Find (Cntl-F) Best Paper Index Table of Contents

A LEADERSHIP SKILLS STRATAPLEX:

LEADERSHIP SKILL REQUIREMENTS ACROSS ORGANIZATIONAL LEVELS

TROY V. MUMFORD
Department of Management & Human Resources
College of Business, Utah State University
3555 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-3555

MICHAEL A. CAMPION
Purdue University

FREDERICK P. MORGESON
Michigan State University

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is to further our understanding of leadership skill requirements
across organizational levels. The paper conceptualizes four types of leadership skill requirements
that differentially emerge in managerial jobs across organizational levels. Because leadership
skill requirements are often described as being stratified (strata) by organizational level and a
complex (plex) of multiple categories (Phillips & Hunt, 1992; Zaccaro, 2001), they are depicted
in this article using a strataplex figure. This strataplex will be used to help address three specific
needs that currently exist in our understanding of leadership skill requirements in organizations.
First, the paper answers the call of leadership researchers for better delineation of
leadership skills (Wright & Taylor, 1985; 1994)(Kanungo & Misra, 1992). Second, the paper
will address leadership skill requirements, as distinguished from leadership skills possessed by
incumbents, as was called for by Stewart (1989). Third, the paper empirically evaluates the
prevalent assertion that the phenomena of leadership is manifest differently at different levels in
the organization (Jacobs & Jaques, 1987; McCall & Lombardo, 1983; Zaccaro, 2001). This
study is particularly valuable because it tests the hypotheses of the leadership strataplex with data
from over 1000 respondents in a large international organization and has important implications
for the development of leadership capability within organizations as well as individuals.

THE LEADERSHIP SKILLS STRATAPLEX

Leadership skill requirements across organizational levels can be usefully described using
a “strataplex.” The term strataplex is derived from the term “strata” which comes from the word
“stratify” meaning having a number of layers, levels, or classes in an organized system, and the
term “plex” which comes from the word “complex” meaning divided into a specified number of
parts. Thus, the term strataplex captures the stratified and complex (composite) nature of the
leadership skill requirement categories and their relationship with level in the organization.
-----------------------------------
Insert Figure 1 About Here
-----------------------------------
As depicted in Figure 1, the leadership skills required at various organizational levels can
be understood in terms of four general categories: Basic leadership skills, supervisory leadership

Academy of Management Best Conference Paper 2003 HR: H1

skills, managerial leadership skills, and executive leadership skills (each of these skill categories
is comprised of several skills that are available from the authors). Leadership scholars have long
suggested that managerial and leadership skills are stratified (Jacobs & Lewis, 1992; Kanungo &
Misra, 1992), and that those skills required at higher organizational levels are likely distinct from
those at lower levels (Zaccaro, 2001). In addition, this 4-part categorization of leadership skills
was developed based on the commonality among eight previous conceptualizations of leadership
skills spanning the last 40 years (Table available from authors). For example, in early
conceptualizations of managerial skills by Katz (1974) categorized leadership skills as technical
(finance, accounting, etc), conceptual (problem solving, planning, etc), and human (persuasion,
coordination, etc). The conceptual category of Katz is related to the managerial and executive
leadership skills strata and the human category is closely linked to supervisory and basic
leadership skills strata. Similarly, Lau and colleagues (Lau, Newman, & Broedling, 1980),
found that managerial work could best be understood in terms of four factors: Executive decision
making and planning (executive leadership skills), technical problem solving (managerial
leadership skills), leadership and supervision (supervisory leadership skill), and information
gathering and dissemination (basic leadership skills).
Thus, the leadership skills strataplex captures the common distinctions that have
previously been made in research on managerial and leadership skill requirements. As such, it is
firmly grounded in the consensus of prior research. The leadership skills strataplex in Figure 1
also depicts other relationships among the skill types, skill amounts, and organizational levels.
While these relationships will be articulated in the hypotheses, the basic representations are as
follows. First, the three triangles represent managerial jobs at different organizational levels.
Second, the horizontal lines stratify leadership skills into the four categories. Third, the area
subsumed in each triangle, stratum, or triangle-stratum segment represents the hypothesized
amount of that particular leadership skill that would be required for that particular job level. For
example, the fact that the executive triangle has greater area than the junior triangle illustrates
that, overall, jobs at the executive level will have higher skill requirements.

