Leader empathy, ethical leadership, and relations-oriented behaviors as antecedents of leader-member exchange quality If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Leader empathy, ethical values, and relations-oriented behavior all appear to be relevant for effective leadership, but nobody has examined how all three variables are jointly related to leader-member exchange quality (LMX). The purpose of this study is to examine these relationships and test a proposed model describing them. Design/methodology/approach -Data were collected with a questionnaire from subordinates of leaders in several organizations, and SEM path analysis was used to test alternative models. Findings -The results indicated that a leader's relations-oriented behavior fully mediated the relationship between leader empathy on LMX and partially mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and LMX. Recommendations for future research to verify and extend the results were provided. Originality/value -This is the first empirical study to simultaneously examine the complex relationships among these four different aspects of leadership (i.e. a skill, values, behaviors, and exchange relationship). The authors' measure of ethical leadership minimizes confounding with other constructs, which is a problem in earlier studies. The practical implication is that leader empathy and ethical leadership should be included in leadership selection and development programs.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how age norms influence the relationship between individual differences, job attitudes, and intentions to pursue career transitions for midlife adults (aged 35 and above). The authors hypothesized that the effects of individual difference variables (i.e. resilience and reframing abilities) on career change intentions in addition to the effects of job attitude (i.e. commitment) on such intentions are moderated by career youth norms (CYN) which the authors defined as perceptions that the typical worker in a career field is younger than midlife. Design/methodology/approach In all, 206 people comprised the sample which was derived from an online survey. Moderated regression analysis was used to assess the extent to which age norms operated as a moderator of proposed relationships. Control variables were included based on prior research findings. Findings Findings demonstrated that age norms operate as a significant moderator for midlife adults. Specifically, the relationships between resilience, reframing, and commitment on intentions to pursue alternative careers are moderated by CYNs. Research limitations/implications Data were collected from a single source and assessed behavioral intentions in place of actual career change choice. Future research should derive data from multiple sources and assess behavior beyond intentions. Practical implications Industry leaders’ stereotypes about the appropriate ages for specific occupations or professions may impact the psychological mobility of midlife workers. Managers may wish to highlight midlife workers with particular skills (e.g. technological savvy), examine recruitment advertising for language that emphasizes youth, and invest in resilience training for aging workers. Originality/value Research examining careers at midlife and beyond has extensively discussed age discrimination and stereotypes as potential barriers to professional or occupational change. However, few studies have investigated how age norms and the comparisons people make between themselves and those they believe are occupying the jobs they desire may also pose barriers to career transition.

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Learning to lead online is imperative for the future of leadership. Whether they like it or not, even if they prefer face-to-face interactions, leaders of the future must be able to develop a sense of closeness with others, whether they be down the hall or around the world. In this study, face-to-face residential workshops were matched with online sessions over an 18-month period. Data from 75 participants, ranging from 18-year-olds to senior corporate executives, suggest that levels of online communication are positively correlated to perceptions of closeness among peers and that the relationship between peer closeness and leadership outcomes is moderated by online activity.

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