The Virtue of a Controlling Leadership Style: Authoritarian Leadership, Work Stressors, and Leader Power Distance

Chen, Leni; Huang, Xu; Sun, Jianmin; Zheng, Yuyan; Graham, Les; Jiang, Judy

Abstract

We developed and tested a theoretical model showing that authoritarian leadership has both positive and negative influences on employees’ work performance. We posited that authoritarian leadership may shape both challenge stressors and hindrance stressors, which compel and undermine in-role and extra-role performance, respectively. We found consistent results across two studies. In Study 1, our results from two samples in different cultures showed that authoritarian leadership was positively related to objective performance (Sample 1: n = 402 Chinese chain restaurant managers) and extra-role performance (Sample 2: n = 369 U.K. police officers) via challenge stressors. Authoritarian leadership was negatively related to objective performance and extra-role performance via hindrance stressors. In Study 2 (n = 195 Chinese power industry employees), we replicated the findings of Study 1. Further, we found that authoritarian leadership behaviors among leaders who scored low on power distance orientation were not negatively related to in-role and extra-role performance via hindrance stressors.

Citation

Chen, L., Huang, X., Sun, J., Zheng, Y., Graham, L., & Jiang, J. (2024). The Virtue of a Controlling Leadership Style: Authoritarian Leadership, Work Stressors, and Leader Power Distance. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 41, 507–547. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-022-09860-7

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 23, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Nov 19, 2022
• Publication Date: 2024-06
• Deposit Date: Dec 1, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 20, 2023
• Journal: Asia Pacific Journal of Management
• Print ISSN: 0217-4561
• Electronic ISSN: 1572-9958
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Pages: 507–547
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-022-09860-7
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1185263