@article{2026:lang:leading_ac,
title = {Leading Across Languages: How Linguistic Diversity Moderates Leadership Impact in a Public Service Organization},
year = {2026},
note = {This study examines how teams’ linguistic proximity to their leader
moderates the effects of servant and transformational leadership on
leadership role occupancy in a multilingual public service context.
Drawing on relational schema theory and inclusive leadership research,
we conceptualize linguistic proximity as a continuous
cognitive–relational mechanism that shapes leader–team
interactions. Data were collected from 68 platoon leaders and 755
followers in the Swiss Army, surveyed across four time points, and
linked to objective career records. Hierarchical regressions show that
linguistic proximity predicts leadership-role occupancy above and
beyond leadership style and motivation, and conditions the effects of
a common leadership core and style-specific components. Servant
leadership exhibits a dual-channel, near-universal pattern of
effectiveness across linguistic contexts, whereas transformational
leadership follows a linguistically contingent, compensation-based
trajectory. These findings position language as a central relational
mechanism in multilingual leadership and underline the importance of
linguistic alignment in leadership development within public-service
institutions.},
journal = {Swiss Journal of Business},
pages = {97--116},
author = {Lang, Bernhard and Gmür, Markus},
volume = {80},
number = {2}
}