COURSE LITERATURE
Leadership & Management Course Premaster 2021-2022
Week 2: Motivation
Stam, D., van Knippenberg, D., Wisse, B., & Nederveen Pieterse, A. (2018). Motivation in
words: Promotion-and prevention-oriented leader communication in times of crisis. Journal
of Management, 44, 2859-2887.
Sheeran, P., Webb, T. L., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2005). The interplay between goal intentions
and implementation intentions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 87-98.
Week 3: Creativity & Innovation
Volmer, J., Spurk, D., & Niessen, C. (2012). Leader–member exchange (LMX), job autonomy,
and creative work involvement. The Leadership Quarterly, 23, 456-465.
Janssen, O. (2000). Job demands, perceptions of effort‐reward fairness and innovative work
behaviour. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 73, 287-302.
Week 4: Stress & Occupational Health
De Hoogh, A. H., & Den Hartog, D. N. (2009). Neuroticism and locus of control as moderators
of the relationships of charismatic and autocratic leadership with burnout. Journal of Applied
Psychology, 94, 1058-1067.
Kinnunen, U., Rantanen, J., de Bloom, J., Mauno, S., Feldt, T., & Korpela, K. (2016). The role
of work–nonwork boundary management in work stress recovery. International Journal of
Stress Management, 23, 99-123.
Week 5: Decision Making & Work in the Digital Age
Hammond, J. S., Keeney, R. L., & Raiffa, H. (1998). The hidden traps in decision making.
Harvard business review, 76, 47-58.
Week 6: Proactive Behavior
Den Hartog, D. N., & Belschak, F. D. (2012). When does transformational leadership enhance
employee proactive behavior? The role of autonomy and role breadth self-efficacy. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 97, 194-202
Grant, A. M., Parker, S., & Collins, C. (2009). Getting credit for proactive behavior: Supervisor
reactions depend on what you value and how you feel. Personnel Psychology, 62, 31-55.
,Week 2: Motivation
Stam, D., van Knippenberg, D., Wisse, B., & Nederveen Pieterse, A. (2018). Motivation in
words: Promotion-and prevention-oriented leader communication in times of crisis.
Journal of Management, 44, 2859-2887.
Based on regulatory focus theory, we argue that times of crisis make leaders who use more
promotion-oriented communication more likely to be endorsed and leaders who use more
prevention-oriented communication less likely to be endorsed.
1. Results of Study 1, an archival study of U.S. presidents, show that presidents who use
more promotion-oriented communication are more endorsed but only if economic
growth is low or if inflation is high, while no effects of the use of prevention
orientation of communication surfaces.
2. Results of Study 2, a laboratory experiment, show that leaders who communicate a
promotion orientation, as compared to a prevention orientation, motivate higher
performance in participants in a crisis condition, but that there is no difference in a
no-crisis (i.e. control) condition.
3. Finally, results of Study 3, a scenario experiment, demonstrate that organizational
leaders that communicate more promotion-oriented (as opposed to more
prevention-oriented) have a higher chance of being endorsed but only in times of
crisis and that this effect is mediated by followers’ motivation to realize the plans of
the leader.
Research demonstrates that situational uncertainty or crisis strongly influences the
endorsement of the more charismatic or decisive leadership styles and that inspirational
communication is at the heart of these styles. However, there is little understanding of what
makes leader communication predictive of support in times of crisis. It is not clear what
leaders should communicate in order to be endorsed in difficult times.
We argue that regulatory focus of leader communication, which we refer to as regulatory
orientation, is an important determinant of leadership endorsement during crisis.
Studies on the role of regulatory focus in leadership mostly seem to focus on regulatory fit
effects. Followers may perceive a leader as effective and motivating when the regulatory
orientation of the leader’s communication fits followers’ regulatory focus. Some researchers
have speculated that leaders who use prevention-orientated communication may be
especially endorsed in times of crisis because the negative affect and uncertainty associated
with crisis induce a prevention focus in followers and prevention-orientated leader
communication sustains a prevention focus.
In the current research, we challenge this idea.
We acknowledge that the uncertainty and negative feelings engendered by crises may
induce a prevention focus in individuals, but we argue (based on the regulatory focus
literature) that fit caused by prevention-orientated communication during crisis serves to
intensify the uncertainty and negative feelings related to the crisis. This will lead to less
motivation, less leader endorsement. Regulatory misfit caused by promotion-orientated
communication serves to disrupt the uncertainty and negative feelings related to the crisis,
increasing motivation and endorsement.
We propose that in times of crisis, leader endorsement is contingent on promotion-
orientated communication.
, Leader endorsement: voluntary acceptance of and cooperation with a leader (voting for a
leader, contributing to a leader’s plans, etc). Leader endorsement is a crucial precursor of
leader effectiveness.
We consider crises as events that are associated with intense feelings of negative affect
regarding the situation and strong feelings of uncertainty regarding the future.
What should a leader do to be accepted as a leader and to motivate others to cooperate in
order to overcome those turbulent times?
There is currently no understanding of what leaders should actually communicate to be
endorsed in times of crisis.
Self-regulatory focus theory posits that two strategic inclinations of self-regulation play a key
role in directing behavior.
Promotion-focused: tendency to aim for reaching an end-state because the end-state is
desirable.
Prevention focus: tendency to aim for reaching an end-state because of fear of an
undesirable alternative.
Transformational leadership (in case of promotion) and transactional leadership (in case of
prevention).
Regulatory fit theory: proposes that individuals will pursue goals that sustain their regulatory
focus more fervently than goals that do not sustain it.
Regulatory fit effects also hold for leader-follower interactions. Promotion focused
individuals endorse leaders who communicate a promotion orientation, while prevention-
focused individuals endorse leaders who communicate a prevention focus.
Crises may induce a prevention focus in followers. Some researchers assume that in crisis
situations, prevention-orientated leader communication creates fit and subsequently leads
to more endorsement than promotion-orientated leadership.
Other leadership scholars have suggested that in times of crisis, followers are especially
open to leadership that focuses on hope and faith in a positive future.
Hypothesis 1: crisis moderates the relationship between prevention orientation of the
communication of the leader and the leader’s endorsement by followers such that this
relationship is more negative the more followers experience crisis.
No evidence found to support this hypothesis.
Hypothesis 2: crisis moderates the relationship between the promotion orientation of the
communication of the leader and the leader’s endorsement by followers such that this
relationship is more positive the more followers experience crisis.
Hypothesis supported.
Hypothesis 3: crisis moderates the relationship between the prevention orientation of the
communication of the leader and follower’s motivation to realize the leader’s plans such
that this relationship is more negative the more followers experience crisis.
No evidence found to support this hypothesis.
Hypothesis 4: crisis moderates the relationship between the promotion orientation of the
communication of the leader and follower’s motivation to realize the leader’s plans such
that this relationship is more positive the more followers experience this crisis.
Hypothesis supported.