CCL Expertise

On this page you find some useful information about prior and related research that has been conducted at the Center for Creative Leadership.

Research-based books:

Standing at the Crossroads: Next Steps for High-Achieving Women
By Marian N. Ruderman and Patricia J. Ohlott. Published by Jossey-Bass, 2002.

As women move into leadership and managerial positions in record numbers, there is an increasing need to understand how they will prioritize and integrate the many new roles and possibilities available to them. This book, based on extensive research, looks at the fundamental pressures that influence the career and personal decisions high-achieving women make, and identifies strategies for adapting to the many demands that both challenge and enhance their lives.

Breaking The Glass Ceiling: Can Women Reach The Top Of America's Largest Corporations?
by Ann M. Morrison, Randall P. White and Ellen Van Velsor. Published by Perseus Publishing, 1994

The ground-breaking book about how women make careers in American corporations, showing opportunities for learning, strategies for personal and professional growth, and ways to overcome gender-specific obstacles.

Short articles in Leading Effectively and Leadership in Action:

Adaptability: A Leadership Imperative featuring the article A Global Spin: Cultural Adaptability
Leading Effectively e-Newsletter March 2006

Identity: A New View for Leading in a Diverse World
Leading Effectively e-Newsletter July 2005

Reality LD: How Leaders Develop in the Context of Differences featuring the articles Crossing Cultures: Developing Leaders in the Global Context, and Global Managers: Leading Across Differences is the Norm
Leading Effectively e-Newsletter February 2004

Leading in Europe: Paying Attention to Cultural Differences
Leading Effectively e-Newsletter September 2002

Family ties: Managers can benefit from personal lives.
Ruderman, Marian N. & Graves, Laura M. & Ohlott, Patricia J. (2007) Leadership in Action, 26(6), 8-11.
In large companies, work and family have traditionally been seen as competing claims on managers' time and energy. The theory is that any amount of commitment to life outside of work results in less dedication to work. But this conventional wisdom is coming into question: new research shows that attentiveness to family is tied to better performance at work.

Spreading the word: How to self-promote with integrity.
Hernez-Broome, Gina & McLaughlin, Cindy & Trovas, Stephanie. (2007) Leadership in Action, 26(6), 12-16.
Many leaders are surprised to find that doing good work doesn't necessarily result in visibility and recognition for themselves and their groups. Self-promotion is a way for leaders to gain such visibility and recognition for the contributions that they and their groups make to the organization. Self-promotion often gets a bad rap as sheer braggadocio, but when practicied intentionally and strategically, it can be rewarding for both individual leaders and their organizations.

Challenge match: The stakes grow higher for global leaders.
Cranford, Shannon & Glover, Sarah. (2007) Leadership in Action, 27(3), p. 9-14.
Global and multinational organizations have enormous power; their influence and impact shape the world--socially and environmentally as well as economically. Consequently, people expect more from global leaders, whose work becomes more complex. To learn about the specific challenges faced, CCL conducted interviews with senior global leaders. Analysis of the responses revealed six common themes.

Executive churn: Avoid becoming statistics.
Conway, Roger & Campbell, Michael & Criswell, Corey. (2006) Leadership Excellence, 23(5),16.
Conway, Campbell, and Criswell summarize the results of research into executive turnover in light of soaring turnover statistics. They list six skills companies should look for when considering candidates for executive positions; delivering results, acting with integrity, communicating and executing a clear vision, maintaining key relationships, exhibiting appropriate style, and cultural fit.

What women want: Comparing leadership challenges in Europe and the U.S.
Ohlott, Patricia; Bhandary, Aparna; Tavares, Joan. (2003). Leadership in Action, 23(3), 14-19.
Understanding the leadership challenges and developmental needs of talented women managers is important for organizations that want to help these women realize their full potential. But are their challenges and needs the same in Europe as they are in the United States?

CCL Guidebooks and books:

Selling Yourself without Selling Out: A Leader's Guide to Ethical Self-Promotion
Hernez-Broome, Gina & McLaughlin, Cindy & Trovas, Stephanie. (2006)

Social Identity: Knowing Yourself, Leading Others
Hannum, Kelly M. (2007)

Managerial effectiveness in a global context.
Leslie, Jean B. & Dalton, Maxine A. & Ernst, Christopher T. & Deal, Jennifer J. (2002) Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

Retiring the generation gap: How employees young and old can find common ground. Deal, Jennifer. (2007) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass and Center for Creative Leadership.
Everybody knows that the "generation gap" between younger and older people causes stress and frustration at work. Are the differences people complain about just a big misunderstanding, or are they real? And most important, how can you use similarities and differences among the generations to be a more effective leader within your organization?

Scientific articles:

A study of the discrepancy between self- and observer-ratings on managerial derailment characteristics of European managers.
Gentry, William A.; Hannum, Kelly M.; Ekelund, Bjorn Z.; de Jong, Annemarie. (2007). European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 16(3),295-325.
Feedback results from 1742 European managers were studied to determine if discrepancies between self-ratings and observer-ratings could help predict or prevent derailment. Results correlate between the discrepancy and derailment behaviors and the discrepancy widened as managerial levels increased, mostly due to inflated self-ratings. Comparison with American managers was also made.

Commitment to family roles: Effects on managers' attitudes and performance.
Graves, Laura M. & Ohlott, Patricia J. & Ruderman, Marian N. (2007) Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(1), 44-56.
The authors tested the ideas that committment to family life could have a interfering effect or an enhancing effect on work life. The expected result was that family life would have an interfering effect on job performance. Instead they found that marriage and parenting enhanced productivity and overall had more benefits than costs.

Emerging leaders in Europe. Lafferty, Kim; D'Amato, Alessia; Deal, Jennifer. (2006). Training Journal, (July 2006), 26-28.
Research was done to identifiy, among participants in both the U.S. and Europe, characteristics of different generations and to characterize their interests and attitudes towards leadership. This information was to be used to help better understand the challenges of working across generations so that companies could better manage talent and retain key staff. Results from surveys done in the U.S. dispelled the myths that different generations had differing values related to advancement at work and that younger workers preferred to learn on the computer. Analysis of European data indicated much similarity with the U.S. results. The data appears to offer guidance on recruitment, management and retention for both European and U.S. organizations.