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This article contributes to the literature on cross-cultural leadership by describing the development and validation of the Leadership Effectiveness in Africa and the Diaspora (LEAD) Scale. The LEAD Scale is a culturally sensitive measure of leadership effectiveness in the understudied settings of Africa and the African diaspora. A combination of methods and four studies using samples from Africa and the African diaspora based in Canada, the USA, and the Caribbean were used to develop the measure. Using the grounded theory approach and the Delphi technique (n = 192), followed by a set of increasingly rigorous tests including exploratory factor analysis (n = 441), confirmatory factor analysis (n = 116), and a test of measure invariance (n =1384), we developed and validated a culturally sensitive measure of effective leadership. Our results demonstrate that spirituality, tradition and community-centredness are important and culturally specific components of leadership in Africa and the African diaspora. This paper provides a validated measure of leadership and offers recommendations regarding the use of the measure by managers and researchers working in Africa or with African diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study examined the responses of Central Eurasian corporate, government, and non-governmental organization managers regarding their perceptions of work-related values of effective organizational leadership. The respondents were participants in a 2-week leadership development program held in Istanbul, Turkey. Two inter-related research questions regarding leadership concepts and challenges were explored through content analysis of program intake interview protocols. The participants' pre-program perspectives on what constituted effective organizational leadership were found to be consistent with the GLOBE Project's culturally endorsed leadership dimensions. Moreover, several common patterns of behaviors and challenges were uncovered that could be attributed to particular idiosyncrasies in the socio-political/cultural environment of the region.Organization Management Journal (2008) 5, 99–113. doi:10.1057/omj.2008.11 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms' strategic responses to environmental shifts under conditions of uncertainty in the wake of institutional changes are far from understood. We utilize data from over 1,200 firms in seven Central Eurasian transition economies to examine the extent to which institutional inefficiency is predictive of the response strategies employed by the firms in their environments. We also examine how firms maneuver in the environment through an innovative effort in developing new products, opening new plants or upgrading product lines and technologies. Our results seem indicative of both an adaptive and an innovative effort by firms in these countries. The results are discussed with respect to empirical limitations and future research avenues in these transition economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the relative effects of structural, informational, and emotional support on various positive and negative work outcomes for a sample of white-collar workers. Positive work outcomes included various facets of job satisfaction. Negative work outcomes included job stress, role stress, job burnout, and frustration. The sample was comprised of 166 (90 men and 76 women) black clerical, technical/nonsupervisory, and managerial personnel, who were administered questionnaires and several Likert-type rating scales testing their levels of job satisfaction. The results strongly suggested that emotional support was more important than the other two facets in the prediction of work outcomes, implying that managers and supervisors need to provide more emotional support to employees. Future research should focus on a larger sample and on race, ethnic group, and organizational differences regarding responses to work-related social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on a direct comparison of consensual, nominal, and conventional decision making techniques in established and ad hoc groups. The impact of the structural interventions on group decision quality and group attitudes is examined, and the appropriateness of the techniques in various situations is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on two separate articles written by Ella Louise Bell and Debra Noumair, Ann Fenichel, and Jennifer L. Fleming about the hearings on the sexual harassment case involving Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and professor Anita Hill. Role of power and politics in organizational life; Use of a group relations perspective to assess the hearings; Denigration of a black woman's identity.