Leadership and knowledge: Symbolic, connectionist, and embodied perspectives

By R. Lord, Sara J. Shondrick. 2011

103 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Although organizational practices and leadership processes are contingent upon knowledge acquisition and use, the changing conceptualizations of knowledge in cognitive science are often overlooked in research. Nevertheless, leadership research has inherently reflected shifting views of knowledge, transitioning from an emphasis on the classical symbolic view to connectionism and most recently to an embodied, embedded view of cognition. We argue that different leadership processes uniquely draw on these three types of knowledge and that excluding a connectionist or embodied, embedded view of knowledge creates an impoverished understanding of leadership. To illustrate this problem, we provide two follower-centric and two leader-centric examples of leadership processes which rely on the multiple forms of knowledge described herein: followers' attributional reasoning regarding leadership, followers' perceptions and memories of leaders, processes that generate leaders' behavioral choices, and finally, leaders' sensemaking/decision-making. We also discuss how these three perspectives could be integrated in future research to provide a richer understanding of leadership processes, particularly those based on collective, interactive leadership processes that emerge in groups of individuals.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9cd9e997bae3f49974b86668d3db370f860d2fa6

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In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

A 25-year perspective on levels of analysis in leadership research (2014, unknown): “…prototypes, and leader cognition (Antes & Mumford, 2012; Dionne, Sayama, Hao, & Bush, 2010; Hall & Lord, 1995; Keller, 1999; Lord & Emrich, 2000; Lord & Shondrick, 2011; Mumford, Connelly, & Gaddis, 2003; Mumford, Friedrich, Caughron, & Byrne, 2007; Pierro, Cicero, Bonaiuto, van Knippenberg, &…”
A framework for understanding leadership and individual requisite complexity (2011, background): “For example, research on embodied cognitions (Lord & Shondrick, 2011; Niedenthal, Winkielman, Mondillon, & Vermuelen, 2009), shows that motor systems related to observed actions or feedback from one’s own facial muscles provide important inputs to understanding of which people may be unaware.”
When managers become leaders: The role of manager network centralities, social power, and followers' perception of leadership (2017, methodology): “However, the precise network-triggered mechanisms by which leadership prototypes are activated in subordinates are not well understood (c.f., Hanges, Lord, & Dickson, 2000; Lord & Shondrick, 2011; Shondrick, Dinh, & Lord, 2010).”
What Have We Learned That Is Critical in Understanding Leadership Perceptions and Leader-Performance Relations? (2014, background): “…basis of socialcognitive and neurological research, several systems that include symbolic, connectionist, emotional, and embodied knowledge (Dinh, Lord, & Hoffman, 2014; Lord & Shondrick, 2011) are thought to influence many of the intrapersonal and interpersonal processes that relate to leadership.”
Cognitive skills and leadership performance: The nine critical skills (2017, background): “Lord and Shondrick (2011) classify types of knowledge used by the followers of leaders as symbolic, connectionist, and embedded.”