Leader-Employee Gap in Verbal Transactional Leadership and Distributed Leadership: Evidence From a Randomized Field Experiment

TY - JOUR

T1 - Leader-Employee Gap in Verbal Transactional Leadership and Distributed Leadership:

T2 - Evidence From a Randomized Field Experiment

AU - Kjeldsen, Anne Mette

AU - Andersen, Lotte Bøgh

PY - 2023/3

Y1 - 2023/3

N2 - Leadership behavior only contributes to goal attainment in public organizations if the employees perceive the behavior. Given that studies on self-other agreement show large gaps in perceived leadership between leaders and employees, it is highly relevant to ask how HRM-programs such as leadership training can reduce these gaps. Based on a large randomized field experiment including 130 leaders and their 4,800 employees in the Danish municipality of Aarhus, this article compares how different types of leadership training affect gaps in perceived leadership. Results from pre- and post-intervention surveys show a decreased gap in leader-employee perceptions of verbal transactional leadership, while the gap in perceived distributed leadership did not change. This suggests that leadership training can make leaders’ and employees’ perceived leadership behaviors more aligned, but less so for employee-centered leadership approaches such as distributed leadership.

AB - Leadership behavior only contributes to goal attainment in public organizations if the employees perceive the behavior. Given that studies on self-other agreement show large gaps in perceived leadership between leaders and employees, it is highly relevant to ask how HRM-programs such as leadership training can reduce these gaps. Based on a large randomized field experiment including 130 leaders and their 4,800 employees in the Danish municipality of Aarhus, this article compares how different types of leadership training affect gaps in perceived leadership. Results from pre- and post-intervention surveys show a decreased gap in leader-employee perceptions of verbal transactional leadership, while the gap in perceived distributed leadership did not change. This suggests that leadership training can make leaders’ and employees’ perceived leadership behaviors more aligned, but less so for employee-centered leadership approaches such as distributed leadership.

KW - distributed leadership

KW - field experiment

KW - leadership training

KW - self-other agreement

KW - transactional leadership

U2 - 10.1177/0734371X211039004

DO - 10.1177/0734371X211039004

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0734-371X

VL - 43

SP - 80

EP - 103

JO - Review of Public Personnel Administration

JF - Review of Public Personnel Administration

IS - 1

ER -