Developing, validating, and testing a model of reflective leadership

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop, validate, and test the impacts of reflective leadership (RL) on organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach This is an empirical study based on over 700 survey responses from business leaders around the world. An instrument was developed to validate the model, and the statistical significance of its impacts on organizational performance was tested. Findings The findings show that a model of RL consisting of three leadership practices, creating an open and safe work environment, defining purpose, and challenging assumptions had significant impacts on organizational performance, accounted for 16.5 percent of the variance in the accomplishment of organizational goals; 13.9 percent of the variance in sales; and 14.7 percent of the variance in profits. Research limitations/implications The major limitations are the biases that might be introduced with survey data. There are numerous implications for future research in terms of exploring additional RL practices, their impacts on additional and objective measures of performance, and in exploring the effects of moderating and mediating variables on the impacts of RL on performance. Practical implications The results show that RL is an effective management tool practitioners can employ to improve organizational performance. Originality/value A number of studies have broadly suggested that RL improves organizational performance, but this study empirically tests the impacts of a clearly defined, validated model of leadership on specific measures of performance.