Leadership: Do networks matter?

Leadership has traditionally been viewed as a relationship between the leaders and their subordinates. Recent research has shown the significance of the social aspects of leadership. This view forms the basis for the research reported on in this paper. Social network analysis provides socio-metric measures of leadership, which can be associated with traditional measures of leadership. The research evaluates U.S. Military cadets´ social networks of friendship, trust, and reputed leadership in concert with leadership attributes, organizational identity, and attitude. The significance of reputed leaders´ social position is ascertained. Additionally, the channels and extent of influence of reputed d leaders over other cadets are assessed. A significant result was that leaders are not spreading their influence over the friendship network but over the leadership reputation network. Leaders have a particular influence on those who perceive them as leaders when it comes to leadership style and performance. This result contributes to our knowledge of “social leadership”, in particular, the ability to manage the social dynamics inherent in leadership.