The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Communication

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

The Bilingual Leader: A Quantitative Study


Affiliations
1 Our Lady of the Lake University, TX, United States
2 Schreiner University, TX, United States
3 University of Texas at Brownsville, TX, United States
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


Transformational leadership has consistently shown to result in high follower satisfaction, high follower assessment of the leader's effectiveness, and high follower willingness to give extra effort at work. Because it is so effective, an array of studies exist that search for correlates and predictors of transformational leadership. Meta-analytic studies by Lord, Vader and Alliger (1986) and Judge, Colbert, and Ilies (2004), have both found a relationship between leader intelligence and effective leadership. Several studies show a direct correlation between learning more than one language and cognitive development. Adesope et al. (2010) conducted a meta-analysis which included 63 studies representing 6,022 participants, about the correlation between bilingualism and cognition. The meta-analysis found that bilingualism was positively associated with several cognitive outcomes. One area of research related to transformational leadership that has not been explored is how the number of languages a leader speaks might be related to her or his style of leadership. This study evaluates if there is a difference in the leadership style as a result of whether the leader was monolingual or bilingual. One hundred sixteen participants in executive leadership training and graduate programs in leadership provided an evaluation packet to two peers, two followers and a supervisor using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, often referred to as a "360 degree" assessment, as the leader is being rated from three different organizational viewpoints. The participants in turn completed a language use questionnaire modeled after the Language History Questionnaire (Li, P., Sepanski, S. and Zhao, X., 2006). A three-way analysis of variance was run with 360 degree ratings of transformational leadership as the dependent variable and leader gender, ethnicity, and whether the leader was bilingual as the independent variables. None of the main effects were significant. There was, however, a significant interaction effect for ethnicity and whether the leader was bilingual.

Keywords

Bilingual, Bilingualism, Leadership, Transformational.
Subscription Login to verify subscription
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Adesope O. O., Lavin T., Thompson T., and Ungerleider C. 2010. "A systematic review and meta-analysis of the cognitive correlates of bilingualism". Review of Educational Research. 80 (2): 207-245. doi: 10.3102/0034654310368803.

  • Ainsworth, M. D. Salter, & Bell, S. M. 1975. "Mother-Infant Interaction and the Development of Competence". New York: Grant Foundation Office of Child Development Washington D.C.

  • Barbuto, John, Susan Fritz, Gina Matkin, and David Marx. 2007. "Effects of Gender, Education, and Age upon Leaders' Use of Influence Tactics and Full Range Leadership Behaviors". Sex Roles. 56 (1-2): 1-2.

  • Bass, Bernard M., and Bruce J. Avolio. 1990. Transformational leadership development: manual for the multifactor leadership questionnaire. Palo Alto, Calif: Consulting Psychologists Press.

  • Bass, Bernard M., and Bruce J. Avolio. 1994. Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

  • Bass, Bernard M., and Bruce J. Avolio. 2000. MLQ: multifactor leadership questionnaire. Redwood City, Calif: Mind Garden.

  • Bass BM, BJ Avolio, DI Jung, and Y Berson. 2003. "Predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership". The Journal of Applied Psychology. 88 (2): 207-18.

  • Bentler, P.M., and Yutaka Kano. 1990. "On the Equivalence of Factors and Components". Multivariate Behavioral Research. 25 (1): 67-74.

  • Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Luk, G. 2008a. "Cognitive control and lexical access in younger and older bilinguals". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 34 (4): 859-873.

  • Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., & Luk, G. 2008b. "Lexical access in bilinguals: Effects of vocabulary size and executive control". Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21 (6): 522-538.

  • Bialystok, E., Craik, F. I. M., Green, D. W., & Gollan, T. H. 2009. "Bilingual minds". Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Supplement, 10 (3): 89-129.

  • Binational Study on Migration Project. 1998. Migration between Mexico and the United States: Binational study = Mexico-Estados Unidos sobre migracion: estudio binacional. Mexico City: Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

  • Chertkow H., Wolfson C., Whitehead V., Phillips N., et al. 2010. "Multilingualism (but not always bilingualism) delays the onset of Alzheimer disease: Evidence from a bilingual community". Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders. 24 (2): 118-125. doi: 10.1097/WAD.0b013e3181ca122.

  • Craik F. I. M., Bialystok E., and Freedman M. 2010. "Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease: Bilingualism as a form of cognitive reserve". Neurology. 75 (19): 1726-1729.

  • Eagly, Alice H., Mary C. Johannesen-Schmidt, and Marloes L van Engen. 2003. "Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles: A Meta-Analysis Comparing Women and Men". Psychological Bulletin. 129 (4): 569. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.569.

  • Erickson, M. F., Egeland, B., & Pianta, R. C. 1989. The effects of maltreatment on the development of young children: 647-684. In Cicchetti, Dante, and Vicki Carlson. 1989. Child maltreatment: theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Fishman, Joshua A. 1966. Language loyalty in the United States; the maintenance and perpetuation of non-English mother tongues by American ethnic and religious groups. The Hague: Mouton.

  • Fishman, Joshua A. 1972. The sociology of language; an interdisciplinary social science approach to language in society. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House Publishers.

  • Fishman, Joshua A. 1980. Variance and invariance in language form and context. The Hague: Mouton.

  • Frenck-Mestre C., and J. Vaid. 1993. "Activation of number facts in bilinguals". Memory & Cognition. 21 (6): 809-18.

  • Gilbert, G., Collins, R. W., & Brenner, R. 1990. "Age and leadership effectiveness: From the perceptions of the follower". Human Resource Management, 29 (2): 187-196.

  • Hart, Betty, and Todd R. Risley. 1995. Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore: P.H. Brookes.

