Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and passive leadership: The mediating role of daytime sleepiness

Abstract

Passive leadership is attracting empirical interest with the detrimental effects of this type of leadership on a broad array of individual and organizational outcomes becoming apparent. However, just why leaders would engage in this type of nonleadership has received less research attention. We investigate whether and how leaders' attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with passive leadership. Using a framework specifying how the physiology of sleepiness impacts the workplace, we hypothesize that leaders' ADHD is associated with passive leadership indirectly through daytime sleepiness. After controlling for leaders' age, gender, and preclinical symptoms of depression and anxiety, standard ordinary least squares regression procedures were implemented through Hayes' PROCESS models. Multisource data from 98 leader-follower groups (M number of followers per leader = 4.38, SD = 1.78) showed that the effects of leaders' ADHD symptoms on passive leadership were mediated by daytime sleepiness. Conceptual, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.

How and when does centralization affect the likelihood of passive leadership?

“…While passive leadership, specifically its pervasiveness and outcomes, has been the subject of much empirical research (Carleton and Barling, 2018; Wei et al. , 2016), its antecedents have thus far remained unexplored.…”

“…Nevertheless, recent research has highlighted the predominance of this type of leadership in organizations (Aasland et al. , 2010; Carleton and Barling, 2018; Vullinghs et al. , 2018; Usman et al.…”

“…In other words, why passive leadership occurs in some supervisors and not in others is still not clear. As with other leadership styles, passive leadership has been considered an independent variable with merely a “downstream” impact” (Barling, 2014; Carleton and Barling, 2018; Vullinghs et al. , 2018), but to understand passive leadership, and thus to mitigate its likelihood and effects, there is a need to turn our attention “upstream” and consider it as a dependent variable.…”

“…Although it is one of the most common forms of destructive leadership (Che et al, 2017;Barling and Frone, 2017), it remains under-researched due to the perception that passive leaders, who by their definition do-nothing, do little harm (Barling and Frone, 2017). Nevertheless, recent research has highlighted the predominance of this type of leadership in organizations (Aasland et al, 2010;Carleton and Barling, 2018;Vullinghs et al, 2018;Usman et al, 2020), and the majority of studies are increasingly indicating its negative influence on employee attitudes and behaviours across organizational settings (Aasland et al, 2010;Agotnes et al, 2018;Che et al, 2017).…”

“…The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/0143-7739.htm (Barling, 2014;Carleton and Barling, 2018;Vullinghs et al, 2018), but to understand passive leadership, and thus to mitigate its likelihood and effects, there is a need to turn our attention "upstream" and consider it as a dependent variable. As such, this study attempts to understand when and why some leaders are more likely to engage in passive behaviours, particularly in public sector organizations.…”