Stephen Zaccaro

Professor

Industrial/Organizational Psychology: Steve has directed (or co-directed) funded research projects in the areas of multiteam systems, cyber security incident response teams, team performance, team mental models, leader-team interfaces, leadership training and development, leader adaptability, and executive coaching.

Dr. Stephen J. Zaccaro is a professor of psychology at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. He is also an experienced leadership development consultant. He has written over 125 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports on leadership, group dynamics, team performance, and work attitudes. He has authored a book titled, The Nature of Executive Leadership: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis of Success, and has co-edited five other books on the topics of organizational leadership, leader development, multiteam systems, cybersecurity, and occupational stress. He has worked with executives and managers from private industry as well as from the public and military sectors. He has served as a principal investigator, co-principal investigator or consultant on multiple projects in the areas of leadership and executive assessment, leadership and team training, leader adaptability, executive coaching, multiteam systems, and cyber security team performance. He serves on the editorial board of The Leadership Quarterly, and he is an associate editor for the Journal of Business and Psychology and for Military Psychology. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and of the American Psychological Association, Divisions 14 (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology) and 19 (Military Psychology).

Selected Publications

Zaccaro, S. J., Dalal, R. D., Tetrick, L. & Steinke, J. A. (Editors) (in press). The psychosocial dynamics of cyber security. New York: Routledge.

Zaccaro, S. J. (2014). Leadership memes: From ancient history and literature to twenty-first century theory and research. In D. Day, (Ed), The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Zaccaro, S. J., Marks, M. A., & DeChurch, L. A. (Eds) (2012). Multi-team systems: An organization form for dynamic and complex environments. London: Taylor Francis/Routledge.

Zaccaro, S. J. (2007). Trait-based perspectives in leadership. American Psychologist, 62, 6-16.

Marks, M. A., Mathieu, J., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2001). A temporally based framework and taxonomy of team processes. Academy of Management Review, 26,356-376.

Expanded Publication List

Selected Publications (from 2000 – present)

Zaccaro, S. J., Dalal, R. D., Tetrick, L. & Steinke, J. A. (Editors) (in press). The psychosocial dynamics of cyber security. New York: Routledge.

Steinke, J., Bolunmez, B., Fletcher, L., Wang, V., Tomassetti, A. J., Repchik, K. M., Zaccaro, S. J., Dalal, R. S., & Tetrick, L. E. (2015). Improving cybersecurity incident response team effectiveness using teams-based research. Security and Privacy, IEEE, 13, 20-29.

Nicolaides, V. C., LaPort, K., Chen, T. R., Tomassetti, A.J., Weis, E. J., Zaccaro, S. J., & Cortina, J. M. (in press). The shared leadership of teams: A meta-analysis of proximal and distal consequences. Leadership Quarterly, 25, 923-942.

Zaccaro, S. J., Weis, E., Chen, T. R., & Matthews, M. D. (2014). Situational load and personal attributes: Implications for adaptive readiness and training. In H. F. O'Neil, R. S. Perez, & E. L. Baker (Eds.), Teaching and measuring cognitive readiness (pp. 93-115). New York: Springer.

Chen, T. R., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2013). The personality of leaders: From vertical to shared leadership. In R. Tett & N. Christiansen (Eds.), Handbook of personality at work (pp. 772-795). New York: Routledge.

Zaccaro, S. J., LaPort, K., & Jose, I. (2013). Attributes of successful leaders: A performance requirements approach. In M. Rumsey, (Ed), The Oxford handbook of leadership (pp 11-36). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Asencio, R., Carter, D., DeChurch, L.A., Zaccaro, S.J., & Fiore, S.J. (2012). Charting a course for collaboration: A multiteam perspective. Translational Behavior Medicine, 2, 487-494.

Zaccaro, S. J., Marks, M. A., & DeChurch, L. A. (Eds) (2012). Multi-team systems: An organization form for dynamic and complex environments. London: Taylor Francis/Routledge.

Zaccaro, S.J. (2012) Individual differences and leadership: Contributions to a third tipping point, The Leadership Quarterly, 23, 718-728.

Zaccaro, S. J., & DiRosa, G. A. (2012). The processes of team staffing: A review of relevant studies. In G. P. Hodgkinson and J. K. Ford. (Ed), International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Vol. 27, pp.197-229). London: John Wiley & Sons.

Zaccaro, S. J. Weis, E., Hilton, R., & Jeffries, J. (2011). Building resilient teams. In. P. Sweeney, M. Matthews, & P. Lester (Eds.), Leading in dangerous contexts. Annapolis. MD: Naval Institute Press.

