The Leadership Quarterly Best Paper Award, sponsored by the Center for Creative Leadership, is presented annually to recognize the best published paper submitted during the previous year to The Leadership Quarterly. The annual award is presented jointly by CCL and The Leadership Quarterly. Recipients receive a certificate, cash award, and invitation to present virtually to CCL.
2024 Leadership Quarterly Award Winner
William G. Obenauer, Jost Sieweke, Nicolas Bastardoz, Paulo R. Arvate, Brooke A. Gazdag, and Tanja Hentschel are the recipients of the 2024 Best Paper Award for their paper titled, “Are women strategic leaders more effective during a crisis than men strategic leaders? A causal analysis of the relationship between strategic leader gender and outcomes during the COVID-19 crisis.”
About the Winning Authors
William G. Obenauer
William (Billy) Obenauer, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Maine. He earned a PhD in Management from the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
He serves as an Associate Editor at Group & Organization Management and is on the editorial review boards for The Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Management Scientific Reports, and Journal of Business and Psychology.
Jost Sieweke
Jost Sieweke is Associate Professor of Strategic Leadership in the Department of Management & Organization at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (The Netherlands). He received his PhD from the University of Düsseldorf (Germany) in 2012 with a dissertation on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus in management and organization studies.
His research focuses on leadership and organizational learning. He studies strategic leadership effects on follower behavior, team composition, firm performance, and crisis leadership, as well as the antecedents and consequences of human error. His work appears in leading journals such as Journal of Management Studies, The Leadership Quarterly, and Journal of Organizational Behavior. From 2019 to 2024, he served as program director of the Executive MBA: Leading with Purpose.
Nicolas Bastardoz
Nicolas Bastardoz is an Assistant Professor in Leadership at KU Leuven (Belgium). He holds a PhD from HEC Lausanne (Switzerland).
His research focuses on leadership, charisma, and followership, with a strong emphasis on testing conceptual models in a causal manner. His work has been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Journal of Management, The Leadership Quarterly, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Organizational Research Methods, and Journal of Organizational Behavior. He serves as an Associate Editor and Methods Advisor at The Leadership Quarterly.
Paulo R. Arvate
Paulo Arvate is a graduate and undergraduate professor at São Paulo School of Business Administration (Getulio Vargas Foundation/FGV). He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of São Paulo, Brazil (with one year at UCLA, CA).
He has served as a Visiting Professor at the MSU, USA, and Visiting Researcher at Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. He is a permanent member of the Center for Applied Microeconomics (C-Micro/EESP-FGV) and former ex-Councilor of the Finance Institute (I-Fin/EAESP-FGV). He also serves as a member of the Ethical Compliance Committee on Research Involving Human Beings (CEPH/FGV).
His honors and awards include multiple finalist positions with PhD students for best paper of the year from the Brazilian National Association of Business Schools, The 2005 Best Brazilian Technical Book (The Jabuti Award), The 2018 Best Applied Paper (Getulio Vargas Foundation), The 2019 George Stigler Award/Second Best Applied Paper (INSPER), The 2019 Leadership Quarterly Best Paper Award, nominations for The 2021–23 Charles H. Levine Award for Best Conference Paper in the Public and Nonprofit Division (Academy of Management), and The 2023 Best Paper Award (Kelley School of Business – Indiana University).
Brooke A. Gazdag
Prof. Dr. Brooke A. Gazdag is Associate Professor of Management and Academic Director of Executive Education at Kühne Logistics University (KLU). Originally from Western New York, she earned her PhD in Organizational Behavior and Management from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
She has held positions at the Technical University of Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, and the University of Amsterdam. She has also served as a visiting professor and lecturer at various universities worldwide.
Her research and teaching focus on leadership, negotiations, and diversity and inclusion. She explores topics such as the relationship between networking and leadership, building negotiation resilience, women’s representation in leadership roles, and fostering inclusion to strengthen relationships within diverse communities.
She currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies. As a curator of knowledge and advocate for improved work practices, she integrates diverse insights in her teaching, training, and speaking engagements to co-create dynamic learning experiences. She embraces innovative approaches, utilizing online seminars and blended learning methods covering topics like values-based leadership, resilience, diversity and inclusion, networking, and intercultural communication.
Tanja Hentschel
Dr. Tanja Hentschel is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Amsterdam Business School, University of Amsterdam. Her research focuses on leadership and its intersections with bias and stereotypes, particularly around gender, diversity, and inclusion. She also provides training and workshops on these and related topics.
Past Award Winners
2023: Mladen Adamovic & Andreas Leibbrandt
Is there a glass ceiling for ethnic minorities to enter leadership positions? Evidence from a field experiment with over 12,000 job applications
2022: Nisvan Erkal, Lata Gangadharan, & Erte Xiao
Leadership selection: Can changing the default break the glass ceiling?
2021: Sebastian Fest, Ola Kvaloy, Petra Nieken, & Anja Schöttner
How (not) to motivate online workers: Two controlled field experiments on leadership in the gig economy
2021: George Banks, Thomas Fischer, Janaki Gooty, & George Stock
Ethical leadership: Mapping the terrain for concept cleanup and a future research agenda
2020: Stephanie M. Rizio & Ahmed Skali
How often do dictators have positive economic effects? Global evidence, 1858–2010
2019: Mats Alvesson & Katja Einola
Warning for excessive positivity: Authentic leadership and other traps in leadership studies
2018: Dr. Paulo Roberto Arvate
The Queen Bee: A myth? The effect of top-level female leadership on subordinate females
2017: Dr. Kristen Cullen-Lester
Incorporating social networks into leadership development: A conceptual model and evaluation of research and practice
2016: Dr. George C Banks
A meta-analytic review of authentic and transformational leadership: A test for redundancy
2015: Dr. Tiffany Keller Hansbrough
Reconsidering the accuracy of follower leadership ratings
2014: John Antonakis
Instrumental leadership: Measurement and extension of Transformational–transactional leadership theory
2013: Jan-Emmanuel De Neve
Born to lead? A twin design and genetic association study of leadership role occupancy
2012: Dr. Pierre Balthazard
Differentiating transformational and non-transformational leaders on the basis of neurological imaging
2011: David Day & Hock-Peng Sin
Longitudinal tests of an integrative model of leader development: Charting and understanding developmental trajectories
2010: John Antonakis
On making causal claims: A review and recommendations
2009: Dr. Dongil (Don) Jung
Moderating role of subordinates’ attitudes on transformational leadership and effectiveness: A multi-cultural and multi-level perspective
2008: Dr. Ginamarie Scott Ligon
Development of Outstanding Leadership: A Life Narrative Approach
2007: Dr. John J. Sosik
Relationships between leadership style and vision content: The moderating role of need for approval, self-monitoring, and need for social power
2006: Dr. Joyce Bono
Charisma, positive emotions and mood contagion
About The Leadership Quarterly
The Leadership Quarterly is a social-science journal dedicated to advancing our understanding of leadership as a phenomenon, how to study it, as well as its practical implications. The aim of the journal is to publish scholarly research, theory, and developmental application from diverse fields of inquiry about leadership. Learn more about The Leadership Quarterly.
At the Center for Creative Leadership, our drive to create a ripple effect of positive change underpins everything we do. For 50+ years, we’ve pioneered leadership development solutions for leaders at every level, from community leaders to CEOs. Consistently ranked among the top global providers of executive education, our research-based programs and solutions inspire individuals at every level in organizations across the world — including 2/3 of the Fortune 1000 — to ignite remarkable transformations.
At the Center for Creative Leadership, our drive to create a ripple effect of positive change underpins everything we do. For 50+ years, we’ve pioneered leadership development solutions for leaders at every level, from community leaders to CEOs. Consistently ranked among the top global providers of executive education, our research-based programs and solutions inspire individuals at every level in organizations across the world — including 2/3 of the Fortune 1000 — to ignite remarkable transformations.
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