This project involved developing an online website and video streaming to portray a CEO and his actions at varying levels of authenticity. The project has been jointly funded by the Institute for Leadership Research at Texas Tech and GLI. Over the last several years, data has been collected at both universities testing the impact that self serving versus self sacrificing leadership has on follower perceptions of leader effectiveness and trustworthiness. This past year, in conjunction with Singapore Management University, we also collected data testing the cross-cultural ability to generalize our findings. The final phase of data collection is now occurring with plans for submitting this work to a top academic journal early next year.

Working with the study abroad office to capture the impact of a semester abroad on the development of a global mindset. In addition, we are testing the relationship between global mindset and cultural adjustment with students participating in these international programs.

We are also working in conjunction with the Thunderbird School and an NGO called Bpeace to capture the impact of cross-cultural female mentoring relationships on entrepreneurial firms in Afghanistan. The project has a two pronged approach. Interviews with western women have uncovered the impact of the mentoring relationship on developing the global mindset of western mentors. Interviews with Afghan women are designed to uncover to what extent the mentoring relationship has enhanced the way they operate their businesses.

We are currently completing work in a large manufacturing setting to determine the extent to which PsyCap interventions can boost one’s PsyCap level as well as performance outcomes. This field experiment is part of a larger research project examining the efficacy of online training to boost PsyCap performance.

Developing a version of the PsyCap measure with the intent to measure psychological capital for operating in a diverse workplace environment. The purpose of this study is to develop a tool which may be used to assess the health of an organization's workforce with regard to their ability to function effectively in a diverse environment, and to assess areas for development through diversity-based PsyCap training. Item development is currently underway.

The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of team-level personality and team-level PsyCap on the behavior and attitudes of individuals working in teams. Specifically, we are looking at the fit between individual personality and PsyCap with team-level personality and PsyCap in order to determine the potential enhancing, buffering, etc. impact of fit or miss-fit between individuals and teams. Data has been collected and analyzed and work on the manuscript is underway.

The purpose of this study is to investigate various organizational factors (e.g., support, climate) that influence employees' willingness to voice complaints and/or their opinions on how to better the organization and work unit. The data collection effort will be concluded and analyzed at end of the year.

This project develops a theoretically-derived measure of ethical efficacy, or one's confidence in their ability to execute ethical behavior. Four studies were conducted to this end. In Study 1, we derived items for the new measure and the results demonstrate the 6-item measure held appropriate psychometric properties. Study 2 examines the convergent and discriminate validity of the measure, and the results provide support for the construct validity of the measure. Study 3 examines the criterion related validity of the measure. The results show ethical efficacy positively influences ethical work behavior and negatively influences unethical work behavior. Lastly, Study 4 examines the predictive effects of ethical efficacy. Accordingly, we predict employees’ ethical efficacy would mitigate the negative effects of unethical work situations on employees’ behavior. Preliminary results show strong ethical efficacy beliefs weakened the negative effects of unethical leadership and unethical coworker behavior.

Mitchell, M. S., & Palmer, N. F. (2008). Understanding the influence of ethical efficacy. Paper presented at the Academy of Management annual conference, Anaheim, CA.

The purpose of this study is to examine how seemingly constructive organizational practices can promote unethical work behavior. In particular, we examine the influence of performance rewards-driven practices on cheating behavior at work. We also examine the moderating effects of employees' personality to understand which individual factors may strengthen or weaken the likelihood that employees engage in such unethical acts. Qualitative data were collected through a Gallup poll and the results of our analyses reveal individuals engage in two types of cheating behavior at work: self-enhancing behavior and other-inhibiting behavior. We have also collected data from an on-line panel of participants and are conducting experiments to examine our predictions. Data collection for this project will be complete at the end of year. The project is being funded by the University of Nebraska, Lincoln through the Layman Award.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether ambition-oriented personality traits and career goals influence the likelihood that leaders become abusive toward their employees. In particular, we argue that supervisors who are very ambitious and career-oriented are more likely to justify unethical and abusive behavior against their employees to achieve their career pursuits. This project is at the beginning stage of data collection.

This purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the implicit theories of followership that individuals bring with them into the workplace and the actual behaviors they engage in as they socialize into a new job. We will also examine how followership implicit theories relate to subsequent performance and behavior in the workplace. The research design is longitudinal, with multiple data collection periods across the first 6 months of employment. This work is being conducted in partnership with National Research Corporation.

