Age and leadership: The moderating role of legacy beliefs

  • Hannes Zacher*
  • , Kathrin Rosing
  • , Michael Frese
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

89 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Age and age-related motivations have been neglected in leadership research. This study examined the moderating influence of legacy beliefs on the relationships between age and transformational, transactional, and passive-avoidant leadership behaviors. Legacy beliefs involve individuals' convictions about whether they and their actions will be remembered, have an enduring influence, and leave something behind after death. It was expected that at higher ages, low legacy beliefs impede transformational and transactional leadership behaviors and boost passive-avoidant leadership behaviors. One hundred and six university professors, between 30 and 70 years old, provided ratings of their legacy beliefs; each professor's leadership behaviors were evaluated by one of his or her employees. Results confirmed the assumptions for overall transformational leadership and its charisma subdimension as well as for overall transactional leadership and its active management-by-exception subdimension but not for passive-avoidant leadership. (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)43-50
Number of pages8
JournalLeadership Quarterly
Volume22
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb-2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Age
  • Legacy beliefs
  • Transformational
  • Transactional
  • Passive-avoidant leadership
  • TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP
  • GENERATIVITY
  • CAREER
  • MEN

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