Leader identity as an antecedent of the frequency and consistency of transformational, consideration, and abusive leadership behaviors.

Abstract

Drawing from identity-based theories of leadership, we examined relations of leader identity with leader behavior and perceived effectiveness. To do so, we employed multiwave methodology to examine the differential impact of leaders' chronic collective, relational, and individual identities on the frequency and consistency of their subsequent transformational, consideration, and abusive behaviors over a 3-week period. We also examined the relative importance of these leadership behaviors for predicting perceived leader effectiveness as rated by subordinates and peers. Results indicated that leaders' collective and individual identities were uniquely related to transformational and abusive behaviors, respectively. We also observed a significant collective by individual identity interaction, such that abusive behaviors were most frequent when a strong individual identity was paired with a weak collective identity. Frequency of transformational behaviors accounted for the largest proportion of variance in perceived leader effectiveness, followed by frequency of abusive behaviors and consistency of transformational behaviors. We discuss the implications of these findings for leadership theory and development.

Exploring leadership styles for innovation: an exploratory factor analysis

“…In contrast, this study has identified consideration leadership, which explains proportions of the variance 10.5 percent, as being a complement to transformational leadership in supporting employee creativity and innovation. This finding is consistent with other studies which emphasise that these two leadership behaviours increase leader effectiveness ratings, as they establish the leader as being stable and genuine in the view of the followers (Johnson et al, 2012). It is recommended that both leadership styles be incorporated into management training and development programmes.…”

From the top-down: Transformational leadership considerations for health care organizations

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Diversity in Unity: Perspectives from Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

“…Previous research has focused largely on one side of this interaction, namely, on follower identity, rather than attending to leader identity (Johnson et al, 2012;Kark & Van Dijk, 2007). Most research emphasises the identification of factors that have significant positive impacts on performance, such as the study conducted by , which aimed to examine the relationships between employee voice behaviour, employee identification, and transformational leadership, and the study conducted by Walumbwa and Hartnell (2011), concerning relational identification, self-efficacy, and transformational leadership.…”

“…Therefore, it is little wonder that current discussions of leadership tend to focus on interpersonal dynamics within the leadership process, particularly on how leaders engage followers and create positive effects that extend beyond task compliance Van Knippenberg et al, 2004). Among several key factors that influence the interaction between leaders and followers, current theory focuses on identity (Johnson et al, 2012;Van Knippenberg, 2011), which refers to the knowledge that individuals have about themselves (Johnson et al, 2012) that impacts the way they feel, think, and behave in relation to the things they seek to achieve (DeRue & Ashford, 2010;Van Knippenberg et al, 2004).…”