An Empirical Study On The Relationship Between Leadership Style,Following Behavior And Leadership Effectiveness

Using the research methods of theoretical construction and empirical analysis,this study follows the logical mainline of "leadership style–interaction between employees and leaders(following behavior)–leadership effectiveness" to analyze and discuss the mechanism of authentic leadership,abusive leadership on employee behavior and leadership effectiveness.The main contents are as follows:(1)examining the effects of authentic leadership and abusive leadership on following behavior,and basing on social identity theory to analyze the mediating effect of employee identification on leader;(2)exploring the moderating effect of power distance orientation in authentic leadership and abusive leadership on following behavior;(3)on the basis of content(1)and(2),this study constructs a moderated mediation model to discuss the moderating effect of power distance orientation on the mediating effect of employee identification on leader;and(4)exploring the effect of authentic leadership and abusive leadership on leadership effectiveness,and to empirically test the mediating role of following behavior on the relationship between this two leadership styles and leadership effectiveness.Based on the structural equation modeling technique,using 714 full-time employees' questionnaires,this study used SPSS22.0 and AMOS22.0 statistical analysis software to analyze the survey data,conclusion of the study are as follows:(1)Authentic leadership positively predicted employee behavior,and abusive leadership negatively predicted following behavior;(2)Leadership identity p lays a partial mediating role on the relationship between authentic leadership,abusive leadership and following behavior;(3)Power distance orientation plays a moderating role in the relationship between authentic leadership,abusive leadership and follo wing behavior.Specifically,the power distance orientation positively enhanced the positive prediction effect of authentic leadership on following behavior,and negatively affected the negative prediction effect of abusive leadership on following behavior;(4)Furthermore,the mediating role of leadership identity between abusive leadership and employee behavior is moderated by the power distance orientation,that is,the moderated mediation model in this study is established;(5)Authentic leadership positively predicted leadership effectiveness and abusive leadership significantly negatively predicted leadership effectiveness;and(6),following behavior plays a complete mediating role in the relationship between authentic leadership,abusive leadership and leadership effectiveness.Compared with previous studies,this study has made a new attempt in the following aspects: First,this study selects authentic leadership and abusive leadership respectively as typical representative of positive leadership style and negative leadership style,and explore the mechanism of this two kinds of leadership style on following behavior and leadership effectiveness.There is no existing theory structure like this,so the research on authentic leadership,abusive leadership,following behavior and leadership effectiveness in the relationship between the three to fill the blank of current academic research on the relationship between these variables.Second,this study explores two aspects mediating effect.On the one hand,analyzing the mediating effects of leadership identification between the relationship of authentic leadership,abusive leadership and following behavior,pointing out that the effect of authentic leadership and abusive leadership on following behavior is partly realized by changing the identity of the employees;O n the other hand,analyzing the mediating effects of following behavior between the relationship of authentic leadership,abusive leadership and leadership effectiveness,pointing out that the effect of authentic leadership and abusive leadership on leadership effectiveness is completely realized by changing following behavior.The research on the mediating mechanism reveals the existing explanation mechanism of the leadership style,and also provides a new way to stimulate following behavior and improve the leadership effectiveness.Third,the authentic leadership theory and abusive leadership theory originated from the Western cultural background,their role and effect is not universal,but will be affected by cultural differences.Besed on Chinese cultural background,this study discusses the moderating effect of power distance orientation in authentic leadership,abusive leadership and following behavior from the individual view of values.The results support the leadership style of "contingent view",and not only enriches the two leadership styles,but also clearly defined the boundary conditions of leadership style on following behavior.Fourth,furtherly,this study constructs a moderated media tion model,helping to more deeply understand the authentic leadership,abusive leadership,leadership identity,power distance orientation and following behavior.Although this study draws some meaningful conclusions,but because of conditions,time and personal limitations,inevitably exist some shortcomings,needed to be further improved,embodied in a cross-sectional study design,single level research etc.