Does Work Experience Impact Perceptions About Leadership?

Entry-level employees usually have a lot to learn about organizational culture and methods of doing business when starting a new job.  One area they don’t need a lot of help is perceptions about organizational leadership.  Students, who are soon to be entry-level employees were found to have perceptions about leadership that closely matched those of experienced business professionals.  One key difference was that students considered critics of leadership to be acting based on an internal belief while professionals with work experience considered critics to be operating for an external cause.

Orienting new employees to an organization can be costly in time and resources.  Being able to maximize the benefit of those resources is important.  Orienting entry-level employees regarding interactions and understanding of organizational leadership can take a very low priority.  Scarce resources can then be directed to higher priority items such as organizational ethics policies, information technology usage policies, and security policies, among others where entry-level employee’s perceptions have been found to different greatly from employees with work experience.

Walstrom, Kent A. “Differences in Perception About Leadership Based on Work Experience.”  International Leadership Journal,  Winter 2016 (8:1), pp. 99-119.