Opening the Black Box: A Two-Dimensional Model of Authoritarian Leadership and Task Performance

Abstract

The present study examined the differential effects of two-dimensional authoritarian leadership with respect to task performance, and proposed driven to work as an underlying mechanism. The results from 332 employees indicated that discipline-focused authoritarian leadership had a non-significant impact on task performance, while it had a positive indirect effect on task performance through driven to work. Dominance-focused authoritarian leadership related negatively to task performance and had a negative indirect effect on task performance via driven to work. These findings demonstrate that research and practice will benefit from distinguishing the construct domains of authoritarian leadership and exploring their differential effects. Finally, we discuss the implications of the research findings, limitations, future research directions, and practice.