Abstract
Given the importance of wisdom in leadership and the crucial role that wise leaders play within organizations, this study aimed at developing a psychometrically valid scale measuring wise leadership. Data were collected from three independent samples from France and Morocco (N=626). Exploratory factor analysis, first- and second-order confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modeling established the convergent and discriminant validities of the new wise leadership scale. Review of the extant literature, expert judgment technique and quantitative analyses across four studies yielded a 16-item scale designed to measure wise leadership (Wise Leadership Questionnaire [WLQ]). The driving forces of this pattern of leaders’ values, cognitions and behaviors are intellectual shrewdness, spurring action, moral conduct, and virtuous humility. This new wise leadership measure will be valuable for researchers and practitioners in understanding the pattern of wise leaders.
References
Aldhaheri, A. (2020). Measuring school leaders' adaptability in the UAE: development of a scale to measure leadership adaptability. “Evidence-based HRM”, 9(1).
Aldwin, C. (2009). Gender and wisdom. “Research in Human Development”, 6.
Ardelt, M. (2004). Wisdom as expert knowledge system: A critical review of a contemporary operationalization of an ancient concept. “Human Development”, 47(5).
—— (2003). Development and empirical assessment of a three-dimensional wisdom scale. “Research on Aging”, 25(3).
Aristotle, T. Irwin. (1999). Nicomachean ethics. Indianapolis, IN: Hacket Publishing.
Bagozzi, R.P., Yi, Y., Phillips, L.W. (1991). Assessing construct validity in organizational research. “Administrative Science Quarterly”, 36(3).
Baltes, P.B., Glück, J., Kunzmann, U. (2002). Wisdom: Its structure and function in regulating successful lifespan development [In:] Snyder, C.R., Lopez, S.J., eds., Handbook of positive psychology. London, England: Oxford University Press.
Baltes, P.B., Staudinger, U.M. (2000). A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. “American Psychologist”, 55(1).
Bardon, T., Brown, A.D., Pezé, S. (2017). Identity Regulation, Identity Work and Phronesis. “Human Relations”, 70(8).
Bartunek, J.M., Necochea, R. (2000). Old insights and new times: Kairos, Inca cosmology and Q7 their contributions to contemporary management inquiry. “Journal of Management Inquiry”, 9(2).
Bass, B.M., Avolio, B.J. (2004). Multifactor leadership questionnaire: Manual leader form, rater, and scoring key for MLQ. Redwood City, CA: Mind Garden.
Bass, B., Bass, R. (2008). The Bass handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and managerial applications. New York, NY: Free Press.
Beadle, R., Moore, G. (2006). MacIntyre on virtue and organization. “Organization Studies”, 27(3).
Bennis, W. (2007). The challenges of leadership in the modern world: Introduction to the special issue. “American Psychologist”, 62(1).
Benzakour, F. (2007). Langue française et langues locales en terre marocaine: rapports de forces et reconstructions identitaires. “Hérodote”, 126(3).
Biloslavo, R., McKenna, B. (2013). Evaluating the process of wisdom in wise political leaders using a developmental wisdom model [In:] Küpers, W., Pauleen, D.A., eds., Handbook of Practical Wisdom: Leadership, Organization and Integral Business Practice. Farnham, UK: Gower.
Boal, K.B., Hooijberg, R. (2001). Strategic leadership: Moving on. “Leadership Quarterly”, 11(4).
Brislin, R.W. (1986). The Wording of Translation of Research Instruments [In:] Lonner, W.J., Berry, J.W., eds., Field Methods in Cross-Cultural Research. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Chia R., Holt, R. (2007). Wisdom as learned ignorance: Integrating east-west perspectives [In:] Kessler, E.H., Bailey, J.R., eds., Handbook of Organizational and Managerial Wisdom. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Clayton, V.P., Birren, J.E. (1980). The development of wisdom across the life-span: A reexa-mination of an ancient topic [In:] Baltes, P.B., Brim O.G., eds., Life-span development and behavior. New York, NY: Academic Press.
DeVellis, R.F. (2012). Scale development: Theory and application. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Elbaz, A.M., Haddoud, M.Y. (2017). The role of wisdom leadership in increasing job performance: Evidence from the Egyptian tourism sector. “Tourism Management”, 63.
