A Multilevel Study of Leader Political Skill and Followers’ Identity

Abstract

After the introduction of the political theory of leadership, scholars began investigating the influence of leader political skill (LPS) on various follower outcomes. However, the work that has already been published on LPS has ignored some important perspectives, such as the follower self-concept-based perspective, the multilevel nature of LPS, and the impact of cross-level effects. Thus, this study using matched reports from 70 leaders and 345 of their followers across 36 branches of 18 banks in Pakistan, investigated and found that the follower self-conceptions mediated the relationships of individual-focused LPS and group-focused LPS with follower empowerment, leader-based self-esteem, follower engagement, team cohesiveness, team goal commitment and team engagement at their corresponding levels. Mplus 7 was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships and the results also revealed some important cross-level effects. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and future research directions are also outlined.