Micha Popper

• Full professor
• Professor at University of Haifa

Purpose The notion of tacit knowledge is mostly discussed with regard to experts’ knowledge (Sternberg et al. , 1995). It is less discussed in the context of interpersonal interactions, which are very common in organizations and in certain occupations (e.g. negotiations and therapy). The limited reference to this aspect is due to the lack of approp...

The phenomenon of followership has been increasingly discussed in recent years, and is analyzed mainly through psychological theories. In this article followership is discussed from an evolutionary perspective. The main argument is that the origins of followership are rooted in evolutionary foundations and its visible manifestations result from res...

Purpose This paper aims to clarify the term “tacit knowledge” and suggests the “onion model” as a way to explore conceptually linked layers of tacit knowledge. The model allows the application of different methodologies to elicit tacit knowledge in each layer, the ability to infer tacit knowledge in other layers from tacit knowledge gained in anot...

This chapter deals with the issue of distance between leaders and followers. I claim that distance from a leader is not only a reflection of time and space (i.e., objective distance) but also connected to followers’ emotions toward the leader manifested in their construal of their leaders. I report the findings of initial investigations that demons...

Attachment theory has inspired a new view on the topic of leadership, enabling a better understanding of leader-follower relations by acknowledging how attachment dynamics and the evolutionary foundations of human relationships apply in organizational contexts. Early research mainly focused on individual differences and demonstrated the association...

The discussion takes an evolutionary–cultural perspective in which (a) humans are inherently attracted to large figures (i.e., leaders, heroes), perceived as competent and benevolent entities; (b) the large figure’s influence rests largely on evolutionary phylogenetic biases; (c) the large figure’s effects are expressed through a mechanism designed...

We argue that the sources of charisma are innate and can be explained as part of unique human cultural transmission mechanisms. Recently, developmental models and experiments have been presented, for example, natural pedagogy theory (Csibra & Gergely, 2006, 2009, 2011) and over-imitation studies (Lyons, Young, & Keil, 2007; McGuigan, 2013). Inspire...

Despite their many contributions, each of the most prevalent approaches to leadership – the micro interpersonal leadership models such as transformational theory, trait theory and charismatic leadership, and the macro strategic management – has notable ‘blind spots’ and relies on biased or partial assumptions. Furthermore, the macro–micro polarizat...

The study explores the involvement of leadership in the migration decision-making process of North American immigrants to Israel. The results, based on qualitative and quantitative research methods, indicate that more than half of the immigrants in our sample did not attribute much significance to the influence of a specific leader. However, they a...

This article is divided into three parts. In the first part, Galit, Boas's spouse, chronologically reviews the five periods of Boas's professional life—describing what is special to each period and what connects them—while relating to the centrality of values and the secret of charisma according to Boas Shamir. In the second part, Ronit, Boas's col...

Two questions are addressed in this article: 1. Why are people attracted to leaders? 2. How are leaders' images construed? The first question is analyzed by using the concept of “deity” as a frame of reference for an “ideal model” of leadership. God as a “screen of projections” can satisfy the believer's fundamental needs and desires, as well as se...

We know a great deal today about the impact of transformational leaders, their actions, typical behaviors and their ways of influencing others (Bass, 1985, 1999a, b; Bass & Avolio, 1990). However, we know relatively little about the psychological substructure, the internal world of these leaders, namely who they are and how they developed this way....

This paper deals with some principles derived from the concept of psychological distance, which are relevant to the differential view of distant and close leaders as perceived by the followers. The claim is that psychological distance is a subjective dimension that affects the manner of construal and attributions with regard to leaders. The more di...

'Firmly grounded in psychological knowledge, based on detailed historical case studies, highly readable, and offering a multitude of examples from many leadership spheres, Popper's book offers a fresh and important perspective from which to understand the phenomenon of leadership. It is one of the very few attempts to deviate from the extant paradi...

