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Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation.

Thomas Maran, Marco Furtner, Sascha Kraus, Simon Liegl, Paul Jones Orcid Logo

Journal of Small Business Strategy, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Pages: 16 - 32

Swansea University Author: Paul Jones Orcid Logo

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Abstract

Small, new firms lack the resources of most larger, established firms, which makes effectively motivating employees challenging. Charismatic leadership is effective in increasing the performance of both groups and entire organizations. Specifically, the impact of charismatic leadership practices on...

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Published in: Journal of Small Business Strategy
ISSN: 1081-8510 2380-1751
Published: Bradley University and Middle Tennessee State University 2019
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52657
first_indexed 2019-11-06T19:13:26Z
last_indexed 2025-04-17T03:48:01Z
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spelling 2025-04-16T15:48:35.3097165 v2 52657 2019-11-06 Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation. 21e2660aaa102fe36fc981880dd9e082 0000-0003-0417-9143 Paul Jones Paul Jones true false 2019-11-06 CBAE Small, new firms lack the resources of most larger, established firms, which makes effectively motivating employees challenging. Charismatic leadership is effective in increasing the performance of both groups and entire organizations. Specifically, the impact of charismatic leadership practices on followers stems from nonverbal communication and construed immediacy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of an entrepreneurial leader’s eye contact and smiling on followers’ objective motivation in an experimental leadership situation. A sample of 129 young adults was tested in a 2×2 (nonverbal tactics: high eye contact/low eye contact × high smile/low smile) experimental design. Motivation was measured by objective performance in a motoric reaction time task. The conditions were operationalized by manipulating gaze behavior and facial expressions of the leader in a staged instructional video, showing a start-up entrepreneur attempting to enhance the performance of his employees as part of a competitive comparison. Regardless of whether the leader smiled or not, participants showed faster responses and therefore performed more effectively when the leader maintained high eye contact.These findings support the hypothesis that increased eye contact is a strong nonverbal signal, which in the immediate context of leader-follower interactions, stimulates an increase in performance. In fact, eye contact could induce an increased level of motivational arousal in followers, resulting in improved confidence and self-reference when taking instructions. This study advances the existing research on learnable skills that can be used to appear more charismatic and thus potentially increasing follower performance by adopting simple nonverbal rules in communication behavior. This offers an invaluable and low-cost tool for leaders founding a start-up business. Journal Article Journal of Small Business Strategy 29 3 16 32 Bradley University and Middle Tennessee State University 1081-8510 2380-1751 Entrepreneurial leadership, Charismatic leadership, Motivation, Communication 4 11 2019 2019-11-04 https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/1305 https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/1305 COLLEGE NANME Management School COLLEGE CODE CBAE Swansea University Not Required 2025-04-16T15:48:35.3097165 2019-11-06T12:06:24.5106054 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Management - Business Management Thomas Maran 1 Marco Furtner 2 Sascha Kraus 3 Simon Liegl 4 Paul Jones 0000-0003-0417-9143 5 52657__15797__0946fdd0fd9e45e49b5f5c5d09244f3e.pdf Entrepreneurial Leader.pdf 2019-11-06T12:20:11.9357195 Output 688686 application/pdf Accepted Manuscript true true English
title Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation.
spellingShingle Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation.
Paul Jones
title_short Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation.
title_full Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation.
title_fullStr Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation.
title_full_unstemmed Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation.
title_sort Entrepreneurial leadership: An experimental approach investigating the influence of eye contact on motivation.
author_id_str_mv 21e2660aaa102fe36fc981880dd9e082
author_id_fullname_str_mv 21e2660aaa102fe36fc981880dd9e082_***_Paul Jones
author Paul Jones
author2 Thomas Maran
Marco Furtner
Sascha Kraus
Simon Liegl
Paul Jones
format Journal article
container_title Journal of Small Business Strategy
container_volume 29
container_issue 3
container_start_page 16
publishDate 2019
institution Swansea University
issn 1081-8510
2380-1751
publisher Bradley University and Middle Tennessee State University
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Management - Business Management{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Management - Business Management
url https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/1305
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Small, new firms lack the resources of most larger, established firms, which makes effectively motivating employees challenging. Charismatic leadership is effective in increasing the performance of both groups and entire organizations. Specifically, the impact of charismatic leadership practices on followers stems from nonverbal communication and construed immediacy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of an entrepreneurial leader’s eye contact and smiling on followers’ objective motivation in an experimental leadership situation. A sample of 129 young adults was tested in a 2×2 (nonverbal tactics: high eye contact/low eye contact × high smile/low smile) experimental design. Motivation was measured by objective performance in a motoric reaction time task. The conditions were operationalized by manipulating gaze behavior and facial expressions of the leader in a staged instructional video, showing a start-up entrepreneur attempting to enhance the performance of his employees as part of a competitive comparison. Regardless of whether the leader smiled or not, participants showed faster responses and therefore performed more effectively when the leader maintained high eye contact.These findings support the hypothesis that increased eye contact is a strong nonverbal signal, which in the immediate context of leader-follower interactions, stimulates an increase in performance. In fact, eye contact could induce an increased level of motivational arousal in followers, resulting in improved confidence and self-reference when taking instructions. This study advances the existing research on learnable skills that can be used to appear more charismatic and thus potentially increasing follower performance by adopting simple nonverbal rules in communication behavior. This offers an invaluable and low-cost tool for leaders founding a start-up business.
published_date 2019-11-04T04:44:12Z
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