  • House, Robert J. 2004. Culture, leadership, and organizations: the GLOBE study of 62 societies. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.

  • Jackson, Dan. 2007. "Assessing the Implications of Publication Bias for Two Popular Estimates of between-Study Variance in Meta-Analysis". Biometrics. 63 (1).

  • Joreskog, Karl G., and Dag SoĢˆrbom. 1982. Lisrel five and Lisrel VI Lisrel V and Lisrel VI: analysis of linear structural relationships by maximum likelihood and least squares methods. Uppsala: Univ. of Uppsala, Dep. of Statistics.

  • Judge TA, JE Bono, R Ilies, and MW Gerhardt. 2002. "Personality and leadership: a qualitative and quantitative review". The Journal of Applied Psychology. 87 (4): 765-80.

  • Judge TA, AE Colbert, and R. Ilies. 2004. "Intelligence and leadership: a quantitative review and test of theoretical propositions". The Journal of Applied Psychology. 89 (3): 542-52.

  • Kabacoff, R. I., and Stoffey, R. W. 2001. "Age differences in organizational leadership". Paper presented at the 16 th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, San Diego,CA.

  • Kave G., Eyal N., Shorek A., and Cohen-Mansfield J. 2008. "Multilingualism and Cognitive State in the Oldest Old". Psychology and Aging. 23 (1): 70-78. doi: 10.1037/08827974.23.1.70.

  • Kearney, Eric, and Diether Gebert. 2009. "Managing Diversity and Enhancing Team Outcomes: The Promise of Transformational Leadership". Journal of Applied Psychology. 94 (1): 77.

  • Kharkhurin A.V. 2010. "Bilingual verbal and nonverbal creative behavior". International Journal of Bilingualism. 14 (2): 211-226.

  • Li, P., Sepanski, S., & Zhao, X. 2006. "Language history questionnaire: A Web-based interface for bilingual research". Behavior Research Methods, 38 (2): 202-210.

  • Lord, R., De Vader, C., & Alliger, G. 1986. "A meta-analysis of the relation between personality traits and leadership perceptions: An application of validity generalization procedures". Journal of Applied Psychology, 71: 402-410.

  • Mackay, Fiona, and Jan Etienne. 2006. "Black Managers in Further Education: Career Hopes and Hesitations". Educational Management Administration & Leadership. 34 (1): 9-28.

  • Ospina S., and Foldy E. 2009. "A critical review of race and ethnicity in the leadership literature: Surfacing context, power and the collective dimensions of leadership". Leadership Quarterly. 20 (6): 876-896.

  • Pinker, Steven. 1994. The language instinct. New York: W. Morrow and Co.

  • Lee Salvatierra J., and Rosselli M. 2011. "The effect of bilingualism and age on inhibitory control". International Journal of Bilingualism. 15 (1): 26-37.

  • Sessa, V. I., R. I. Kabacoff, J. Deal, and H. Brown. 2007. "II. Research Tools for the PsychologistManager: Generational Differences in Leader Values and Leadership Behaviors". Psychologist Manager Journal. 10 (1): 47-74.

  • Thomas, David A., and John J. Gabarro. 1999. Breaking through: the making of minority executives in corporate America. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press.

  • Veltman, Calvin J. 1983. Language shift in the United States. Berlin: Mouton.

  • Veltman, Calvin. 1990. "The Status of the Spanish Language in the United States at the Beginning of the 21st Century". International Migration Review. 24 (1): 108-123.

  • Wang G., Courtright S. H., Colbert A. E., and Oh I.-S. 2011. "Transformational Leadership and Performance Across Criteria and Levels: A Meta-analytic Review of 25 Years of Research." Group and Organization Management 26 (2): 223-270.


Abstract Views: 228

PDF Views: 2




  • The Bilingual Leader: A Quantitative Study

Abstract Views: 228  |  PDF Views: 2

Authors

Norma Joyner
Our Lady of the Lake University, TX, United States
Mark Green
Our Lady of the Lake University, TX, United States
Charles Salter
Schreiner University, TX, United States
Nikkie Saldivar Hodgson
University of Texas at Brownsville, TX, United States

Abstract


Transformational leadership has consistently shown to result in high follower satisfaction, high follower assessment of the leader's effectiveness, and high follower willingness to give extra effort at work. Because it is so effective, an array of studies exist that search for correlates and predictors of transformational leadership. Meta-analytic studies by Lord, Vader and Alliger (1986) and Judge, Colbert, and Ilies (2004), have both found a relationship between leader intelligence and effective leadership. Several studies show a direct correlation between learning more than one language and cognitive development. Adesope et al. (2010) conducted a meta-analysis which included 63 studies representing 6,022 participants, about the correlation between bilingualism and cognition. The meta-analysis found that bilingualism was positively associated with several cognitive outcomes. One area of research related to transformational leadership that has not been explored is how the number of languages a leader speaks might be related to her or his style of leadership. This study evaluates if there is a difference in the leadership style as a result of whether the leader was monolingual or bilingual. One hundred sixteen participants in executive leadership training and graduate programs in leadership provided an evaluation packet to two peers, two followers and a supervisor using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, often referred to as a "360 degree" assessment, as the leader is being rated from three different organizational viewpoints. The participants in turn completed a language use questionnaire modeled after the Language History Questionnaire (Li, P., Sepanski, S. and Zhao, X., 2006). A three-way analysis of variance was run with 360 degree ratings of transformational leadership as the dependent variable and leader gender, ethnicity, and whether the leader was bilingual as the independent variables. None of the main effects were significant. There was, however, a significant interaction effect for ethnicity and whether the leader was bilingual.

Keywords


Bilingual, Bilingualism, Leadership, Transformational.

References