The Double-Edged Influence Of Authoritarian Leadership On Employees’ Work Performance: Influence Mechanism And Boundary Conditions

At present,authoritarian leadership exists widely in Chinese enterprises,and this leadership style has been profoundly influenced by Confucian culture.Under this management concept,employees are required to be completely obedient,and leaders advocate the control of employees,and emphasize absolute authority and discipline.Most of the employees who grow up under the traditional concept and background will show awe and obedience.However,as the new generation of employees enter the workplace,their values are also changing with each passing day.Especially with the rapid development of China’s modernization and internationalization,the young generation of employees began to pursue freedom and fairness.In previous studies,most scholars have discussed the negative impact of authoritarian leadership on job performance,but the research on whether it can have a positive impact on job performance is insufficient.Through analyzing the existing literature,this study believes that authoritarian leadership will have a positive impact on job performance by increasing employees’challenge pressure stress,and will also have a negative impact on job performance by increasing the employees’ hindrance stress.Based on this,a theoretical model with the main effect of "authoritarian leadership→challenge stress/hindrance stress→ job performance" is constructed.In the selection of adjustment variables,this study selects individual power distance orientation as the adjustment variable,and proposes that the individual power distance orientation will play a positive role in the process of increasing the employees’ challenge stress by authoritarian leaders.When the individual power distance orientation is high(relatively low),the relationship between the two is stronger.Further,this study proposes that individual power distance orientation will adjust the indirect effect of authoritarian leadership on job performance through challenge stress.The higher the individual power distance orientation,the stronger the indirect effect.In addition,this study also points out that in the process of authoritarian leaders increasing employees’ obstructive pressure evaluation,the adjustment effect of individual power distance orientation is not obvious,and the indirect effect of individual power distance orientation on job performance by authoritarian leaders through the hindrance stress has not been verified.This thesis collects questionnaire survey data from multi-time points and multisources,and conducts a questionnaire survey on the middle-level leaders and their subordinates of four enterprises,involving a total of 74 leaders and 325 subordinates.The ratio of each leader and subordinate is no more than 5.Two surveys were organized before and after,with the interval between the two surveys is about 2 weeks,and a total of 208 valid questionnaires were obtained.Through the data analysis and hypothesis testing,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)authoritarian leadership is positively correlated with the employees’ challenge stress;(2)Authoritarian leadership is negatively correlated with employee’s hindrance stress;(3)Authoritarian leaders have a positive impact on their subordinates’ performance through their subordinates’ challenge stress;(4)Authoritarian leaders have a negative impact on the performance of their subordinates through their hindrance stress;(5)The individual power distance orientation positively regulates the relationship between authoritarian leadership and subordinate challenge stress;(6)The individual power distance orientation can adjust the indirect impact of authoritarian leaders on job performance through challenge stress;(7)The moderating effect of individual power distance orientation on authoritative leadership and hindrance stress is not obvious;(8)The indirect impact of individual power distance orientation on the performance of authoritarian leaders through the hindrance stress is not obvious.This thesis deeply discusses the mechanism by which authoritarian leadership affects job performance,reveals the intermediary variables that authoritarian leadership affects job performance-employee challenge stress and employee hindrance stress,and reveals the boundary condition that authoritarian leadership affects job performanceemployee power distance,this enriches the research content of the relationship between authoritarian leadership and job performance.Based on the conclusion of empirical analysis,this thesis puts forward the corresponding management enlightenment,which is helpful to help enterprises solve practical management problems,and has important practical significance for enterprises to correctly understand authoritarian leadership,improve employees’ challenge stress,and improve job performance.