The purpose of this research is to develop and validate scales for Implicit Followership Theories and Followership Behavior. Based on qualitative interview data collected last spring, the IFT scale measures the implicit beliefs that people have regarding how followers should behave while interacting with organizational leaders. The followership behavior scale measures the passive or proactive behavior that followers engage in. Both studies are designed to better understand the role that followers play in the leadership process.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how followers socially construct their roles in organizations and understand how contextual influences affect followers’ ability to act upon their social constructions. Qualitative interview data were collected from 31 individuals in the US and Canada and results suggest that individuals hold various passive and proactive definitions of followership. This research applies a theory building approach to the study of followership in organizations. The paper is under review at Leadership.

This research develops and validates a measure of social exchange currencies from the perspective of the manager. Findings show that managers want quite different things from their work relationships than reported by employees. This work is being conducted in partnership with National Research Corporation.

Although we know that high quality leader-member relationships are associated with many positive outcomes in the workplace, a question that remains unanswered is: How do we get these high quality relationships? This research uses a social exchange framework to investigate developing relationships between new hires and their managers over a 6 month time period. The study will explore the factors that lead to establishment of high quality relationships and the factors that cause relationships to develop poorly. This work is being conducted in partnership with National Research Corporation.

The purpose of this research is to better understand capacities for innovative behavior in organizations. The analysis will help us understand the network dynamics that underlie adaptive leadership. We are also exploring what constitutes the adaptive, enabling, and administrative leadership components of complexity leadership theory in organizations. Specifically, we will examine how leadership contributes to the emergence of ideas that garner attention, gain momentum, and result in innovation and adaptability for the firm. This work is being conducted in partnership with Bank of America.

The purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive test of one of the most well-validated leadership models, referred to as the “full range leadership theory” using meta-analytic analysis. Our dataset will be built from recently published meta-analytic data, and supplemented by adding relevant research conducted on the dimensions of the full range leadership model conducted since 2003. Using these data, we will test propositions and hypotheses using sophisticated modeling that will allow us to test how a range of leadership styles is mediated and moderated in terms of its impact on performance outcomes.

Overall Target Focus: Enhancing self-awareness and taking greater ownership for leadership at all levels.

The contract for the FY 06-07 year (Amount: $120,000) builds on leadership development of top management teams conducted the previous year. This year’s focus was on leadership development of mid-level and front-line managers and the role of the top management team in rollout and execution of that development for the year. Throughout the year participants attend workshops, meet with coaches and work on their individual development plans. All workshops are designed to be hands on and to include challenges that are being addressed by workshop participants. A new augmentation to the above contract in the amount of $75,000 has been approved to study interventions geared towards enhancing surgical team leadership in the VA . The contract will terminate in October and the surgical team project will conclude in February of 2009.

Project - Psychological Ownership and follower performance outcomes. The study is aimed at investigating the mediating role of psychological ownership in the relationship between leadership and follower performance outcomes.

The GLI has been collaborating with faculty at the U.S. Military Academy on several lines of research over the last couple of years. These core lines of research include examining how to measure and accelerate the development of leadership efficacy or agentic leadership, trust, authenticity, transparency and courage. In the past year, GLI has provided support to collect data that focused on how to develop transparency in leader and follower relationships for positive impact on performance. This year West Point has provided GLI with a contract amount of $65,000 to support the ongoing research collaboration between our two institutions.

We are currently conducting the statistical analysis of the courage study, where cadets at West Point were required to perform a challenging task (confront a peer about an ethical violation). This is a longitudinal study with measures taken at several points prior to or following the intervention described above. A second group of cadets is currently going through a similar set of measures without an intervention to provide a comparison group. In addition to the courage data, this study includes measures for two additional studies.

GLI is working on a review of the courage literature as part of our contract with West Point. We have conducted a preliminary search and are expanding our review with additional references from some special issues we have located. As part of the West Point studies, we will be conducting review of the self-efficacy literature to examine the findings of previous literature where individuals have been assessed before, after, or during moments of great stress or danger in their lives. Specifically, we will be looking to see if greater self-efficacy enables individuals to cope more effectively with extreme amounts of stress and to perform at higher levels in such contexts. This study was accepted for publication in the Leadership Quaterly journal.

In cooperation with LTC Sean Hannah at West Point, we will be assessing multiple cohorts of West students for their personality traits and values during their first and third years of school. With this project we hope to evaluate how developmental trends in personality development are influenced by the experience of specific leadership roles.

