Leadership Studies Commons^™

How Leaders Build Employee Trust In Artificial Intelligence: Voice Opportunities, Humility, And Trust Transfer, Jack Mcguire, David De Cremer, Devesh Narayanan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Artificial intelligence is increasingly central to organizational work, yet employee trust in AI remains fragile. Although prior research has primarily explained trust in AI through technological characteristics such as transparency, reliability, and accuracy, we argue that trust in AI is also shaped by the social context in which employees encounter these systems. Drawing on affect-as-information theory and social information processing theory, we develop and test a model in which leader-provided voice opportunities reduce employees’ negative affect about AI-related work experiences, thereby enhancing perceptions of leader trustworthiness and, in turn, trust in AI. We further propose that this indirect effect depends …

Emerging Library Leaders’ Summer School For Asia-Pacific (Ellssa): Smu Libraries Flagship Leadership Development Program For Librarians, Rajendra Munoo, Sumita Govindan

Research Collection Library

Strong leadership skills are becoming more important for librarians as they deal with rapid digital change in a VUCA world, rising user expectations, and a workforce made up of different generations. The Emerging Library Leaders’ Summer School for Asia-Pacific (ELLSSA) is Singapore Management University (SMU) Libraries’ main leadership development program, created to prepare early‑career librarians and high‑potential staff for future leadership roles across the Asia‑Pacific region and beyond. Recognised by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) as one of only a small number of leadership programs in the region, ELLSSA helps address gaps in leadership development within …

The Power And Peril Of Awe In Leadership: Transforming Follower Identity And Behavior, Jack Mcguire, Daniel Mcallister, Jochen Menges, David De Cremer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Awe is a profound emotion that has captured significant attention within psychological research. While the potential for leaders to inspire awe in followers has received some recognition, systematic research on the nature and effects of awe in leadership—and within organizational contexts more broadly—remains limited. In this article, we offer a conceptual framework that explains the multifaceted and transformative nature of leadership through the power of awe. Specifically, we identify four leader behaviors—charismatic leadership tactics, exceptional performance, problem reframing, and self-sacrificial behavior—that elicit awe among followers. We further propose three variants of awe-inspiring leaders, describing how variation in a leader’s self-construal …

Building The Foundations For Impact, Michael Rich

Asian Management Insights

For organisations to drive real change, they must treat impact as a strategic commitment and reshape internal structures to support it. An interview with Michael Rich, President Emeritus of RAND Corporation.

The Impact Imperative: Building Universities And Institutions That Demonstrably Matter, Scott Fritzen

Asian Management Insights

The university has never been more powerful— or more embattled. Research output has expanded sharply. Global collaborations span continents. Elite institutions, once concentrated in the West, have taken root across Asia, the Middle East and beyond. Universities anchor innovation districts, train professionals and generate discoveries that shape modern life. By the conventional measures long used by the academy to evaluate itself—publications, rankings, enrolments, revenue—higher education, taken as a whole, is thriving in many contexts.

Why Complex Risks Demand Multidisciplinary Action, Lisa Ng, Benny Chew, Julian Lai, Siti Naqiah Amrun

Asian Management Insights

The A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs offers a model for how organisations can move from ad-hoc crisis response to sustained, shared preparedness.

Bold And Humble In The Age Of Impact, Robert Klitgaard

Asian Management Insights

How collaboration—supercharged by AI—can turn purpose into performance, and performance into accountability.

The Cost Of Silence, Sabine Benoit

Asian Management Insights

From wellness myths to financial hype, the real risk is not just misinformation—it’s misinformed decision-making. When confidence becomes a proxy for credibility, strategies and sensibility drift. Here’s how leaders can raise the evidence bar and institutionalise independent challenge.

When Performance Is Not Enough: Managing Ngos In An Age Of Digital Mistrust, Christianna Sirindah Parr

Asian Management Insights

As NGOs lack formal authority, their influence depends on legitimacy, which can be contested at scale online. Leaders must treat social media as a governance decision, with clear scope, speaking authority and response protocols.

