Behavioral Inconsistency in Leadership Role Transition and its Effect on Leader Effectiveness

Although leader behavioral adaptability is generally considered a strength, there may be situations where abrupt changes in behavior send the wrong signal to followers, resulting in diminished perceptions of leader effectiveness. We draw on social information processing and signaling theory to argue that within-person behavioral inconsistency following nonleader to leader role transitions will be interpreted negatively by followers. We hypothesize that overt changes in relationship- and task-oriented behaviors when transitioning into a leader role will negatively influence follower perceptions of leader effectiveness and that this effect would be stronger when followers have a heightened behavioral awareness. To test our hypotheses we conducted a randomized controlled experiment with 191 student teams split into a control group and an intervention group. Results from multilevel polynomial regression showed that significant behavioral deviation negatively affected leader effectiveness ratings and that increasing relationship-oriented behaviors as a leader is more detrimental to effectiveness ratings than increasing task-oriented behaviors. Interestingly, behaviors observed prior to taking the leader role were more significant in predicting leader effectiveness ratings once in role, than the person’s behavior while in the role. Implications of these findings for research theory and practice are discussed.