1 Introduction
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RQ1: What are the effects of authoritarian leadership styles on performance?
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RQ2: What has been the temporal and geographical evolution of the scientific debate concerning the effects of authoritarian leadership styles on performance?
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RQ3: How does the discussion about authoritarian leadership styles make sense in light of the strong dynamism of new markets?
2 Definitions of key concepts
3 Methodology
1 | Define | 1.1 | Define the criteria for inclusion/exclusion |
1.2 | Identify the fields of research | ||
Leadership effects on employee performances are debated from different viewpoints (e.g., psychological, philosophical). Therefore, we chose to apply a weak limit to our results by including all articles published in journals belonging to the ABS 2021 list. In particular, we limited the research to journals evaluated with 3, 4, or 4* in this list. ABS fits our study because it considers journals in various fields, including psychological, philosophical, historical, and economic journals | |||
1.3 | Determine the appropriate sources | ||
We used the SCOPUS and Web of Science electronic databases for three fundamental reasons. The first is the considerable number of journals included in their archives. Second, they are frequently used for developing systematic literature reviews (e.g., de Freitas and Costa 2017; Liao et al. 2017). Third, their frontends are user-friendly and allow the export of many publications’ data | |||
1.4 | Decide on the specific search terms | ||
After several exploratory investigations and after reviewers provided suggestions, we searched the title, abstract, and keywords of the articles. We employed this formula: | |||
((autocra* OR authorit* OR paternal* OR direct*) AND leader* AND perform*) | |||
We used autocra* to include words such as autocracy, autocratic, and autocrat; authorit* to include words such as authority, authoritative, authoritarian, and authoritarianism; paternal* to include words such as paternal and paternalistic; and direct* to include words such as directive and other possible variations. Moreover, we used leader* to include words such as leader, leaders, and leadership. Finally, we used perform* to include words such as perform, performance, and performances | |||
2 | Search | 2.1 | Search |
We performed our search in SCOPUS and Web of Science. The total number of articles was 13,271. After excluding articles that were not written in English or not published in peer-reviewed academic journals, we obtained 9178 articles. After eliminating duplicates, we obtained a dataset of 6309 articles. Finally, after we limited the articles to those published in ABS journals ranked with 3, 4, or 4*, 765 articles remained in the dataset | |||
3 | Select | 3.1 | Refine the sample |
4 | Analyze | 4.1 | Open coding |
Through open coding, we identified a set of concepts and categories from the articles’ contents. This phase was characterized by high flexibility. We extracted concepts and categories that showed relevance for our research question | |||
Axial coding | |||
Through axial coding, we identified the relations between the categories. Following the paradigmatic model, the iterative process we performed during this phase let us understand the causal conditions among concepts, categories, phenomena, contexts, and consequences. We identified themes and subthemes | |||
4.2 | Selective coding | ||
Through selective coding, we integrated and improved the properties of the categories. Selective coding allowed us to achieve a higher level of abstractness. We identified the superordinate structures, i.e., generic and conceptual categories. These structures appeared to be the major themes of our content analysis | |||
5 | Present | 5.1 | Represent and structure the content |
We structured the article’s contents and descriptive statistics before structuring the entire article. This procedure allowed us to be more objective and stricter to the point | |||
5.2 | Structure the article | ||
We divided the article into five main sections. After the introduction, we described the methodology in detail. Then, we presented the relevant descriptive statistics that we considered valuable to answer the research questions proposed in the introduction. We presented the content analysis in the following two sections, performed through the grounded approach and the future research opportunities |
4 Descriptive analysis of the dataset
4.1 Publications’ years, typologies, authors, and fields
4.2 Evolution of authors’ origins over time
4.3 Evolution of statistical units’ origins over time
5 Content analysis
5.1 Theories employed in the extracted articles
Theories | Articles | Leadership style |
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Confucianism | Chen et al. (2014) | Paternalistic |
Wei et al. (2016) | Paternalistic | |
Shen et al. (2019) | Authoritarian; | |
Attribution theory | Kipnis et al. (1981) | Autocratic |
Schuh et al. (2012) | Authoritarian | |
Wang et al. (2013) | Authoritarian | |
Path-goal theory | Scully et al. (1994) | Authoritarian; Autocratic; Directive |
Chang et al. (2003) | Directive | |
Kahai et al. (2004) | Directive | |
Contingency theory | Yun et al. (2005) | Directive |
Sauer (2011) | Directive | |
Cognitive resource theory | Vecchio (1990) | Directive |
Murphy et al. (1992) | Directive |
5.2 Identified themes
