Abstract
This paper draws from follower centric perspective and implicit leadership theories to explore factors that predict higher congruence between real and ideal leader in followers’ view. It also examines the impact of sociodemographic and organizational characteristics to the prediction of perceived congruence. 267 Lithuanian employees from private and public organizations participated in internet-based survey. Followers filled up a questionnaire about their direct middle supervisors: they rated fit between ideal and real leader, leader’s ethical behaviour and productivity of work unit. Results indicate that both ethical behaviour of a leader and productivity are important predictors of employees’ perceived congruence between real and ideal leader. However, ethical behaviour has significantly higher standardized beta coefficients in comparison with productivity in public sector organizations. Therefore, the context needs to be considered when making leaders’ selection and promotion decisions based on follower preferences. Important insights for leadership research are also discussed in the paper.
Highlights
Globalization has created a market dynamic that demands higher levels of efforts from employees and requires true expertise in leadership (Dinh et al, 2014)
Second conclusion is consistent to expectations and findings of other researchers. We proposed that both ethical behaviour and productivity predict higher congruence between real and ideal leader in followers’ view
Our findings suggest the idea that productivity and ethical behaviour are less significant for leaders in private organizations, whereas in public organizations their contribution to followers’ perception of congruence between real and ideal leader is much more substantial
Summary
Globalization has created a market dynamic that demands higher levels of efforts from employees and requires true expertise in leadership (Dinh et al, 2014). Analysis of followers’ perceived congruence between real and ideal leader is important for organization development This analysis is even more crucial for Lithuania where follower-centered leadership perspective is still very rare both in empirical studies and practice (Stelmokiene & Endriulaitiene, 2015). Due to the intensive competition in the market and recently quite common ethical scandals in business the question if productive or ethical manager leads organization more successfully has come to assume global importance. It seems that sometimes you as a leader are required to choose to be productive or ethical, and it depends on the situation, context
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