Followers’ satisfaction from working with group-prototypic leaders: promotion focus as moderator

Abstract

What is the effect of followers’ promotion focus on their satisfaction from working with a leader who is prototypic of their group? We propose that high (vs. low) promotion-focused followers will respond more positively to a group-prototypic leader as a way to advance the in-group (“promote us”), which would increase their satisfaction from working with that leader. Results from an organizational survey and a scenario experiment supported the predicted two-way interaction between promotion focus and leaders’ group prototypicality: the positive relation between leaders’ group prototypicality and followers’ satisfaction from working with their leader was significantly greater for high than low promotion-focused employees. No such interactive effect was found for employees’ level of prevention focus. We discuss how these findings extend social identity theory’s analysis of leadership.