Graduation Year

2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Psychology

Major Professor

Russell E. Johnson

Co-Major Professor

Paul E. Spector

Keywords

leadership styles, motivation, prevention focus, promotion focus

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to integrate the areas of leadership and motivation by examining how leaders' behaviors affect their followers' regulatory foci. Specifically, a separate laboratory experiment and field survey were conducted to determine whether leader transformational and transactional behaviors shape followers' work-based promotion and prevention regulatory foci, which in turn affect followers' outcomes at work. Overall, there was limited evidence that inspirational motivation and contingent reward leader behaviors were related to follower work-based regulatory focus, and work-based regulatory focus was related to several work-related outcomes. The moderating role of chronic regulatory focus on the relationship between leader behaviors and work-based regulatory focus as well as the mediating role of work-based regulatory focus between leader behaviors and work-based outcomes were also explored. Implications and future research are discussed.

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