CEO Succession, Leadership, and (Dis)similarity (eBook)

Dr. Cristina Pratelli wrote her dissertation under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Andreas Hack at the Institute of Organization and HRM at the University of Bern, Switzerland. She is currently working as consultant for change management and HR transformation.

Foreword 6
Acknowledgements 8
Table of contents 10
List of figures 13
List of tables 14
List of abbreviations 15
1 Introduction 17
1.1 Motivation and research problem 17
1.2 Research goals 19
1.3 Research philosophy 22
1.4 Methodology: A mixed methods approach 22
1.5 Structure of the dissertation 26
2 Theoretical framework 28
2.1 Leadership 28
2.1.1 Overview of leadership theories 28
2.1.2 Leadership development 39
2.1.3 CEO and leadership succession 43
2.2 Family business 48
2.2.1 Definition and theoretical approaches 48
2.2.2 Passing the baton to the next generation of leaders 50
2.3 Theories from social and cognitive psychology 58
2.3.1 Bandura’s social cognitive theory 58
2.3.2 Leader transference and implicit leadership theory 63
2.3.3 Expectation (dis)confirmation theory 66
3 Does the apple fall far from the tree? Leadership style continuity in family businesses 68
3.1 Introduction 69
3.2 Theoretical background 71
3.2.1 Leadership style continuity and family businesses 71
3.2.2 Leadership style continuity and observational learning 72
3.3 Conceptual framework 74
3.3.1 Family kin and leadership style continuity 76
3.3.2 Influential factors at the individual level 78
3.3.3 Influential factors at the family level 80
3.3.4 Influential factors at the family business level 82
3.4 Discussion 84
4 How does leadership style (dis)similarity influence employees’ attitudes? An empirical study about CEO leadership succession in SMEs 87
4.1 Introduction 88
4.2 Theoretical background and hypotheses 90
4.2.1 Charismatic leadership style and employees’ attitudes 92
4.2.2 Effects of leadership style similarity 94
4.2.3 Effects of leadership style dissimilarity 96
4.3 Method 100
4.3.1 Participants and procedures 100
4.3.2 Measures 104
4.3.3 Analysis 106
4.4 Results 112
4.5 Discussion 121
4.5.1 Implications for theory and research 121
4.5.2 Practical implications 123
4.5.3 Study limitations and recommendations for future research 124
5 Intra-family leadership succession and leadership style (dis)similarity: An explorative, multiple case study with non-family member employees 126
5.1 Introduction 127
5.2 Theoretical background 129
5.2.1 Family business and leadership succession 129
5.2.2 Leadership behavior and effectiveness 130
5.3 Methodology 134
5.3.1 Research design and sample 134
5.3.2 Data collection and interview protocol 138
5.3.3 Data analysis 140
5.4 Findings 144
5.4.1 Taxonomy of leadership behaviors 144
5.4.2 Successor leadership effectiveness 155
5.4.3 Family business perception 161
5.4.4 Co-leadership 163
5.4.5 “It is a generational matter”: Successor youthfulness 165
5.5 Discussion 167
5.5.1 Successor and leadership behavior 167
5.5.2 Moderating factors and leaderships style (dis)similarity effectiveness 168
5.5.3 Methodological issues 170
5.5.4 Limitations and future research 171
5.5.5 Managerial implications 172
5.6 Conclusion 173
6 Final conclusion 174
6.1 Thesis summary 174
6.2 Theoretical implications 180
6.3 Managerial implications 181
6.4 Limitations and avenues for future research 181
6.5 Closing thoughts 183
References 184
Appendices 216
Appendix A. Definition, cutoff criteria and interpretation of the Fit Indexes applied for CFA 217
Appendix B. Constructs validity checks and fit indexes 219
Appendix C. Additional features of the response surface for OCA and OBSE 221
Appendix D. Illustrative e-mail sent to the CEOs with the invitation to participate in the survey 226
Appendix E. Exemplar e-mail sent to the employees with the invitation to participate in the survey at Time 2 228
Appendix F. License for the use of MLQ 5X short 230
Appendix G. Interview protocol for non-family member employees 231
Appendix H. Industry classification along EU NACE Rev. 2 2008 234
Appendix I. Overview of the leadership behavior frequencies for each level of successor leadership effectiveness 235