When Power Makes Others Speechless: The Negative Impact of Leader Power on Team Performance

We examine the impact of subjective power on leadership behavior and demonstrate that the psychological effect of power on leaders spills over to impact team effectiveness. Specifically, drawing from the approach/inhibition theory of power, power-devaluation theory, and organizational research on the antecedents of employee voice, we argue that a leader's experience of heightened power produces verbal dominance, which reduces perceptions of leader openness and team open communication. Consequently, there is a negative effect of leader power on team performance. Three studies find consistent support for this argument. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.

[1]  Simon S. K. Lam,et al.  Embracing transformational leadership: team values and the impact of leader behavior on team performance. , 2007, The Journal of applied psychology.

[2]  S. Fiske,et al.  Controlling other people. The impact of power on stereotyping. , 1993, The American psychologist.

[3]  Cameron Anderson,et al.  Power, Approach, and Inhibition , 2003 .

[4]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Politics of Strategic Decision Making in High-Velocity Environments: Toward a Midrange Theory , 1988 .

[5]  Matthew S. Fritz,et al.  Mediation analysis. , 2019, Annual review of psychology.

[6]  H. P. Sims,et al.  Top Management Team Demography and Process: The Role of Social Integration and Communication , 1994 .

[7]  Adam D. Galinsky,et al.  Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.324 Power, optimism, and risk-taking , 2022 .

[8]  Jane M. Howell,et al.  The Role of Followers in the Charismatic Leadership Process: Relationships and Their Consequences , 2005 .

[9]  Robert C. Carson Interaction concepts of personality , 1969 .

[10]  Kyle Lewis,et al.  Knowledge and Performance in Knowledge-Worker Teams: A Longitudinal Study of Transactive Memory Systems , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[11]  G. Stewart,et al.  Composition, process, and performance in self-managed groups: the role of personality. , 1997, The Journal of applied psychology.

[12]  John Orbell,et al.  Explaining discussion-induced cooperation. , 1988 .

[13]  Frances J. Milliken,et al.  Organizational Silence: A Barrier to Change and Development in a Pluralistic World , 2000 .

[14]  T. Tyler The Psychology of Legitimacy: A Relational Perspective on Voluntary Deference to Authorities , 1997, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[15]  James M. LeBreton,et al.  Answers to 20 Questions About Interrater Reliability and Interrater Agreement , 2008 .

[16]  H. Heckhausen,et al.  Deliberative and implemental mind-sets: Cognitive tuning toward congruous thoughts and information , 1990 .

[17]  R. Sabatelli The Social Psychology of Groups , 2000 .

[18]  Cameron Anderson,et al.  The experience of power: examining the effects of power on approach and inhibition tendencies. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  Nir Halevy,et al.  A functional model of hierarchy , 2011 .

[20]  Michael A. Hogg,et al.  A Social Identity Theory of Leadership , 2001 .

[21]  J. Bargh,et al.  Attitudes and Social Cognition Relationship Orientation as a Moderator of the Effects of Social Power , 2022 .

[22]  Shelley D. Dionne,et al.  Transformational leadership and team performance , 2004 .

[23]  Joe C Magee,et al.  Power and the objectification of social targets. , 2008, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[24]  Brett R. Smith,et al.  Distributed leadership in teams: The network of leadership perceptions and team performance. , 2006 .

[25]  Ralph M. Stogdill,et al.  Leadership, membership and organization , 1950 .

[26]  J. Mathieu,et al.  The influence of shared mental models on team process and performance. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[27]  C. D. De Dreu,et al.  Minority dissent and team innovation: the importance of participation in decision making. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[28]  G. Yukl,et al.  Consequences of Influence Tactics Used With Subordinates, Peers, and the Boss , 1992 .

[29]  J. Stuart Bunderson,et al.  Recognizing and Utilizing Expertise in Work Groups: A Status Characteristics Perspective , 2003 .

[30]  M. Afzalur Rahim,et al.  Relationships of Leader Power to Compliance and Satisfaction with Supervision: Evidence from a National Sample of Managers , 1989 .

[31]  Bradley R. Staats,et al.  Dynamically Integrating Knowledge in Teams: A Resource-based View of Team Performance , 2012 .

[32]  D. Kipnis,et al.  Does power corrupt? , 1972, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[33]  R. Timothy Stein,et al.  An Empirical Analysis of the Correlations Between Leadership Status and Participation Rates Reported in the Literature , 1979 .

[34]  P. Shrout,et al.  Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: new procedures and recommendations. , 2002, Psychological methods.

[35]  James J. Lindsay,et al.  Research in the Psychological Laboratory , 1999 .

[36]  Joe C Magee,et al.  From power to action. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  L. Offermann,et al.  Power and leadership in organizations: Relationships in transition. , 1990 .

[38]  Michael A. West,et al.  The social psychology of innovation in groups. , 1990 .

[39]  Cameron Anderson,et al.  The functions and dysfunctions of hierarchy , 2010 .

[40]  Amy C. Edmondson,et al.  The Local and Variegated Nature of Learning in Organizations: A Group-Level Perspective , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[41]  Brian R. Taylor The pooling of unshared information during group discussion , 1987 .

[42]  Clint A. Bowers,et al.  Workload, Team Structure, and Communication in Team Performance , 1995 .

[43]  Richard A. Guzzo,et al.  Teams in organizations: recent research on performance and effectiveness. , 1996, Annual review of psychology.

[44]  G. Hamilton,et al.  Why People Obey , 1985 .

[45]  Katie A. Liljenquist,et al.  Power reduces the press of the situation: implications for creativity, conformity, and dissonance. , 2008, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[46]  Kelly E. See,et al.  The detrimental effects of power on confidence, advice taking, and accuracy , 2011 .

[47]  J. S. Wiggins,et al.  A psychological taxonomy of trait-descriptive terms: The interpersonal domain. , 1979 .

[48]  Cecilia M. Falbe,et al.  Influence tactics and objectives in upward, downward, and lateral influence attempts. , 1990 .

[49]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[50]  S. Fiske,et al.  Power Can Bias Impression Processes: Stereotyping Subordinates by Default and by Design , 2000 .

[51]  Joe C Magee,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Article Power and Perspectives Not Taken , 2022 .

[52]  Ana Guinote,et al.  Power and Goal Pursuit , 2007, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[53]  A. Edmondson Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams , 1999 .

[54]  Susan T. Fiske,et al.  Situational Power and Interpersonal Dominance Facilitate Bias and Inequality , 1998 .

[55]  J. Locke An Essay concerning Human Understanding , 1924, Nature.

[56]  Stephen J. Sauer,et al.  ‘Stock’ Options: The Debilitating Effects of Autonomy and Choice on Self-Perceptions of Power , 2011 .

[57]  Joseph Berger,et al.  Expectations, legitimation, and dominance behavior in task groups. , 1986 .

[58]  M. J. Harris,et al.  Why's My Boss Always Holding Me Down? A Meta-Analysis of Power Effects on Performance Evaluations , 1998, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[59]  R. Lord Functional leadership behavior: Measurement and relation to social power and leadership perceptions. , 1977 .

[60]  D. Kiesler The 1982 Interpersonal Circle: A taxonomy for complementarity in human transactions. , 1983 .

[61]  Yan Xiao,et al.  Dynamic Delegation: Shared, Hierarchical, and Deindividualized Leadership in Extreme Action Teams , 2006 .

[62]  K. Bos,et al.  Fundamental research by means of laboratory experiments is essential for a better understanding of organizational justice , 2001 .

[63]  N. Rothbard,et al.  Out on a limb: The role of context and impression management in selling gender-equity issues. , 1998 .

[64]  N. Anderson,et al.  Measuring climate for work group innovation: development and validation of the team climate inventory , 1998 .

[65]  A. Edmondson Speaking Up in the Operating Room: How Team Leaders Promote Learning in Interdisciplinary Action Teams , 2003 .

[66]  G. Loewenstein,et al.  Behavioral Law and Economics: Explaining Bargaining Impasse: The Role of Self-serving Biases , 1997 .

[67]  J. R. Larson,et al.  Information Pooling: When It Impacts Group Decision Making , 1998 .

[68]  B. Bass,et al.  The Bass handbook of leadership : theory, research, and managerial applications , 2008 .

