On the relationship between CEO value transmission strategies and follower attitudes: Do leader identity and follower power orientations matter

Conducted in Chinese organizational settings, the current study constructs a model in which leader value transmission strategies, leader identity (founder leader vs. professional manager), and follower power orientations interact to influence follower attitudes. Within the framework of leadership, the model is built on three streams of theories: value transmission theory, message learning approach, and power theory as well as research on influence strategies.;The study first identifies three strategies - authoritarian, policy-oriented, and inspirational - that Chinese CEOs may adopt to transmit their personal values in order to influence followers' values, attitudes and behaviors. Those strategies can be categorized according to two criteria: position power-based (authoritarian and policy-oriented) versus personal power-based (inspirational); and personalized (authoritarian and inspirational) versus depersonalized (policy-oriented). Corresponding measures regarding leader value transmission behaviors are developed to connect to the three types of follower attitude change: compliance, identification, and internalization (Kelman, 1958).;In addition to examining how leader behaviors influence follower attitudes, the study also investigates both main effects of CEO identity and follower power orientations (power-distance belief and traditionality) on follower attitudes and moderating effects of those factors on the relationships between leader behaviors and follower attitudes. CEO identity is proposed to exert impact through an attributional process, thus it interacts with personalized strategies. On the other hand, follower power-distance belief and traditionality are expected to exert an impact through the mechanism of followers' endorsement of leader-follower unequal power distribution. It is hypothesized that follower power orientations interact with position power-based strategies on corresponding outcome variables. Three-way interactions among leader behaviors, leader identity, and follower power orientations on follower attitudes are also examined in the study.;Hierarchical Multiple Regression analyses on responses of 451 employees from 28 companies reveal that (1) leaders' authoritarian strategy results in follower compliance, whereas policy-oriented and inspirational strategies lead to follower identification and internalization; (2) personalized strategies (authoritarian and inspirational) work better with founder leaders than professional managers in achieving follower identification and internalization; (3) traditional followers are more likely to comply with leaders' value transmission attempts than non-traditional followers; (4) follower traditionality attenuates the relationship between leader authoritarian behaviors and follower compliance; (5) when personalized strategies are used, followers with high traditionality/power-distance belief internalize with founder leaders but not with professional managers, whereas those with low traditionality/power-distance belief respond similarly to the two types of leaders; (6) compared to power-distance belief, traditionality appears to be more "compliance-oriented." Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and managerial implications as well as further research directions.