Social Ties or Nature: The Effect of Social Ties on Self-leadership of Gray-collar Workers

Abstract

Leadership is a social phenomenon. Therefore, it has to be examined according to its social context. The point to be underlined by the social context is the social network in which the leader emerges. Considering the studies, the social network side of leadership is relatively ignored comparing with sociometric studies. In that sense, the aim of this study is to reveal whether there is a relationship between the positions of the military personnel, who are defined as one of the gray-collar working groups in the literature, within the social network mechanisms of which they are members, and their self-leadership perceptions. To answer the question, a self-leadership scale was applied to 69 gray-collar employees working in a military unit and network analyses were performed. According to results, there is a strong, positive and significant relationship between the network mechanism centrality criteria indegree, reach centrality and closeness and the self-leadership perceptions of individuals. In addition, there was no significant relationship between eigenvector centrality and honest brokerage, which are among the network mechanism criteria, and the actors’ self-leadership perceptions. The study has aimed at accenting and adding different perspectives to the leadership studies and gray-collar literature.

Citation

Fayganoğlu, P., Fayganoğlu, K. and Yalçın, R.C. (2023), "Social Ties or Nature: The Effect of Social Ties on Self-leadership of Gray-collar Workers", Paliszkiewicz, J. and Varoğlu, D. (Ed.) Management and Organizational Studies on Blue- and Gray-collar Workers: Diversity of Collars (International Perspectives on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 8), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 119-138. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-233320230000008013