Leading in uncertain times: What drives followers' performance

Using a sample of 109 managers and 307 direct reports from a global financial services firm headquartered in the United States, we examined how trustworthiness affected the relationship between authentic leadership and performance in followers. Additionally, we examined how trustworthiness drives performance in an environment of strategic and structural uncertainty. Our findings indicate that authentic leadership drives follower performance and that this relationship may be mediated by benevolence. However, in a post hoc analysis we did show that benevolence mediated the relationship between relational transparency and performance. While not conclusive, there is also evidence to suggest that structural uncertainty moderates the relationship between benevolence and performance. In an environment of high structural uncertainty, followers that perceive their leaders as benevolent tend to outperform other followers.