Foot, P. (2002). Virtues and Vices and Other Essays in Moral Philosophy, second edition, New York: Oxford University Press.
Fornell, C., Larcker, D.F. (1981). Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error. “Journal of Marketing Research”, 18(1).
Garick, S. (2013). The Wise Leader. “Administrative Issues Journal”, 3(3).
Glück, J. (2018). Measuring Wisdom: Existing Approaches, Continuing Challenges, and New Developments. “J Gerontol B Psychol”, 73(8).
Hair, J., Black, W., Babin, B.Y.A., Anderson, R., Tatham, R. (2014). Multivariate data analysis. A global perspective. India: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Hall, S.S. (2010). Wisdom: From philosophy to neuroscience. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Hassi, A., Storti, G. (2019). Wisdom-based Leadership: Towards the Development of a New Scale. Academy of Management (AOM) Specialized Conference on Responsible Leadership in Rising Economies, Bled, Slovenia, October 23–25, 2019.
Hassi, A. Storti, G., Azennoud, A. (2011). Corporate trainers’ credibility and cultural values: Evidence from Canada and Morocco. “Cross-Cultural Management: An International Journal”, 18(4).
Hinkin, T.R. (1995). A review of scale development practices in the study of organizations. “Journal of Management”, 21(5).
Holliday, S.G., Chandler, M.J. (1986). Wisdom: Explorations in adult competence [In:] Meacham, J.A., ed., Contributions to human development. Basel, Switzerland: Karger.
Intezari, A., Pauleen, D. (2014). Management wisdom in perspective: Are you virtuous enough to succeed in volatile times? “Journal of Business Ethics”, 120(3).
Johnson, R.E., Rosen, C.C., Chang, C.-H. (2011). To aggregate or not to aggregate: Steps for developing and validating higher-order multidimensional constructs. “Journal of Business and Psychology”, 26(3).
Jordan, J., Sternberg, R.J. (2007). Individual logic – wisdom in organizations: A balance theory analysis [In:] Kessler, E.H., Bailey, J.R., eds., Handbook of organizational and managerial wisdom, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Kaipa, P., Radjou, N. (2013). From smart to wise: acting and leading with purpose. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Kekes, J. (1995). Moral wisdom and good lives. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Kilburg, R.R. (2012). Virtuous leaders: Strategy, character, and influence in the 21st century. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Knapp, S. (2000). The contemporary thesaurus of search terms and synonyms: A guide for natural language computer searching (2nd ed.). Phoenix: Oryx Press.
Kriger M. (2013). Wise Leadership in Organizations: Integrating Eastern and Western Paradigms [In:] Neal, J., eds., Handbook of Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace. New York, NY: Springer.
Küpers, W. (2007). Integral pheno-practice of wisdom in management and organisation. “Social Epistemology”, 21(2).
Longman, T. (2002). How to read proverbs, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL.
Maercker, A., Zoellner, T. (2004). The Janus face of self-perceived growth: Toward a two-component model of posttraumatic growth. “Psychological Inquiry”, 15.
McKenna, B., Rooney, D. (2019). Wise leadership [In:] Sternberg, R.J., Glück, J., eds., The Cambridge handbook of wisdom. Cambridge University Press.
McKenna, B., Rooney, D. Boal, K.B. (2009). Wisdom Principles as a Meta-Theoretical Basis for Evaluating Leadership. “Leadership Quarterly”, 20(2).
Meeks, T.W., Jeste, D.V. (2009). Neurobiology of wisdom: An overview. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(4).
Netemeyer, R.G., Bearden, W.O., Sharma, S. (2003). Scaling procedures: Issues and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Nonaka, I., Takeuchi H. (2011). The Wise Leader. “Harvard Business Review”, 89.
Nunnally, J.C., Bernstein, I.H. (1994). Psychometric theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
O’Grady, P. (2019). Theoretical Wisdom. “The Journal of Value Inquiry”, 53(3).
Patterson, M.G., West, M.A., Shackleton, V.J., Dawson, J.F., Lawthom, R., Maitlis, S. et al. (2005). Validating the organizational climate measure: Links to managerial practices, productivity and innovation. “Journal of Organizational Behavior”, 26 (4).
Pfeffer, J., Sutton, R.I. (2006). Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Podsakoff, P., MacKenzie, S., Lee, J., Podsakoff, N. (2012). Sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. “Annual Review of Psychology”, 65.
