Getting What You Want: How Fit Between Desired And Received Leader Sensitivity Influences Emotion And Counterproductive Work Behavior

Keywords

Counterproductive work behavior; Implicit leadership theory; Sensitivity; Stressor-emotion model

Abstract

We challenge the intuitive belief that greater leader sensitivity is always associated with desirable outcomes for employees and organizations. Specifically, we argue that followers' idiosyncratic desires for, and perceptions of, leader sensitivity behaviors play a key role in how followers react to their leader's sensitivity. Moreover, these resulting affective experiences are likely to have important consequences for organizations, specifically as they relate to employee counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Drawing from supplies-values (S-V) fit theory and the stressor-emotion model of CWB, the current study focuses on the affective and behavioral consequences of fit between subordinates' ideal leader sensitivity behavior preferences and subordinates' perceptions of their actual leader's sensitivity behaviors. Polynomial regression analyses reveal that congruence between ideal and actual leader sensitivity influences employee negative affect and, consequently, engagement in counterproductive work behavior.

Publication Date

10-1-2016

Publication Title

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

Volume

21

Issue

4

Number of Pages

443-454

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1037/a0040074

Socpus ID

84954408238 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84954408238

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