Leadership skills across organizational levels: A closer examination

Abstract

There are two contrasting theoretical perspectives regarding how leadership skill requirements change across organizational levels. The Continuity Perspective posits that jobs at successively higher levels require all those skills of the lower levels. In contrast, the Discontinuity Perspective contends that managers need to relinquish some skills as they get promoted from one organizational level to another. Analyses of a 360-degree competency rating data set found that the two perspectives occur simultaneously. The continuity perspective portrays what is expected for managers, whereas the discontinuity perspective reveals what managers actually do to be effective. The authors discuss the implications on talent management. © The Society of Psychologists in Management.