I will follow (when I need to): Followers’ responses to their team leader’s desire for control in conditions of high and low intergroup competition
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the personality trait of desire for control over others (DFCO) matters to team leadership and performance, and how commitment to the leader mediates this relationship. Furthermore, the authors study whether intergroup competition moderates this indirect relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors test hypotheses for mediation and moderation using a sample of 78 groups and their leaders. Commitment to the leader and intergroup competition were measured at the team member level, while DFCO and team performance was rated by the team leader. Bootstrapping was used to assess the significance of the (conditional) indirect effects.
Findings
The results show that leader’s DFCO does not relate to team performance through commitment to the leader. Leader’s DFCO only relates negatively to team performance through commitment to the leader when the team operates in a context with little or moderate intergroup competition. In a highly competitive environment, however, leader’s DFCO does little damage to team performance.
Originality/value
This research is the first study to focus on DFCO as a personality trait of a group leader. In doing so, it adds to the continuing debate about leader personality and context, as well as the ongoing study on how subordinates respond to different levels of control over decisions in groups.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Petya Dobreva for her assistance in the data collection.
Citation
de Jong, J.P. and Curseu, P.L. (2016), "I will follow (when I need to): Followers’ responses to their team leader’s desire for control in conditions of high and low intergroup competition", Personnel Review, Vol. 45 No. 4, pp. 707-723. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-12-2014-0273
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited