From Emerging to Empowered: Understanding the Relationship Between Leader Tenure, Power, and Aggression

Abstract

Even after decades of research, the extent to which power corrupts the powerholder continues to occupy the minds of both scholars and practitioners alike. Indeed, power has been shown to lead to both positive and negative social behaviors, and scholars have attempted to reconcile these equivocal findings with numerous moderators and boundary conditions. However, focusing strictly on moderating factors neglects the possibility that power’s corrupting influence develops over time throughout a leader’s tenure in positions of power. Moreover, examining the influence of leader role tenure on negative social behaviors such as aggression is critical given the lack of theory behind leader tenure despite its frequent use in leadership research. To address these issues, I integrate approach and inhibition system theory and time-phase theory of leadership tenure to explore how leader tenure influences leader aggression through feelings of uncertainty, legitimacy, approach orientation, and avoidance orientation. Specifically, I hypothesized that as leaders progress in their roles, they gain certainty and legitimacy, which leads to more of an approach versus avoidance orientation, ultimately influencing aggressive behaviors at work. In addition, drawing on the same two theories, I hypothesized that task variety and task interdependence mitigate the effects of tenure on leader aggression. I tested my hypotheses in a multi-wave online survey study of full-time working leaders. The results from this study, despite not supporting my hypotheses, spark additional interesting questions regarding leader role tenure and workplace aggressive behaviors.