The ideal employee: context and leaders’ implicit follower theories

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between leaders’ work context and their prototypical implicit follower theories (pIFT). The authors assume a dual structure of pIFT and argue that leader preferences for certain employee traits and behaviours are influenced by their perception of the prevailing market conditions and organizational coordination mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach – This study was conducted via an online-questionnaire with 182 US leaders from different industries. It surveyed leader's preferences for abstract and specific employee traits and behaviours, as well as their perceptions of the explorative and exploitative elements in their work context. To test for associations of corresponding variables representing leaders’ context and their employee prototype, data analysis was performed via multiple linear regression analysis. Findings – The paper provides evidence for associations between leaders’ pIFT and their work context. The data suggest that leaders who perceive their organizational work environment as formalized consider Enthusiasm (p=0.003) and the pursuit of exploitative activities (p=0.023) as important employee characteristics, and those who experience the market conditions as dynamic show a preference for Good Citizenship behaviours (p=0.027) and the search for explorative activities (p=0.034). In terms of control variables the authors found that more mature leaders favour both exploration and exploitation in employees, while managers of larger teams emphasize exploitation in their pIFT. Research limitations/implications – The study was conducted with leaders in the USA; results are cross-sectional and representative for for-profit organizations. Potential limitations arise from a lack of generalizability of the results to others forms of organizations, cultures and work settings. Practical implications – The paper provides the outline of an “ideal employee profile” for the leaders in the sample and describes potential implications of pIFT for organizational strategy relating to personnel-related decisions. Originality/value – This study provides the first empirical link between leaders’ ideal employee image and work context, and enables a deeper understanding of the structure and content of pIFT.