IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/ijmpps/v32y2011i2p211-232.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mirror, mirror: preferred leadership characteristics of South African managers

Author

Listed:
  • Gregory John Lee

Abstract

Purpose - This paper aims to investigate desired leadership characteristics of South African managers, and link differences in desired traits to contextually crucial demographic group differences and managerial advancement. Design/methodology/approach - South African managers (n=205) ranked ten items of the characteristics of admired leadership scale. Aggregate rank analysis and nonparametric ANOVAs reveal significant preference differences in the sample and demographic sub‐groups. The research compares traits across managerial advancement and age, providing an implicit success test. Findings - Managers most highly ranked the three “credibility” characteristics (competence, honesty and inspiration) prevalent in comparative worldwide studies. Key differences exist between managers and employees, many contextually crucial demographic sub‐groups, and higher and lower‐level managers of younger and older ages. Practical implications - This research provides potentially important information for leadership identification, selection and development, in that it may identify characteristics that current leaders associate with contextual success. The research also identifies discrepancies between employees and managers and demographic groups, which may be sources of dissatisfaction or misunderstanding, and which organizations should address to better align expectations of subordinates and actions of leaders. Individuals might also use the information in self‐development, comparing their own views to successful leaders. Originality/value - Significant informational and statistical advantages exist over prior studies. This research provides individual‐level analyses, and an explicit test of association with objective success that previous studies have not provided. It includes top management, whereas prior studies have limited samples to subordinates or middle managers. Greater demographic differentiation is provided, allowing for more contextually relevant understanding.

Suggested Citation

  • Gregory John Lee, 2011. "Mirror, mirror: preferred leadership characteristics of South African managers," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(2), pages 211-232, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:ijmpps:v:32:y:2011:i:2:p:211-232
    DOI: 10.1108/01437721111130215
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01437721111130215/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01437721111130215/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/01437721111130215?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melinda Vaughn & Lori Verstegen Ryan, 2006. "Corporate Governance in South Africa: a bellwether for the continent?," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(5), pages 504-512, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bhatta, Bibek & Marshall, Andrew P. & Neupane-Joshi, Suman & Thapa, Chandra, 2021. "Foreign Ownership and the Enforcement of Corporate Governance Reforms," QBS Working Paper Series 2021/02, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's Business School.
    2. Tankiso Moloi, 2018. "Analysing the human capital capabilities in the enterprise risk management function of South Africa’s public institutions," Business and Economic Horizons (BEH), Prague Development Center, vol. 14(2), pages 375-388, April.
    3. Tesfaye T. Lemma & Mehrzad Azmi Shabestari & Martin Freedman & Mthokozisi Mlilo, 2020. "Corporate carbon risk exposure, voluntary disclosure, and financial reporting quality," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 2130-2143, July.
    4. Llewellyn Leonard, 2018. "Mining Corporations, Democratic Meddling, and Environmental Justice in South Africa," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Adegbite, Emmanuel, 2015. "Good corporate governance in Nigeria: Antecedents, propositions and peculiarities," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 319-330.
    6. Nobert Osemeke & Louis Osemeke, 2017. "The effect of culture on corporate governance practices in Nigeria," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 14(4), pages 318-340, November.
    7. Machokoto, Michael & Areneke, Geofry & Ibrahim, Boulis Maher, 2020. "Rising corporate debt and value relevance of supply-side factors in South Africa," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 26-37.
    8. Muniandy, Balachandran & Hillier, John, 2015. "Board independence, investment opportunity set and performance of South African firms," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(PA), pages 108-124.
    9. Abdul Aziz Khan Niazi & Tehmina Fiaz Qazi & Abdul Basit, 2019. "An Interpretive Structural Model of Barriers in Implementing Corporate Governance (CG) in Pakistan," Global Regional Review, Humanity Only, vol. 4(1), pages 359-375, March.
    10. Minga Negash & Tesfaye T. Lemma, 2020. "Institutional pressures and the accounting and reporting of environmental liabilities," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1941-1960, July.
    11. Hearn, Bruce, 2013. "The impact of board governance on director compensation in West African IPO firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 82-104.
    12. Rene Winifred Albertus, 2019. "Diffusion of the Ethical Philosophy of Good Governance at the National Oil Company of South Africa," Indian Journal of Corporate Governance, , vol. 12(1), pages 59-70, June.
    13. Bibek Bhatta & Andrew Marshall & Suman Neupane & Chandra Thapa, 2022. "Foreign ownership and the enforcement of corporate governance reforms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 541-580, February.
    14. Cesar Saenz & Lyla Romero, 2020. "Relationship between corporate governance and social responsibility: Evidenced in mining companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(2), pages 552-561, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:ijmpps:v:32:y:2011:i:2:p:211-232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.