Unlike most of the leadership literature, which focuses on the leaders themselves, the point of departure in this paper is that the psychology of the followers is the key to understanding the leaders' influence. Followers' attraction to leaders is analyzed from three theoretical perspectives: (a) psychodynamic, according to which the leader represe...

Purpose Psychological research on leadership deals mainly with the effect of leadership styles on workers' attitudes and performance. This paper seeks to focus the attention to patterns of preference of followers to different types of leaders. Design/methodology/approach In the two studies presented in the paper, followers classified on the basis...

Apart from biographies and memoirs of outstanding leaders, studies on the development of leaders in everyday life from childhood to maturity are rare. We propose a developmental model of leaders in which certain variables formed in early childhood are the basic components for leadership development in later life. These are a low level of trait anxi...

Addressing psychological literature's deficiency in research on the early development of leaders in everyday life (e.g., leaders in the workplace, leaders in social settings, leaders in organizational settings), this study assumed that central psychological capacities required for such leaders can be predicted and explained by J. Bowlby's (1969)12....

Purpose By comparing “leaders” with “non‐leaders” the current research attempts to shed light on the impact of early experiences on leaders' development. Design/methodology/approach The study is presented in two parts, quantitative and qualitative. In the first (quantitative) part, a group of soldiers perceived as leaders was compared with a group...

In 3 studies, the authors examined the contribution of leaders' attachment styles to their leadership motives and beliefs and to followers' outcomes. In Study 1, participants completed measures of attachment orientation, leadership motives, self-representations, and leadership style. Studies 2 and 3 were conducted within Israeli military units eith...

Purpose – The paper aims to present a conceptual model that delineates the psychological substructures (“building blocks”) and their impact on the major learning processes required for leader development. Design/methodology/approach – Based on theories in developmental psychology, it is argued that certain variables formed in early childhood are “...

Psychological research on leadership has dealt mainly with the influence of leadership as an independent variable (Bass, 1990). Only recently has a pioneer attempt been made to develop an empirical model for the examination of motivation to lead (MTL; Chan, 1999). This model incorporates three factors: affective MTL, social-normative MTL, and calcu...

Three factors, potential (P), motivation (M), and development (D) constitute the frame of reference proposed in this research for leadership development: P x M x D. The three factors are presented here in an interactive (multiplicative), rather than an additive relationship because of our prior assumption that if one of the factors is absent (or ha...

The ramifications of attachment processes in adulthood at the societal level are explored, specifically, why and under what circumstances followers form attachment relationships with a leader, and how the variability in these relationships can reflect the followers' internal working models of attachment. It is argued that in crisis situations, indi...

This book presents a solid, research-based conceptual framework that demystifies organizational learning and bridges the gap between theory and practice. Using an integrative approach, authors Raanan Lipshitz, Victor Friedman and Micha Popper provide practitioners and researchers with tools for understanding organizational learning under real-world...

We present an in-depth analysis of post-flight reviews in a fighter aircraft squadron of the Israel Defense Force Air Force. Our findings demonstrate how organizations can learn non-metaphorically and highlight the dynamics of learning in a central organizational learning mechanism in this type of after-action review. They also show that learning i...

Despite the growing popularity of organizational learning and the proliferation of literature on the subject, the concept remains elusive for researchers and managers alike. This article argues that enduring uncertainty about the meaning and practice of organizational learning reflects its so-called mystification. It attributes mystification to fiv...

Purpose – The correlation between organizational unit managers’ leadership styles and the level of organizational learning in their units was tested. Design/methodology/approach – A positive correlation was hypothesized between transformational leadership and organizational learning as manifested by organizational learning mechanisms – OLMs (the s...

Purpose – Aims to present a conceptual framework for understanding how leaders develop. Design/methodology/approach – The arguments are derived from the assumption that leadership, like many other human manifestations, is a function of a given potential, relevant motivation, and ongoing developmental processes. It is argued that three developmenta...

This paper presents a conceptualization of organizational learning quality based on a comparison of two successful and two unsuccessful episodes of post-accident reviews in an elite combat unit of the Israel Defense Forces. Analyses of semi-structured interviews of key participants revealed that: (1) the outcomes of high-quality organizational lear...

