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oa Behoefte aan leiderschap in organisaties: wie heeft het en waarom?
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Gedrag & Organisatie, Volume 17, Issue 3, Sep 2004,
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Abstract
Who needs leadership in organizations and why?
Reinout E. de Vries, Robert A. Roe, Tharsi C.B. Taillieu & Nico J.M. Nelissen, Gedrag & Organisatie, Volume 17, June 2004, nr. 3, pp. 204-226.
Leadership literature most often deals with the leader and his/her effects on the performance and attitudes of employees. In contrast with these so-called leader-centred models, the follower-centred 'need for leadership' model focuses on the employee and his/her needs and wishes towards the leadership role. The model proposes that leadership effects are dependent on an employee's actual need for leadership. This article reviews the research on the effects of need for leadership on various individual and organizational leadership outcomes. Additionally, results of studies on the relative prevalence of various leadership needs – leadership functions that employees do and do not need – and predictors of need for leadership are presented. In particular, the article addresses the extent to which need for leadership is based on situational context or personal characteristics of the employee. Based on the findings presented here, the following is concluded: a) employees most strongly need a leader's 'connecting' function (to arrange things with higher management and to pass on information), b) leaders may have a different perception of employees' need for leadership than employees themselves, and c) need for leadership is mainly predicted by personal characteristics of employees, such as age, education, expertise and personality, and by the perceived style of the leader him-/herself.