Leadership Ineffectiveness: The Interactive Effects of Leader Personality, Job Demands, and Job

137 Pages·2017·1.57 MB·English

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Leadership Ineffectiveness: The Interactive Effects of Leader
Personality, Job Demands, and Job Resources on Ethical Climate
and Employee Turnover Intentions
Michelle D. Corman
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
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Leadership Ineffectiveness: The Interactive Effects of Leader Personality, Job Demands, and Job
Resources on Ethical Climate and Employee Turnover Intentions

By

Michelle D. Corman

A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Psychologiyn partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New Yo rk
2018
ii

© 2018
Michelle D. Corman
All Rights Reserved
iii

Leadership Ineffectiveness: The Interactive Effects of Leader Personality, Job Demands, and Job
Resources on Ethical Climate and Employee Turnover Intentions
by
Michelle D. Corman

This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Psychology in
satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degre eof Doctor of Philosophy.

April 2, 2018 Joel Lefkowitz
Date Chair of Examining Committee

April 2, 2018 Richard Bodnar
Date Executive Officer

Supervisory Committee
Harold Goldstein
Jaihyun Park
Charles Scherbaum
Logan Watts
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ABSTRACT
Leadership Ineffectiveness: The Interactive Effects of Leader Personality, Job Demands, and Job
Resources on Ethical Climate and Employee Turnover Intentions
by
Michelle D. Corman
Advisor: Dr. Joel Lefkowitz

Goals of the present research were to demonstrate that: (a) leadership personalityi s related to
employee perceptions of the organization’s ethical climate; (b) leader job stress moderates this
relationship for certain personality attributes; and (c) such leader-associated ethical climate, in
turn, is related to employee turnover intentions and ultimate turnover (see Figure 1). Specifically,
I investigated how individual differences inc ertain leadership “dark side” traits interact with
leader job stress to influence the perceived ethical climate of their employees, to ultimately
impact employee turnover intentions and turnover. Another goal of this research was to make
unique predictions for the leadership dark side categories.B oth new scales and a previously
validated instrument were used. Specifically, the present research utilized the Hogan
Development Scale (HDS), a well-known, validated, and highly utilized instrument to measure
leaders’ dark side traits. Three new scales were identified in an archival dataset to assess (a)
leader stress; (b) employee ethical climate perceptions; and (c) employee turnover intentions.
Data were initially collected from a large organization headquartered in the United States, and
represent responses from 498 managers mapped to team data comprising a total of 5,275 direct
report responses. The present research employed both correlation and moderated mediation
statistical techniques to investigate direct, indirect, and interactive relationships among variables.
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Keywords: leadership dark side traits, leadership personality, ethical climate, ethical
culture, job stress, job demands, job resources, job-demands-resources, employee
turnover intentions, employee attitudes, structural equation modeling.
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Table of Contents
List of Tables viii
List of Figures ix
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Chapter 2: Leadership Models 4
Chapter 3: Study Variables 9
Leadership Dark Side Traits 9
Category I Dark Side Personality Traits 12
Category II Dark Side Personality Traits 20
Category III Dark Side Personality Traits 26
Culture and Climate 37
Culture 37
Climate 38
The Interactive Effects of Dark Side Traits, Job Demands, and Job Resources 48
Job-Demands-Resources 50
Job Demands, Job Resources, and Leader Dark Side Traits 53
Employee Turnover 56
Chapter 4: Method 60
Participants 60
Procedure 61
Measures 61
Leader Dark Side Traits 62
Leader Job Demands, Job Resources, and Job Stress 62
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Ethical Climate 64
Employee Turnover Intention 65
Employee Turnover 66
Hypothesis Testing 66
Chapter 5: Results 68
Preliminary Analyses 68
Main Results 70
Descriptive Statistics 70
Correlates 70
Hypothesis Testing Using Pearson Correlation Analysis 72
Hypothesis Testing Using Path Analysis 74
Chapter 6: Discussion and Conclusion 78
Discussion 78
Leader Dark Side Traits 78
Leader Job Demands, Job Resources, and Job Stress 82
Ethical Climate 83
Employee Turnover 84
Conclusion 85
Tables 87
Figures 100
References 108
viii

List of Tables
Table 1. DSM-IV Personality Disorder HDS Themes 87
Table 2. HDS Categories, Scales, and Sample Items 89
Table 3. Job Demands and Job Resources Indices Created for the Present Research 91
Table 4. Ethical Climate Index Created for the Present Research 92
Table 5. Employee Turnover Intention Index Created for the Present Research 93
Table 6. Job Demands and Job Resources Factor Matrix 94
Table 7. Ethical Climate and Turnover Intentions Factor Matrix 95
Table 8. Ranges, Means, Standard Deviations, and Reliabilities for Study Variables 96
Table 9. Correlations table for Study Variables 97
Table 10. Correlations between HDS Category II Traits and Ethical Climate Items 98
Table 11. Correlations between HDS Category III Traits and Ethical Climate Items 99
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List of Figures
Figure 1. Predicted Model of Results for Category I and II Leader Dark Side Traits 100
Figure 2. Predicted Moderation Effect of Leader Job Stress 101
Figure 3. Predicted Interactive Effects for Category I and II Leader Dark Side Traits 102
Figure 4. Predicted Main Effects for Category III Dark Side Traits 103
Figure 5. Job Demands and Job Resources Facets identified in the literature 104
Figure 6. Job Demands and Job Resources Scree Plot 105
Figure 7. Ethical Climate and Turnover Intentions Scree Plot 106
Figure 8. Re-Specified Model of Results 107