[69]  R. J. House,et al.  The Social Scientific Study of Leadership: Quo Vadis? , 1997 .

[70]  R. Peabody,et al.  Perceptions of Organizational Authority: A Comparative Analysis , 1962 .

[71]  Bernadette Park,et al.  Powerful perceivers, powerless objects: Flexibility of powerholders’ social attention☆ , 2006 .

[72]  Anit Somech,et al.  Understanding team innovation: The role of team processes and structures. , 2001 .

[73]  Mary Bardes,et al.  How low does ethical leadership flow? Test of a trickle-down model , 2009 .

[74]  David A. Hofmann,et al.  Reversing the Extraverted Leadership Advantage: The Role of Collective Employee Proactivity , 2011 .

[75]  B. Bass,et al.  The Bass handbook of leadership , 2008 .

[76]  Elizabeth E. Wierba,et al.  Reading the wind: how middle managers assess the context for selling issues to top managers , 1997 .

[77]  Eduardo Salas,et al.  Leadership across levels: Levels of leaders and their levels of impact , 2010 .

[78]  B. Shamir,et al.  Follower developmental characteristics as predicting transformational leadership: a longitudinal field study , 2003 .

[79]  J. Stuart Bunderson,et al.  Power Asymmetry and Learning in Teams: The Moderating Role of Performance Feedback , 2010, Organ. Sci..

[80]  Adam M. Grant,et al.  Reversing the Extraverted Leadership Advantage: The Role of Employee Proactivity , 2011 .

[81]  R. Bales,et al.  Channels of communication in small groups. , 1951 .

[82]  C. Pearson,et al.  An Assessment of Extrinsic Feedback on Participation, Role Perceptions, Motivation, and Job Satisfaction in a Self-Managed System for Monitoring Group Achievement , 1991 .

[83]  I. Steiner Group process and productivity , 1972 .

[84]  D. Stahlberg,et al.  When autocratic leaders become an option--uncertainty and self-esteem predict implicit leadership preferences. , 2011, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[85]  David Mechanic,et al.  Sources of Power of Lower Participants in Complex Organizations , 1962 .

[86]  J. R. French,et al.  The bases of social power. , 1959 .

[87]  John E. Mathieu,et al.  A Temporally Based Framework and Taxonomy of Team Processes , 2001 .

[88]  Jennifer L. Berdahl,et al.  Effects of power on emotion and expression during a controversial group discussion , 2006 .

[89]  D. Scott DeRue,et al.  Adaptive leadership theory: Leading and following as a complex adaptive process , 2011 .

[90]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  Politics of Strategic Decision Making in High-Velocity Environments: Toward a Midrange Theory , 2007 .

[91]  L. Atwater,et al.  Bases of power in relation to leader behavior: A field investigation , 1996 .

[92]  G. Stasser,et al.  Discovery of hidden profiles by decision-making groups: Solving a problem versus making a judgment. , 1992 .

[93]  Ethan R. Burris,et al.  Leadership Behavior and Employee Voice: Is the Door Really Open? , 2007 .

[94]  Linda Klebe Treviño,et al.  Speaking Up to Higher-Ups: How Supervisors and Skip-Level Leaders Influence Employee Voice , 2010, Organ. Sci..

[95]  Xiao-ping Chen,et al.  Affective Trust in Chinese Leaders , 2014 .

[96]  S. Green,et al.  In the shadow of the boss's boss: effects of supervisors' upward exchange relationships on employees. , 2007, The Journal of applied psychology.

[97]  L. Tiedens,et al.  Power moves: complementarity in dominant and submissive nonverbal behavior. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[98]  D. Knippenberg,et al.  Leader power and leader self-serving behavior: The role of effective leadership beliefs and performance information , 2010 .

[99]  Ed Calmull How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity , 2008 .

[100]  Adam D. Galinsky,et al.  Power, Propensity to Negotiate, and Moving First in Competitive Interactions , 2007, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[101]  J. Bunderson Team Member Functional Background and Involvement in Management Teams: Direct Effects and the Moderating Role of Power Centralization , 2003 .

[102]  J. Edwards,et al.  Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: a general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. , 2007, Psychological methods.