Network-based approaches to leadership: An organizing framework, review, and recommendations

In this review, we aim to critically evaluate the state of the leadership and networks literature and provide a detailed overview of the various network-based approaches that can be leveraged in leadership research to accomplish three main objectives. First, we introduce an organizing framework that classifies the array of network-based approaches used in addressing leadership questions into two broad categories: descriptive versus predictive network-based approaches. Second, we critically review the leadership literature to assess the degree to which network-based approaches have been employed in leadership investigations, the major topic areas in leadership that have been investigated via a social network lens, and the extent to which network-based approaches have impacted researchers' abilities to address major empirical challenges in leadership research-namely, the incorporation of multilevel, multisource, contextual, temporal, processual, and causal perspectives of leadership. Finally, we demonstrate the unique capabilities of the network-based approaches by showing how an exemplar topic in leadership investigations-leadership emergence-may be explored from multiple perspectives through the different categories of network-based models. By promoting a better understanding of network-based methodologies and their utilization in leadership research, we pave way for new ways of thinking about and framing leadership research questions.