The agreeableness leadership advantage

Past research on the trait approach to leadership has offered ambiguous findings regarding the relationship of trait Agreeableness with leader effectiveness, suggesting the link is inconsistent and/or not fully conceptually understood (Judge et al., 2002; Judge et al., 2009). The current dissertation proposes four theoretically-relevant moderators expected to enhance the Agreeableness leadership advantage: (a) collectivism, (b) in-person (vs. remote) work, (c) leader gender, and (d) follower agreeableness. The Agreeableness leadership advantage is theoretically considered by leveraging insights from Trait Activation Theory, Media Richness Theory, Role Congruity Theory, and the Interpersonal Complementarity Hypothesis. In general, this dissertation examines the question “when does Agreeableness positively predict leadership effectiveness?” (hypothesizing a stronger relationship under high collectivism, in-person work, a female leader, and an agreeable follower). Initial evidence from the current study offers some support for the first three moderators (all except follower Agreeableness), although the plotted interaction effects suggest that these factors affect disagreeableness leadership disadvantage (i.e., pinpointing circumstances where disagreeableness is more costly), rather than Agreeableness leadership advantage per se. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Res & Industrial Rels

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Javalagi, Anoop A

Contributors dc:contributor

• Newman, Daniel A.
• Rounds, James
• Restubog, Simon L. D.
• Kramer, Amit
• Gajendran, Ravi S.

• Personality
• Agreeableness
• Leadership
• Culture
• Collectivism
• Remote Work
• Telecommuting
• Gender

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Anoop A. Javalagi

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115900

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115900