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Up Close on Personnel with Robert Liden

Robert Liden

What sort of leadership is necessary to foster an innovative workforce? How does management make work more meaningful for employees? As Professor Robert Liden told the Up Close podcast, the leadership style at the top of an organization can determine whether staff have a deep personal investment in their work, whether they take initiative, exercise critical judgment, and try to push a firm forward, or whether they merely feel like cogs in a machine.

Over the last year, Liden’s research on management and prosocial motivation has found its way into the developing dialogue about the management styles best suited to organizations like Google, for whom competition and innovation are one and the same. As Liden suggests in the podcast, the benefits of having servant leaders aren’t enjoyed by innovation-driven firms alone; any organization grounded in strong customer relations stands to benefit from the ripple effects of servant leadership.

To listen to the entire podcast episode, visit the Up Close podcast page.