In conjunction with Captain Paul Lester at USMA, we will be assessing troops preparing to deploy into combat in Iraq for wisdom and psychological capacity. This longitudinal study will be aimed at predicted performance in the context of combat as well as evaluating the factors that may impact whether or not soldiers develop post-traumatic stress disorders.

In this study, we aim to evaluate what make leaders and teams effective in dangerous situations. Using SWAT teams in international competitions as our target sample, we will assess leader characteristics and team dynamics in order to determine what aspects of SWAT teams are associated with higher levels of performance, morale, and safety.

The second biennial Gallup Leadership Institute Summit, ‘A Global Look at Accelerating Positive Forms of Leadership Development,’ was held in Washington, D.C. at Gallup World Headquarters in October of 2006. The event opened with a special presentation of the Clifton Prize for Strengths-Based Leadership by Mary Clifton Reckmeyer to Shelley Taylor. Shelley Taylor is a professor of social psychology at the University of California Los Angeles. Upon receiving the $250,000 award she said, “Donald Clifton not only promoted the study of human strengths, he embodied them.” The Clifton Strengths Prize honors Clifton’s life work and endur-ing influence on the field of psychology and pro¬motes further ground breaking theory, research, and practice in this area. Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. (1924-2003), past Chairman of The Gallup Organization, was the chief designer of the Clifton StrengthsFinder profile.

Theodore C. Sorensen, former special counsel and adviser to President John F. Kennedy and a widely published author on the presidency and foreign affairs, was the 2006 Summit keynote speaker. He practiced international law for over 36 years as a Senior Partner, and now Of Counsel, in the prominent U.S. law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. Former chairman of the firm’s International Practice Committee, he has represented U.S. and multinational corporations in negotiations with governments all over the world, and advised and assisted a large number of foreign governments and government leaders, ranging from the late President Sadat of Egypt to former President Mandela of South Africa. Mr. Sorensen, born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1928, graduated from the University of Nebraska and its College of Law. Ted Sorenson shared his leadership perspectives and his experiences as advisor to former President Kenney during the Cuban Missile crisis. “A leader,” he said, “must have the ability to choose and determine all the options available.” Following his speech, Sorensen engaged the audience with a Q & A session.

The first panel presentation initiated dialog that seemed to per¬meate much of the summit both in and out of the panel and pa¬per presentation sessions – How can we define leadership within and between distinctly different cultures? The Global Mindset Panel consisted of four women with international experience and research studies across a diverse set of cultures. Early results on the New Zealand and Russian poll on authentic leadership were presented as part of the panel discussion. Panel participants included: Neli Esipova with the Gallup Organization; Annick Janson, research director at the New Zealand Leadership Institute; Dalia Mogahed with The Gallup Organization; and Schon Beechler from the Duke Corporate Education.

Perhaps the most provocative panel was Developing Leaders for Dangerous Contexts. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Sean Hannah from West Point, the panel discussed leading when “in extremis” situations or what they called Critical Response Organizations (CROs). Panelists included heads of leadership programs from West Point, Patrick Sweeney and Thomas Kolditz; the Fire Department of the City of New York, Joseph W. Pfeifer; former Commissioner of the San Francisco Crime Commission, Robert Carter; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, David Corderman; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Robert Brown, Jr. The discussion addressed the question of how leaders can instill confidence in the followers. Other panels included: a CEO panel, which focused on promoting positive growth in organizations; a State-Trait Panel that explored the question of re-defining the focus of leadership development; and The Louisiana Leadership Panel that focused on “Closing the Well-Being Gap.”

CEO panelists included: Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic; Jerry S. Rawls, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Finisar Corporation; Jim Clifton, CEO and Chairman of The Gallup Organization; and Barbara Krumsiek, President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chairperson of Calver Group, Ltd.

State-Trait panelist leading the Summit were: Joyce Bono, Marvin D. Dunnette Professor in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, University of Minnesota; Deanne Den Hartog, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands, Fred Luthans, George Holmes Distinguished Professor of Management, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; and Steve Zaccaro, Professor of Psychology at George Mason University.

The Louisiana Leadership panel consisted of Mayor Randy Roach from the City of Lake Charles; Raymond Jetson, CEO of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps; John G. Daniel, President and CEO of the DK Group and Former Vice President of Father Flanagan's Girls and Boys Town; and Dr. Cheryll Bowers-Stephens, President and CEO of The Schopenhauer Group.

