Comparing simulation results of leadership style impacts on emergent versus specific task outcomes and required simulation model components

Abstract

The clear specification of leadership efforts spanning levels of analysis has lagged behind leadership research in general. Simulation modeling, such as agent-based modeling, provides research platforms for exploring these interesting issues. This chapter uses agent-based models, along with Dionne and Dionne's (2009) choices of leadership styles, to examine the impact of those styles on the generation of an emergent group resource, context-for-learning (CFL), instead of the specific task outcome (group decision making) described by Dionne and Dionne. Consistent effectiveness is found across leadership styles for workgroups with high and slightly lower initial individual levels of a CFL. A second agent-based model includes the ability of agents to forget previous learned skills and reveals a reduced effectiveness of all leadership styles. However, the effectiveness of the leadership styles differs between the two outcomes (the specific group task model and the emergent group resource model). Reasons for these differences are explored, and implications from the comparisons of the two models are delineated.

Citation

Black, J.A., Oliver, R.L. and Paris, L.D. (2009), "Comparing simulation results of leadership style impacts on emergent versus specific task outcomes and required simulation model components", Yammarino, F.J. and Dansereau, F. (Ed.) Multi-Level Issues in Organizational Behavior and Leadership (Research in Multi-Level Issues, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 271-299. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1475-9144(2009)0000008012