Testing the Influence of Autocratic Leadership,Democratic Leadership,and Public Service Motivation on Citizen Ratings of An Agency Head’s Performance

Abstract

Research is lacking concerning the impact of leadership styles on citizen attitudes toward the performance of government leaders. To address this gap, an online experimental survey was conducted to determine the effect of leadership styles on respondents’ perceptions regarding a fictitious superintendent’s performance in a school district. The results demonstrate that democratic leadership practices enhanced the performance reviews of the superintendent, while autocratic leadership practices decreased them. Respondents’ level of public service motivation (PSM) was also found to have a positive effect on the superintendent’s performance ratings. Furthermore, democratic leadership style moderated the relationship between PSM and the performance ratings assigned by respondents. In particular, individuals with high PSM rated the performance of democratic leaders higher as compared to individuals with low PSM. However, autocratic leadership was not found to moderate the relationship between PSM and the superintendent’s performance. These results are thoroughly discussed in the paper.     

Perception of societal influence among civil society leaders – an elite perspective

ABSTRACT

This article explores the perception of societal influence of civil society leaders based on a survey study conducted in 2017 among leaders of Swedish civil society organizations. Civil society leaders represent organizations that are often based on and guided by religious, political, or cultural values and that often strive to achieve some sort of social change. To exercise influence on society is thus a crucial feature of civil society leaders. Drawing on elite theories, the article seeks to explain differences in the perception of influence by looking at the following factors: (1) personal qualities and resources such as age, gender, country of birth, education, and working experiences, (2) social networks and contacts with representatives of different institutions (media, government, etc.), and (3) organizational position and resources, including relations with public authorities. The analysis shows that two out of three surveyed leaders perceive they have great influence in society concerning the issues they work with. Among the factors explaining the perception of influence, we find being a leader of an organization at the regional level, being of older age, having leading representatives of the media in one’s personal network, and stating that one has great influence over the organization one leads.     

Neville Laski,Anglo-Jewry and the crises of the 1930s

ABSTRACT

Neville Laski, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews from 1932 to 1939, led Anglo-Jewry through the most challenging period in its modern history. Internally, the community was deeply divided, with half a century of mass immigration placing great strain on its pre-existing structures and institutions, and particularly the traditional elites who controlled them. Externally, it faced the unprecedented threat of an emerging domestic fascist movement, while also dealing with the consequences of growing antisemitic persecution in continental Europe. Despite playing a leading role in responding to these developments, Laski has received remarkably little attention from historians. Where he has, the consensus is that he failed to rise to the challenges of the 1930s, acting as an impediment to internal reform and remaining complacent and ineffective in his response to antisemitism. Drawing on a range of contemporary sources, Tilles’s article offers a comprehensive reassessment of Laski’s role. It argues that he acted as a transitional figure between the rule of the old, anglicized elites and the new immigrant community, seeking to balance the demands of competing factions. Meanwhile, his defence policy against antisemitism was not only active and effective, but eventually saw all major sections of Anglo-Jewry unite behind his leadership in this area.     

The Disappearance of Political Cultures in Italy

Abstract

Following the collapse of the Italian party system in 1994, post-war Italian political cultures have all but exhausted themselves, if not disappeared completely. First, the Ulivo (Olive Tree) in 1996–1998, then, the Partito Democratico in 2007–2008, attempted without much conviction to formulate a new political culture combining several traditions and heritages. This article will explore how and why the PD failed in its attempts. It will also look at the status of other political cultures, especially the federalist and the liberal, supposedly relaunched by Berlusconi in 1994. It will conclude with some reflections on the appearance of personalist parties and leaders’ narratives and provide an assessment of the present situation with specific reference to the attempt by the PD leader, Matteo Renzi, to give birth to a so-called ‘Partito della Nazione’. Is there any future for new political cultures in the Italian political system? Will the Italian party system ever be revived?     

Rural economies and leadership change in Central Asia

ABSTRACT

This article applies a political economy approach to questions of presidential succession in Central Asia. Using the cases of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, it examines how institutions governing rural economies generate, channel and distribute rents within these authoritarian regimes. In some, these institutions concentrate rents under long-standing rulers; in others they diffuse rents away from rulers. The article then specifies obstacles to leadership change that arise from these rural economies, and the crises those obstacles may pose for authoritarian regimes in the region.     

