Bass and Valenzi (1974) postulated that power and information are major factors m determining the extent to which five leadership styles are used and presented a set of hypotheses concerning the way power and information affect these styles. This study set out to test the Bass-Valenzi hypothesis and to analyze the impact, if any, of aggregating data from business and nonbusiness organizations on the results. It found that the effect of power and information was not the same across organizations. In business organizations, direction and power were positively correlated, and in nonbusiness organizations they were negatively correlated When the samples of executives from both business and nonbusiness organizations were aggregated, no correlation was found between power and direction, because the opposite relationships between the two factors in business and nonbusiness organizations cancelled each other out The methodological aspects of using aggregate data in tests of the Bass-Valenzi hypotheses, including regression and SSA, are discussed. It is shown that such procedures may cause aggregation bias This article provides a possible explanation for the negative correlation (that is, contrary to the Bass-Valenzi propositions) between power and direction in nonbusiness organizations and suggests that the Bass-Valenzi hypotheses are more applicable to business than to nonbusiness organizations. It found that senior officials of nonbusiness organizations tend to employ more of the direction style and less of the participation style of leadership than executives in business organizations The results, however, also indicate that interorganizational differences in styles are mainly attributable to differences m organizational norms, climate, and structure, and not to differences in power and information. This study also investigated the effect of hierarchical level on the leadership styles of senior executives. It found that the use of participation and delegation styles was positively correlated and that the use of direction and negotiation styles were negatively correlated with hierarchical level.

No abstract

No abstract

This article has two main objectives. First, to analyse to what extent organizational differences affect the basic relationship between style of leadership and power and information. Second, to investigate whether the results (concerning leadership styles) previously obtained for middle and lower level management also hold true for senior executives, and if not, how these should be modified. More specifically, the effects of power and information on the leadership styles of senior executives are examined and compared with those found for lower level managers. For comparison with other studies, the styles chosen for analysis were: directive, negotiative, consultive, participative and delegative. It is shown that the effects of power and information on leadership styles are not the same across organizations. Power is positively correlated with directiveness in business organizations, but negatively correlated with this style of leadership in non-business organizations. The frequency of usage of certain leadership styles is shown to vary across organizations, and the implications of these variations are discussed. It is also demonstrated that the effects of power and information on leadership styles of senior executives do not differ considerably from the comparable effects found on lower level management.