Does leader-follower similarity really matter? A study of leader-follower proactive behaviour congruence and its impact on trust, affect, employee silence and employee voice

Using Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) as an explanatory framework, the present research seeks to assess the influence of “proactive behaviour congruence” between leader and follower, on the quality of their trust relationship. It further explores whether tie strength moderates the relation between leader-follower “proactive behaviour congruence” and trust. Finally, it attempts to understand how the resulting trust between the leader-follower dyad influences their affective relationship and the employees’ choice to remain silent or speak-up. A combination of a vignette study (study1) and a cross-sectional field study (study2) were employed to test the research hypotheses. Results of Study 1 show dyadic proactive behaviour congruence is positively related to trust and positive affect; whereas dyadic incongruence is negatively related to trust and positive affect. The field study (study 2) revealed that high leader-follower proactive behaviour congruence is positively related to trust; whereas incongruence and low leader-follower proactive behaviour congruence is negatively related to trust. Tie strength moderates the relationship between “proactive behaviour congruence” and trust, in that it increases trust when there is a mismatch of perception or when congruence is low. Finally, acquiescent and defensive silence are negatively associated with trust while there was no significant relationship between trust and either voice or prosocial silence. The research extends the contention that social identity matching plays an important role in trust development and that identification is a distal antecedent of affect and employee silence. One implication of the findings is that identity congruence is an important factor in the leader-follower sense-making process. Repercussions for managers and leaders are expanded and several lines of future research are identified