The Impact Of Mortality Awareness On Task And Relationship Leadership Styles, Sang Yeol Lee

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

In current organizational management practice, the question of how leaders can transform the universal awareness of human finitude into constructive leadership is an issue that embodies both profound humanistic concern and significant managerial implications. Based on transcendence management theory and leadership style theory, this study explores how mortality awareness affects leaders’ task orientation and relationship orientation styles, revealing its underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions. By conducting a three-wave, matched-pair questionnaire survey involving 203 enterprise managers and their subordinates, the theoretical hypotheses were tested. The findings are as follows: First, mortality awareness has a significant direct positive effect on both task-oriented …

The Impacts Of Political Leaders’ Social Capital On Policy Success: The Case Of Local Food Systems, In Hae Noh, Beomgeun Cho, April M. Roggio, Luis F. Luna-Reyes

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Network approaches to collaborative leadership suggest that local leaders’ success depends on activities that connect their organization to diverse stakeholders and resources. Drawing on the literature on managerial networking and a mixed-methods approach that includes 38 semi-structured interviews and a survey of 185 New York State municipal leaders, we explore the impact of leaders’ networking efforts on food access and security in their communities. We hypothesize that different forms of leaders’ social capital (bridging, bonding, and linking) has an impact on policy success. Our results suggest that only bridging social capital has an impact on food access. We conclude with …

High Flying Adored: How Ceo Narcissism Influences Firms’ Responses To Above-Aspiration Performance With Risky Organizational Change, Korcan Kavusan, Daniel Mack, Matthew P. Mount, Gokhan Ertug

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Research Summary: Research on performance feedback presents conflicting views on how above-aspiration performance influences organizational change. Some studies argue that it constrains change due to a lack of organizational motivation, while others suggest that it enables change by expanding managerial discretion. Reconciling these perspectives, we suggest that managers’ narcissistic tendencies can fundamentally alter how a firm responds to above-aspiration performance. We theorize and find evidence that high-narcissism CEOs respond to above-aspiration performance with more acquisitions—attention-generating actions that align with their self-enhancement motives, while under similar conditions low-narcissism CEOs avoid acquisitions, due to their uncertainty and risk. Our findings highlight the …

Innovate, Collaborate, Lead: The Global Library Leaders’ Toolkit, Shameem Nilofar Maideen

Research Collection Library

The Strategic Leadership Reality Our Challenge : How do you build strategic value while maintaining operational excellence with constrained resources?

Growing Through Grit And Grace, Roshni Mahtani Cheung

Asian Management Insights

An interview with Roshni Mahtani Cheung on how she scaled up theAsianparent and The Parentinc with resilience and a ‘community-first’ approach. How Roshni Mahtani Cheung scaled up theAsianparent and The Parentinc with resilience and a ‘community-first’ approach.

Bridging Worlds, Singapore Management University

Asian Management Insights

How philosophy, culture, and ethics shape leadership and learning.

University Leadership, Singapore Management University

Asian Management Insights

The future belongs to institutions that advance impact and prepare minds for lifelong learning. An interview with Dr Andrew Hamilton, President Emeritus of New York University and former Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.

The Dynamics Of Power Transfer In Organizations: Examining Downward Deference And Its Workplace Consequences, Hoang Bao My Nguyen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation examines managerial power transfer as a core mechanism through which less-hierarchical management unfolds in organizations. While traditional management research has emphasized formal authority and top-down control, emerging organizational forms increasingly call on managers to share power with subordinates. Despite growing interest in constructs like empowerment, delegation, and participative leadership, the phenomenon of power transfer remains conceptually fragmented and undertheorized.

