9 pubs · 161 cites · h-index 5
Empowering leaders delegate authority, grant autonomy, and assign responsibilities to individuals or teams. Drawing on empowerment theory and self-determination theory (SDT), the present study hypothesizes that daily empowering leadership is related to employee work engagement through (a) psychological empowerment, and (b) the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. We collected data among 86 Norwegian Navy cadets during a 30-day transatlantic voyage (response = 97%; n = 2022 observations). Consistent with hypotheses, results of multilevel mediation path analysis showed that daily leader autonomy support and development support were positively related to daily employee work engagement through psychological empowerment and satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Moreover, leaders’ autonomy-supportive behaviour was most strongly related to psychological empowerment (not need satisfaction) and indirectly to work engagement when development support was high (vs. low). We discuss how these findings support and contribute to empowering leadership literature, as well as the practical implications.
It is well documented that leadership behavior influences employees' motivation. In particular are autonomy-supportive leadership styles associated with desirable outcomes through basic psychological needs satisfaction and subsequent autonomous motivation. Mission Command, a leadership philosophy endorsed by the armed forces of many nations, can be considered autonomy-supportive and should therefore foster motivational outcomes beyond effective mission execution. Despite this, research on the relationship between mission command and soldiers' motivation is currently lacking. In the current study, an instrument was developed to measure the perceived degree of mission command behavior. Using structural equation modeling, the instrument was then used to examine the relationship between perceived degree of mission command, basic psychological needs satisfaction and autonomous motivation, as well as soldiers' job satisfaction and turnover intention. The empirical sample comprised 286 respondents from three different rapid-reaction forces in the Norwegian Home Guard. The results indicate that mission command was not directly related to autonomous motivation. However, there was a direct relationship between mission command and the satisfaction of the need for autonomy, and a significant indirect effect of mission command on autonomous motivation through satisfaction of the need for autonomy. Moreover, there was a positive relationship between autonomous motivation and job satisfaction and a negative relationship between autonomous motivation and turnover intention. Taken together, this study suggests that mission command leadership behaviors can contribute to basic needs satisfaction, promote soldiers' autonomous motivation and job satisfaction, and reduce turnover intention. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
Academic interest in the relationship between leaders' personality and subordinates’ perception of destructive leadership behavior is increasing. However, results so far have been weak, contradictory, and inconsistent to theory. Here, we examine if using facets of neuroticism, rather than the broader trait, can be more informative and increases the predictive power. Next, we explore the interplay between personality dimensions by examining if the relationship between the facet angry hostility in neuroticism and destructive leadership behavior is moderated by the trait agreeableness. Four hundred and twenty emergent leaders were examined in a military selection context, combining the leaders' self‐rated neuroticism (T1) with subordinates' subsequent perception of abusive supervision and laissez‐faire leadership in a field exercise two weeks later (T2). The results indicated that using facets instead of the broad factor of neuroticism improved the prediction of examined outcomes. Only some of the facets of neuroticism were related to perceived leader behavior, with specific facets being identified for abusive supervision and laissez‐faire leadership, respectively. Further, the relationship between angry hostility and both leadership styles was moderated by agreeableness.
Psychological hardiness is a set of personality characteristics that is linked to better health, performance, and leadership in demanding environments. Research indicates that candidates who score high on hardiness have an advantage during military leadership selection. In this study, we deconstruct the effect of hardiness into three separate measures of leadership performance: interview performance, field performance, and the probability of voluntary withdrawal from a challenging field exercise. Additionally, we hypothesize that the dispositional effect of hardiness is partly due to an indirect effect of contextual self-efficacy beliefs regarding military leadership ability. We test our hypotheses in a sample of candidates seeking admission to officer training in the Norwegian Armed Forces during a three-week selection process. The results confirm that hardiness was associated with successful admission and showed that hardy candidates scored somewhat higher on the interview and field exercises and were notably less likely to drop out of the field exercise. Using generalized structural equation modeling and mediation analysis, we find that the effect is partly mediated by self-efficacy beliefs, but the direct effect of hardiness is more pronounced than the indirect effect of self-efficacy. Overall, the results add to the growing body of hardiness as a predictor of military leadership performance and shows that this advantage is partly, but not primarily associated with contextual self-efficacy beliefs.
In the present study, we integrate Person-Organization (P-O) fit and Job Demands-Resources theories to argue that P-O fit (i.e., value congruence between person and organization) is a key resource that facilitates the accumulation and activation of situational job resources. We hypothesize that P-O fit strengthens the well-established positive relationship between job autonomy and job performance. Measures of objective P-O fit were obtained for 43 Norwegian naval cadets before embarking on a training mission onboard a sailing ship. During the mission, we measured daily self-reported autonomy as well as peer-rated task and contextual performance for 30 consecutive days. As predicted, the results of multilevel modeling analyses showed that the relationship between daily autonomy and (a) next- (but not same-) day task performance, and (b) next- (and same-) day contextual performance is stronger positive for individuals high (vs. low) in P-O fit. Moreover, effects of the daily autonomy – P-O fit interaction were noticeable on performance several days after. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
The goal of personnel selection is to find predictors that, together, maximize the explained variance in important job outcomes such as Task Performance or Work Engagement. Common predictors include Intelligence and Big Five Personality. Using Person-Organization Fit (P-O Fit) for selection purposes has been discussed, but, beyond Intelligence and Personality, evidence of the incremental predictive validity of P-O Fit in relation to task performance and work engagement is scarce. This study examines the practical utility of indirectly measured P-O Fit as a selection tool in a military setting. Measures of objective P-O Fit were obtained from actual applicants in a military selection setting and combined with self-report measures of Work Engagement upon organizational entry, and supervisor-rated Task Performance approximately two weeks later. P-O Fit predicted both Task Performance (R2 = .041) and Work Engagement (R2 = .038). More importantly, P-O Fit yielded incremental predictive validity in relation to both outcomes, also after controlling for intelligence and personality traits. While our initial models (including age, gender, intelligence, and personality) explained 25.1% and 5.8% of the variance in work engagement and task performance, respectively, this increased to 26.3% and 6.3%, respectively, after the inclusion of P-O Fit. Implications for practical use in selection systems are discussed.