Studies on interim leadership have proliferated across multiple disciplines over the past forty-five years since the first studies on non-traditional careers emerged in the late 1970s. Interim leadership tenures typically range from weeks to more than a year during critical change-induced contexts in organizations (e.g., unexpected leadership departures). Interim leadership brings benefits to both interim executives (e.g., career advancement, work-life flexibility) and organizations (e.g., the capacity to quickly adapt). Undertaking a comprehensive review of 61 articles on interim leadership published in top journals in multiple domains over almost five decades, we highlight terminologies adopted, moderating factors, theoretical perspectives and models pertinent to interim leadership explored to date. Importantly, our review identifies four emerging themes (i.e., Selection, Socialization, Success, and Succession) which represent stages of the interim leadership process, leading to the development of the resultant “4S” process framework. We subsequently explore factors which influence each of these stages that interim leaders move through from entering to exiting interim executive assignments. Following this, the review proposes a future research agenda for theoretical, empirical, and methodological advancement of interim leadership scholarship, particularly in relation to the less researched areas of socialization and success and notes practical implications to inform better practice of interim leadership for individuals and organizations.

中文翻译：

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临时领导：系统文献综述和未来研究议程

自 20 世纪 70 年代末首次针对非传统职业的研究出现以来，过去 45 年里，关于临时领导力的研究在多个学科中激增。在组织发生重大变革（例如领导层意外离职）时，临时领导任期通常从几周到一年多不等。临时领导给临时管理人员（例如，职业发展、工作与生活的灵活性）和组织（例如，快速适应的能力）带来好处。我们对近 50 年来在多个领域的顶级期刊上发表的 61 篇关于临时领导力的文章进行了全面回顾，重点介绍了迄今为止探索的与临时领导力相关的术语、调节因素、理论观点和模型。重要的是，我们的审查确定了四个新兴主题（即选择、社会化、成功和继任），它们代表了临时领导过程的各个阶段，从而形成了最终的“4S”过程框架。随后，我们探讨了影响临时领导者从进入临时执行任务到退出临时执行任务的每个阶段的因素。在此之后，该评论提出了临时领导奖学金的理论、实证和方法论进步的未来研究议程，特别是与社会化和成功的研究较少的领域有关，并指出了为个人和组织更好地实施临时领导的实际意义。