This research explored whether the effectiveness of leadership styles differs in safety-critical contexts compared to contexts where safety is less salient. The existing leadership literature lacks consideration of the context in which leadership takes place. Leadership styles that are valued and effective in one work context, might be less desired and less effective in another context. Using Bass’s (1985) transformational-transactional leadership framework, the present research argues that the extent to which safety is salient within a work environment, impacts on the effectiveness of transformational, transactional and passive leadership. Existing leadership research has focused on transformational leadership, but has paid little attention to transactional leadership. The present research argues that transactional leadership might be effective in safety-critical contexts, but might be less effective in contexts where safety is not salient. In work contexts, where employees are exposed to hazards and there is a high risk for injury, directive leadership practices, such as vigilantly monitoring performance and proactively correcting mistakes (i.e., transactional leadership), might be important for effective leadership. However, if safety is not salient within a work environment, then these leader behaviours might be less relevant. In addition, the research explored the competency of leader flexibility, which refers to leaders’ ability to adjust their behaviour to the requirements of a certain setting. Two questionnaire studies were conducted to investigate the research objectives. In both studies three aspects of safety salience were explored, i.e., level of hazard exposure, likelihood for injury and impact on safety of others. In study 1, the sample consisted of participants with leadership responsibilities who work in contexts with varying degrees of safety salience. Results showed that leaders’ perceived effectiveness of transformational-transactional leadership, and the frequency to which they adopt these two leadership styles, differed in dependence on the level of safety salience. Hazard exposure moderated the relationship between transactional leadership and safety incidents, indicating that transactional leadership is associated with lower incident rates if hazard exposure is high, but not if hazard exposure is low. Leader flexibility showed a significant relationship with leader self-efficacy and team performance whilst controlling for transformational-transactional leadership. In study 2, a two-source design was used where subordinates rated their leader’s behaviour and leaders rated their subordinates’ job and safety performance. The research was conducted in two host organisations; an oil and gas service provider and a food manufacturing company. Safety salience measures were investigated as team-level moderators. Results showed several cross-level interactions, which suggested that team-level safety salience impacts on the influence of transactional, transformational and passive leadership on safety and job performance. The research made an important contribution by merging the transformational-transactional leadership framework with contingency views of leadership (i.e., safety salience as a contextual attribute) and by considering leader flexibility as a leader trait in addition to leader behaviours.

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Teams are becoming more diverse, and often, this diversity produces decrements in team performance. It has been argued within the literature on teams, that team leadership is instrumental in developing and maintaining effective team performance within all types of teams. Despite this argument, we do not yet fully understand how leaders within culturally diverse teams manage the diversity to promote the affective states and behavioral processes that lead to effective performance. Therefore, this literature review seeks to understand how leaders can promote collective efficacy within diverse teams. Specifically, how a leader with individualistic values can promote collective efficacy within a collectivistic society. Through an integrated literature review, I seek to identify challenges in relation to effective performance through the leaders' abilities to build collective efficacy to avoid mission failure in collectivistic societies.

This thesis explored the cognitive, character-inference process that Dirks & Skarlicki (2004) assert contributes to trust development. Self-reported transformational leadership, leader integrity, organizational justice, and leader prototypicality correlated positively with cognitive trust in this sample of 81 student employees (63% female, mean age 20.5) of a large southeastern university. Leader prototypicality, a cognitive evaluation process, partially mediated the relationship between leader integrity and trust. This study's prime contribution was the longitudinal, empirical test of a model of trust development in interdependent leader-follower dyads. Future research may explore other antecedents of trust, assess how the cognitive process of trust development occurs, or investigate the relationship-based social exchange mechanism Dirks and Skarlicki (2004) suggest contributes to the development of affective trust. / Master of Science

The aim of this master´s thesis is to capture and describe the perceptions and opinions of selected entrepreneurs on leadership in small and medium enterprises. In the theoretical part is outlined the development of leadership, its characteristics, styles and approaches. Among the approaches are the Situational leadership II, Transformational leadership, Authentic leadership and Versatile leadership. Using qualitative research through a semi-structured interview and a written survey, the main factors of the selected approaches that are most frequently encountered in the management of the respondents are described, and the use of the given approach relative to the whole sample is then evaluated. In conclusion, this work focuses on the individual assessment of the versatility of the styles of selected entrepreneurs.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to introduce leadership concept based on theoretical knowledge. Another goal is to analyse leadership philosophy in certain company and propose leadership concept which focuses on increasing productivity, creativity and commitment of the employees to the company. Last but not least aim is to find a way to synchronize company and employee’s needs.

The goal of my diploma thesis is to introduce leadership concept, to analyze the status of management in company VHZ-DIS, spol. s.r.o., based on theoretical knowledge, and to submit proposals for effective leadership to enhance productivity of the company. This analysis is a starting point for solution proposal how to improve the situation in the company and how to improve effectiveness, engagement and creativity of individual members of the organization.

