Examining the Interplay of Supervisor and Subordinate Leadership Style in the Performance Evaluation Process

The purpose of this study is to determine if differences in leadership behavior preferences in subordinates and supervisors can lead to quantitative differences in performance evaluation scores. Leadership behavior was considered on two dimensions: preference for person-oriented behaviors and preferences for task-oriented behaviors. Findings indicate that leaders with a preference for task-oriented behaviors tend to rate subordinates with the same preferences higher than subordinates with different preferences. No such relationship could be found for person-oriented leaders. Leaders with equal preference for task- and person-oriented behaviors produced, on average, equivalent scores for both types of subordinates. In a business context, the findings indicating that task-oriented leaders may inflate the scores of subordinates with similar styles can have implications for the performance appraisal system and organizational culture, especially perceptions of fairness and acceptance