Competencies measured in assessment centers: Predictors of transformational leadership and leader's effectiveness
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Management, Leadership & Governance |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | Abstract in Scopus |
| Field | Management and administrative |
| Keywords | competencies; achievement orientation; perceived leaders’ effectiveness; leadership emergence; group performance; transformational leadership; assessment center |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The objective of this study is to explore which competencies predict leader effectiveness. Based on theory and job analysis, we observed the effects of five leaders' competencies (achievement orientation, problem analysis and problem solving, social sensitivity, influence, and integrity) on three indicators of effectiveness (perceived leader's effectiveness, leadership emergence, and team performance). Furthermore, we examined whether transformational leadership mediates these effects. We collected the data during an interuniversity student team competition. A total of 57 team leaders and 364 team members participated in the study. At the beginning of the competition, we measured the leaders' competencies through assessment centers. Each leader was assessed by 4 trained assessors in a one day long assessment center consisting of multiple individual and group model situations. After 6 months of teamwork, we measured the perceived leaders' effectiveness, leadership emergence and transformational leadership using questionnaires, and we estimated the teams' performance based on the ranking of the teams in the competition. The results show that leader achievement orientation is a significant predictor of perceived leader effectiveness, leadership emergence and team performance. The other four competencies do not predict leader effectiveness. There is no relation between competencies and transformational leadership; therefore, transformational leadership does not mediate the relation between competencies and effectiveness. The advantages of this study were that we obtained the data regarding the competencies and effectiveness from three different sources and that we measured competencies before the teamwork began. An average of more than 6 subordinates per leader ensures highly reliable evaluations of leaders' transformational leadership, perceived effectiveness and leadership emergence. The results can be applied to leader selection for short-term team projects. |
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