To address this, the dissertation defines power transfer as the intentional redistribution of authority, control, or resources by powerholders to lower-power individuals. Chapter 1 develops a typology of power transfer behaviors, organized along two key dimensions: extent of control …

Do Bank Ceos Learn From Crisis Experiences?, Gloria Yang Yu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Does the early-career exposure of bank CEOs to the 1980s savings and loans (S&L) crisis affect the outcomes of banks they subsequently managed? We measure the S&L crisis exposure by the bank failure rate in the states where CEOs worked during the S&L crisis. Armed with this measure, we find that banks managed by CEOs with higher S&L crisis exposure took on less risk and that these banks better survived the financial crisis of 2008. In particular, CEOs adjusted risk attitudes in areas causing the S&L crisis: their more intense crisis experience reduced banks’ interest rate risk, exposure to risky …

Director Overseas Experience And Cross-Border Acquisitions: Evidence From China, Liu Chenxi, Mengyao Kang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study investigates the impact of director overseas experience on firms’ cross-border acquisition decisions. We find that firms with directors who have overseas experience tend to engage in more cross-border acquisitions. This finding remains robust across various types of overseas experience. This correlation is unlikely to be influenced by omitted variable biases or driven by reverse causality, where firms deliberately employ directors with overseas experience before initiating cross-border acquisitions. Additionally, director overseas experience is associated with higher announcement returns and enhanced post-merger performance. Further analysis reveals that director overseas experience affects cross-border acquisition decisions primarily through the cultural inclusivity channel. …

Well-Being Of Formal Leaders: A Critical And Interdisciplinary Review Of Predictors Shaping Leader Well-Being, Burak Oc, Kraivin Paripont Chintakananda

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Holding a formal leadership role is often idealized, motivating individuals to pursue such positions for independence and success. However, recent reports highlight significant challenges faced by leaders, particularly during as well as after the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased work demands and reduced well-being. This review takes a critical stance and examines whether formal leaders bear a well-being cost. Using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems framework, we categorize predictors of leader well-being, discuss dominant theoretical frameworks explaining the most frequently studied relationships, and identify theoretical gaps in the existing literature. Following this, we identify internal validity issues affecting the interpretation of existing …

When Leaders Self-Sacrifice In Times Of Crisis: The Roles Of Employee Emotional Suppression And Leader Coping Strategies, Xingyu Wang, Xueqi Wen, Zihan Liu, Yixing Lisa Gao, Juan M. Madera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While literature articulates the relevance of self-sacrificial leadership to crisis situations, little attention has been paid to employees’ attitudinal and behavioral responses to self-sacrificial leadership. This is a particularly salient gap in the scholarship, given the decisions leaders must make to address challenges in the hospitality industry (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this pair of field and experimental studies examines how individual differences in employee emotional suppression and leader coping strategy moderate the impacts of self-sacrificial leadership on employee perceptions of leader effectiveness. By sampling U.S. hospitality employees, the studies reveal that leaders who display …

A Power Dependence Model Of The Impact Of Leader Impostorism On Supervisor Support And Undermining: The Moderating Role Of Power Distance, Xueqi Wen, Zihan Liu, Feng Qiu, Keith Leavitt, Xingyu Wang, Ziyang Tang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Leaders, often perceived as possessing exceptional confidence and competence, are not immune to feelings of self-doubt. Leader impostorism describes the experience that one’s attributes, experiences, skills, and abilities fall short of the standards expected in the leadership role, resulting in a sense of deception in fulfilling leadership responsibilities. While existing research has examined the antecedents and individual outcomes of leader impostorism, its implications for leaders’ treatment of subordinates remain largely unexplored. In this research, we investigate the downstream consequences of leader impostorism on behaviors directed toward subordinates. Integrating research on leader impostorism with power dependence theory, we propose that for …

How Does Highly Educated Chinese Woman’S Endorsement Of Traditional Family Values Impact Her Well-Being?, Qiong Zhou

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With global advancements in gender equality and open-minded influence, Chinese women now have more opportunities to pursue higher education or independent work. However, there is a question of whether Chinese traditional family value still impacts Chinese women’s lives, thus affecting women's individual well-being.

