Leadership Needs Time: The Roles of Subjective and Objective Time for Leadership Processes and Outcomes
Final Report Abstract
This project aimed to advance new theoretical insights in leadership research, moving beyond the nontemporal perspectives that have dominated this line of inquiry by explicitly incorporating time-based considerations. We conducted a series of empirical studies that examined the role of subjective and objective temporal aspects for leadership processes and outcomes. In doing so, we used diverse methodological approaches—including survey-based field studies, online and laboratory experiments, as well as meta-analytic methods—across three project phases. Results from Phase 1 illustrated that supervisors’ time-urgent personality has the potential to stimulate an autocratic approach toward leadership, with important downstream consequences for employees’ well-being at work. Phase 2 complemented this supervisor-centric approach by also considering employees’ subjective time orientations. It illustrated that supervisors’ leadership behaviors critically hinge not only on their own orientation towards time (namely, their past temporal focus), but also on the extent to which a supervisor’s respective orientation is aligned with his or her team. Finally, Phase 3 investigated the role of temporal aspects in informal leadership interactions between peers. Focusing on cooperating dyads in a first step, we found that both interaction partners’ (potentially divergent) time pressure experiences interactively shaped their informal leadership behaviors towards each other. Moreover, focusing on larger teams in a second step, preliminary findings revealed that time pressure may adversely affect team processes and outcomes, although these relationships are contingent on key boundary conditions. Taken together, the research conducted within this project illustrates that subjective and objective temporal considerations play a key role for leadership, and our findings offer important new insights that contribute to theory advancement in this regard. Also, our results point towards relevant directions for future inquiry, and they have important practical implications for managers, employees, and organizations.
Publications
- (2019). Are we in time? An actor-partner interdependence approach toward time pressure. In G. Atinc (Ed.), Academy of Management Best Paper Proceedings. Online ISSN: 2151-6561
Briker, R., Hohmann, S., & Walter, F.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.114) - (2019). Leadership needs time: The role of temporal cognitions for leadership processes and outcomes. Doctoral dissertation, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen
Briker, R.
- (2020). Keine Zeit: Warum wir unter Zeitdruck nicht mehr, sondern weniger leisten. Gehirn & Geist, 10, 12-17
Briker, R., & Schwenkenbecher, J.
- (2020). The consequences of (not) seeing eye‐to‐eye about the past: The role of supervisor–team fit in past temporal focus for supervisors' leadership behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 41, 244-262
Briker, R., Walter, F., & Cole, M. S.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2416) - (2021). A dyadic approach toward the interpersonal consequences of time pressure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied
Briker, R., Hohmann, S., & Walter, F.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000325) - (2021). Hurry up! The role of supervisors’ time urgency and self‐perceived status for autocratic leadership and subordinates’ well‐being. Personnel Psychology, 74, 55-76
Briker, R., Walter, F., & Cole, M.S.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12400)
