Leader Profiles and Their Effectiveness on Employees’ Outcomes

An underlying premise of the transformational–transactional leadership theory is that different forms of leadership can reside simultaneously within the same individual. This fundamental hypothesis has received scarce attention in the empirical literature. The objectives of this study are thus to examine whether leader profiles combining these leadership forms do exist and to evaluate how these profiles are associated with specific employee attitudes and behaviors. Results obtained from two different samples using cluster analyses revealed six different leader profiles (i.e., superleaders, transactors, moderate leaders, distant-visionary, distant-rewarding, and distant-punitive leaders). Our results showed that these types of leaders differ in terms of employees’ perceptions of trust, justice, and commitment, as well as supervisor-rated in-role and contextual performance. Results and implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Albert le Grand: De ce qui vient avant la logique

Le premier tractatus du commentaire d'Albert le Grand à l'Isagoge de Porphyre consiste en une manière de proème ou d'introduction à l'ensemble de la logique. Comme la plupart des textes d'Albert le Grand, ce traité est d'une très grande richesse, qu'atténuent toutefois son manque d'ordre et son obscurité d'expression. Étant donné que les aspects fondamentaux de la logique y sont touchés—son statut scientifique et philosophique, son utilité, son sujet, sa division, sa relation aux sciences du langage, etc.—, ce petit ouvrage est du plus haut intérêt pour quiconque cherche à mieux comprendre la logique et la philosophie de la logique du XIII^e siècle. L'auteur présente ici une traduction annotée et expliquée de ce texte difficile, faite d'après la version provisoire de la nouvelle édition de Cologne. Le relevé des sources principales de l'ouvrage révèle, sur un fond aristotélicien permanent, une forte influence des traités logiques arabes nouvellement arrivés en Occident.

The first tractatus of Albert the Great's commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge consists of a kind of proem or introduction to the whole of logic. As most of Albert the Great's texts, this tract is of great richness, though it lacks order and is sometimes obscure. Since the fundamental themes of logic are addressed therein—its scientific and philosophical status, its utility, its subject, its division, its relation to the linguistic arts, etc.—, this small work is of high interest for anyone trying to better understand thirteenth-century logic and philosophy of logic. The author presents a translation of this difficult text, made after a preliminary version of the new critical edition and enriched with an introduction and explanatory notes. The survey of the main sources of the tract reveals, apart from a permanent artistotelian background, the strong influence of the Arabic logical treatises which were then coming in the Western world.     

Exploring the black box of the contingent reward leadership–performance relationship: The role of perceived justice and emotional exhaustion

Using data collected from three different sources (N = 294), we examined a model in which perceived organizational justice (distributive, procedural, and interactional) and emotional exhaustion mediate the relationship between contingent reward leadership (CRL) and two performance indicators, namely organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB) and absenteeism. We found that procedural justice mediates the negative relationship between CRL and emotional exhaustion while controlling for work overload and transformational leadership. We also found that emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role in the relationship between two dimensions of justice (procedural and interactional) and both OCB and absenteeism. Interactional justice and distributive justice were also directly linked to OCB. Implications of these findings for research on leadership, psychological health, and organizational justice are discussed.     

Associations of Mother’s and Father’s Parenting Practices with Children’s Observed Social Reticence in a Competitive Situation: A Monozygotic Twin Difference Study

This study used the monozygotic (MZ) twin difference method to examine whether the unique environmental effects of maternal and paternal overprotection and hostility at the age of 30 months predict twins’ observed social reticence in a competitive situation in kindergarten, while controlling for the effect of family-wide influences, including genetic and shared environmental factors, family socio-economical status and twin’s birth weight. It was also examined whether these associations are moderated by parental depressive symptoms. Participants were 137 MZ twin pairs who were part of an ongoing longitudinal study. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that differences in maternal and paternal overprotection predicted differences in twins’ social reticence, albeit only in boys. Differences in paternal hostile parenting predicted differences in girls’ reticent behavior, but only when fathers showed high levels of depressive symptoms. Hence, overprotected boys, as well as girls confronted with father’s hostility and depressive symptoms, may tend to withdraw rather than face the challenge when experiencing difficult social situations such as competition. The results from the present study suggest that targeting maladaptive maternal as well as paternal child-rearing practices and psychopathology early on may be useful for reducing later internalizing behavior in the offspring.     

The effect of path length and display size on memory for spatial information

In serial memory for spatial information, some studies showed that recall performance suffers when the distance between successive locations increases relatively to the size of the display in which they are presented (the path length effect; e.g., Parmentier et al., 2005) but not when distance is increased by enlarging the size of the display (e.g., Smyth & Scholey, 1994). In the present study, we examined the effect of varying the absolute and relative distance between to-be-remembered items on memory for spatial information. We manipulated path length using small (15″) and large (64″) screens within the same design. In two experiments, we showed that distance was disruptive mainly when it is varied relatively to a fixed reference frame, though increasing the size of the display also had a small deleterious effect on recall. The insertion of a retention interval did not influence these effects, suggesting that rehearsal plays a minor role in mediating the effects of distance on serial spatial memory. We discuss the potential role of perceptual organization in light of the pattern of results.     