Skill Requirement Strata

There are several hypotheses implicit in the leadership skill requirement strataplex. First,
it suggests that basic leadership skills (e.g., oral and written communication) are the most
fundamental of the leadership skills (Gillen & Carroll, 1985). Thus, it is proposed that these
basic leadership skill requirements will be higher than the other three skill types. Likewise,
leadership reearch would suggest that supervisory leadership skill requirements would be higher
than managerial and executive (Zaccaro, 2001). Finally, managerial would likely be higher than
executive (Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman, 2000; Zaccaro, Mumford,
Connelly, Marks, & Gilbert, 2000). Thus, the first hypothesis is:

H1: Leadership skill requirements will vary by skill type such that basic leadership skill
requirements will be the highest, followed by supervisory, managerial, and executive leadership
skills respectively.

Skill Requirements and Organizational Level Main Effects

Increasingly, leadership research has recognized that the leadership phenomena may be
manifest in different ways at different levels in the organization (McCall & Lombardo, 1983;
Zaccaro, 2001). An example of this is a growing number of studies that investigate leadership

Academy of Management Best Conference Paper 2003 HR: H2

among top executives (Cleveland, 1985; Prahalad & Yves, 1984; Schriesheim, Hunt, Hosking, &
Stewart, 1984), distinguishing it from leadership at lower organizational levels. Informative
work on this premise has been done by Jaques (1978), Boyatzis (1982), and others (Flanders,
Carlson, and Klauss, 1983; Klauss, Flanders, Fisher, and Carlson, 1981; Mumford, Zaccaro,
Connelly, & Marks, 2000), which would suggest a quantitative change in leadership skill
requirements by organizational level as illustrated in hypothesis two:

H2: Overall leadership skill requirements will be positively related to job level.

It is also expected that this prediction will apply to each of the four types of leadership
skill requirements. Because leadership requirements increase in complexity at higher
organizational levels (Jacobs & Lewis, 1992), and higher skill levels would be needed to manage
this complexity, there should be a positive relationship between organizational level and the four
leadership skill requirements. While it is true that jobs at higher organizational levels are likely
to have additional leadership skill requirements (e.g., visioning), they will also likely to require
more fundamental leadership skills (e.g., oral communication). These basic leadership skills are
likely to become increasingly important at higher organizational levels because they are the
foundation on which other skills are built (Mumford, et al., 2000). Thus, the positive relationship
between organizational level and leadership skill requirements is likely to exist for the each of
the four leadership skill requirement types.

H3: Basic, supervisory, managerial, and executive leadership skill requirements will be
positively related to the job’s level in the organization.

Skill Requirements and Organizational Level Interaction

The final hypothesis deals with the proposed interaction between organizational level and
skill type. In addition to the quantitative difference is complexity levels, leadership requirements
at different levels may also differ qualitatively (Jacobs & Jaques, 1987). This suggests that even
though all four skill requirement types will be relevant to some degree to all levels, the relative
importance may change.

H4: Leadership skill requirement type will interact with organizational level such that:
H4a: Executive leadership skill requirements will be more positively related to
organization level than basic, supervisory, or managerial leadership skill requirements.
H4b: Managerial leadership skill requirements will be more positively related to
organizational level than basic or supervisory leadership skill requirements.
H4c: Supervisory leadership skill requirements will be more positively related to
organizational level than basic leadership skill requirements.

METHODS
Sample and Measures
The sample consisted of 1,023 professional employees in an international agency of the
United States Government. The employees were sampled from three levels in the organization
that will be referred to as junior, midlevel, and senior in leadership-related jobs. Leadership Skill
Requirements. Leadership skill requirements were measured with the Occupational Information

Academy of Management Best Conference Paper 2003 HR: H3

Network (O*NET) scales developed by the U.S. Department of Labor (Peterson et al., 2001).
The leadership skill requirement scales assess basic (.88), supervisory (.83), managerial (.88),
and executive leadership skill requirements (.92) using behaviorally anchored 7-point Likert-type
scales (internal consistency in parentheses).