Denna kandidatuppsats har fokus på tillit som ett organisatoriskt fenomen, mer specifikt på dendyadiska tilliten, dess utveckling och dynamik i relationen mellan chefer och medarbetare inomsvenska offentliga organisationer när arbetet sker virtuellt. Studien har en kvalitativ ansats medett relationellt perspektiv på både ledarskap och tillit och närmar sig ämnet genom teorier kringtillit, tillit i virtuell miljö och ledarskapsteorier. Den forskningsdata som presenteras består avintervjuer med chefer och medarbetare från två svenska offentliga organisationer insamlatgenom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Studiens främsta bidrag är den modell som presenterassom baseras på det empiriska materialet och på en befintlig tillitsmodell med integritet,hjälpvillighet och förmåga samt på aktuell forskning inom tillit och ledarskap i virtuell miljö.Faktorerna kommunikation, kroppsspråk, relationsbyggande samtal, användande av tekniskahjälpmedel och balans mellan kontroll och stöd är enligt modellen betydelsefulla för tilliten ivirtuella miljöer. Vidare visar studien på skillnader mellan hur chefer och medarbetare ivirtuella miljöer upplever balansen mellan kontroll och stöd. Resultaten tyder på att det förpraktikersamhället är av betydelse att öka medvetenheten kring skapande och utveckling avtillit eftersom chefen genom att agera med avsikt att öka tillit genom stöd tycks kunna minskatilliten genom att medarbetaren istället upplever ökad kontroll. Detta kan även utgöra enutmaning med att arbeta med tillitsbaserat ledarskap i virtuell miljö, vilket är något mångasvenska offentliga organisationer, i och med Tillitsdelegationens arbete, idag aktivt arbetarmed. Den modell som presenteras kan användas som ett verktyg i arbetet med tillit, samt liggatill grund för vidare forskning. / This Bachelor's thesis focuses on trust as an organizational phenomenon, more specifically, thedyadic trust development and dynamics in the relationship between leader and follower withinSwedish public organizations when the workplace is virtual. The study applies a qualitativemethod with a relational perspective on leadership and trust, drawing on trust theory, leadershiptheory and research in both virtual trust and virtual leadership. The study includes data fromleaders and followers in two Swedish public organizations collected in semi-structuredinterviews. The main contribution of this study is the model that is presented which is based onthe empirical material and on a pre-existing model of trust including integrity, benevolence andability, and on current research in trust and leadership in virtual environments. According tothis model, the use of communication, body language, conversations that build relationships,technical aids and a balance between control and support are of importance to trust in virtualsettings. The study also demonstrates differences between how leaders and followers perceivethe balance between control and support. The findings imply for managerial leadership thatraising the level of awareness of trust development in virtual settings is crucial, because leadersmay act with the intent of increasing the level of support but end up decreasing the level of trustwhen the follower interprets the act as increased control. This may affect the ability to apply atrust-based leadership in virtual settings, which is, because of the work by the governmentappointed Trust-delegation, what many Swedish public organizations today have the ambitionto do. The model that is presented in this study can be used as a tool when working with trustand open up to future research.

This research study aims to investigate the significance of the gender of secondary school head teachers in influencing their leadership styles within the context of Pakistan. Pakistan's cultural milieu is characterized by patriarchal undertones that translate into low gender equality, particularly in terms of lower educational attainment and lesser professional opportunities for females as compared to males. Within this setting, this thesis views the relationship between gender and educational leadership through the feminist educational leadership perspective, while the contextual environment is analysed by employing an adaptation of Brofenbrenner's ecological development theory. A mixed-methods research design has been used to answer this study's research questions. The quantitative research method is based on a survey that was administered to a random sample of 350 secondary school head teachers belonging to the public and private sectors within nine districts of the Punjab province in Pakistan. The self-rater Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to determine the self-perceptions of head teachers regarding their leadership styles. In addition, the qualitative research method utilizes semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample of 14 head teachers in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of how the contextual environment is perceived by head teachers and to investigate whether the head teacher's gender is a significant factor in influencing these perceptions within Pakistan's context. The survey generated 264 responses and the findings indicate that on average secondary school head teachers perceive their leadership style as being transformational; particularly private sector female head teachers have the highest mean score for the transformational leadership style, hence suggesting that the gender of secondary school head teachers does play an important role in terms of influencing how they assess their leadership styles in Pakistan's context. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis of the interviews reveals important gender-based differences in terms of how head teachers perceive their contextual environment and how they practice transformational leadership within their schools. This study's findings have implications for theory, practice and policy making in the field of educational leadership, as they emphasize the need for implementing gender-sensitive educational policies that may facilitate both male and female head teachers to perform their roles effectively as school leaders within Pakistan's context.