ABSTRACT
What’s wrong with leadership? Most leadership research and professional practice ignores or misunderstands levels of analysis. Levels of analysis are the entities or units of study (for example, individuals, dyads, groups/teams, and collectives/organizations) that must be included in conceptualization, operationalization and design, data analysis and testing, and inference drawing. Without an explicit consideration of levels of analysis in both research and practice, leadership cannot be right. In particular, leadership theory without levels of analysis is incomplete, leadership data without levels of analysis is incomprehensible, and leadership practice without levels of analysis is ineffective. After introducing and reviewing some levels-of-analysis work, this chapter highlights how to specify levels of analysis in leadership theory, research, and practice, and offers guidelines for future leadership researchers and professionals.
