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The Contribution of Social Preferences to Relational Social Constructionist Leadership: Reciprocal Fairness and Incentive Systems
Anastassia Zannoni
Pages - 1 - 27     |    Revised - 28-02-2023     |    Published - 01-04-2023
Volume - 14   Issue - 1    |    Publication Date - April 2023  Table of Contents
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KEYWORDS
Relational Social Constructionist Leadership, Heterogeneous Preferences, Reciprocal Fairness, Incentive Systems, Strategic Interaction.
ABSTRACT
What is the optimal motivational system resulting from the interaction dynamics among heterogeneous individuals? This conceptual article wishes to convey practical relevance to the Relational Social Constructionist view of Leadership (RSCL) by emphasizing the role of the manager’s strategic choice in handling the conditioning exerted by the personal dimension in leadership processes. Acknowledging the relevance of the personal constructs as an essential situational factor from which the leader-follower relationship arises, the article points out that the optimal incentive system is not independent of the interaction mechanisms between selfinterested and inequity-averse individuals. At the same time, it also shows that the strategic environment evoked by the incentive systems, in turn, is able to affect individual preferences and their interaction. The underlying purpose is to assess how reciprocal fairness is able to affect the context dynamics in which, according to RSCL, leadership processes are embedded and occur. Therefore, this contribution is intended for all scholars and practitioners who require to understand what the theoretical and practical value of including the influence flows emerging from social construction processes actually is. In particular, by taking a view that aims to increase awareness about the effect of social preferences in relationship dynamics, the presented findings may have the potential to widen the meaning of management theory and practice.
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Miss Anastassia Zannoni
Department of Management and Law, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, 00133 - Italy
anastassia.zannoni@uniroma2.it


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