Who are leading? A survey of organizational context explaining leadership behaviour of managers and non-managerial employees in public organizations

Hoek, M. van der; Kuipers, B.S. (2022)

Article / Letter to editor

Changing bureaucratic structures and increasing collaboration within public service delivery create new questions for leadership. With formal authority becoming more dispersed and various actors increasingly involved, revised expectations as to who contributes to organizational coordination are emerging. We investigate how both managers and non-managerial employees use leadership behaviours and how characteristics of the organizational context affect their engagement in leadership. Analyses of survey data collected among public servants (n = 1,266) in the Netherlands show that employees both with and without formal leadership positions demonstrate more leadership behaviour in situations of higher environmental complexity, but the latter group faces more bureaucratic constraints.

• Leadership Behaviour
• Formal Leadership Position
• Bureaucratic Structure
• Environmental Complexity
• Boundaryless Organization
• Public Management

• All authors: Hoek, M. van der; Kuipers, B.S.
• Date: 2022-12-29
• Journal: Public Management Review
• Pages: 1 - 25
• Advanced Publication: Yes
• DOI: doi:10.1080/14719037.2022.2160005