Multi-level issues, or multiple levels of analysis in both theory building and theory testing, are critical in research in the physical, social, and behavioral sciences (see Dansereau and Yammarino, 2003, Dansereau and Yammarino, 2005, Dansereau and Yammarino, 2007, Dansereau et al., 1999, Futuyma, 2005, Gould, 2002, Klein and Kozlowski, 2000, Miller, 1978, Rousseau, 1985, Wilson, 1980, Wilson, 2002, Wolfram, 2002, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2002, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2004, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2006 and Yammarino and Dansereau, 2008, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2009a and Yammarino and Dansereau, 2009b). Work on multi-level issues in organization science and leadership (OSL) (e.g., Anderson, 1999, Dansereau et al., 1984, Dansereau et al., 2006, Dansereau and Yammarino, 1998a, Dansereau and Yammarino, 1998b, Dansereau and Yammarino, 2003, Dansereau and Yammarino, 2007, Dansereau et al., 1995a, Dansereau et al., 1995b, Dansereau et al., 1999, DeChurch et al., 2010, Gupta et al., 2007, Klein and Kozlowski, 2000, Markham, 2010, Meyer et al., 2005, Mumford et al., 2008, Peterson, 1998, Rousseau, 1985, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2002, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2004, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2008, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2009a, Yammarino and Dansereau, 2009b and Yammarino et al., 2005) has been influenced by research on levels of analysis from other scientific fields (e.g., Gould, 2002, Miller, 1978 and Wolfram, 2002). In particular, evolutionary theory (ET) (Darwin, 1859, Darwin, 1871, Dawkins, 1976, Futuyma, 2005, Galton, 1869, Gould, 2002, Sober and Wilson, 1998, Wilson, 1980 and Wilson, 2002), a comprehensive, well-established interdisciplinary theory, can provide important insights for organization science and leadership on multi-level issues.
While there have been attempts to infuse evolutionary theory ideas into the field of organization science and leadership (e.g., Kniffin, 2009, Kniffin and Wilson, 2010, Luxen and Van De Vijer, 2006, Markoczy and Goldberg, 1998, Nicholson, 1997, Nicholson, 2008, Nicholson and White, 2006, Pierce and White, 1999, Pierce and White, 2006 and Van Vugt et al., 2008), this prior work has primarily focused on variables and some processes and has typically ignored levels of analysis issues. Multi-level issues in ET offer insights regarding those same issues in OSL. As such, via an alignment, discussion, and illustration of analogous multi-level notions from ET and OSL, we hope to enhance the transfer or translation of knowledge on these topics from a mature and established field of work (ET) to a newer and developing one (OSL). Simply, knowledge of the use of multi-level notions in ET can facilitate the understanding of their use in OSL, providing lessons learned, and thus enhance multi-level theory building and theory testing in the latter field of study.
Thus, our purpose here is to identify, explore, and align a set of multi-level issues from the different disciplinary perspectives of ET and OSL. Multi-level concepts from evolutionary psychology (e.g., de Waal, 2002, Nicholson, 1997, Nicholson, 2008, Nicholson and White, 2006, Pierce and White, 1999, Pierce and White, 2006 and Sober and Wilson, 1998) are included in the ET perspective, while notions from the varient approach (e.g., Dansereau et al., 1984, Dansereau et al., 1999, Dansereau et al., 2006 and Yammarino and Dansereau, 2009a) are included in the OSL perspective, to provide additional insights on multi-level issues and facilitate the transfer or translation of learning from one field to the other.
The key multi-level concepts and issues of focus are summarized in Table 1. For each of these prominent multi-level ideas, as shown in the table, a direct alignment can be established between evolutionary theory and organization science and leadership perspectives. After an articulation of primary notions in evolutionary theory and the subfield of evolutionary psychology, these multi-level issues in ET and OSL are explicated and illustrated in subsequent sections (organized around Table 1). Implications and examples for a better understanding of multi-level issues, including multiple levels of analysis in theory building and theory testing, in organization science and leadership are then discussed.
