Careful What You Ask For: Competence and Efficacy in The Leader-Follower Relationship

Abstract

We introduce the follower’ perspective to understand whether and how leader influence affects follower performance outcomes. Drawing on implicit leadership theories and implicit followership theories, we develop a theoretical model involving the mediated moderation of leader-member exchange (LMX) and follower self-efficacy on the relationship between follower’s sense of leader influence and performance outcomes (task performance, OCBI, and voice). Employing a multi-source multi-wave design, we collected a sample involving 184 leader-follower pairs from 83 groups. The results show support for the hypothesized model. Specifically, we found that leader-reported LMX mediated the relationship between follower’s sense of leader influence and performance outcomes. The impacts of follower’s sense of leader influence on performance outcomes were stronger at low than low high of follower self-efficacy.