Call for papers: Relationship-based leadership: Current trends and future prospects Submission Deadline: 1 April 2018
Relationship-based approaches represent one of the dominant perspectives to understanding organizational leadership. There are many different perspectives under this broad umbrella including focusing on the exchange relationship between leader and followers, how the leader–follower relationship develops and changes over time, the relationship between a leader and a team, the effects of differentiated relationship quality within a team, and how the leader–follower relationship impacts wider organizational processes. What is central in these different perspectives is the concept of the 'relationship' that occurs between different individuals. Despite the interesting paths that relationship-based theories have opened up, there are many issues that require attention (such as understanding how leader–follower relationships develop and are maintained over time, confusion between different levels of analysis, and the appropriate statistical treatment of data). In the meantime, the world of work has experienced important changes (e.g., new technology, virtual work) that have inevitable implications for the leader–follower relationship. Given the above, it is important to revisit the concept of 'relationship' between leaders and followers, take stock of progress made, identify research gaps, as well as borrowing ideas from other scientific fields to further stimulate discussion on relationship-based leadership perspectives and open new and exciting avenues of research. We therefore welcome empirical and/or conceptual contributions to this special issue that focus on different aspects of the relationship between the leader and follower(s) in the leadership process.
Potential, but not exclusive, research questions include the following:
How do leader–follower relationships develop over time, get maintained, and/or repaired after incidents of transgression?
What are the consequences of leaders having different quality relationships with members of their team? ? How does social cognition (e.g., implicit leadership and followership theories, relationship schemas, social comparison perspectives) advance our understanding of leadership as a relationship?
How can interdisciplinary perspectives on leader–follower relations (e.g., social and cognitive psychology) and research from related disciplines (e.g., vocational and personnel psychology) add to our understanding of the leader–follower relationship? ? Which methodological approaches can help relationship-based research capture the dynamic nature of the relational phenomena (e.g., intensive longitudinal designs)?
How does the new 'world of work' (characterized e.g., by economic recession, uncertainty, organizational change, flexible work forms, matrix organizational forms) influence leader–follower relationships?
How does the national cultural context shape the content and structure of leader– follower relationships?
How can relationship-based leadership inform leadership development programs in organizational settings?
In addition to addressing relevant content for the special issue, submissions should be prepared and submitted in accordance with the journal's author guidelines (http://online library.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)2044-8325/homepage/ForAuthors.html).
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Robin Martin
Professor of Organisational Psychology
Alliance Manchester Business School
University of Manchester
Booth Street West
Manchester, M15 6PB
Room: D10, AMBS East
Tel: (+44) (0) 161 306 4583