Our goal this quarter is to locate current key issues and what it takes to be a successful leader in the finance industry. Our research will be focused towards a deep dive into what personality and skill traits make successful financial leaders, as well as how they developed said traits.

Biddle, C. J. (2020). Epidemics and pandemics as high consequence events: Expanding leadership challenges and responsibilities in business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 14(1), 6–16.

This article from the Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning published in 2021 discusses how pandemics present a new layer of challenge to leadership in the finance industry. This paper states how leadership need to be prepared to adjust very quickly to varying mandates, and health and safety concerns. With COVID-19 presenting new challenges to leaders, this article is an excellent introduction to what leaders need to stay focused on to keep their organizations and people afloat during these times. When discussing leadership barriers in the finance industry, COVID-19 and other global pandemics must be at the forefront of leader’s minds.

Carson, Charles M, & King, James E. (2005). Leaving leadership: Solving leadership problems through empowerment. Management Decision, 43(7/8), 1049-1053. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1108/00251740510610044

The authors take a look at management and leadership and how organizations need to train their managers to keep employees motivated and invested in the company. The article claims that leaders need to give their employees empowerment so they can make their own decisions confidently speeding up the production and increasing the capacity of the team. Empowerment provided by leaders gives employees motivation and direction that with the right training will increase efficiency.

DRAGONI, L., OH, I.‐S., VANKATWYK, P. and TESLUK, P.E. (2011), DEVELOPING EXECUTIVE LEADERS: THE RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION OF COGNITIVE ABILITY, PERSONALITY, AND THE ACCUMULATION OF WORK EXPERIENCE IN PREDICTING STRATEGIC THINKING COMPETENCY. Personnel Psychology, 64: 829-864. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01229.x

The article, Developing Executive Leaders, talks about what goes into making these higher up executives. They study multiple aspects of the research to see what really creates these elite leaders. The article credits most leaders’ success due to accumulated work experience, they gain this experience from openness, cognitive ability, and extraversion (extrovert). Why is this critical to our research? We want to find out what it takes to overcome obstacles that allows you to be the best leader one can be in the finance industry. In order to figure this out we need to analyze multiple angles, one very important aspect would be, what makes a good leader. This article is exactly that, it shares with us what attributes go into becoming a successful leader, with research backing why these attributes are the reason. Such as accumulated work experience being one of the main reasons for strategic thinking and leadership success.

Geletkanycz, Marta A. (2020). Social movement spillover: Barriers to board gender diversity posed by contemporary governance reform. The Leadership Quarterly, 31(6), 101438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2020.101438

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Geletkanycz studies how gender is currently being impacted in leadership roles. She has found that even though we have had so many activists and social movements the amount of women in leadership positions has decreased. She looks at how even though the evidence suggests that having diverse genders in positions of power results in greater performance than decision makers comprising mostly men. Geletkanycz studies different theories and how they may have made things harder for women to progress to leadership positions despite the social movements working toward opening the doors. This issue is big for the finance sector as the gender disparity is much larger than average.

Ivanov, S., McFadden, M., & Anyu, J. N. (2021). Examining and Comparing Good and Bad

Leaders Based on Key Leadership Characteristics: A Leadership Case Study. International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 13(3), 275–281.

In the article, Examining and Comparing Good and Bad Leaders Based on Key Leadership Characteristics: A Leadership Case Study, the authors attempt to identify the characteristics of good and bad leadership as well as whether or not they could gauge leaders based on such characteristics. To do this, they evaluated key traits such as collaboration, planning, accountability along with others and used outside studies to assess these traits for both good and bad leadership. They also desired to see how good and bad leaders would react in situations and whether or not they fulfilled certain leadership qualities during said times. Ultimately, the findings revealed that you indeed can gauge leaders by such qualities as well as encouraging leaders to better themselves in such areas of need will benefit an organization.

Kuknor, S., & Bhattacharya, S. (2021). Organizational Inclusion and Leadership in Times of Global Crisis. Australasian Accounting Business & Finance Journal, 15, 93–112. https://doi.org/10.14453/aabfj.v15i1.7 

    The article, Organizational Inclusion and Leadership in Times of Global Crisis, takes a look at the relationship found between leadership styles, building and sustaining a diverse workforce, and the impact it has on crisis management. The authors of this article were attempting to prove two different things, the first being that organizational inclusion has a positive impact on organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and the second being that organizational inclusion has a positive impact on organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). Both of which are determined by the environment created by leaders in the organization. The study determined that when the leader promoted diversity and inclusion, there was a positive increase in both OCB and OBSE.

Lord, Robert G, Gatti, Paola, & Chui, Susanna L.M. (2016). Social-cognitive, relational, and identity-based approaches to leadership. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 136, 119-134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.03.001

The authors of the article take a deep dive into leadership theories and styles and how they are used today. They look into multiple sources trying to learn what works best to foster strong relationships and what social goals a company should have. They found that leaders should be more focused on expanding their employees to be more diverse and look into social and sustainability problems instead of only focusing on profits. Even though finance is all about the bottom line the study shows that all areas can benefit from diversity.

John McCullugh

Todd Kramer

Ray Pimentel

Masada Younker

Madeline Sweeney