“Just Words? Just Speeches?” On the Economic Value of Charismatic Leadership

Leadership theories in sociology and psychology argue that effective leaders influence follower behavior not only through the design of incentives and institutions, but also through personal abilities to persuade and motivate. Although charismatic leadership has received considerable attention in the management literature, existing research has not yet established causal evidence for an effect of leader charisma on follower performance in incentivized and economically relevant situations. We report evidence from field and laboratory experiments that investigate whether a leader’s charisma—in the form of a stylistically different motivational speech—can induce individuals to undertake personally costly but socially beneficial actions. In the field experiment, we find that workers who are given a charismatic speech increase their output by about 17% relative to workers who listen to a standard speech. This effect is statistically significant and comparable in size to the positive effect of high-powered financial incentives. We then investigate the effect of charisma in a series of laboratory experiments in which subjects are exposed to motivational speeches before playing a repeated public goods game. Our results reveal that a higher number of charismatic elements in the speech can increase public good contributions by up to 19%. However, we also find that the effectiveness of charisma varies and appears to depend on the social context in which the speech is delivered. This paper was accepted by Yan Chen, behavioral economics and decision analysis.

Effects of authentic leadership on follower performance in corporate social responsibility activities

We investigated the effects of authentic leadership on follower performance in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by drawing upon social identity theory. With data from 340 participants who took part in CSR activities in a large Korean firm, we tested the hypotheses that team identification would mediate the positive relationship between authentic leadership and follower performance, and that psychological safety would positively moderate this relationship. We used the PROCESS macro (Model 7) for SPSS for data analysis. Our hypotheses were supported by the results, which theoretically contribute to authentic leadership literature and, from a practical standpoint, provide an effective way to enhance follower performance in CSR activities.

Leader Tolerance of Ambiguity: Implications for Follower Performance Outcomes in High and Low Ambiguous Work Situations

Individuals high in tolerance of ambiguity (TOA) are comfortable with, desire, and strive to manage ambiguous situations. We predicted leader TOA would be associated with better follower performance outcomes, depending on the level (Study 1) and nature (Study 2) of follower role ambiguity. Data were collected from employees (Study 1, n = 423) and managerial employees (Study 2, n = 326) who rated their leader on three facets of TOA and provided self-reports of their own performance outcomes. Positive implications of leader TOA for follower learning goal orientation and job performance (Study 1) were most pronounced when followers perceived low role ambiguity and, in the prediction of situational coping (Study 2), when ambiguous work situations were categorized as challenges (unexpected events requiring problem-solving) compared to hindrances. Findings have theoretical implications for understanding when TOA in leaders is optimal and have practical relevance for leaders seeking to adapt to the situational needs of their followers.

Follower Dependence, Independence, or Interdependence: A Multi-Foci Framework to Unpack the Mystery of Transformational Leadership Effects

We develop a multi-foci framework—“follower dependence,” “follower independence,” and “leader-follower interdependence”—to explain how transformational leadership influences follower performance. Follower’s personal identification with the leader, psychological empowerment, and leader-member exchange are employed as proxies for each of the three foci. Two separate studies consistently show that personal identification (denoting a “follower dependence” focus) is a more salient mechanism than the other two in explaining the transformational leadership-organizational citizenship behavior relationship. These results suggest transformational leadership is perhaps a theory of follower dependence rather than independence or interdependence. Theoretical implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Leader Interpersonal Emotion Regulation and Follower Performance

Interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) refers to the actions of influencing other people’s feelings. We apply this construct to the context of leadership to determine whether leader IER may explain followers’ performance. Drawing on emotions-as-social-information theory, we argue that leader strategies to improve or worsen followers’ feelings would be related to followers’ affect and thereby to their performance. We tested these proposals using a multisource field study involving 31 leaders and 157 followers. Results from multilevel modeling supported a mediation model in which leaders’ attempts to improve their followers’ feelings enhance followers’ task performance via the followers’ experience of positive affect. In contrast, leaders’ use of affect-worsening actions was associated with the experience of followers’ negative affect, but not related to task performance. These findings contribute by expanding knowledge on the affective underpinnings of the leader–follower relationship and informing the development of leadership interventions aimed to foster employee performance.

A Meta-Analysis of Transactional Leadership and Follower Performance: Double-Edged Effects of LMX and Empowerment

Although transactional leadership is known to be the most common style of leadership in organizations, meta-analytic work has yet to fully uncover the relationship between transactional leadership and one of the most focal leadership outcomes: follower performance. Moreover, little is known about the mechanisms that explain why transactional leadership predicts follower performance. To address these gaps, the current article meta-analytically tests a model based on social exchange theory and self-determination theory in which transactional leadership is theorized to affect follower performance sequentially through leader–member exchange (LMX) and psychological empowerment. Specifically, we argue that although some leadership behaviors (e.g., contingent reward) may benefit performance via positive contributions to the leader–follower social exchange, some leadership behaviors (e.g., contingent reward) may simultaneously exhibit negative effects on performance via reduced empowerment. Our results demonstrate that transactional leadership displays both positive and negative indirect effects on follower performance. Furthermore, the pattern of these effects generalizes to two types of performance: task performance and contextual performance. These findings suggest that transactional leadership is a “double-edged sword” when predicting follower performance (e.g., contingent reward fosters LMX but hinders empowerment, whereas management by exception fosters empowerment but hinders LMX). We discuss how leaders can benefit from these findings, including modifying one’s delivery of transactional leadership approaches.

Professional identity neutralizes charismatic leadership tactics in a crisis

Purpose This paper aims to examine the main and the interaction effect of follower’s professional identity and leader’s use of charismatic leadership tactics (CLTs) on follower performance and work engagement during a crisis. Design/methodology/approach The authors performed a 2 × 2 between subjects experiment in which both professional identity and CLTs were manipulated for a group of 320 participants. Findings Professional identity has a main positive effect on followers’ performance and work engagement and works as a neutralizer (counter-effect) moderator in the relationship between CLTs and work engagement during a crisis. Research limitations/implications Participants in the experiments were final-year engineering students and the authors manipulated only two dimensions of crisis, i.e. time urgency and high priority. Practical implications Organizations can strive to select for and develop professional identity amongst their members to survive crisis like situations rather than rely only on charismatic leaders. Originality/value This is the first study to incorporate crisis for examining a neutralizer for CLTs.

Servant leadership, span of control, and outcomes in a municipality context

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the moderating role of span of supervision in the association between servant leadership and multiple outcomes such as job satisfaction and follower performance in a municipality context in Norway. Cross-sectional research design was applied, where data were collected from 237 respondents where leaders and their followers participated. Results showed how the positive relationship between servant leadership and job satisfaction is attenuated by a larger span of supervision, resulting in poorer follower performance. The present study contributes to the servant leadership literature by showing that servant leaders do not operate in the same manner across different degrees of span of supervision. Evidence suggests that span of supervision creates distance between leaders and followers and moderates the types of leader behaviors that may emerge or are viable, such that serving every follower’s highest priority needs becomes difficult to execute.