The 275 summit attendees determined in the wrap-up session that the major issues facing leadership development are cultural – cross-societal and cross-organizational as well as contextual. Dr. Bruce Avolio concluded the summit with the challenge that we must learn to accelerate the development of exemplary leadership and show the best strategies to do so, as well as exhibit a high Return on Development (R.O.D.) investment.

The GLI would like to thank the following summit sponsors: The Gallup Organization, The University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership - U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Institute for Leadership Research at Texas Tech University, and Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College.

Summit 2006 Flyer

The primary goal of the 2007 Gallup Leadership Summer Institute (GLSI) was to stimulate the leadership development of African American student leaders. The GLSI began with the understanding that leadership development fundamentally involves the exploration of leadership capacities that can be developed and managed in ways that enhance the performance of individuals, groups and organizations. Therefore, the program focused on developing students to have a better understanding of their own leadership capabilities and how to apply that understanding to become more effective leaders. The GLSI provided each participant a learning-rich environment that not only promoted the development of their own leadership, but also prepared participants to help facilitate the development of leadership in others. The GLSI was a time to learn with each other and challenge others’ assumptions about what leadership means.

The stated goals of the GLSI were achieved by focusing on 6 primary developmental objectives. The developmental objectives included the following: developing self-awareness, identifying personal strengths, redefining core assumptions regarding leadership and team building, developing a global lens for thinking about leadership challenges, and enhancing individual positive psychological capacities. A secondary program objective included a component on the importance of graduate education. Each of the focal areas was addressed by a series of interactive presentations, reflective exercises and problem-solving activities where application of the learned material could be crystallized.

The GLSI was supported by a number of organizations that included State Farm Insurance, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Office of Graduate Studies, The Gallup Organization, Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, the College of Business at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Gallup Leadership Institute. Student participants represented various historically black colleges and universities from across the country. The leadership experience lasted 6 days.

GLSI

This study surveyed the perceptions and experiences of the workforce in primarily mid-sized organizations in New Zealand in order to determine: the levels of Authentic Leadership in New Zealand, the levels of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) of the New Zealand workforce, the leadership impact on the New Zealand workforce, and the inter-relationship of these three elements. The study used three main research tools: an Authentic Leadership survey of 16 items, a PsyCap survey of 12 items and a Leadership Impact survey of 5 items as well as 13 demographic items. The Authentic Leadership survey was distributed in mid-2006, covering the working population of New Zealand. Completed surveys were returned by confidential mail to The University of Auckland Business School with a 32.16% response rate. Bruce Avolio visited New Zealand this fall to brief senior level government and industry leaders on the findings from this poll study.

Levy, Dr. Lester and Mark Bentley. More ‘Right’ than ‘Real’: The Shape of Authentic Leadership in New Zealand. Authentic Leadership Survey Results 2007. Pg. 9-17.

Research at Lincoln Plating was among the first studies examining the development of our measure of Psychological Ownership. Drs. Avolio, Avey, Crossley, and Luthans were involved in conducting on-site research on psychological ownership and subsequently publishing the findings in the Journal of Organizational Behavior. Secondary investigations at Lincoln Plating included understanding how leadership styles can enable employee ownership. In addition, determining the role that feelings of ownership play in employee performance is was investigated. Overall, evidence suggests that followers of transformational leaders tend to report higher feelings of ownership in their organization and have subsequent higher performance.

The Boeing Company's commercial airplane systems engineering division implemented a leadership scorecard which includes much of our work in positive psychological capital and psychological ownership. This research partnership began fall 2007 and data collected at multiple levels of leadership once per quarter. This partnership was very exciting given that from it we were able to conduct longitudinal studies examining how our measures predict performance in this very important manufacturing organization.

The Virtual Team website was developed as part of an NSF grant, in collaboration with Penn State and SUNY-Binghamton. The website serves as a platform where GLI can conduct research on virtual teams in a controlled environment. Designed to be extremely flexible and powerful, yet intuitive to use, it will serve as a research platform for many years to come. Thus far, the website has been used in conjunction with out MBA/MA program in executive leadership for the last several cohorts in our program. In addition, we are in discussions to use the website with additional organizations, which are launching new virtual teams.

This study aimed to test a model of authentic leadership and follower outcomes using data collected from 320 employees of a state corrections department. The study will be the first to test multiple mediational and performance outcome variables in the authentic leadership model and is part of a larger funded project being conducted with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC).

