Flexibility (personality)

About: Flexibility (personality) is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6695 publications have been published within this topic receiving 149637 citations.

Emotions and Leadership: The Role of Emotional Intelligence

Abstract: This paper suggests that feelings (moods and emotions) play a central role in the leadership process. More specifically, it is proposed that emotional intelligence, the ability to understand and manage moods and emotions in the self and others, contributes to effective leadership in organizations. Four major aspects of emotional intelligence, the appraisal and expression of emotion, the use of emotion to enhance cognitive processes and decision making, knowledge about emotions, and management of emotions, are described. Then, I propose how emotional intelligence contributes to effective leadership by focusing on five essential elements of leader effectiveness: development of collective goals and objectives; instilling in others an appreciation of the importance of work activities; generating and maintaining enthusiasm, confidence, optimism, cooperation, and trust; encouraging flexibility in decision making and change; and establishing and maintaining a meaningful identity for an organization.

Understanding adolescence as a period of social–affective engagement and goal flexibility.

Abstract: Research has demonstrated that extensive structural and functional brain development continues throughout adolescence. A popular notion emerging from this work states that a relative immaturity in frontal cortical neural systems could explain adolescents' high rates of risk-taking, substance use and other dangerous behaviours. However, developmental neuroimaging studies do not support a simple model of frontal cortical immaturity. Rather, growing evidence points to the importance of changes in social and affective processing, which begin around the onset of puberty, as crucial to understanding these adolescent vulnerabilities. These changes in social-affective processing also may confer some adaptive advantages, such as greater flexibility in adjusting one's intrinsic motivations and goal priorities amidst changing social contexts in adolescence.

Attachment as an Organizational Construct

Abstract: Developmentalists have often conceptualized infant-adult ties in terms of an implicit trait construct evolved from the study of dependency. The major dimension of individual differences has been conceptualized in terms of quantitative differences in the "strength" of attachments, and a variety of discrete behaviors (touch, look, smile, approach, cling, cry) have been assumed to be valid "indices" of this dimension. These behaviors have been assumed to be significantly intercorrelated and stable across situations and over time. Critics have argued strongly that these assumptions cannot be defended empirically. It has further been argued that the study of individual differences in infant-adult ties is unlikely to he a productive research strategy and that attachment (as implying anything more than infant-adult interaction) has outlived its usefulness as a developmental construct. When, however, trait models are abandoned and greater attention is paid to the functions, outcomes, and context sensitivity of attachment behavior and to the underlying behavioral control systems that organize it, the apparent conflict between situational influences and stable individual differences can be resolved. The study of changes in the organization of behavior during development provides a framework for productive individual differences research. When greater emphasis is placed on the organization of behavior, both the stability and the flexibility of attachment behavior can be comprehended, and the attachment construct can continue to play an important integrative role in developmental theory.

Positive affect, cognitive processes, and social behavior.

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter examines some of the literature demonstrating an impact of affect on social behavior. It will consider the influence of affect on cognition in an attempt to further understand on the way cognitive processes may mediate the effect of feelings on social behavior. The chapter describes the recent works suggesting an influence of positive affect on flexibility in cognitive organization (that is, in the perceived relatedness of ideas) and the implications of this effect for social interaction. The goal of this research is to expand the understanding of social behavior and the factors, such as affect, that influence interaction among people. Another has been to extend the knowledge of affect, both as one of these determinants of social behavior and in its own right. And a third has been to increase the understanding of cognitive processes, especially as they play a role in social interaction. Most recently, cognitive and social psychologists have investigated ways in which affective factors may participate in cognitive processes (not just interrupt them) and have begun to include affect as a factor in more comprehensive models of cognition. The research described in the chapter has focused primarily on feelings rather than intense emotion, because feelings are probably the most frequent affective experiences. The chapter focuses primarily on positive affect.

Leadership: do traits matter?

Abstract: Executive Overview The study of leader traits has a long and controversial history. While research shows that the possession of certain traits alone does not guarantee leadership success, there is evidence that effective leaders are different from other people in certain key respects. Key leader traits include: drive (a broad term which includes achievements, motivation, ambition, energy, tenacity, and initiative); leadership motivation (the desire to lead but not to seek power as an end in itself); honesty and integrity; self-confidence (which is associated with emotional stability); cognitive ability; and knowledge of the business. There is less clear evidence for traits such as charisma, creativity and flexibility. We believe that the key leader traits help the leader acquire necessary skills; formulate an organizational vision and an effective plan for pursuing it; and take the necessary steps to implement the vision in reality.