The article reviews the various ramifications in the discussion on leadership, focusing on the view of leadership as relationships between leaders and followers. Three main types of leader-follower relations are discussed, and their specific characteristics are described: regressive relations, symbolic relations, and developmental relations. After...

This study returns to the question that occupied "trait approach" scholars in the early days of leadership research: identification of the major capacities required for leadership. The conceptual and methodological progress that has been made in psychology since the trait approach enables us to formulate models and deal with variables that did not...

Developmental processes lie at the heart of the relationship between transformational leaders and followers. First, three major domains in which developmental outcomes have been mostly discussed, namely motivation, empowerment, and morality, are highlighted, expanded, and discussed. Next the analogy between transformational leaders and “good parent...

On the basis of the theoretical distinction between socialized charismatic leaders (SCL) and personalized charismatic leaders (PCL), two studies were conducted in order to: (i) construct measures that distinguish between these two types of leader; and (ii) explore, using attachment theory, aspects that might account for the differential development...

The objective of this article is to map the manyfacets of organizational learning into an integrative and parsimonious conceptual framework that can help researchers and practicioners identify, study, and introduce organizational learning to organizations. The article addresses the gap between theoryand practice of organizational learning byprovidi...

Examines the manner in which followers’ cultural background affects their perception of leadership. Being common in many comparative cultural studies, the full range model was chosen as the theoretical framework for investigating the research questions. The model includes nine leadership dimensions measured by the multifactor leadership questionnai...

Most studies on leadership focused on the personality, actions and behaviors of leaders as independent variables. More and more scholars of leadership call to place more weight on the images of leaders that followers construct. This article demonstrates the significance and potential of this approach by discussing the effect of cultural dimensions...

This investigation examined the relationship between leadership style and the content of vision tapes produced in a comprehensive leadership workshop with community leaders. The transformational leadership style of 141 leaders positively predicted the inspirational “strength” of their vision statements, as reflected in the level of optimism express...

This paper explores the origins of leadership potential and motivation for leadership, primarily with regard to two types of leaders: personalized and socialized charismatic leaders. Bowlby's attachment theory (1969, 1973) provides a theoretical basis for determining an individual's potential to be in leadership positions. The “internal working mod...

The authors present a case study of organizational learning in an internal medicine ward and a cardiac surgery ward of a university-affiliated hospital. The study is based on a structural and cultural approach to organizational learning. The structural facet of this approach consists of organizational learning mechanisms (OLMs), which are instituti...

The approach to organizational learning in this article is anchored in structural and cultural facets. The structural facet focuses on organizational learning mechanisms, which are institutionalized structural and procedural arrangements allowing organizations to systematically collect, analyze, store, disseminate, and use information that is relev...

Attachment theory posits that the child's experiences with attachment figures (mostly parents) form the basis for an internal working model of self and others that can be either secure (others and self are perceived positively) or insecure (others or self are perceived negatively). In adulthood, these models are reflected in attachment styles which...

'Organizational learning' and 'learning organizations' are currently in vogue in the academic and applied discourse on organizations (Levitt and March, 1988; Senge, 1990; Cohen and Sproul, 1991; Howard and Haas, 1993; Argyris and Sch¨ on, 1996). The down side of the ensuing outpouring of publications is a confusing proliferation of definitions and...

This study examines some antecedents and consequences of social identification in military units. Data were collected from 2 samples in each unit: staff members and soldiers. It was found that identification with the unit was related to 3 categories of leader behavior: an emphasis on collective identity, an emphasis on shared values, and inclusive...

In view of differences between the historical origins of infantry and armor units in the Israel Defense Forces and the more technology-dependent and mechanistic nature of armor units in comparison with infantry units, we hypothesized certain differences in the leadership style of company leaders in the 2 types of units. We compared leader behaviors...

In this study, the authors conceptualized perceived combat readiness, an important component of morale, in terms of collective efficacy beliefs and examined some of the anticipated correlates of collective efficacy beliefs as they apply to military combat units. They focused on the following variables: soldiers' experience, leader's tenure, leader'...

