Leadership on the Ropes: How Hostile Followership Affects Leadership Behaviour
Abstract
The current study examined the effect of followership on leadership behaviours, and whether leaders’ responses to hostile followership varies as a function of individual differences. This study used a randomized controlled between-subjects experimental design. Participants were assigned to the role of either the “team leader” or a “team member”. As the focal manipulation, participants were assigned to a hostile followership condition or a control condition. In these two conditions, a confederate either antagonized and challenged the leader’s ideas (i.e., hostile followership) or engaged in neutral behaviours (i.e., control condition) throughout a virtually-mediated group decision-making task. Support was found for the moderating role of narcissistic rivalry on the relationship between experimental condition and leader incivility, such that narcissistic rivalry increased the leader’s uncivil reactions to hostile followership in the experimental condition. The results of this study enable insight into the interpersonal and organizational consequences of hostile followership.