Who Is Worthy of Being Followed? The Impact of Leaders’ Character and the Moderating Role of Followers’ Personality

The study of character found its way into leadership research through different kinds of leadership concepts. And indeed, there are some significant reasons for why character is worth studying and cannot be left out of the leadership equation. However, the explicit study of certain aspects of character is rare. Therefore, this study examined the impact of three aspects of leaders' character (integrity, humility and forgiveness, and interest and gratitude) on followers' perceptions of the leader's worthiness of being followed, followers' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and followers' voice behavior. In addition, the moderating effects of followers' personality traits (agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) were examined. Data from 626 participants of a scenario experiment supported the impact of leaders' character as well as the moderating impact of followers' personalities. Theoretical implications for what it means to truly follow and practical implications for what it means to truly lead are provided.