The effects of power distance orientation difference between leaders and followers on attitudes and behaviors in military organizations

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of (in)congruence between leaders' and followers' power distance orientation(PDO) on organizational level variables and mediating effect of leader trust and cohesion in military organizations. A total of 288 ROK Army soldiers participated in this research and data were collected through survey. Inconsistent with previous research findings from person-supervisor fit studies, the results from polynomial regressions showed that congruence between leaders' and followers' PDO did not have a significant effect on organizational level variables in military organizations. Rather, when leaders' PDO was lower than followers', leader trust and cohesion decreased, and counterproductive work behavior(CWB) increased. Moreover, a double mediation estimate technique was conducted to investigate the impact of the PDO difference between leaders and followers on organizational level variables. We found that the relationship between the PDO difference and CWB was sequentially mediated by leader trust and cohesion. Based on the results, we discussed the implications and limitations of the study, and the directions for the future research.