Passivt-unnvikende lederskap i en militær setting, konsekvenser for ytelse og som tilstand avhengig av mestringstro og emosjonell attribusjonsstil

Poor leadership is related to negative performance outcomes in the workplace. The effect is well established in traditional occupational settings. However, there is a paucity of research in military leadership settings. We predicted that the chaotic nature of the military/naval leadership setting would lead to a clear negative effect of poor and lack of leadership on performance. Additionally, we predicted that social support would reduce the negative impact of poor leadership on performance. Lastly, we hypothesize that poor leadership is associated with a combination of negative affect and less self-efficacy, as predicted by social cognitive theory. We test the relationships between passive-avoidant leadership, performance, negative affectivity and self-efficacy on a group of Royal Norwegian Navy cadets on mission in the Nordic sea and the Atlantic Ocean. We found a positive association between low leader self-efficacy and passive avoidant leadership. We also found a positive association between negative affective state and passive avoidant leadership. Consistent with earlier research, it was found a positive association between passive avoidant leadership and reduced task performance among followers. Social support among followers showed no significant effect as buffer against passive avoidant leadership. Contrary to our hypothesis, high self-efficacy was found to increase susceptibility to the influence of negative affect on passive-avoidant leadership behavior. The results suggest that passive-avoidant leadership is a state that is under influence by negative affect and self-efficacy