Power and Leadership Survey

Patterns of Power and Leadership: Understanding Total Behaviour Leadership

Prepared by Andrew Hede FAIM
Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast

A survey was conducted of 560 managers in Queensland including 132 CEOs who reported on the leadership behaviours of their most senior subordinates and 393 non-CEOs who reported on their supervisors. The aim was to identify the patterns across the main behavioural dimensions of leadership rather than a single dimension as in previous research.

The results indicated that the most common pattern of power behaviour, which was exhibited by almost a third of women and a quarter of men, involved low levels of all five power types (coercive, reward, position, expert and referent). The main findings relate to leadership style patterns across eight dimensions.

Download the Patterns of Power and Leadership: Understanding Total Behaviour Leadership White Paper [PDF; 210Kb]

This White paper is the result of a collaboration of the University of the Sunshine Coast and the Australian Institute of Management - Qld & NT.