charisma remains unclear. This study examines nonverbal communication strategies, highlighting the potential of body language, facial expressions, and vocal modulation to enhance charisma. Additionally, we introduce a virtual reality training program focused on these cues and explore the role of audience presence in boosting the intervention’s effectiveness by fostering self-awareness and behavioral adjustments. Results of a controlled randomized experiment with virtual reality-trained participants and online charisma assessors demonstrated significant improvements in observer-rated charisma from pre- to post-training compared to the control group. Moreover, training in front of a virtual audience yielded the expected outcomes. This study sheds light on charisma theory, its potential virtual reality training application, and its implications for leadership development.

This study explores what kinds of moral potency profiles can be identified among three different samples: Top sports, Leaders, and Followers. Based on the social norm theory, we examine whether and how the experienced strength of ethical organizational culture is associated with the probability to be identified into different moral potency profiles. Based on ratings of 188 top sport representatives, 237 leaders and their 202 followers, a person-centered approach was used to identify three moral potency profiles: morally hesitant, moderate moral potency, and morally confident. A fourth profile was identified based on the followers’ evaluations of their leaders: morally void. Low evaluations of ethical culture increased the likelihood of being classified into the morally hesitant profile. As the followers were somewhat more critical in evaluating their leaders’ moral potency than the leaders themselves, our findings highlight the value of including other-rated indicators when examining moral actions within organizations.

This study investigates the influence of perceived organizational support (POS) on employees’ intentions to recommend their employer or leave the organization. Based on social exchange theory, it explores how POS affects employee well-being and shapes behaviors such as loyalty and advocacy. An online survey gathered data from 604 French employees across various sectors, analyzing variables like POS, positive and negative well-being, and intentions to leave or recommend the employer. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among these variables and to test the mediating role of well-being. Results show that POS positively influences employee well-being. High POS is associated with improved positive well-being, which decreases the intention to leave and increases the intention to recommend. Similarly, reduced negative well-being linked to high POS lowers the desire to leave and lessens negative effects on recommendation intentions. The study confirms the mediating role of well-being between POS and employee intentions. The study provides new insights into the impact of POS on employee intentions by highlighting the pathways of positive and negative well-being. For human resource practices, strengthening POS is essential to boost employee retention and encourage positive behaviors, thereby enhancing the organization’s reputation and attractiveness.

Board of directors (BOD) bring valuable human and relational capital to firms but may act as self-interested agents by design. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the compensation of BOD members in high-technology sectors affects overall firm performance. We tested our specific hypotheses using panel regression methodology on data gathered from the CRSP, Compustat, BoardEx, and ExecuComp databases. Our final sample consisted of 9,127 firm years, and the companies in our sample were all high-tech publicly traded U.S. firms from 1992 to 2019. Our results showed that there is an association between BOD’s pay structure and firm performance (accounting-based return on assets and market-based Tobin’s Q). Our findings demonstrate originality and contribute to the literature since we empirically demonstrate that the level of variable BOD pay has a diminishing effect on return on assets and Tobin’s Q. This study advances our knowledge of executive compensation in the high technology sector.

Fostering employees’ innovative work behavior (EIB) has become one of the most important tasks of leaders. Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between leadership and EIB, it is still unclear which specific leader behaviors promote EIB. Previous research has focused on leadership in terms of broad, non-innovation-specific leadership styles. Behavioral sub-factors have been neglected, and prioritization according to the importance of individual behaviors is still lacking. To address these issues, we identify innovation-specific leader behaviors and analyze which behaviors are best suited to increase EIB. To explain the relationship between the respective leader behaviors and EIB, we rely on the Ability–Motivation–Opportunity (AMO) framework and distinguish between ability-enhancing, motivation-enhancing, and opportunity-enhancing leadership behaviors. Our empirical analyzes are based on data from 1214 German employees. Our findings reveal that motivation- and opportunity-enhancing leadership behaviors foster EIB, with certain innovation-specific behaviors being particularly important for EIB. Building on our results, we provide guidelines for innovation-specific leadership.

Successful employment outcomes are often beyond the reach of people with disabilities, but relatively little is known about the factors that best enable the achievement of this goal. Using survey data from 803 people with and without disabilities, we examine the association of eight factors with successful employment outcomes. Using regression tree analysis, five factors emerged as statistically significant predictors of successful employment outcomes for people with disabilities: corporate culture and climate, job characteristics, government support, employer attitudes, and societal attitudes. Key interrelationships between factors include: (1) government support linking with corporate culture and climate; and (2) job characteristics linking with corporate culture and climate. Findings are relevant to organisations and governments to inform policy and practice to improve employment outcomes for people with disabilities.