Leadership Research Summary:
- In emergency contexts, leaders’ ability to develop others’ trust in them is critical to leadership effectiveness. By integrating functional leadership and team process theories, we argue that democratic and autocratic leadership can create trust in the leader depending on the performance phase of the action team. The study further argues that action and transition phases produce different task demands for leadership behavior to enhance trust in the leader, and different leader characteristics (i.e., leader benevolence and leader ability) mediate these effects.
- The results of a scenario experiment (N = 125) and field survey (N = 165) among firefighters revealed that autocratic rather than democratic leadership elevates trust in the leader during the action phase by increasing leader ability. In contrast, democratic rather than autocratic leadership enhances trust in the leader during the transition phase by elevating leader benevolence. These findings highlight the importance of leader characteristics in emergencies, demonstrating the value of mixing autocratic and democratic leadership behaviors across different team performance phases to build trust in the leader.
Leadership Research Implications and Findings:
- This study contributes to the leadership and trust literature by demonstrating the necessity of considering situational factors when assessing the effects of autocratic and democratic leadership on follower trust. In line with other studies on follower trust (e.g., Dirks, 2000; Burke et al., 2007) and autocratic and democratic leadership (Lewin and Lippitt, 1938; Gastil, 1994; Foels et al., 2000; Schoel et al., 2011), researchers demonstrate that explicit consideration of the context provides a better description of the effects of autocratic and democratic leadership on follower trust.
- Departing from prior research that has mainly considered these leadership behaviors in isolation (e.g., Mulder et al., 1971; Gladstein and Reilly, 1985; Eisenhardt, 1989; Bass, 1990; Bass and Riggio, 2006; Sweeney et al., 2009), researhcers directly compare autocratic and democratic leadership behaviors to clarify the conflicting findings in the literature on the effectiveness of both behaviors for instilling follower trust. Thus, the study provides insights into when and why autocratic and democratic leadership behaviors foster follower trust in emergency contexts and contribute to the debate regarding the limits and benefits of both behaviors (Berkowitz, 1953; Bass, 1990; Gastil, 1994; Yukl, 2006; Schoel et al., 2011; De Hoogh et al., 2015).
- The study’s findings show that functional and dysfunctional values exist for autocratic and democratic leadership concerning follower trust. These findings inform the debate on whether autocratic and democratic leadership are important leadership tools in emergency contexts (e.g., Hannah et al., 2010). The study’s findings also highlight that it is important for leaders to understand the positive impact they can have on follower trust by enacting a mix of autocratic and democratic leadership behaviors across performance phases. Furthermore, leaders should be aware of the dynamic task features of emergency contexts and adjust their leadership behaviors depending on the phase to which they are exposed.
- Researchers also show advantages to employing both leadership behaviors and providing a framework for leaders to follow, depending on the team performance phases (Marks et al., 2001). For teams facing action phases (e.g., fire missions, surgeries), autocratic leadership is the most appropriate, as units must be able to immediately operate at peak performance and full speed. The team cannot afford to slow down the treatment process for the participation required in democratic teams (Yun et al., 2005; Lorinkova et al., 2013). In contrast, when units are exposed to transition phases (e.g., operational debriefings), democratic leadership is the most appropriate choice, facilitating learning opportunities, feelings of identity, and commitment of the units.
- Leadership development activities can also help raise leaders’ awareness regarding how their behaviors may or may not lead to follower trust, depending on the leader’s abilities and benevolence. Leaders can then learn to adjust their behavior as required (De Hoogh et al., 2015). For example, leaders can use autocratic leadership techniques for action-related events.