In the Eye of the Beholder: How Self-Other Agreements Influence Leadership Training Outcomes as Perceived by Leaders and Their Followers

• Published in: Journal of business and psychology Vol. 37; no. 1; pp. 73 - 90
• Main Authors: Nielsen, Karina, Tafvelin, Susanne, von Thiele Schwarz, Ulrica, Hasson, Henna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agreements; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Business and Management; Community and Environmental Psychology; Feedback; Full-range leadership; Industrial and Organizational Psychology; Leadership; Leadership training; Management styles; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Original Paper; Perceptual distance; Personality and Social Psychology; Polynomial regression; Psychology; Self-other agreement; Social Sciences; Sweden; Full-range leadership; Self-other agreement; Perceptual distance; Leadership training; Polynomial regression
• ISSN: 0889-3268; 1573-353X; 1573-353X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10869-020-09730-3

Based on Yammarino and Atwater’s self-other agreement typology of leaders, we explored whether leaders’ and followers’ agreement influenced their ratings of leadership behaviors after training where leaders received multi-source feedback to stimulate behavior change. We used a prospective study design including 68 leaders and 237 followers from a Swedish forest industry company. Leaders underwent training to increase their transformational leadership and contingent reward styles and reduce management-by-exception passive and laissez-faire leadership. We found that self-other agreement influences followers and leaders reporting changes in leadership styles. We also found that although some leader types were perceived to improve their leadership behaviors, leaders and followers reported differential patterns in which types of leaders improved the most. Our results have important implications for how feedback should be used to support training to achieve changes in leadership styles.