This is the National Institute of Corrections & GLI collaboration (Amount $152,550) on three studies involving participants in NIC’s Management Development for the Future (MDF) mid-level manager leader development program. Participants in the MDF program underwent three, 3-day training sessions which occur six months apart. All MDF programs involved 360-degree ratings of leadership prior to each 3-day training session. Overall, the collaboration with NIC involved three different longitudinal studies where each study took approximately 14-18 months to complete.

(1) MDF I - Bureau of Prisons (2006-2007). This study looks at leader authenticity and components of authentic leadership (e.g., leader efficacy, psychological capital, and ethical leadership) and how these variables affect leader and follower performance. Participants are a national sample of leaders from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

(2) MDF II - Wyoming Department of Corrections (2006-2007). This study is intended to test the Authentic Leadership Model presented by Avolio & Luthans (2003). This sample of leaders is specific to the Wyoming Department of Corrections. GLI worked with NIC and Wyoming Department of Corrections (WDOC) to assess the impact of the MDF program for mid-level managers throughout the state department of corrections (i.e., administration, jails, prisons and probation/parole). This study involved 30 managers who underwent three, 3-day training sessions 6 months apart and 30 comparison managers who are not undergoing training. Membership in intervention and control groups was determined via random assignment. This study attempted to test the impact of authentic leadership on followers’ performance.

(3) MDF III - Bureau of Prisons (2007-2008). This is a national sample from the Federal Bureau of Prisons—similar to the first study (MDF I). This study continued looking at components of Authentic Leadership specifically focusing on the effects of leader self-awareness and positive resources (Psychological Capital).

GLI was working with Unilever on a funded project for $53,957 to perform a first official pilot project linking Global People Survey (GPS) results to business performance in order to produce a simplified survey model, focusing on the key indicators to performance (“Linkage Research”). Unilever did this advanced Linkage Research in partnership with GLI, who has copyright on a few of the critical components of the Global People Survey which are (1) the Authentic Leadership Scale, (2) the Transformational Leadership Scale and the (3) Psychological Capital Scale. GLI provided support in using more advanced analytical research tools in the study. This project included data from ~100 countries.

The NELI program was coordinated by GLI in the College of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The primary goal of the program was to enhance the leadership capabilities of each participant, as well as their collective leadership; in this case, primarily principals and similar level administrators in the Nebraska educational system. This program goal was to enhance the self-awareness, ethical behavior, transparency, and positive psychological capacities (i.e. authentic leadership and “PsyCap”) of educational leaders. This created an environment where, not only the leaders, but also those connected to them elevate their performance and commitment to enhance the full potential and success of their respective organizations and institutions. The ultimate goal was to work with our partners around the state to positively impact the entire leadership system in Nebraska’s public education sector. Since the beginning of NELI in 2003, the program reached more than 70 schools, 83 school principles, 15 superintendents, and 2 school system administrators.

The program achieved many successes in its fourth year including: very positive responses concerning the proactive coaching model with participants in small teams guided by school administrative leaders (i.e., superintendents), positive feedback from participants after each session about its impact on their leadership development, and participants’ individualized leadership development plans demonstrated a focused interest and effort on having a positive impact in their respective schools.

Each NELI participant completed an individual leadership development plan. The themes that emerged from the plans feed into two categories: contextual challenges and leadership goals. Overall, NELI participants seemed to have a broad range of issues and personal leadership development goals related to learning and applying strengths.

ANZ is one of the largest financial institutions in Australia and New Zealand. We currently have two research projects taking place with ANZ through GLI doctoral graduate, Dr. James Avey with Central Washington University. First, a PsyCap developmental intervention is being implemented for bank/branch employees targeting the development of PsyCap in the domain of customer service and internal referrals (a large piece of revenue for the organization). This intervention includes measurement of PsyCap across time for both treatment and control groups. Preliminary results as of 10-24-07 suggest that (1) the intervention increased PsyCap for the treatment group and not the control group (2) subsequent performance is increased (3) and those employees who report having a more supportive leader increase PsyCap more than those with a less supportive leader.

The second project in partnership with ANZ is a tiered coaching intervention for PsyCap. Specifically, managers in ANZ are being trained on how to coach their employees in such a way that would increased their employees PsyCap for sales (this is a sales division). Data collection has not commenced.