This study examined the effect of error criticality on the likelihood of the development of a learning organizational culture. Four types of organizations differing in error criticality (the severity of the costs of potential error) were compared in terms of the intensity of learning culture, operationalized as shared values of issue orientation, v...

We tested several hypotheses derived from an extended version of Shamir, House, and Arthur's (1993) theory of charismatic leadership. We used three different samples of subordinates to assess leader behavior, individual-level correlates, and unit-level correlates, respectively. We also examined the effects of charismatic behaviors and unit-level co...

This article presents a two-faceted (structural and cultural) approach to organizational learning. The structural facet focuses on organizational learning mechanisms, which are institutionalized structural and procedural arrangements allowing organizations to systematically collect, analyze, store, disseminate, and use information that is relevant...

This article describes an organizational intervention that was considered highly successful on first sight and in the short term. However, after some time it emerged that the effects of this organizational intervention were surprisingly different from what had been planned and foreseen. A deeper analysis indicates the substantive effects of the bas...

This article concerns the first phase of a project introducing organizational learning into the Ordnance Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. Conducted as a joint experiment, the project was guided by a set of principles and metaphors that constituted a vision of learning organizations. The article describes the conceptual rationale underlying the p...

Notes that the relationship between leader and led may involve four types of process - transactional processes wherein the leader conducts rewarding motivational transactions with his/her people; projective processes wherein the leader serves as a “screen” for transferential projections to authority figures; attributional processes, in which the le...

Leadership literature in the past decade has drawn a sharp distinction between three types of leadership: transactional, charismatic and transformational. The leadership literature has dealt extensively with the sources and aspects of these leadership patterns, particularly in the context of “the leader and his people”, emphasizing transactional le...

Deals with the manager and the organization from the point of view of personal counselling of managers. Sharpens the different perspectives from which organizational counsellors may view the work of counselling, perspectives that are apt to lead to conflicts of perception between helping the manager and helping the organization. Dilemmas of this ki...

Argues that hierarchical level is frequently not given enough consideration in analysing managerial jobs. Describes the qualitative differences existing at the various hierarchical levels in terms of time-span, task complexity, and mental capabilities required. Specifically argues that the cognitive complexity required at senior managerial levels m...

Offers a conceptual framework which relates leadership development to theories of leadership. The framework suggests that programmes of leadership development should include three components: developing self-efficacy in the domain of leadership, developing awareness of different modes of motivating others in correspondence with different theories o...

The transformational leadership concept differentiates between instrumental motivation and normative commitment. The high motivation levels, the relative freedom given to junior officers, and the esprit de corps in infantry units in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have made the concept of transformational leadership highly suitable for junior com...

Coaching is a much-discussed topic on which little has been written at a thoeretical level. Relates coaching to Bandura's theory of sefefficacy and Schon's work on developing reflective practitioners. Claiming that enhancement of self-efficacy (a sense of mastery in a particular domain) is central to coaching, describes how self-efficacy is acquire...

Three hypotheses on the relations between instrumental and normative values and facets of organizational commitment were tested and confirmed, using a sample of candidates for officers' training course in the Israel Defence Forces. Affective commitment (identifying with the goals and values of the organization) is related only to normative values,...

The implications of disabilities, whether already existing at the time of appointment or incurred during the working career, are examined at the macro-organisational levels – productivity and human resources strategy. It is argued that the extent of physical disability of an individual may be quite independent of his/her contribution to the organis...

The history of a management development programme in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is presented. The programme was developed in response to two problems which handicapped internal consultants in the IDF, their low power position and the inappropriateness of organisation development as a paradigm for applying behavioural sciences in this organisat...

In a quasi-experimental design, organizational mission was examined as an influence on individual behavior of members. Workers in an organization with a high value-content-mission exhibited higher normative commitment than workers in a control (neutral mission) organization. No differences were found, however, in instrumental commitment. This findi...