Network-based approaches to leadership: An organizing framework, review, and recommendations

Abstract

In this review, we aim to critically evaluate the state of the leadership and networks literature and provide a detailed overview of the various network-based approaches that can be leveraged in leadership research to accomplish three main objectives. First, we introduce an organizing framework that classifies the array of network-based approaches used in addressing leadership questions into two broad categories: descriptive versus predictive network-based approaches. Second, we critically review the leadership literature to assess the degree to which network-based approaches have been employed in leadership investigations, the major topic areas in leadership that have been investigated via a social network lens, and the extent to which network-based approaches have impacted researchers’ abilities to address major empirical challenges in leadership research—namely, the incorporation of multilevel, multisource, contextual, temporal, processual, and causal perspectives of leadership. Finally, we demonstrate the unique capabilities of the network-based approaches by showing how an exemplar topic in leadership investigations—leadership emergence—may be explored from multiple perspectives through the different categories of network-based models. By promoting a better understanding of network-based methodologies and their utilization in leadership research, we pave way for new ways of thinking about and framing leadership research questions.