The Architecture of Leadership Cognition: A Multi-method Study of Mental Maps in a Manufacturing Co

(WP27/02 Clave pdf) Grounded on a social constructionist perspective, this study focuses on followers´ intersubjective sense making about leaders. A socio-cognitive model of leadership is advanced in which followers´ views of their leaders are conceptualized as cognitive architectures composed of leadership and other organizational concepts. The cognitive aspect of the model suggests that leadership information does not exist in a vacuum, but rather it is integrated with other organizational concepts into a whole knowledge structure or mental map. The social side of the model states that followers actively construct their leaders in a social process as they interact with close friends...