My research focus began with my PhD in leadership and organisational effectiveness. The PhD encompassed two important streams of research, covering the implications of 1) leader-member exchange relationships (LMX) and 2) transformational leadership (TL) for workplace effectiveness. My major contribution to leadership and team research is to develop multilevel leadership frameworks (i.e., individual, dyadic, team and cross levels) that examine the effects of LMX and TL leadership approaches on work attitudes and behaviors using different research design (e.g., experiment, survey, interview) and also research methods (e.g., social relation modelling, experience sampling methodology, event-based appraoch)
My research has significant impacts in the field of Organisational Behaviour and Leadership, as many organisations increasingly acknowledge the importance of multilevel leadership frameworks for creating productive and innovative workplaces.
I have supervised to completion 3 Masters student theses, 1 MPhil student thesis, 1 Honours student thesis, 2 PhD student and 3 Professional doctoral student theses. All of my doctoral students were employed or promoted upon their thesis completion.
I have developed a contingency supervision approach to manage supervisor-student relationships according to the personality, ability and attitude. My former students' comments on this approach include: “Herman’s leadership, and knowledge of supervising research students have enabled me to navigate around many problems that were encountered in the course of my thesis". "Herman taught me to think critically and developed my knowledge and skills in conducting high quality research". "His effective responses to my queries and sharp critiques of my thesis have opened my eyes to the process of academic research".
I am currently available to supervise honours or PhD projects in the areas of transformaitonal leadership, LMX, interpersonal relationships, emotions in teams, cross-cultural and Chinese management issues.
