When authoritarian leaders outperform transformational leaders: Firm performance in a harsh economic environment

Xu Huang; Erica Xu; Warren C.K. Chiu; Catherine K. Lam; Jiing Lih Farh

doi:10.5465/amd.2014.0132

When authoritarian leaders outperform transformational leaders: Firm performance in a harsh economic environment

Xu Huang^*, Erica Xu, Warren C.K. Chiu, Catherine K. Lam, Jiing Lih Farh

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › peer-review

Abstract

We investigate what leadership behaviors drive firm performance in harsh economic environments. Based on data collected from 102 independent subsidiaries of a telecommunications corporation located in 102 counties in China, we found that transformational leadership was not related to subsequent 4-month and 1-year revenue growth, irrespective of the level of the county’s economic resource munificence, which is defined as the level of the region’s overall level of economic activities and its consumption capacity. We also found, however, that authoritarian leadership was positively related to subsequent revenue growth when economic munificence was low but negatively related to revenue growth when economic munificence was high. Based on these results, we propose the theoretical development of the functionality of authoritarian leadership in future research.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	180-200
Number of pages	21
Journal	Academy of Management Discoveries
Volume	1
Issue number	2
Early online date	22 Sept 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2014.0132
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2015

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title = "When authoritarian leaders outperform transformational leaders: Firm performance in a harsh economic environment",

abstract = "We investigate what leadership behaviors drive firm performance in harsh economic environments. Based on data collected from 102 independent subsidiaries of a telecommunications corporation located in 102 counties in China, we found that transformational leadership was not related to subsequent 4-month and 1-year revenue growth, irrespective of the level of the county{\textquoteright}s economic resource munificence, which is defined as the level of the region{\textquoteright}s overall level of economic activities and its consumption capacity. We also found, however, that authoritarian leadership was positively related to subsequent revenue growth when economic munificence was low but negatively related to revenue growth when economic munificence was high. Based on these results, we propose the theoretical development of the functionality of authoritarian leadership in future research.",

author = "Xu Huang and Erica Xu and Chiu, {Warren C.K.} and Lam, {Catherine K.} and Farh, {Jiing Lih}",

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T2 - Firm performance in a harsh economic environment

AU - Huang, Xu

AU - Xu, Erica

AU - Chiu, Warren C.K.

AU - Lam, Catherine K.

AU - Farh, Jiing Lih

PY - 2015/12/1

Y1 - 2015/12/1

N2 - We investigate what leadership behaviors drive firm performance in harsh economic environments. Based on data collected from 102 independent subsidiaries of a telecommunications corporation located in 102 counties in China, we found that transformational leadership was not related to subsequent 4-month and 1-year revenue growth, irrespective of the level of the county’s economic resource munificence, which is defined as the level of the region’s overall level of economic activities and its consumption capacity. We also found, however, that authoritarian leadership was positively related to subsequent revenue growth when economic munificence was low but negatively related to revenue growth when economic munificence was high. Based on these results, we propose the theoretical development of the functionality of authoritarian leadership in future research.

AB - We investigate what leadership behaviors drive firm performance in harsh economic environments. Based on data collected from 102 independent subsidiaries of a telecommunications corporation located in 102 counties in China, we found that transformational leadership was not related to subsequent 4-month and 1-year revenue growth, irrespective of the level of the county’s economic resource munificence, which is defined as the level of the region’s overall level of economic activities and its consumption capacity. We also found, however, that authoritarian leadership was positively related to subsequent revenue growth when economic munificence was low but negatively related to revenue growth when economic munificence was high. Based on these results, we propose the theoretical development of the functionality of authoritarian leadership in future research.

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M3 - Journal article

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EP - 200

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JF - Academy of Management Discoveries

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When authoritarian leaders outperform transformational leaders: Firm performance in a harsh economic environment

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