Leadership-Interview-Transkript - Sozialpsychologie - Goethe ...

Frederick P. Morgeson
Short biography
Frederick P. Morgeson is a Professor of Management and Valade Research Scholar at the Eli
Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial
and Organizational Psychology from Purdue University. Dr. Morgeson teaches and does
research in Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior. His research has
focused on leadership, on the nature of work, and on the effectiveness and consequences of
different selection techniques. He is Editor of Personnel Psychology, has served on the
editorial boards of Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and the Journal of
Management, and is a recipient of the 2005 American Psychological Association
Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in Applied
Psychology. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Morgeson was a manager at a recording studio
in the Detroit area. In addition, he has been involved in variety of consulting and applied
research projects for a number of organizations in the areas of job analysis, work design,
recruiting, personnel selection, leadership development, compensation, and organizational
assessment.
Interview conducted in Frankfurt am Main on June 1 st , 2011
Rolf van Dick: Today we will be talking to Frederick Morgeson from the Michigan State
University. He does leading research in the area of job design, job analysis and in particular
leadership. Fred received his PhD from Purdue University and is full professor of
management at the business school of Michigan State University and also an adjunct
professor at the department of Psychology at MSU. Frederick Morgeson published leading
books on work design and work analysis, he is currently editor of a leading journal,
‘Personnel Psychology’ and he published many papers in these journals himself, among
others in Academy of Management Journal and Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, etc.
pp. Today we will be interested in talking to Fred about his personal experiences with leaders
he encountered or the leadership style he executed himself.
Rolf van Dick: Thank you very much for taking your time and for the support of our centre,
you know that we are expecting the center to do cutting-edge research cross-disciplinary,
economists, psychologists, and maybe sociologists in the future. You have been doing
research on the topic of leadership a lot, but today we are interested in your personal
experience. First question, from what you have experienced: Do we need leadership at all? Is
it important? Aren’t academics, for example, a perfect example that people can self-motivate
and do not need this stick or carrot?
Frederick Morgeson: So, I think at some point, Rolf, I would have said ‘No, leadership is
not necessary’, but I think two things have changed my mind about this. One is that the
research evidence is really clear, that leadership is related to a whole bunch of different kinds
of well-being and performance and such sorts of outcomes, but I guess for me it was my
personal experience which really brought this home to me, and one is how leaders can create
a climate. And that climate can be really positive or negative for your own kind of work life,
even if it doesn’t affect you directly. It can make a good place to work or not a good place to
work. We studies some of this in the U.S. Military and we found how leaders can create