Leader Thinking Skills Capacities for Contemporary Leadership

This book examines the various thinking skills that leaders may need to find success in contemporary organizations and institutions, covering a wide array of skills that are held to be important by key leadership scholars.

Bridging theory and practice, chapters summarize major findings with respect to a particular ability, knowledge, or skill, providing theoretical frameworks for understanding how these contribute to leader emergence and performance, and considering implications for leader selection, assessment, and development. The text appraises the existing research on the critical cognitive capabilities that underlie leader problem-solving and implications for the assessment and development of leadership potential in real-world settings. The role of creative thinking skills on leader performance is also addressed, bearing on the importance of processes such as problem definition and idea generation, but also using constraints to potentially stimulate creative thought.

With contributions from some of the most eminent scholars working in the field of leadership, this book will be in invaluable resource to academics, researchers, graduate students, and professionals interested in leadership and leader skills, I/O psychology, and business management.

Contents

List of Contributors

Introduction

Michael D. Mumford and Cory Higgs

Chapter 1: Intelligence and Leadership

John Antonakis, Dean Keith Simonton and Jonathan Wai

Chapter 2: Leadership and Information Processing: A Dynamic System, Dual-Processing Perspective

Robert G. Lord

Chapter 3: Uncertainty and Problem-Solving: The Role of Leader in Information Gathering Strategies

Jay J. Caughron, Teresa Ristow and Alison L. Antes

Chapter 4: Are Satisfied Employees Productive or Productive Employees Satisfied?: How Leaders Think About and Apply Causal Information

David R. Peterson

Chapter 5: Thinking About Causes: How Leaders Identify the Critical Variables to Act On

Michael D. Mumford, Cory A. Higgs, Erin Michelle Todd and Samantha Elliot

Chapter 6: Leaders’ Shifts in Attention During an Organizational Crisis: Longitudinal Evidence of Responses to a Crisis Within a Top Management Team

Ian A. Combe and David J. Carrington

Chapter 7: Creative Problem Solving: Processes, Strategies, and Considerations for Leaders

Kelsey E. Medeiros, Belinda C. Williams and Adam Damadzic

Chapter 8: Seeing the Future Through the Past: Forecasting Skill as a Basis for Leader Performance

Michael D. Mumford, Mark Fichtel, Tanner Newbold, Samantha England and Cory A. Higgs

Chapter 9: Leader Decision Making Capacity: An Information Processing Perspective

Shing Kwan Tam, Dawn L. Eubanks and Tamara L. Friedrich

Chapter 10: Making Sense of Leaders Making Sense

Peter Gronn

Chapter 11: Leaders, Teams, and their Mental Models

Jensine Paoletti, Denise L. Reyes and Eduardo Salas

Chapter 12: Leader Social Acuity

Stephen J. Zaccaro and Elisa M. Torres

Chapter 13: Leadership and Monitoring Skills

David V. Day, Ronald E. Riggio and Rowan Y. Mulligan

Chapter 14: Wisdom, Foolishness and Toxicity in Leadership: How Does One Know Which is Which?

Robert J. Sternberg

Index

Michael D. Mumford is the George Lynn Cross Distinguished Research Professor of Psychology at the University of Oklahoma and serves as the Director of the Center for Applied Social Research. His research focuses on leadership, creativity, ethics, and planning.

Cory A. Higgs is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma’s Industrial and Organizational Psychology program, and has completed work related to leadership, ethics, and creativity.