Chair of Leadership –

In its essence, leadership is communication. To influence others, people have to talk – and some do so more effectively than others. In this stream of research, we answer questions such as:

• How do people talk themselves into leadership role?
• Which non-verbal signs do (emergent) leaders use?
• How and under which circumstances do specific communication styles – such as leading and communicating with respect – positively influence employees?

The workforce is becoming increasingly diverse – not only in terms of easily visible attributes such as age or gender, but also in terms of more subtle attributes such as culture or educational background. This can be an opportunity for creating a richer knowledge base in organizations. However, diversity may also be challenging to handle for leaders. In this stream of research, we seek to provide evidence for leaders to be able to profit from the bright side of diversity and avoid the potential dark sides. We answer questions such as:

• How can leaders enhance intergenerational learning in organizations?
• Which tools can leaders use to foster knowledge sharing in a diverse workforce?
• What are the micro-dynamics occurring in the daily life of female leaders that may prevent them from climbing the career ladder?

Leaders strongly influence the organizational context that shapes employees’ behaviors. In this stream of research, we investigate the interplay of leadership and employee behavior as well as organizational context factors to answer questions such as:

• Through which mechanisms do leaders enhance employees’ pro-organizational behaviors?
• How can leaders manage the daily (self-control) demands of their employees in an optimal way?
• Why are some leaders able to advance their career by using “dark leader behaviors” such as being nice to those above and mean to those below?