Fearless Dominance and Leader Effectiveness: Lykken’s Socialization Hypothesis (WITHDRAWN)

Abstract

We tested Lykken’s (1995) hypothesis that fearless dominance can lead to both adaptive and antisocial behaviors. According to Lykken, the direction of the career path of individuals high on fearless dominance is mainly influenced by their level of socialization, and prior research has found encouraging results for this hypothesis. However, research also shows that the presence of fearless dominance increases at higher levels of an organization’s hierarchy. Therefore, our goal was to test Lykken’s socialization hypothesis in a leadership context. By linking Lykken’s hypothesis to socioanalytic theory and a recent process model of leadership, we suggest that fearless dominance and successful socialization (i.e., higher educational level) influence leadership outcomes via political skill. Our sample comprises 239 leaders, their superiors (N = 239), and a total of 457 subordinates. Using moderated mediation analyses, we show that leaders high on both fearless dominance and educational level possessed greater political skill, mediating improved job performance, transformational leadership, and team performance. However, with low educational level, this mediated relation is negative. We discuss these results regarding Lykken’s hypothesis and provide an outlook for future research.