A new conceptual framework to strengthen internal corporate image: A stakeholder-inclusive perspective

The potential influence that internal stakeholders’ image of the organisation could have on external stakeholders’ image of the organisation, is strongly supported in the literature. This research project attempted to address the need for an approach that facilitates employee engagement, coupled with a leadership approach that allows collaboration, inclusion and cooperation within the organisation, to strengthen internal corporate image. This article reports on the results of the second phase of this research project, where a proposed stakeholder-inclusive conceptual framework for strengthening the internal corporate image, built from a stakeholder-inclusive perspective as depicted in the King III report on corporate governance, was explored in practice. A quantitative, self-administered web-based survey was conducted with the 2014 winners of the Deloitte Best Company to Work For (BCTWF) survey. The results not only indicated that these organisations’ practices resonate with the proposed stakeholder-inclusive framework, but also that the principles of the framework, namely stakeholder theory; integrated internal communication; peace arena; stakeholder engagement by means of the AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard (AA1000SES) and responsible leadership and stewardship correlate with one another. The stakeholder-inclusive conceptual framework expands on the body of knowledge on corporate image and provides corporate communication professionals with a guide for strengthening their organisation’s internal corporate image, which could serve as starting point for strengthening the external corporate image and eventual corporate reputation.     

政治领导与大国崛起安全

道义现实主义国际关系理论的核心原理是:决定大国兴衰的根本原因是大国的政治领导力,其本质是一国政府为适应不断变动的国际国内战略环境而进行改革的方向、决心与能力。根据道义现实主义原理,中国综合国力居世界第二位是中国制定崛起目标和策略的基础,符合国力基础的目标和战略就易于成功,而超越实力基础的目标和战略则会削弱中国的实力。道义现实主义认为,外交承诺与实力保持一致有利于提高国际战略信誉,从而减少国际社会对崛起国的恐惧和反对;为周边国家提供安全保障可获得对崛起国的战略支持;为减少崛起的国际阻力,崛起国应在新兴领域拓展利益范围而尽量避免在传统领域的利益冲突。在信息化时代,在网络空间拓展中国国际战略利益应成为中国主攻方向,网络战略应采取"走出去"原则而非为了安全的防御原则。在外部威胁不足以颠覆中国崛起的情况下,为防止中国的崛起半途夭折的重点将是防范国内的极左陷阱。"台独"正在成为中国崛起面临的首要威胁,中美在南海的战略竞争将长期化,朝鲜拥核是中国的东北亚地区政策无法回避的既成事实。     

Democracy and innovation: from institutions to agency and leadership

Democracies are, by definition, marked by a strong normative commitment to innovation and change, and all democratic regimes must seek to generate innovations both to keep their fundamental promise and to secure their own survival. In response to the latent crisis of representative democracy, recent political research has devoted eager attention to innovating democratic institutions, yet with conspicuously little regard for the likely effects of such reform proposals on the innovation-related performance and innovation capacity of democratic regimes. Indeed, some reform proposals, if implemented, would appear to reduce rather than increase the innovation capacity of representative democracies. Innovation-focused leadership may be able to fill that gap and provide what even the best institutions alone are unable to accomplish. In contrast to recent research on leadership and innovation in the public sector, which tends to centre on forms of collaborative leadership within networks, this article emphasizes the importance of individual leaders, and more specifically of political chief executives whose status and position in the governance process have been significantly enhanced by a combination of different factors. However, while leadership might be the key to democratic political innovation, innovative leadership and institutional engineering remain closely related to one another.     

Communicating authoritarian elite cohesion

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework to analyse the communicative imperatives authoritarian regimes face as a consequence of their self-inflicted opacities. The most important facts about the actors and factors that sustain authoritarian rule are unobservable. To demonstrate their power, authoritarian rulers have to render them visible. They have to dramatize their power and present on the front stage what they want people to know about the backstage of authoritarian politics. We conceptualize the communicative strategies of authoritarian rulers with a focus on the primary existential threats they face: the lateral threats that emanate from within the authoritarian elite. We illustrate dictators’ communicative repertoire with empirical material from communist Cuba from 2006 to 2011, during the critical juncture of leadership transition from Fidel Castro to his brother Raúl.     

Vicarious Trauma in Child Welfare Workers: A Study of Organizational Responses

Child welfare is provided within an organizational context that both supports and thwarts the efforts of workers and administrators to meet the myriad of goals established by federal, state, and local regulation and professional bodies. As the field moves toward trauma-informed services for children and families (Ko et al., 2008 Ko, S. J., Ford, J. D., Kassam-Adams, N., Berkowitz, S. J., Wilson, C., Wong, M., Brymer, M. J., &; Layne, C. M. (2008). Creating trauma-informed systems: Child welfare, education, first responders, healthcare, juvenile justice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39(4), 396–404.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), the effect of trauma on workers has received less agency attention (Middleton &; Potter, 2015 Middleton, J. S., &; Potter, C. C. (2015). Relationship between vicarious traumatization and turnover among child welfare professionals. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 9(2), 195–216.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This exploratory, qualitative study examines the level of knowledge administrators have regarding vicarious trauma and probes the organizational responses of public child welfare agencies to the vicarious trauma experienced by workers.