Faculty Publications

To Whom Does Transformational Leadership Matter More? An Examination Of Neurotic And Introverted Followers And Their Organizational Citizenship Behavior

Document Type

Article

Keywords

Extraversion, Neuroticism, Organizational citizenship behavior, Substitutes for leadership, Transformational leadership

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Leadership Quarterly

Volume

26

Issue

5

First Page

851

Last Page

862

Abstract

Despite the massive amount of transformational leadership research, the role of followers has not been well-examined in the transformational leadership literature. To understand how leader-follower interactions influence follower organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), we examined the cross-level interactions between transformational leadership and two follower personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion). Using a sample of 215 leaders and 1284 followers, results showed that follower neuroticism moderated the relationships between transformational leadership and organizational citizenship behavior directed toward other individuals (OCB-I) and toward the organization (OCB-O), such that relationships were stronger for those high in neuroticism. Further, follower extraversion moderated the relationships between transformational leadership and OCB-I and OCB-O, such that relationships were stronger for those low in extraversion. Therefore, the inspirational and developmental nature of transformational leaders can offset follower neuroticism and introversion and guide these employees to perform more OCB despite their tendencies to worry, lack confidence, and be shy and withdrawn.

Department

Department of Management

Original Publication Date

1-1-2015

DOI of published version

10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.06.005

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