ABSTRACT Title of dissertation: BEYOND SIMPLE SIMILARITY: THE RELATIONSHIP OF LEADER-FOLLOWER PERSONALITY FIT WITH FOLLOWER SATISFACTION WITH THE LEADER AND FOLLOWER COMMITMENT TO THE ORGANIZATION

This dissertation examines the relationship of leader-follower personality similarity (supplementary fit) and dissimilarity (complementary fit) with two employee outcomes: follower satisfaction with the leader and follower commitment to the organization. With the exception of one study (Glomb & Welsh, in press), prior research on leader-follower personality fit focused primarily on personality similarity (e.g., Bauer & Green, 1996; Deluga, 1998), yielding few clear, consistent results. These studies ignored the possibility that it might be personality differences that lead to positive employee outcomes. To my knowledge, only one study exists that proposed positive outcomes for leader-follower personality dissimilarity (i.e. Glomb & Welsh, in press). In this dissertation I extend past research by suggesting that personality dissimilarity may have a significant relationship with follower outcomes. Further, I suggest that the direction of the difference between a leader and a follower (which person has which characteristic) may also affect the outcome. Drawing upon similarity attraction theory (Byrne, 1971) and implicit leadership theory (e.g., Lord, 1985), I test competing hypotheses about the relationship of leader