The Effect of Leader-Follower Hypercompetitiveness Dissimilarity on Relationship and Performance Outcomes

This study evaluates the effect of trait hypercompetitiveness (HC) (dis)similarity between the leader and the follower on the follower’s performance outcomes. Using dominance complementarity as an overarching framework, we hypothesize that an incongruent HC leads to a higher quality leader-member exchange (LMX) due to the complementary nature of the leader-follower traits, which, in turn, positively affects followers’ performance outcomes of citizenship behaviors and task performance. We use latent moderated structural equations to analyze data from a sample of 276 followers and 58 leaders across two time periods. We find that LMX mediates HC dissimilarity and performance outcomes, such that leaders and followers have a stronger LMX relationship and resultant performance outcomes when they are dissimilar in hypercompetitiveness. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.