The contested nature of political leadership in the European Union: conceptual and methodological cross-fertilisation

Abstract

European leaders have struggled to find common responses to the polycrisis the EU is facing. This crisis of leadership makes it urgent that scholars provide a better understanding of the role and impact of leadership in EU politics and policy making. This article prepares the ground for a collection of contributions that addresses this need by strengthening old and building new bridges between the academic domains of European studies and leadership studies. It opens with a discussion of the contested concept of leadership in the context of the European polity and politics, challenging the conventional view that leadership is necessarily a matter of hierarchy. Moreover, it argues that rather than leaderless, the EU is an intensely ‘leaderful’ polity. Subsequently, this introduction identifies four key debates in contemporary EU leadership research and discusses the value and insights the contributions in this special issue bring to these debates.     

Recasting Leadership Reform in Australian Local Government: A Typology from Political Theory

Changes to elected leadership in Australian local government have seen greater authority assigned to mayors in several jurisdictions. A Discussion Paper recently released under the auspices of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government (ACELG) has recommended further reforms, arguing inter alia that mayors ought to enjoy a personal mandate and a stronger strategic role. This paper places these suggested reforms into context by developing a typology of local government leadership from political theory. We argue that this quadrilateral typology provides a critical portrait of recommendations for stronger leadership which, in this instance, have been transposed from two unitary systems of government (England and New Zealand) to the Australian federal system, without due consideration of the literature examining stronger mayoral roles. It is argued that caution should be exercised when redrafting legislation governing mayoral authority, a process presently underway in New South Wales (NSW).     

Reframing the role of Australian mayors: an update and rejoinder to Grant,Dollery and Kortt (2016)

Recent moves for local government reform in several states of Australia have focused in part on a perceived need for more effective civic leadership, and in particular the role of mayors. Proposed legislation in New South Wales and Victoria would expand the responsibilities of mayors in several areas, such as community engagement, partnerships with key stakeholders, strategic planning and providing guidance to the chief executive officer. In 2012 the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (ACELG) published a discussion paper that canvassed these issues as well as the way in which mayors are elected. That paper elicited a strongly adverse critique by Grant, Dollery and Kortt, now published as an article in this issue of Local Government Studies. Regrettably their critique failed to offer a constructive contribution to the debate sought by ACELG, and the article contains a number of significant errors and misleading statements that demand a response.     

真实型领导对员工幸福感的影响研究——自我效能感与工作和家庭真实性的链式中介

员工的工作幸福感不仅对提高组织绩效至关重要,更有助于经济和社会的可持续发展.研究从依恋理论、社会学习理论等视角,构建并验证了真实型领导影响员工幸福感的链式中介模型,具体包括:自我效能感在真实型领导与员工幸福感之间的中介作用,工作和家庭真实性在真实型领导与员工幸福感之间的中介作用,以及自我效能感与工作和家庭真实性在真实型...     

An empirical research on the leadership and effectiveness in public healthcare organizations： Lesson from transition economy

The aim of the paper is to examine leadership at the level of CEOs and effectiveness in healthcare setting. Previous studies suggest that there is relationship between leadership style, situation and circumstances. The relationship between leadership and performance is probably not straightforward and may be influenced by both environmental and contextual factors, yet no irrefutable support on this assumption can be found. In our paper we examine relationships between leadership, environment, organizational context and effectiveness in Polish healthcare organizations. Multifactor leadership questionnaire which has been used in a great number of researches relating to the public sector on leadership was employed in this research. Implications for practitioners and policy makers are given.     

新时代劳模思想政治引领作用探析

劳模精神是引领广大职工和全国人民拼搏奋斗的强大精神动力,劳动模范是加强和改进思想政 治工作的重要力量。如何充分发挥劳模的思想政治引领作用,对于做好新时代思想政治工作意义重大。研究认 为,发挥新时代劳模的思想政治引领作用,必须做到：切实加强党的领导,确保劳模思想政治引领的正确方向; 发挥劳动模范在思想政治引领中的主体作用;创新劳模思想政治引领的方法和手段;更好地发挥劳模和工匠人 才创新工作室的阵地作用;建立和完善劳模思想政治引领的教育培养机制;切实做好劳模思想政治引领工作的 制度保证。     

论隋诗在诗歌发展史上的价值

南北诗风的融合是南北朝诗歌向唐代诗歌发展的总趋势 ,而隋诗则是该阶段的重要一环。隋前期北方诗人的崛起 ,使得南北朝以来北方诗歌首次在诗坛占据主导地位。更值得注意的是 ,这时的诗歌创作在刚健厚重中融入了南方诗歌的精巧流丽。隋后期由于大批南人北上 ,因而出现了南朝诗风的复归。但这并不是简单的重复 ,而是在保持浮靡清丽本色的同时也融入了北方诗歌的阔大沉厚。“北人学南”、“南人学北”,正是这种双向交流 ,推动着诗歌朝着南北诗风融合的方向发展     

明末通俗小说刊刻中心的迁移与小说风格的转变

明代万历以后,通俗小说的刊刻中心逐渐从福建建阳转移到江苏苏州,再从江苏苏州转移到浙江杭州.由于迁移过程与文人加入通俗小说的创作、刊刻队伍有关,因此这一迁移直接带来了通俗小说尤其是白话短篇小说不断雅化的风格转变.     

转型期我国的行政领导权威形态分析

我国正处在由传统农业社会向现代化工业社会发展的转型期 ,以人民代表大会制度为核心的社会主义的根本政治制度 ,确立了法理型行政领导权威的主导形态地位。传统与现代的二元性导致行政领导实践中形成了传统型权威、超凡魅力型权威和法理型权威并存的复杂格局。随着经济、社会的变革 ,这种格局将发生跟进式演变 ,法理型权威必将成为主导趋势     

An Exploratory Study of Youth Mentoring in an Urban Context: Adolescents' Perceptions of Relationship Styles

The goal of this study was to empirically distinguish a range of mentor relationships and to evaluate their differential influence on adolescent outcomes. The study makes use of data that were collected as part of a national evaluation of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. The evaluation included 1138 youth, ranging in age from 10 through 16 (M=12.25), who were assigned randomly to either a mentoring relationship or a control group and followed for 18 months. A series of analyses, based on the matched youth's accounts of the relationships, suggested 4 distinct types of relationships (i.e., moderate, unconditionally supportive, active, and low-key). The 4 groups tended to distinguish themselves from one another on the basis of perceived support, structure, and activity. Relative to the controls, youth who characterized their mentor relationships as providing moderate levels of both activity and structure and conditional support derived the largest number of benefits from the relationships. These included improvements in social, psychological, and academic outcomes. Implications of the findings for research and intervention are discussed.