Development of a multilevel model of relationships between leadership and efficacy beliefs

Seyyed Babak Alavi

Graduate School of Management and Economics,Sharif University of Technology.

Agencies in social cognitive theory

Personal agency

Collective agency

Proxy agency

Definitions

Bandura (1997) defines self-efficacy as “beliefs in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (p. 3).

collective efficacy refers to “a group’s shared belief in its conjoint capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given levels of attainments” (p. 477).

Definitions (continued)

proxy-efficacy is defined as an individual’s belief in someone else’s or a group’s capabilities to organize and execute courses of actions on her/his behalf required to produce given levels of attainment (Alavi & McCormick, unpublished manuscript)

Implication of proxy-efficacy

lawyers and their clients; physicians and their patients; coaches and sport players; teachers and parents; teachers and students; organizational leaders and employees.

Efficacy beliefs and performance

Several studies have supported that self-efficacy and collective efficacy are related to individual and group performance, respectively.

From this perspective, an important leadership function may be to influence efficacy beliefs in order to improve performance at different levels.

Sources of self-efficacy

Mastery experiences Verbal persuasion Vicarious experiences Physiological and affective states

Sources of collective efficacy

Bandura (1997) has suggested that similar sources at the group level can be used as sources of collective efficacy.

Sources of proxy-efficacy

efficacy beliefs at the individual level A leader’s self-efficacy A follower’s proxy-efficacy for her/his leader A follower’s self-efficacy Followers’ proxy-efficacy for each other A follower’s individual belief of collective efficacy A leader’s individual belief of collective efficacy

efficacy beliefs at the group level

Followers’ shared collective efficacy Followers’ shared proxy-efficacy for their

leader The whole group’s shared belief of

collective efficacy

Leadership and efficacy beliefs

Past studies have supported that the extent to which followers believe in their leader may influence the extent to which they put effort in their activities.

Transformational leadership indirectly influence group performance through the mediation of empowerment and collective efficacy.

Theoretical framework

Organizational level Organizational leadership performance

Group level Sources of Efficacy beliefs Group Leadership efficacy beliefs at different levels performance

Individual level Individual Leadership performance

Some empirical research for future

Impression tactics and development of followers’ proxy-efficacy for their leader;

Relationship between a leader’s self-efficacy and followers’ proxy-efficacy for the leader and moderator variables of the relationship;

Leadership styles and collective efficacy.

Thank you for your attention