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Leadership in applied psychology: Three waves of theory and research
Open accessAbstract
Although in the early years of the Journal leadership research was rare and focused primarily on traits differentiating leaders from nonleaders, subsequent to World War II the research area developed in 3 major waves of conceptual, empirical, and methodological advances: (a) behavioral and attitude research; (b) behavioral, social-cognitive, and contingency research; and (c) transformational, social exchange, team, and gender-related research. Our review of this work shows dramatic increases in sophistication from early research focusing on personnel issues associated with World War I to contemporary multilevel models and meta-analyses on teams, shared leadership, leader-member exchange, gender, ethical, abusive, charismatic, and transformational leadership. Yet, many of the themes that characterize contemporary leadership research were also present in earlier research. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Metadata
- Authors
- Lord, R. G., Day, D. V., Zaccaro, S. J., Avolio, B. J., & Eagly, A. H.
- Affiliations
- Durham University (GB)
- Claremont McKenna College (US)
- George Mason University (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Northwestern University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lord, Robert G.
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Psychology
- Published
- 2017
- Volume
- 102
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 434-451
- ISSN
- 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1854
- OpenAlex
- W2582495316
- Cited by
- 461
- References
- 211
- Citations by year
- 2026: 35 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 65 · 2021: 60 · 2020: 93 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 12
- FWCI
- 91.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (acceptedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Leadership and Management in Organizations
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Employee Performance and Leadership
- Keywords
- leadership, history of leadership research, transformational leadership, social exchange theory, team leadership, shared leadership, leader-member exchange, gender and leadership, abusive leadership, charismatic leadership, ethical leadership, contingency theory, multilevel models, meta-analysis
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Leadership, Psychological Theory, Psychology, Applied, Research, History, 20th Century, History, 21st Century
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