Leadership and Supervision

Ami Rokach

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Topic: Psychology
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000536010
• Subtopic: Applied Psychology
• Index: Psychology

This volume is dedicated to examining various points of view of what leadership is, and how the leader supervises those whom he trains.

It is divided into three conceptual sections: The Leader, which examines various dimensions of leadership and what it means to lead; The Leader's Effect on Others, which as the title indicates it looks at the effect and influence that a leader may have on others; and Organizational Culture, the effect of the leader on the culture of the organization or institution.

The chapters in this book were originally published in The Journal of Psychology.

Part I The Leader

Investigating Leader Role Congruity and Counterproductive Work Behavior

Benjamin Biermeier-Hanson

and Patrick Coyle

ABSTRACT

The present study sought to examine the role of fulfilled vs. unfulfilled expectations in work-related and non-work domains. Specifically, we examined how congruence and incongruence between implicit leadership theories across multiple categories of leaders (typical, ideal, and effective leaders) and characteristics recognized on one’s supervisor affect leader-member exchange (LMX), work-family conflict, and subsequent counter-productive work behavior. We tested our hypotheses using polynomial regression and response surface modeling. The results of this study showed that congruence between implicit leadership theories (ILT’s) of typical, ideal, and effective leaders and supervisor recognition, as well as incongruity between ILT’s of ideal leaders and characteristics recognized in one’s supervisor, significantly impacts perceived LMX quality with supervisors. Incongruity between ILT’s of typical and ideal leaders and supervisor recognition was also associated with higher ratings of work-family conflict (WFC). Finally, the results showed support for a significant indirect effect of congruence between ILTs of typical and ideal leaders and characteristics recognized in one’s supervisor on CWB through WFC. These results add meaningful depth to literature on congruent implicit theories in two ways: (a) we add to existing knowledge of outcomes associated with congruence on ILT’s, and, (b) we examine these associations using ILT’s across multiple categories of leaders. Implications are also discussed.

Engagement in counter-productive work behavior (CWB) interferes with goal attainment by organizational leaders and costs organizations up to $200 billion per year (Bolino & Klotz, 2015; Dalal, 2005; Yam, Fehr, Keng-Highberger, Klotz, & Reynolds, 2016). Counter-productive work behaviors are volitional behaviors that harm the organization or its members and are typically motivated by environmental events that violate expectations (Bies & Tripp, 1996; Martinko, Gundlach, & Douglas, 2002; Spector, Fox, Penney, Bruursema, Goh, & Kessler, 2006). Absenteeism, theft, coworker or supervisor abuse are all examples of these behaviors. To understand how leaders can reduce counter-productive behaviors, we must expand our understanding of how employees make sense of their workplace to identify what may violate their expectations and lead to CWBs.

To this end, we use knowledge structures about individually held prototypes of leaders, or implicit leadership theories (ILTs), to specify expectations for organizational sense making. These prototypes, or ILTs, are schemas that individuals hold about leader attributes and have received considerable attention in their ability to shape organizational processes and outcomes (e.g. Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; Foti & Lord, 1987; Lord, Foti & De Vader, 1984). For example, ILTs have been used to predict employees’ work attitudes and relations. However, very little research has examined the relationship between these prototypes and counterproductive behaviors (Rupprecht, Kueny, Shoss & Metzger, 2016). To more fully understand the role of fulfilled vs. unfulfilled expectations in volitionally harmful behavior, we must continue to examine the relationship between ILT’s and CWB.

Expectations for leaders are fulfilled only when there is alignment between individuals’ prototypes and his/her perceptions of the characteristics exhibited by their leader, or “supervisor recognition” (Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; Lord & Maher, 1991). There is evidence that congruence between ILT’s and one’s supervisor (supervisor recognition) positively influences perceptions of working relationships. Specifically, initial evidence suggests that an employee’s quality of relationship with their leader, as characterized by leader-member exchange (LMX), is positively affected when there is congruence between one’s ILTs and characteristics recognized in one’s supervisor (Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; van Gils, van Quaquebeke & van Knippenberg, 2010). Despite these initial findings, research that examines the ways in which this congruence influences relationships outside of work (e.g. work-family conflict, or WFC) is necessary to more fully understand the impact of this congruence on the workplace. Indeed, perceptions of leader relational quality along with work-life issues have been found to impact work-related outcomes generally, and counter-productive behaviors specifically (Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; Michel, Kotrba, Mitchelson, Clark, & Baltes, 2011; Rupprecht et al., 2016). Yet, the ways in which congruence between ILT’s and supervisor recognition influence both constructs and subsequent engagement in CWB are not fully known. As such, research that examines how congruence between ILT’s and supervisor recognition impacts CWB via LMX and WFC may help us achieve a greater understanding of how fulfillment of expectations regarding leaders can impact engagement in harmful behavior.

The purpose of this study is to explore how the role of intra-personal congruence on ILT’s (e.g. alignment between followers’ ILT’s and characteristics recognized in one’s supervisor) affects LMX and WFC and subsequent engagement in CWB. Our study makes two primary contributions to existing literature. First, our study expands on existing knowledge of outcomes associated with intra-personal congruence on ILT’s by examining the influence of ILT congruence on CWB via LMX and WFC, as called for by prior studies (Epitropaki, Sy, Martin, Tram-Quon, & Topakas, 2013; Rupprecht et al., 2016). Second, our study adds to literature comparing ILT’s across multiple categories of leaders (typical leader, ideal leader, and effective leader) (Epitropaki et al., 2013; Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; van Gils et al., 2010). Specifically, congruence using ILT’s of “typical” and “ideal” leaders have been studied (e.g. Epitropaki & Martin, 2005; Rupprecht et al., 2016; Topakas, 2011), yet have not been examined thoroughly in the context of the same study. As such, the benefits of studying the impact of the norm vs. valence of leader prototypes remain unclear (Foti, Hansbrough, Epitropaki, & Coyle, 2017). Furthermore, the extent to which ILT’s of ideal leaders vs. effective leaders are different has yet to be clarified. We examine ILT’s of all three categories of leaders in comparison to characteristics recognized in one’s supervisor in order to generate a deeper understanding of perspectives and outcomes of congruence using several basic-level ILT categories, as called for by prior researchers (Foti et al., 2017; Junker and van Dick, 2014).

Literature Review and Hypotheses

ILT’s, or schemas specifyin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: The Many Shades of Leadership and Supervision
• Part I The Leader
• Part II The Leader’s Effect on Others
• Part III Organizational Culture
• Index