The Cross-Cultural Variation of the Effects of Transformational Leadership Behaviors on Followers’ Organizational Identification: The Case of Idealized Influence and Individualized Consideration in Finland and Russia

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article, we examine the cross-cultural variation in the perceived effects ofidealized influenceandindividualized considerationleadership behaviors – two behavioral dimensions of transformational leadership – on followers’ organizational identification in two culturally distinct countries: Russia and Finland. We also test whether the followers’ role ambiguity mediates these relationships. Using the self-concept-based theory of leadership as an explanatory framework, our analysis of white-collar employees in four Finland-based multinational corporations and their subsidiaries in Russia shows that whereas in Russia both behaviors facilitate followers’ identification, in Finland only idealized influence does. We also find differences in how role ambiguity mediates the relationship between the two behaviors and followers’ identification in the two countries. In Russia, it fully mediates the relationship betweenindividualized considerationand followers’ identification, whereas in Finland it partially mediates the relationship betweenidealized influenceand followers’ identification.