{"title":"For Whom do Scholars Write? Part 2","authors":"Nathan Harter","doi":"10.1002/jls.70035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70035","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This introduction to the symposium explains in part the burden of conducting responsible scholarship from an overwhelming literature, not all of which is to be trusted. Nevertheless, this journal invited authors to offer possible remedies to the ongoing tension between quality scholarship and popular consumption of their findings.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jls.70035","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146091170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Who Do We Write for? Strategies for Network Formation of a Research Program","authors":"Miguel Pina e Cunha, Stewart Clegg","doi":"10.1002/jls.70024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70024","url":null,"abstract":"<p>No scholar is an Island: we are all networks and write for our networks. These networks, sometimes call research programs are scholarly communities kept together by a common interest. The work of these communities constitutes a polyphony, which constitutes the conversation we are joining. These communities are composed by different types of members with diverse types of interests. Some members constitute the hard core of the theory, the big names. This inner circle is complemented by the participants in the paradigm, people whose research conceptually and empirically tests and advances the theory, through confirmation and disconfirmation. Other participants are critics, who challenge the ideas. Without critics, the program will lose vitality, regardless of its “goodness”. Another, more external circle, is composed by those who conduct applied research, translating the theory to wider, managerial audiences. This circle exists only if the theory gained sufficient attention to “deserve” to be translated. Finally, some theories get the attention of some diffusers who popularize it to the general public. A vital ecosystem is composed by all these providers that target different audiences but that, as a collective, play important roles in the market for ideas.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146099290","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"For Whom Do Scholars Write? Part 1","authors":"Nathan Harter","doi":"10.1002/jls.70026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70026","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Scholars can write for two different audiences, both specialists and the general public, yet the relationship between the two ways of writing raises concerns this symposium was designed to address.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jls.70026","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146057974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reconciling Rigor and Reach: The Impact of Hybrid Followership Scholarship","authors":"Stephanie C. Gresh","doi":"10.1002/jls.70023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70023","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The idea that academic rigor and popular appeal in leadership and followership literature are fundamentally at odds is discredited by hybrid works that integrate scholarly depth with practitioner accessibility. This study argues that these often-overlooked works demonstrate how rigorous frameworks, even if not directly empirical at first, can inspire impactful research and resonate with both academics and practitioners. Mainstream books like Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Manager by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, and Start with Why by Simon Sinek engage readers with captivating narratives but lack robust empirical foundations. In contrast, hybrid works like Robert E. Kelley’s The Power of Followership and Ira Chaleff’s The Courageous Follower offer frameworks that have spurred extensive research into active followership. Barbara Kellerman’s Followership: How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders and Marc and Samantha Hurwitz’s Leadership is Half the Story, similarly, have inspired empirical studies on follower dynamics. By examining citation patterns in academic databases and practitioner feedback from various digital platforms, this study highlights the potential of hybrid scholarship which is often overlooked in followership. It sparks discussions on reimagining scholarly communication and interdisciplinary collaboration, with outcomes encouraging scalable models that amplify followership scholarship’s societal impact while upholding academic integrity, a result of overcoming a stronger focus on leadership over followership.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jls.70023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146007418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Engaging with Purpose: Bourdieu’s Framework and Scholarly Audiences","authors":"Mark Ellis","doi":"10.1002/jls.70029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70029","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article examines contemporary academic writing and leadership through Pierre Bourdieu’s framework of field capital habitus and illusio to explain how power recognition and identity are organized within higher education. Drawing on a wide body of interdisciplinary scholarship the analysis shows how managerial reforms evaluation regimes linguistic expectations and bibliometric systems reshape scholarly dispositions by converting intellectual contribution into measurable performance. These conditions encourage conformity and strategic compliance while presenting themselves as merit based processes. The article argues that academic writing is not a neutral activity but a form of identity work that reflects and reproduces the logic of the field including beliefs about what audiences matter and what forms of knowledge count. Habitus guides scholars toward accepted genres and evaluative targets while illusio sustains commitment to systems that often marginalize public engagement collegial governance and epistemic diversity. While reflexivity is frequently proposed as a response to these pressures the literature demonstrates that individual awareness alone rarely disrupts entrenched hierarchies unless accompanied by institutional change. By reassessing Bourdieu’s framework in light of neoliberal governance digitalization and global inequality the article shows both its continued relevance and the risks of its rhetorical appropriation as academic currency. The analysis concludes by advancing an ethical orientation to writing and leadership that treats audience selection evaluation and collaboration as moral decisions tied to scholarly purpose. Writing with purpose is framed as an act of leadership that resists managed conformity and reclaims scholarship as a practice oriented toward inquiry community and shared understanding rather than status and metrics.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146007560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultural Leadership Discourses in a Low-Reading Society: Lessons from Indonesia’s Local Leaders","authors":"Tristia Riskawati, Wilmar Salim, Heru Purboyo Hidayat Putro, Henndy Ginting","doi":"10.1002/jls.70027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70027","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Leadership debates often frame academic rigor and popular appeal as opposing poles, a tension largely shaped by Western, text-centered traditions. In Indonesia and much of the Global South, this framing is poorly aligned with how leadership knowledge is actually formed and circulated. Leadership learning rarely emerges from academic journals or popular management books; instead, it is shaped through lived experience, oral traditions, cultural symbols, everyday practices, and digital platforms. This paper argues that leadership scholarship must reconsider not only what it studies but also how leadership knowledge is communicated. Drawing on case studies of two Indonesian regional leaders, Suyoto of Bojonegoro and Hasto Wardoyo of Kulon Progo, the paper shows how leadership legitimacy was built through tangible outcomes, symbolic action, and narrative presence rather than written doctrine. Their leadership lessons were transmitted through personal stories, public engagement, and online visibility, reaching nonreading publics. The paper proposes a multichannel model of leadership scholarship that preserves academic rigor while translating insights into culturally resonant, non-textual forms that reflect where leadership learning actually takes place.