Based on the results of a questionnaire survey and regression analysis of 301 highly educated Chinese women, we find that the endorsement of traditional family values by these women can indirectly affect their individual well-being through their engagement in job and family; that is, their achievements and satisfactions of job, family and self will be impacted by …

Does Relationship Conflict Reduce Novel Idea Communication Through Perceived Leader Openness? Power Distance Orientation As A Moderator, Ming-Hong Tsai

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate why followers have low perceptions of leader openness and thus feel reluctant to communicate novel ideas by examining leader–follower relationship conflict (i.e. interpersonal incompatibility) and a follower’s power distance orientation (i.e. an acceptance of uneven power distribution in organizations) as antecedents. Design/methodology/approach: The research administrators conducted a three-wave work behavior survey in Study 1, a laboratory experiment in Study 2, and an online experiment in Study 3. Findings: The results demonstrated that leader–follower relationship conflict reduced followers’ perceptions of leader openness. However, the negative impact of relationship conflict became non-significant when followers have high …

Does Ceo Agreeableness Personality Mitigate Real Earnings Management?, Shan Liu, Xingying Wu, Nan Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Despite efforts to mitigate aggressive financial reporting, earnings management remains challenging to parties interested in inhibiting its dysfunctional effects. Using linguistic algorithms to assess CEO agreeableness personality from their unscripted texts in conference calls, we find that it is a determinant that mitigates a firm's real earnings management. Furthermore, such an effect is more pronounced when firms confront intensive market competition and financial distress and have weaker managerial entrenchment or when CEOs face stronger internal governance. Our findings persist even after we utilize several alternative real earnings management metrics and control other confounding personalities in prior earnings management studies. The …

Team Development Through Leader Mindfulness And Authentic Leadership: Leader Mindfulness As An Antecedent To Authentic Leadership And Its Relationship With Team Development As Seen In Actual Turnover, Turnover Intention, Performance, Internal Mobility, And Promotions, Stefan Juerg Wermelinger

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The following research examines leader mindfulness as an antecedent to authentic leadership and its relationship with team development seen in actual turnover, turnover intention, performance, internal mobility, and promotions. The study has a significant advantage as team leaders and team members could be surveyed in a real company, and data from the human resource department could be linked to reconstruct the team settings. In addition, insights into internal mobility, actual turnover, and promotions could be calculated.

The study uses a theoretical framework that builds on leader mindfulness as an antecedent of authentic leadership and authentic leadership as a root concept …

Driving Success With Data, Aaron Tan, Singapore Management University

Asian Management Insights

Aaron Tan leveraged his computer science education with venture capital experience to build a unicorn.

Prosocial Ceos, Corporate Policies, And Firm Value, Mei Feng, Weili Ge, Zhejia Ling, Wei Ting Loh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines how chief executive officers' (CEOs') prosocial tendency influences corporate policies and firm value. We use individuals' involvement with charitable organizations as a proxy for prosocial tendency. We find that, compared to firms with non-prosocial CEOs, firms with prosocial CEOs have lower executive subordinate turnover, implement more employee-friendly policies, experience higher customer satisfaction, and engage in more socially responsible activities. We also find that firms with prosocial CEOs have higher value and lower risk, partly due to the corporate policies adopted by prosocial CEOs. These results are corroborated when we compare changes in corporate policies and firm value …

Leader-Expressed Humility: Development And Validation Of Scales Based On A Comprehensive Conceptualization, Kraivin Chintakananda, James M. Diefendorff, Burak Oc, Michael A. Daniels, Gary J. Greguras, Michael R. Bashshur

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We introduce new leader humility scales capturing a theoretically rich conceptualization of leader-expressed humility aligned with traditional and ethically-grounded philosophies. These scales draw from recent inductive research (Oc et al., 2015) identifying nine dimensions of leader-expressed humility: (1) having an accurate view of self, (2) recognizing follower strengths and achievements, (3) modeling teachability and being correctable, (4) leading by example, (5) showing modesty, (6) working together for the collective good, (7) empathy and approachability, (8) showing mutual respect and fairness, and (9) mentoring and coaching. The first three dimensions overlap with the most prominent conceptualization of leader-expressed humility in the …

Navigating Sustainable Futures, Franziska Zimmermann

Asian Management Insights

A leadership imperative.