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

The descriptive statistics, correlations, and other analysis are available from the authors.
Hypothesis one proposed that the four types of leadership skills would be required to different
degrees. That is, that basic leadership skill requirements would be needed the most, followed
respectively by supervisory, managerial, and executive. This hypothesis was evaluated using
multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) to test for mean differences in the four types
of leadership skill requirements (basic, supervisory, managerial, and executive). Job level, career
track, and location were included as controls. In addition, because each respondent provided
ratings for each of the four skill requirement types, a within-subjects design was utilized to
control for rater effects. The results of the MANCOVA indicate that the main effect for
leadership skill type was significant (Wilks Lambda = .972, p < .001). Examination of the
adjusted means for each of the four leadership skill requirement types indicated that the
supervisory leadership skill requirements were, in fact, the highest, followed by basic, executive,
and managerial, respectively. Pairwise comparisons of these mean differences adjusted using the
Bonferroni procedure indicated that the mean differences were in fact statistically significant for
all comparisons with the managerial – executive comparison being the only exception. Thus,
Hypothesis one was only partially supported.
To test hypotheses two and three, we examined the relationship between organizational
level and each type of leadership skill requirement. Also, because the work may be different
among different career tracks (and there are five different career tracks in this organization), and
in overseas locations, career track and location were statistically controlled in all analyses. A
positive partial correlation between leadership skill requirements and organizational level would
support the hypotheses. The partial correlation results indicated that the overall leadership skill
requirements were in fact significantly related to level in the organizational (r=.29, p < .001).
Thus, hypothesis two was supported. Hypothesis three was also supported, as this finding held
true across all leadership skill types. That is, there was a significant positive relationship between
all four leadership skill requirement types, even while controlling for the effect of other
variables.
Hypothesis four proposed that the relationship between leadership skill requirements and
organizational level would be moderated by the skill type. That is, that is that the leadership skill
types will be differentially related to organizational level. In order to test this hypothesis it was
necessary to compare the correlation coefficients between the leadership skill requirement and
organizational level for each of the skill types. The method provided by Cohen and Cohen (1983)
was followed for comparing dependent correlation coefficients. Correlation coefficients that are
successively larger would indicate support for hypothesis four. Hypothesis 4a received support.
The relationship between leadership skill requirements and organizational level is stronger for
executive leadership skill requirements than for managerial, supervisory, and basic leadership
skill requirements. Hypothesis 4b received partial support in that the relationship between skill
level and organizational level was stronger for managerial leadership skill requirements than
basic skill requirements. However, the difference between managerial and supervisory skill
requirements was not statistically significant. Finally, hypothesis 4c was supported, as the

Academy of Management Best Conference Paper 2003 HR: H4

difference between the leadership skill-organizational level correlation for supervisory and basic
skill requirements was significant.

DISCUSSION
This paper proposes and tests a model of leadership skill requirements to better
understand the nature of leadership skill requirements in jobs at different organizational levels.
The skill requirements are organized into a Strataplex to illustrate the layered (strata) and divided
(plex) nature of leadership skill requirements when considered in conjunction with
organizational level. The Strataplex is derived from the prevailing models and categories of
leadership skill requirements, such as those by Connelly et al., (2000) and Zaccaro (2001).
Several aspects of the leadership skills hierarchy were then tested, most of which
received substantial support. The central findings are as follows. First, leadership skill
requirements are related to organizational level. That is, jobs at higher levels in the organization
have significantly greater overall leadership skill requirements. Second, the study found that the
level of leadership skill required by a job varied depending upon the type of leadership skill.
That is, across all levels in the organization, basic leadership skills were needed to the greatest
degree. Similarly, supervisory leadership skills were required to a greater degree than managerial
and executive. This finding is somewhat fundamental, but has received surprisingly little
empirical attention in the literature. Third, the study found that the nature of the relationship
between organizational level and leadership requirements is stronger for executive skills than for
other skill types, and stronger for managerial and for basic leadership skills.
These findings have important implications for organizational research and practice.
First, it provides empirical evidence of the usefulness of considering different types of leadership
skills in the form of a strataplex model. Theoretically, it is a conceptually rich model that defines
different leadership skills in terms of a parsimonious set of major categories, and then shows
how these skill categories relate to each other and to organizational level. Practically, it
illustrates that importance of tailoring leadership development programs in the organization to
the particular types of skills that will become increasingly important at the next level.
Second, the study indicates that basic leadership skills do not become irrelevant at higher
levels in the organization, but rather become more important. Theoretically, this suggests that
leadership skills in the hierarchy are somewhat cumulative in that higher level skills are needed
in addition to more fundamental skills, and that leadership skills are, therefore, more cumulative
than exclusive. Practically, this suggests that organizations should focus part of their
management development programs on the continual refinement of existing leadership skills as
well as the development of new skills.
Finally, not withstanding the fact that all types of leadership skills are more important at
higher levels in the organization, the study demonstrates that executive skill requirements, and in
some cases managerial skill requirements, have a stronger relationship with organizational level.
Theoretically, this provides a clear indicator of qualitative differences, as well as quantitative
differences, in the leadership skill requirements of lower level, mid level, and upper level jobs.
Practically, this indicates that careful attention should be paid to management development
systems in general because as managers proceed from lower, to mid, to senior level jobs, the rate
at which they acquire leadership skills will vary by type.

REFERENCES AVAILABLE FROM AUTHOR

Academy of Management Best Conference Paper 2003 HR: H5

 Executive Skill
Requirements

Managerial Skill
Requirements

Supervisory Skill
Requirements

Basic Skill
Requirements

Junior Level Jobs

Mid Level Jobs
Senior Level Jobs
Figure 1
The Leadership Skill Requirements Strataplex.

Academy of Management Best Conference Paper 2003 HR: H6