Abstract
Leadership research has a long and impressive history of identifying how followers are affected by their leaders. The vast majority of this research has addressed one leadership “style” at a time, reinforcing the idea that leaders are consistent in their behaviors despite emerging evidence to the contrary. Drawing on uncertainty management theory, the ambivalence literature, and empirical evidence, we propose that followers’ perceptions of inconsistent leadership results in ambivalence towards leaders, which in turn affects followers’ workplace attitudes and well-being. Across two studies using different methodologies (randomized experimental study, survey), we find support for a conditional indirect effect in which leaders’ inconsistent behaviors predict an array of follower outcomes through the mediating effect of followers’ subjective ambivalence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Notes
All four vignettes were first pilot tested (see supplemental materials).
Tables S1 to S10 can be found in the supplemental materials.
To ensure that self-esteem was not a mediator in the relationships between inconsistent leadership (i.e., transformational leadership x abusive supervision) and follower outcomes, we conducted a parallel mediator analysis using the Process macro v3.5. Self-esteem did not act as a mediator in any of the relationships and ambivalence remained a statistically significant mediator in all analyses.
References
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Leandre Fabrigar, Nick Turner, Tara MacDonald, Anika Cloutier, Shani Pupco, Melissa Trivisonno, and Julie Weatherhead for comments and feedback at all phases of the research.
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Suurd Ralph, C., Barling, J. Leader Inconsistency, Subjective Ambivalence, and Follower Outcomes. J Bus Psychol 38, 1003–1021 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-022-09852-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-022-09852-w