Ely, K, Boyce, L., Nelson, J., Zaccaro., S. J., Hernez-Broome, G., & Wyman, W. (2010). Evaluating leadership coaching: A review and integrated framework. Leadership Quarterly, 21, 585–599.

Boyce, L., Zaccaro, S. J. & Wisecarver, M., (2010) Propensity for self-development of leadership attributes: Understanding, predicting, and supporting performance of leader self-development. Leadership Quarterly, 21,159-178.

Zaccaro, S. J., Ely, K., & Nelson, J. (2008). Leadership processes and work motivation. In R. Kanfer, G. Chen, & R. Pritchard (Eds.), Work motivation: Past, present, and future (pp. 319-360). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Zaccaro, S. J. (2007). Trait-based perspectives in leadership. American Psychologist, 62, 6-16.

Zaccaro, S. J., Schuffler, M., & Hildeband, K. (2007). The leader’s role in team learning. In V. L. Sessa & M. London (Eds.), Work group learning (pp. 193-214). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Day, D. V., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2007). Leadership: A critical historical analysis of the influence of trait theories. In L. L. Koppes (Ed.). The history of industrial and organizational psychology: The first 100 years. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Zaccaro, S. J., Wood, G., & Herman, J. (2006). Developing the adaptive and global leader: HRM strategies within a career-long perspective. In R. J. Burke & C. L. Cooper (Eds.), The human resources revolution: Why putting people first matters (pp. 277-302). Amsterdam, NL: Elsevier.

Day, D. V., Zaccaro, S. J., & Halpin, S. M. (Eds.) (2004). Leader development for transforming organizations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Zaccaro, S. J. (2001). The nature of executive leadership: A conceptual and empirical analysis of success. Washington, DC: APA Books.

Zaccaro, S. J., & Klimoski, R. (Eds) (2001). The nature of organizational leadership: Understanding the performance imperatives confronting today's leaders. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Zaccaro, S. J., Rittman, A. & Marks, M. A. (2001). Team leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 12, 451-484.

Marks, M. A., Mathieu, J., & Zaccaro, S. J. (2001). A temporally based framework and taxonomy of team processes. Academy of Management Review, 26,356-376.

Marks, M., Zaccaro, S. J., & Mathieu, J. (2000). Performance implications of leader briefings and team interaction training for team adaptation to novel environments. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 971-986.

Dissertations Supervised

Tiancheng (Allen) Chen, The Other Side of Leader Humor: An Investigation of Leader Humor from the Follower’s Perspective (2023)

Elisa Torres, Exploration of the Multilevel & Temporal Intricacies of Emergent States in Multiteam Systems (2023)

Samantha Dubrow, Leadership Transitions in Teams (2021)

Daniel Shore, Rewarding Those Hardly Working More than Those Working Hard: How Misallocating Equitable Team-based Rewards in Interdependent Tasks Can Create a Barrier to Retaining Higher-performing Team Members (2020)

Emily S. Medvin, Telework and Contextual Performance: How Affective Reactions to Telework Influence the Relationships Between Telework, Lmx and Ocbs (2019)

David Geller, How Affect and Attributions Fit in the Conflict Experience (2019)

Wenmo Kong, Understanding Adaptation: The Components, Effect, Antecedents, and Training of Adaptive Expertise (2018)

Benjamin Amos, The Right Stuff: Examining Leader Attributes and Legitimacy Judgments When They Matter Most (2018)

David M. Wallace, An Investigation of the Motivation to Develop as a Leader (2017)

Samantha Holland, Perceptual Disconnects in Leadership Emergence: An Integrated Examination of the Role of Trait Configurations, Dyadic Relationship, and Social Influence (2015)

Elizabeth Conjar, The Influence of Social Network Relationships on Development: An Empirical Examination of Leadership Development (2014)

Tiffani Chen, Team Composition, Emergent States, and Shared Leadership Emergence on Project Teams: A Longitudinal Study (2014)

Cory Adis, The Role of Cognitive Capacity and Information Processing Preferences in Forecasting and Prediction Accuracy (2013)

Gia Adele DiRosa, Emergent Phenomena in Multiteam Systems: An Examination of Between-Team Cohesion (2013)

Kate Ashley LaPort, A Multistage Model of Leader Effectiveness: Uncovering the Relationships between Leader Traits and Leader Behaviors (2012)

Eric Weis, A Multilevel Field Study of Functional Leadership: The Role of Situational Load and Individual Differences (2012)

Jeffrey Lee Herman, Self-Concept Complexity and Authentic Adaptability of Multicultural Leaders (2012)

Johnathan Nelson, Talk Isn’t Cheap: Moral Messaging Tactics Used in Content of Ethics Centered Communication (2012)