Leading Across Languages: How Linguistic Diversity Moderates Leadership Impact in a Public Service Organization

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Cover of Volume: Swiss Journal of Business Volume 80 (2026), Issue 2
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Swiss Journal of Business

Volume 80 (2026), Issue 2

Authors:
Publisher
Nomos, Baden-Baden
Copyright Year
2026
ISSN-Online
2944-3741
ISSN-Print
2944-3741

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Open Access Full access

Volume 80 (2026), Issue 2

Leading Across Languages: How Linguistic Diversity Moderates Leadership Impact in a Public Service Organization

Authors:
ISSN-Print
2944-3741
ISSN-Online
2944-3741
Preview:

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.

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