Two Faces of a Control Freak: Decomposing Authoritarian Leadership and its Effects on Work Unit Effectiveness

Abstract

Decomposing authoritarian leadership into two essential elements - authoritarian decision making and authoritarian decision implementation, this dissertation focuses on disentangling the relationship between authoritarian leadership and work unit effectiveness, the relationship that has confused leadership researchers for decades. Surveys from 376 employees of 114 work units in a Chinese Fast Moving Consumer Goods company show four important findings. First, authoritarian decision making and authoritarian decision implementation are theoretically and empirically two distinct constructs. Second, leader authoritarian decision making interacts with both leader authoritarian decision implementation and leader competence to affect work unit decision quality. Moreover, leader authoritarian decision implementation partially moderates the relationship between work unit decision quality and work unit effectiveness. Finally, leader authoritarian decision making has an indirect effect on work unit effectiveness through its impact on work unit decision quality only when leader authoritarian decision implementation is low. The theoretical and empirical implications of these findings are discussed in the organizational context.