DOES PROACTIVE PERSONALITY MATTER IN LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONS? EFFECTS OF PROACTIVE PERSONALITY ON NEW LEADER IDENTIFICATION AND RESPONSES TO NEW LEADERS AND THEIR CHANGE AGENDAS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lam, Wing; Lee, Cynthia; Taylor, M. Susan; Zhao, Helen H.
• 署名单位: Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Northeastern University; University System of Maryland; University of Maryland College Park; University of Hong Kong
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2014.0503
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 245-263
• 关键词: ORGANIZATIONAL-CHANGE; transformational leadership; firm performance; JOB-PERFORMANCE; CEO succession; CAREER SUCCESS; MEDIATING ROLE; THINGS HAPPEN; self-concept; work

摘要

Despite the growing frequency of leadership transitions and their significant impact on team and organizational performance, little research has examined why and how teams develop identification with a new leader, or their subsequent receptiveness to the new leader's change initiatives. Drawing from the contrast and congruence effects and the theoretical perspectives of leader identification, this study empirically tests a model in which the congruence of new leaders' and their teams' proactive personalities foster new leader identification, as well as the team's behavioral responses to the new leader's change agenda. This effect is strongest when the new leader's proactive personality is higher than that of the former leader's proactive personality (positive contrast). Our findings of a four-wave before-and-after transition survey of 155 hotel employees and 51 new leaders, achieved through polynomial regression analyses, proved very insightful. We found that the congruence between a new leader's and his or her team's proactive personalities, and the positive contrast between a former leader's and the new leader's proactive personalities, enhanced new leader identification and the team's shared identification with the new leader's change agenda, and thereby led the team to exhibit more behavioral engagement with, and voice behavior about, the new leader's change agenda.