A Tale of Two Narratives: The Role of Event Disruption in Employee Affective and Behavioral Reactions to Authoritarian Leadership

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zhu, Zheng; Chen, Xingwen; Johnson, Russell E.; Yang, Mengxi; Yuan, Yiwei; Yin, Yunlu; Liu, Jun
• 署名单位: Fudan University; Michigan State University; Michigan State University's Broad College of Business; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS; Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications; Hubei University of Technology
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-9010
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0001209
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 671-696
• 关键词: authoritarian leadership; event disruption; ANXIETY; awe; compensatory control model

摘要

Extant research demonstrates the destructive nature of authoritarian leadership in the workplace, yet its widespread use suggests that a more balanced view of this leadership style may be needed to identify whether this form of leadership engenders favorable reactions in specific circumstances. Integrating insights from appraisal theory and the compensatory control model, we posit that authoritarian leadership can evoke anxiety among employees in less disruptive settings, whereas it evokes feelings of awe in highly disruptive contexts. These anxiety and awe reactions then influence employees' downstream leader-focused behaviors (i.e., leader-directed avoidance and affiliation) and general work behaviors (i.e., counterproductive behavior and job performance). Thus, whether reactions to authoritarian leadership are dysfunctional or functional is contingent on event disruption as a key boundary condition. Results from an experience sampling study (Study 1), a multiwave and multisource field study (Study 2), and laboratory experiments (Studies 3a and 3b) largely confirm these predictions. The findings underscore the importance of event disruption for predicting employee reactions to authoritarian styles of leadership.