A Dual-Specificity Model of Leader-Associated Relational Identification

Abstract

In the leader-follower role context, a follower’s leader-associated relational identification exists at two levels of specificity. One is the particularized level often represented by leader identification. The other is the generalized level reflecting one’s identification with the self-authority role-relationships in general. Past research almost exclusively focused on the particularized level, with little research facilitating an understanding of this broader concept that includes both levels. Using a dual-specificity leader-associated relational identification model, operationalized as the interplay of leader identification and the individual value of traditionality, we examine how different types of leader-associated relational identifications predict supervisory social and economic exchange relationships, which in turn affect organizational citizenship behavior benefiting the supervisor (OCBS). Data were collected at three time points from 664 working adults across the United States. Polynomial regression and response surface analyses showed that followers of four different types of relational identification enacted supervisory social and economic exchange in distinct patterns that were consistent with their respective relational identification. Supervisory social and economic exchange mediated the effects of dual-specificity relational identification on OCBS in opposing directions.