Leader behaviours and their perception across organisational levels are a critical and evolving area in leadership research. In particular, the distinction between leaders' behaviours and the ways in which these behaviours are perceived by others have been widely discussed in the field. While there have been recent calls among leadership scholars to focus more on leader behaviours rather than to rely on how they are perceived, understanding leadership requires an examination of how leader behaviours are enacted and interpreted across different levels of the organization.
The topic is relevant both for theory and practice as it relates to the ongoing debate on how leadership should be measured, developed, and defined. Research shows that to get a more complete picture of leadership effectiveness, there is a need to focus on both leader behaviours and how these behaviours are perceived and interpreted by different actors within the organization. Leadership research often splits behaviour and perception, sometimes even treating them as rival lenses. This special issue brings them together by asking how behaviour changes across settings and how different groups make sense of those changes.
By proposing such themes as a bilateral relationship between leader behaviours and their perception, as well as the dynamics of this relationship over time, this special issue hopes to showcase research demonstrating the value of studying both "sides of the coin". In addition, we hope to encourage submissions on many current and underexplored topics that would advance our understanding of leadership as a process in a complex, modern workplace.
Perceptions of leader behaviour outside of the dyad of leader and follower are not well understood yet. Also, more research is needed on discrepancies between leader intentions and follower perception of intentions, especially in polarized social contexts and new forms of work.
The topic has key importance for practice and the elaboration of leadership training programs. The effectiveness of such programs depends on a strong foundation of scientific evidence, which can only be achieved by gaining a deep understanding of both enacted leader behaviours and how they are interpreted by perceivers at different levels in the organization.
Incorporating within- and between-person methods at various levels of analysis is essential to fully capture the complexity of leaders' actions and their interactions with followers. In this special issue, we aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of leadership dynamics and to the development of more effective leadership practices.