Price, T.L. (2000). Explaining ethical failures of leadership. “Leadership & Organization Development Journal”, 21 (4).
Redzanowski U., Glück J. (2013). Who knows who is wise? Self- and peer-ratings of wisdom. “J. Gerontol. B Psychol. Sci.”, 68(3).
Rooney, D., Küpers, W., Pauleen, D., Zhuraleva, E. (2021). A Developmental Model for Educating Wise Leaders: The Role of Mindfulness and Habitus in Creating Time for Embodying Wisdom. “Journal of Business Ethics”, 170(1).
Rooney, D., McKenna, B. (007). Wisdom in organizations: Whence and whither. “Social Epistemology”, 21(2).
Solomon, R.C. (2003). Victims of circumstances? A defense of virtue ethics in business. “Business Ethics Quarterly”, 13(1).
Steed, C. (2017). Smart Leadership – Wise Leadership: Environments of Value in an Emerging Future. London: Routledge.
Sternberg, R.J. (2005). Foolishness [In:] Sternberg, R.J., Jordan, J., eds., Handbook of Wisdom: Psychological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA.
—— (2007). A systems model of leadership: WICS. “American Psychologist”, 62(1).
—— (2008). The WICS approach to leadership: Stories of leadership and the structures and processes that support them. “The Leadership Quarterly”, 19(3).
Tabachnick, B.G., Fidell, L.S. (2001). Using multivariate statistics. Sydney, Australia: Allyn & Bacon.
Takahashi, M., Overton, W.F. (2005). Cultural foundations of wisdom: An integrated developmental approach [In:] Sternberg, R.J., Jordan, J., eds., A handbook of wisdom: Psychological perspectives. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Tichy, N., Bennis, W. (2010). Wise judgment. “Leadership Excellence”, 27.
Vasconcelos, A.F. (2022). Wisdom capital: definitions, meaning and a two-level model. “International Journal of Organizational Analysis”, 30(2).
Walumbwa, F.O., Avolio, B.J., Gardner, W.L., Wernsing, T.S., Peterson, S.J. (2008). Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. “Journal of Management”, 34(1).
Weick, K.E. (2007). Foreword [In:] Kessler, E.H., Bailey, J.R., eds., Handbook of organizational and managerial wisdom. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Yang, S.Y. (2011). Wisdom displayed through leadership: Exploring leadership-related wisdom. “The Leadership Quarterly”, 22(4).
Yu, A., Hays, N.A., Zhao, E.Y. (2019). Development of a bipartite measure of social hierarchy: The perceived power and perceived status scales. “Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes”, 152.
Zacher, H., McKenna, B., Rooney, D., Gold, S. (2015). Wisdom in the military context. “Military Psychology”, 27(3).
All texts published in the Journal "Modern Management Review" are available in the full version on the website of MMR. Digital IDs have also been entered from number 19 (3/2012) (DOI: 10.7862/rz.2018.mmr.1)
Open Access – CC BY 4.0
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. The articles are published under the terms of the Creative Commons licence (CC-BY 4.0), including the following fields of exploitation comprising:
1) the right to publish the Work in print in book and digital form and to distribute it in book and digital form, including by displaying, playing, broadcasting, making it publicly available by the Publisher and third parties,
2) the right to record and reproduce all or part of the Work on paper and in the form of a digital record and in any other possible way by the Publisher,
3) the right to enter the Work into computer memory and save the Work in the IT systems of the Publisher and other entities distributing digital content,
4) the right to archive the Work and make copies of the Work on electronic media by the Publisher, without quantitative restrictions,
5) the right to digitise the Work and to perform conversions/transformations of the Work in electronic form into other digital formats by the Publisher and third parties,
6) the right to distribute the Work, including via the Internet or other ICT networks by the Publisher and other third parties, in a way that allows viewing, reading, copying the content of the Work in electronic form, i.e. all elements belonging to it, whereby copying shall be understood as the saving of the Work made available to an interested person on a medium of their choice,
7) the right to store the Work in the database of the Publisher and other entities distributing the Work in any form, as well as its processing in the database of the Publisher and third parties,
8) right to translate and publish the Work in one of the modern languages in any form by the Publisher and third parties.