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Like Leader, Like Follower: Impact of Leader–Follower Identification Transfer on Follower Outcomes

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Erum Ishaq at Bahria University
Erum Ishaq
Dave Bouckenooghe at Brock University
Dave Bouckenooghe
Ramsha Zakariya at Capital University of Science & Technology
Ramsha Zakariya
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While the literature suggests that leader organizational identification transfers to follower organizational identification and is ultimately reflected in the form of favorable follower outcomes, we theorize that how leaders identify with their organization can make a difference in whether followers identify more with their organization or with the leader, which is then accordingly reflected in follower responses. Drawing on social identity theory, we demonstrate that conventional leader organizational identification evokes follower organizational identification more than follower leader identification. Furthermore, conventional leader organizational identification has an indirect effect on follower performance through follower organizational identification. Additionally, the relationships between narcissistic leader organizational identification and followers’ performance and organizational deviance are not mediated through follower leader identification or follower organizational identification. For this study, data were collected from CEOs and their followers working in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan (leader–follower dyads). The contribution to the leadership literature along with the limitations of the current study and directions for future research are discussed.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
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Journal of Business and Psychology (2023) 38:657–670
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-022-09860-w
ORIGINAL PAPER
Like Leader, Like Follower: Impact ofLeader–Follower Identification
Transfer onFollower Outcomes
ErumIshaq1· DaveBouckenooghe2· RamshaZakariya3
Accepted: 13 November 2022 / Published online: 21 November 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022
Abstract
While the literature suggests that leader organizational identification transfers to follower organizational identification and is
ultimately reflected in the form of favorable follower outcomes, we theorize that how leaders identify with their organization
can make a difference in whether followers identify more with their organization or with the leader, which is then accordingly
reflected in follower responses. Drawing on social identity theory, we demonstrate that conventional leader organizational
identification evokes follower organizational identification more than follower leader identification. Furthermore, conven-
tional leader organizational identification has an indirect effect on follower performance through follower organizational iden-
tification. Additionally, the relationships between narcissistic leader organizational identification and followers’ performance
and organizational deviance are not mediated through follower leader identification or follower organizational identification.
For this study, data were collected from CEOs and their followers working in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
in Pakistan (leader–follower dyads). The contribution to the leadership literature along with the limitations of the current
study and directions for future research are discussed.
Keywords Conventional organizational identification· Narcissistic organizational identification· Leader identification·
Follower performance· Organizational deviance
Introduction
Leadership is critical to organizational success and failure
(Meraku, 2017). Core to this process is the direction of fol-
lowers’ efforts toward achieving organizational goals. This is
often accomplished by influencing followers’ self-concepts and
organizational identification (OI) (Van Dick etal., 2007), which
is anchored in the premise that leader OI influences follower OI,
which is in turn reflected in follower outcomes (Schuh etal.,
2012; Van Dick etal., 2007). While we recognize the knowledge
accumulated in the field of leadership process development (De
Rue & Myers, 2014; Haslam etal., 2017; Maheshwari & Yadav,
2018), our current understanding of the leader–follower identi-
fication transfer process on follower outcomes is constrained
in two important ways. First, we have limited knowledge of
whether different types of leader OI influence the identification
of followers with both their organization and their leaders dif-
ferently in relative terms. Second, considering that leadership
involves influencing followers’ identification, social identity per-
spectives on leadership have mainly focused on the influence of
followers’ identification with leaders as a process by which lead-
ers increase followers’ performance outcomes (see Schuh etal.,
2012; Van Dick etal., 2007). However, we do not know whether
the ways in which leaders identify with their organization influ-
ence followers’ outcomes by stimulating different types of fol-
lowers’ foci of identification. In brief, our understanding of lead-
ers’ influence over followers’ identification is bounded because
few studies have focused simultaneously on how different types
of leaders’ OI are associated with how followers identify with
their organizations and their leaders and how this may evoke dif-
ferent orientations, ultimately triggering very different attitudes,
* Ramsha Zakariya
ramshazakariya@yahoo.com; ramsha.zakariya@numl.edu.pk
Erum Ishaq
erumishaq2@gmail.com
Dave Bouckenooghe
dbouckenooghe@brocku.ca
1 Bahria Business School, Bahria University, Islamabad,
Pakistan
2 Goodman School ofBusiness, Brock University,
StCatharines, Canada
3 Department ofManagement Sciences, National University
ofModern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan
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