The a priori of public leadership: Social attributions to public and private leaders in different performance contexts

Abstract

Previous scholarship provides little insight into the differences between public and private leadership in people's a priori assumptions about leaders. We advance a socio‐cognitive approach and examine how implicit social attributions to leaders are contingent on sector and performance cues. Participants completed the Semantic Misattribution Procedure to reveal implicit associations of traits with leaders in contrasting scenarios. Results show that sector cues affect such attributions, which in turn influence behavioral intentions, but only so in interaction with performance information. We conclude that public leaders earn fewer credits for success or failure than private leaders.

Aggressions and associations: How workplace violence affects what public employees think of citizens

“…It accounts for long‐standing evidence that human cognition and behavior have a strong implicit component and applies it to public employees' perceptions of citizens. There is extensive prior knowledge about the socio‐cognitive underpinnings of implicit categorization processes that public management researchers are just about to discover (Asseburg et al, 2020; Hesmert et al, 2022; Marvel, 2016). Our preliminary outline gives rise to a rich agenda for further theory building and research.…”

“…There is extensive prior knowledge about the socio-cognitive underpinnings of implicit categorization processes that public management researchers are just about to discover (Asseburg et al, 2020;Hesmert et al, 2022;Marvel, 2016). Our preliminary outline gives rise to a rich agenda for further theory building and research.…”

Finding a mission in bureaucracies: How authentic leadership and red tape interact

“…Aligning followers toward the accomplishment of a shared mission and mobilizing individual and collective efforts accordingly is almost the essence of leadership (Yukl & Gardner, 2020). However, leadership in the public sector has often been portrayed as operating under special limitations emerging from tight bureaucratic structures and procedures (Hesmert et al, 2021;Van Wart, 2013a). Most public bureaucracies are formal organizations of considerable size and complexity, often with steep hierarchies and a strong division of labor (Rainey, 2014).…”