The role of regulatory fit in visionary leadership

It is generally argued that leader visions motivate followers by focusing on reaching desirable end-states. However, it has also been suggested that visions may motivate followers by focusing on avoiding undesirable situations. In this paper we investigate the effects of appeals that focus on preven...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of organizational behavior 2010-05, Vol.31 (4), p.499-518
Main Authors: Stam, Daan Alexander, van Knippenberg, Daan, Wisse, Barbara
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business innovation
Business management
Charisma
Commercial regulation
Economic regulation
Environmental regulation
Impact analysis
Leaders
Leadership
Management styles
Motivation
Organizational behavior
Organizational performance
Prevention
Regulations
Regulatory theory
Research design
Social psychology
Studies
Visual perception
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Summary:It is generally argued that leader visions motivate followers by focusing on reaching desirable end-states. However, it has also been suggested that visions may motivate followers by focusing on avoiding undesirable situations. In this paper we investigate the effects of appeals that focus on preventing an undesirable situation (i.e., prevention-appeals) as well as appeals that focus on promoting a desirable situation (i.e., promotion-appeals). We argue that the effectiveness of promotion-and prevention-appeals is contingent on follower regulatory focus. In two experiments we show that prevention-appeals lead to better performance than promotion-appeals for more prevention-focused followers, while the reverse is true for more promotion-focused followers. We find this pattern for a dispositional measure of follower regulatory focus (Study 1) as well as for a manipulation of follower regulatory focus (Study 2).
ISSN:0894-3796
1099-1379
DOI:10.1002/job.624