Information processing and leadership styles: Constructive thinking and transformational leadership

✍ Scribed by Tom Cerni; Guy J. Curtis; Susan H. Colmar

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 307 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1935-2611
• DOI: 10.1002/jls.20049

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Transformational leaders increase job satisfaction and well‐being among workers. According to the cognitive‐experiential self‐theory (CEST), all behavior is guided by two information‐processing systems: a rational and an experiential system. Study 1 examined the relationship between information processing and transformational leadership among experienced school leaders (N = 183). The rational system had a strong positive correlation with transformational leadership, whereas the experiential system was weakly correlated. Study 2 (N = 126) examined constructive thinking and transformational leadership. Global constructive thinking, emotional coping, and behavioral coping all had strong positive correlations with transformational leadership. These results suggest that improving leaders' awareness of their own information‐processing and thinking systems might encourage more productive transformational‐leadership techniques.