5.2.1 Authoritarian leadership style and performance
5.2.2 Autocratic leadership style and performance
5.2.3 Directive leadership style and performance
5.2.4 Paternalistic leadership and performance
5.2.5 Directive leadership vs. empowering and participative leadership styles
5.3 Further research opportunities
Research considering different cultures (or cultures perceived as different) | |
What are the effects of power distance in leader–follower agreement in contexts in which specific cultural dimensions vary (e.g., assertiveness)? | Karakitapoğlu-Aygün et al. (2021) |
What are the effects of abusive supervision outside China? | Li et al. (2019) |
What is the role of relational identification and workgroup cultural values in linking authoritarian leadership to employee performance through dissimilar cultures? | Shen et al. (2019) |
What is the role of paternalistic leadership in the U.S. or other Western settings? | Wang et al. (2018) |
What are the effects of further tests of adaptability of classical paternalistic leadership in Western contexts? | Wang et al. (2018) |
What are the effects of directive achieving on performance in non-Chinese contexts that share similar characteristics (paternalistic leadership)? | Chen et al. (2017) |
Are there additional sites on compassion in different industries or Countries? | Wei et al. (2016) |
What are the effects of autocratic leadership on performance in high-power-distance cultures? | de Hoogh et al. (2015) |
What are the effects of paternalistic leadership profiles in non-Taiwanese contexts and across cultures? | Chou et al. (2015) |
What are the effects of affective trust on performance in non-Chinese contexts that share similar characteristics (paternalistic leadership)? | Chen et al. (2014) |
What are the effects of authoritarianism, benevolence, and subordinates’ organization-based self-esteem on performance in non-Chinese cultures and work settings? | Chan et al. (2012) |
How do cultural values relate to differences in leadership perceptions? | Karakitapoğlu-Aygün et al. (2021) |
Call for research on novel and multiple leadership styles | |
What are the relative influences of established styles in novel leadership models? | Legood et al. (2020) |
What are the effects of leaders’ ability to engage in different leadership styles in the context of adaptive teams? | Sanchez-Manzanares et al. (2020) |
What are the effects of directive-achieving leadership styles on performance? | Chen et al. (2017) |
What are the effects of leaders’ ability to alternate between higher and lower levels of autocratic leadership? | de Hoogh et al. (2015) |
What are the effects of multiple types of leaders on long-term teams? | Lorinkova et al. (2013) |
What are the effects of employing experimental designs to manipulate abusive supervision and authoritarian leadership? | Li et al. (2019) |
How do the effects of directive-achieving leadership evolve? | Chen et al. (2017) |
What are the effects of transformational leadership with different leadership behaviors? | Schuh et al. (2012) |
Emotions, perceptions and personality traits | |
What are the effects of emotion suppression and exhaustion in different experimental conditions? | Chiang et al. (2020) |
What are the differences between the suppression of positive and negative emotions advocated by authoritarian leadership? | Chiang et al. (2020) |
What are the effects of trust on senior leadership? | Legood et al. (2020) |
What is the relationship between right-wing authoritarianism and a desire for submissive status? | Hing et al. (2007) |
What are the effects of pairing leaders who are driven by dominance over others and lack empathy with followers who are driven by obedience to authority and lack independence? | Hing et al. (2007) |
Can electronic brainstorming be responsible for the negative relationship between participation and satisfaction? | Kahai et al. (2004) |
What are the effects of participation on performance via satisfaction? | Kahai et al. (2004) |
What variables can tap the processes that translate the influence of perceived powerlessness on proactivity? | Li et al. (2019) |
Can pseudo-transformational leadership mediate the dark side of leaders’ personalities and undesirable employee outcomes? | Schuh et al. (2012) |
What are the effects of participants’ emotion suppression and exhaustion in different experimental conditions? | Chiang et al. (2020) |
Moderators and mediators | |
Does group traditionality moderate performance, authoritarian leadership, and relational identification? | Shen et al. (2019) |
Do team personality composition, group cohesion, team empowerment, and shared leadership moderate abusive supervision effects? | Li et al. (2018) |
What are the specific power struggles that moderate autocratic leadership effects? | de Hoogh et al. (2015) |
What are the potential moderators in the financial performance-leader behavior relationship? | Scully et al. (1994) |
What mediators explain classical paternalistic leadership? | Wang et al. (2018) |
Do power struggles mediate the relation between leader consideration and team psychological safety? | de Hoogh et al. (2015) |
Does trust mediate the relationship between paternalistic leadership and organizational citizenship behavior? | Legood et al. (2020) |
Do leader-member exchange theory and trust mediate psychological or relational processes? | Karakitapoğlu-Aygün et al. (2021) |
Does relational identification mediate the relationship between authoritarian leadership and other variables? | Shen et al. (2019) |