Individualized leadership.

In this article, we describe Individualized Leadership. The development, overview, and extensions of individualized leadership are presented. In particular, we focus on the one-to-one relationship between a superior and a specific subordinate, involving (1) the supervisor's investments in and

returns from the subordinate, and (2) the subordinate's investments in and returns from the superior. Key variables involved are providing support for a subordinate's feelings of self-worth by a superior, and providing satisfying performance to a superior by a subordinate. These variables and their association operate in terms of whole dyads; i.e., agreement within a superior-subordinate dyad and differences between multiple dyads reflect, "individualized leadership." Implications for future research are discussed throughout.

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BASIC PRINCIPLES

Individualized leadership (Dansereau, 1995; Dansereau, Yammarino, et al., 1995, 1998; Dansereau & Yammarino, 1998a, 1998b) is one specific formulation derived from a general theory of exchange, which links equity, inequity, and law of effect notions (see Dansereau, Alutto, & Yammarino, 1984). As a general theory, exchange theory can be viewed as a positive relationship between investments and returns. Investments are what one party gives to another party. Returns are what one party receives from another party. The ideas of giving and receiving are linked via the principle of reciprocal reinforcement; i.e., investments trigger returns, and returns trigger investments. A key point of these ideas is that two interdependent parties are involved. Moreover, the dyadic partners are in a "balanced" relationship where the amount of giving and receiving for each party is similar; i.e., whole dyads. Some dyads are "rich," with a lot of giving and receiving by both partners; some dyads are "poor," with little giving and receiving by both partners. If such dyadic relationships are not balanced, they tend to be short lived.

In work organizations, the key partners involved in exchange relationships of investments and returns are superiors and subordinates. Superiors make investments (e.g., salary, office space) in and receive returns (e.g., performance) from subordinates; subordinates make investments in and receive returns from superiors; and the investments and returns occur on a one-to-one basis in each superior-subordinate dyad. According to individualized leadership (see Dansereau, 1995; Dansereau, Yammarino, et al., 1995, 1998; Mumford, Dansereau, & Yammarino, 2000), a critical superior investment is providing support for feelings of self-worth to a subordinate. This can be accomplished by a superior providing attention, support, and assurance to a subordinate. A key subordinate investment is providing exceptional performance to a superior. This can be accomplished by a subordinate providing performance at or beyond standards, particularly in terms of quality, and doing a job in line with a superior's preferences. These same sets of variables then also serve as subordinate returns (receiving support for his/her self-worth from a superior) and superior returns (receiving satisfying performance from a subordinate), espectively. Again, whole superior-subordinate dyads are involved; i.e., some relationships are "rich" while others are "poor," and the relationships tend to be balanced.