Although the detrimental effects of laissez-faire leadership are well documented, research on the underlying mechanisms and the boundary conditions associated with these effects remains scarce. Using the identity orientation framework and social exchange theory, we propose that employees with stronger relational self-concepts are more likely to be affected by laissez-faire leadership. As these employees define themselves through dyadic relationships, they may react more negatively to laissez-faire leadership by diminishing their contributions to mutual goals and reducing their affective organizational commitment. These predictions were tested within a three-wave longitudinal study through structural equations modeling analyses with full information maximum likelihood estimation on a sample of employees from multiple organizations (N = 449). As predicted, the relational self-concept was associated with a stronger negative effect of laissez-faire leadership on the contribution dimension of leader-member exchange and a stronger negative indirect effect on affective organizational commitment. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the mechanisms related to laissez-faire leadership are discussed.

尽管自由放任领导的有害影响已有充分记录，但对与这些影响相关的潜在机制和边界条件的研究仍然很少。利用身份取向框架和社会交换理论，我们提出关系自我概念较强的员工更有可能受到自由放任领导的影响。当这些员工通过二元关系来定义自己时，他们可能会对自由放任的领导做出更消极的反应，因为他们会减少对共同目标的贡献并减少他们对组织的情感承诺。这些预测在三波纵向研究中通过结构方程建模分析进行了测试，并对来自多个组织的员工样本进行了完整信息最大似然估计（ N = 449）。正如预测的那样，关系自我概念与自由放任领导对领导者-成员交换的贡献维度的更强的负面影响以及对情感组织承诺的更强的负面间接影响相关。讨论了这些发现对我们理解自由放任领导力相关机制的影响。