Disruption of verbal-spatial serial memory by extraneous air-traffic speech

The disruptive impact of task-extraneous air-traffic radio speech on a task involving the serial-recall of combined verbal and spatial stimuli (7 letters and their locations) that were broadly analogous to information about aircraft callsigns and movements was examined. Regardless of the dimension to be recalled (identity or spatial location), accuracy was significantly disrupted by the air-traffic speech. Prior knowledge as to which dimension to recall did not affect accuracy and did not interact with the disruptive effect of air-traffic speech, but did extend the time to initiate a response to the first item. The results are discussed with reference to theories of the irrelevant sound effect and stimulus-dimension binding in short-term memory. The vulnerability of cognitive processing related to air-traffic management and similar work environments is also discussed.     

A Dual Route in Explaining Health Outcomes in Natural Disaster1

Human beings seem to be resilient and have a great capacity to overcome adverse circumstances. One apparent variable that may predict people's emotional and physical health after a trauma is their general level of psychological well‐being ( McMillen, Smith, & Fisher, 1997 ). The current study explores the role of subjective vitality and the perception of stress as mediators between general life satisfaction and post‐trauma physiological and psychological health related to the Canadian 1998 Ice Storm. Results of this dual route indicate that satisfaction with life positively predicted subjective vitality and negatively predicted perceived stress. In turn, subjective vitality lead to lower levels of ill‐health, whereas perception of stress lead to higher levels of physical symptoms and depression.     

Interrelations between maternal smoking during pregnancy,birth weight and sociodemographic factors in the prediction of early cognitive abilities

Maternal prenatal smoking, birth weight and sociodemographic factors were investigated in relation to cognitive abilities of 1544 children (aged 3.5 years) participating in the Québec Longitudinal Study of Children's Development. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was used to assess verbal ability, the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence‐Revised (WPPSI‐R) block design test to assess visuospatial ability, and the Visually Cued Recall (VCR) task to assess short‐term memory. Prenatal smoking was related to performance on the WPPSI‐R, the PPVT, and the VCR, although it did not independently predict any cognitive ability after maternal education was taken into account. Birth weight was a more robust predictor of all outcome measures and independently predicted VCR‐performance. Birth weight interacted significantly with family income and maternal education in predicting visuospatial ability, indicating a greater influence of birth weight under relatively poor socio‐economic conditions. Parenting and family functioning mediated associations between maternal education/family income and cognitive task performance under different birth weight conditions, although there were indications for stronger effects under relatively low birth weight. We conclude that investigations of moderating and mediating effects can provide insights into which children are most at risk of cognitive impairment and might benefit most from interventions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The predictive power of first-grade peer and teacher ratings of behavior: Sex differences in antisocial behavior and personality at adolescence

Peer and teacher assessments of aggression, social withdrawal, and likability using the Pupil Evaluation Inventory were recorded for 104 French Canadian girls and boys in grade 1. Self-reported delinquency and personality measures were administered to these children when they were in junior high school 7 years later. Linear regression analyses revealed significant predictive differences between the grade 1 assessment of girls and boys: For antisocial behavior, teacher and peer assessments of boys were equally good predictors, and the combination of the two assessments did not improve prediction; for girls, peer and teacher assessments taken separately were weak predictors, but, taken together, they were better predictors for girls than for boys; for personality, peers were better predictors than teachers both for girls and for boys. When categorical analyses were used to predict extreme antisocial behavior, peer and teacher assessments were equally good predictors for girls and boys. The use of peer and teacher ratings together, however, decreased the number of false positives. The implications of these findings for research and clinical work are discussed.     

Programme de prévention des toxicomanies en milieu scolaire

Cet article présente les résultats à court terme d'un programme de prévention des toxicomanies auprès de filles avec et sans difficultés d'adaptation sociale. Le programme de prévention est une adaptation du Life Skills Training de Botvin et coll. Il comporte deux phases et est étalé sur deux années. Chaque phase est composée d'ateliers de formation aux habiletés personnelles et sociales. Le programme comporte aussi un système de renforcement au sein des ateliers et des activités complémentaires à l'extérieur des ateliers. Soixante et onze filles de 11–12 ans ont participé au programme de prévention lorsqu'elles étaient en 5e et 6e année d'école primaire. Vingt-sept autres filles ont uniquement participé aux séances d'évaluation (i.e. prétest et post-test) et composaient un groupe de contrôle. Une partie des filles dans chaque condition éprouvait des difficultés d'adaptation sociale (i.e. troubles du comportement et rejet par les pairs) et une partie n'éprouvait pas de telles difficultés. Les résultats montrent que le programme de prévention a influencé les connaissances au sujet de la cigarette, les attitudes vis-à-vis la cigarette et la marijuana ainsi que la consommation d'alcool et de marijuana. Ces résultats s'appliquent autant aux filles avec des difficultés d'adaptation qu'à celles sans difficultés d'adaptation. La discussion souligne les avantages et les limites de cette expérimentation.