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146007558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Between Rigor and Pragmatism: The Dilemmas of Contemporary Leadership Studies","authors":"Joanna Samul","doi":"10.1002/jls.70025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70025","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Methodological rigor in leadership research enhances the reliability and credibility of scholarly findings, yet it may also constrain their practical relevance beyond academic audiences. Achieving a balance between rigorous methodological standards and theoretical richness with practical significance remains a critical challenge in leadership studies. This article examines the increasing publication demands of high-impact journals that prompt scholars to align their research designs with stringent methodological expectations, while not necessarily addressing persistent shortcomings in leadership research. The article offers a critical reflection on current publication practices in leadership studies and encourages continued scholarly discussion on this issue.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2026-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145987003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Predictors of Unethical Willingness in Followers of Transformational/Charismatic Leaders","authors":"Wayne L. McCoy, Hermanus J. van Niekerk","doi":"10.1002/jls.70022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70022","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The study examined demographic predictors of the established relationship between Charismatic/Transformational Leadership and a willingness in followers to engage in unethical pro-organizational behavior, finding that certain demographic characteristics in followers mediate this relationship, with implications for organizations to employ mitigation techniques. Six variables were analyzed in the study, including Participant Gender, Participant Age, Participant Job Tenure, Participant Income Level, Participant Job Enjoyment, & Strong Religious Belief. Two of these variables were found to be statistically significant predictors in the relationship between Charismatic/Transformational Leadership and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior (UPB), namely: (1) Participant Job Tenure and (2) Participant Income Level. The implications of this study are substantial in the ethical leadership discussion and broad across industries. While the tenets of Charismatic/Transformational Leadership include a high measure of ethical conduct, certain demographic predictors are shown to propel followers toward a willingness to act unethically. The results demonstrate that where transformational leadership is practiced, organizations should acknowledge these predictors of UPB and prepare measures to proactively mitigate the risk.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145905185","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ellen Weber, Kristof Coussement, Marion Büttgen, Paul Harrigan
{"title":"The Social Media Playbook for CEOs: How to Use Transformational Leadership-Oriented Language on Social Media Successfully","authors":"Ellen Weber, Kristof Coussement, Marion Büttgen, Paul Harrigan","doi":"10.1002/jls.70021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70021","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Research on CEOs’ social media communication as a leadership instrument remains scarce. The current study addresses this gap by exploring the relationship between CEOs’ leadership-oriented language and user engagement (i.e., sharing behavior). Based on an automated text analysis of 24,719 posts from 172 CEOs of Global <i>Fortune</i> 500 companies on X, one of the largest social media platforms previously known as Twitter, this research examines how CEOs’ leadership-oriented language influences users’ sharing behavior. In particular, it focuses on transformational leadership (TFL), a crucial approach in social media contexts. Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling, the findings revealed that CEOs’ use of linguistic indicators reflecting TFL affects users’ sharing behavior in partially unexpected and contradictory ways. Specifically, using positive emotional language and exclusive words in social media posts can diminish users’ sharing behavior. Conversely, content-rich posts, replies that open a dialogic loop, and posts reflecting psychological closeness all positively influence users’ sharing behavior. These findings underscore the complex nature of leadership-oriented language and provide novel insights into its effectiveness on social media. The current study offers specific guidelines for how CEOs can effectively utilize TFL-oriented language to engage their audiences while minimizing the risk of unintended negative consequences.</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145618917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correction to “Leadership at the Threshold: MEANING, ETHICS, AND ADAPTATION IN THE AGE OF GENERATIVE AI”","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/jls.70020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70020","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Haskell, C. (2025). Leadership at the Threshold: <i>Meaning, Ethics, and Adaptation in the Age of Generative AI</i>. <i>Journal of Leadership Studies</i>, 19, e70012. https://doi.org/10.1002/jls.70012</p><p>After the publication of the aforementioned article, the following errors were discovered and subsequently corrected as outlined below.</p><p>The sentence “This issue of the <i>Leadership & Organization Development Journal</i> does not treat that shift as neutral.” was incorrect. It has been corrected to “The current symposium does not treat that shift as neutral.”</p><p>In “Signals of the Current Climate,” the following sentence was incorrect: “We live in a climate that prizes performance over reflection—where power performs expertise, and those who challenge epistemic overreach, from women scholars to high-profile critics like Gary Marcus, are told they're rude, too dark, or depressing, while complexity is waved away as an inconvenience.”.</p><p>It has been revised to remove the term “women”: “We live in a climate that prizes performance over reflection—where power performs expertise, and those who challenge epistemic overreach, from scholars to high-profile critics like Gary Marcus, are told they are rude, too dark, or depressing, while complexity is waved away as an inconvenience.”.</p><p>The em dash was replaced with parentheses in the following sentences:</p><p>Their contributions (frameworks, case studies, and provocations) reclaim leadership as an act of care, critique, and cultural memory.</p><p>It identifies the interpretive layers (human, institutional, and algorithmic) that leaders must navigate.</p><p>The “Acknowledgments” section was missing and has now been included:</p>","PeriodicalId":45503,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Leadership Studies","volume":"19 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jls.70020","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145101942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}