IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v124y2021icp86-99.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Clothes make the leader! How leaders can use attire to impact followers’ perceptions of charisma and approval

Author

Listed:
  • Maran, Thomas
  • Liegl, Simon
  • Moder, Sebastian
  • Kraus, Sascha
  • Furtner, Marco

Abstract

Sneakers at a product launch, a leather jacket when heads of state meet, sunglasses at a formal reception. While popular media relishes leaders who catch the eye by way of such distinctive fashion, we know little about how this salient daily practice of dress specifically affects perceptions of leaders in their daily business. Addressing this gap, we investigated how dress impacts perceptions and approval of a leader. Firstly, we found formal attire to lead to ascriptions of prototypicality but not charisma (Study 1). Secondly, leaders’ charisma and approval were higher when a person’s clothing style contrasted their organization’s culture (Study 2). Lastly, we replicated the impact of informal clothing on both leader approval and charisma in a sample of CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies (Studies 3 and 4). Findings lend support to the notion that leaders can manipulate their style of attire to actively shape their followers’ impressions of themselves.

Suggested Citation

  • Maran, Thomas & Liegl, Simon & Moder, Sebastian & Kraus, Sascha & Furtner, Marco, 2021. "Clothes make the leader! How leaders can use attire to impact followers’ perceptions of charisma and approval," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 86-99.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:124:y:2021:i:c:p:86-99
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320307797
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.11.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Prommer, Lisa & Tiberius, Victor & Kraus, Sascha, 2020. "Exploring the future of startup leadership development," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    2. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    3. Philippe Jacquart & John Antonakis, 2015. "When does charisma matter for top-level leaders? Effect of attributional ambiguity," Post-Print hal-02313174, HAL.
    4. Silvia Bellezza & Francesca Gino & Anat Keinan, 2014. "The Red Sneakers Effect: Inferring Status and Competence from Signals of Nonconformity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(1), pages 35-54.
    5. John Antonakis & Nicolas Bastardoz & Philippe Jacquart & Boas Shamir, 2016. "Charisma : An Ill-Defined and Ill-Measured Gift," Post-Print hal-02313343, HAL.
    6. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119, Decembrie.
    7. Robert E. Quinn & John Rohrbaugh, 1983. "A Spatial Model of Effectiveness Criteria: Towards a Competing Values Approach to Organizational Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 363-377, March.
    8. W. Creed & Steven Taylor & Bryant Ashley Hudson, 2020. "Institutional Aesthetics: Embodied Ways of Encountering, Evaluating, and Enacting Institutions," Post-Print hal-02511020, HAL.
    9. Shawn N Geniole & Thomas F Denson & Barnaby J Dixson & Justin M Carré & Cheryl M McCormick, 2015. "Evidence from Meta-Analyses of the Facial Width-to-Height Ratio as an Evolved Cue of Threat," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    10. Philippe Jacquart & John Antonakis, 2015. "When does charisma matter for top-level leaders? Effect of attributional ambiguity," Post-Print hal-02276710, HAL.
    11. Dion, Delphine & Arnould, Eric, 2011. "Retail Luxury Strategy: Assembling Charisma through Art and Magic," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 87(4), pages 502-520.
    12. Waldman, David A. & Putnam, Linda L. & Miron-Spektor, Ella & Siegel, Donald, 2019. "The role of paradox theory in decision making and management research," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1-6.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tassisius Muzivi & Dennis Maravanyika & Ranzi M. Rusikee & Judith Mwenje, 2022. "Factors which Influence the Corporate Culture of an Entity- Analysing the Dynamics of Culture Stability and Inevitable Change," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 6(4), pages 389-395, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fiset, John & Oldford, Erin & Chu, Shaner, 2021. "Market signaling capacity of written and visual charismatic leadership tactics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    2. Wilms, Rafael & Dahan, Clara Seif el, 2022. "Are we on the same page? The moderating role of value congruence in charismatic signaling-charismatic effects relationship," OSF Preprints s5q6d, Center for Open Science.
    3. John Antonakis & Giovanna d’Adda & Roberto A. Weber & Christian Zehnder, 2022. "“Just Words? Just Speeches?” On the Economic Value of Charismatic Leadership," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(9), pages 6355-6381, September.
    4. Bo Shao & Pablo Cardona & Isabel Ng & Raymond N. C. Trau, 2017. "Are prosocially motivated employees more committed to their organization? The roles of supervisors’ prosocial motivation and perceived corporate social responsibility," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 951-974, December.
    5. Dubey, Rameshwar & Gunasekaran, Angappa & Childe, Stephen J. & Papadopoulos, Thanos & Luo, Zongwei & Wamba, Samuel Fosso & Roubaud, David, 2019. "Can big data and predictive analytics improve social and environmental sustainability?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 534-545.
    6. Johannes Brunzel & Daniel Ebsen, 2023. "The role of humility in Chief Executive Officers: a review," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 1487-1532, May.
    7. Tian, Xiaocong, 2022. "The art of rhetoric: Host country political hostility and the rhetorical strategies of foreign subsidiaries in developing economies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(5).
    8. Zapata, Cindy P. & Hayes-Jones, Laura C., 2019. "The consequences of humility for leaders: A double-edged sword," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 47-63.
    9. Anderson, Brian S, 2018. "Endogeneity and Entrepreneurship Research," OSF Preprints 75tn8, Center for Open Science.
    10. Driouchi, Tarik & So, Raymond H.Y. & Trigeorgis, Lenos, 2020. "Investor ambiguity, systemic banking risk and economic activity: The case of too-big-to-fail," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Wang, Yajin, 2022. "A conceptual framework of contemporary luxury consumption," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 788-803.
    12. Lord, Robert G. & Gatti, Paola & Chui, Susanna L.M., 2016. "Social-cognitive, relational, and identity-based approaches to leadership," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 119-134.
    13. Jenni Sipilä & Sascha Alavi & Laura Marie Edinger-Schons & Sabrina Dörfer & Christian Schmitz, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility in luxury contexts: potential pitfalls and how to overcome them," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 280-303, March.
    14. Ahreum Maeng & Pankaj Aggarwal & Vicki MorwitzEditor & Zeynep Gürhan-CanlıAssociate Editor, 2018. "Facing Dominance: Anthropomorphism and the Effect of Product Face Ratio on Consumer Preference," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(5), pages 1104-1122.
    15. Natalia Vagapova & Alexandr Fedotov & Alexandr Sidorov & Georgii Vagapov, 2016. "Mechanisms Of Effective Management In Electric Power Companies," Polish Journal of Management Studies, Czestochowa Technical University, Department of Management, vol. 13(2), pages 183-191, June.
    16. Patrick Haack & Oliver Schilke & Lynne Zucker, 2021. "Legitimacy Revisited: Disentangling Propriety, Validity, and Consensus," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 749-781, May.
    17. Dubey, Rameshwar & Gunasekaran, Angappa & Childe, Stephen J. & Papadopoulos, Thanos & Hazen, Benjamin & Giannakis, Mihalis & Roubaud, David, 2017. "Examining the effect of external pressures and organizational culture on shaping performance measurement systems (PMS) for sustainability benchmarking: Some empirical findings," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 63-76.
    18. Norbert Steigenberger & Hendrik Wilhelm, 2018. "Extending Signaling Theory to Rhetorical Signals: Evidence from Crowdfunding," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 529-546, June.
    19. Jachimowicz, Jon M. & To, Christopher & Agasi, Shira & Côté, Stéphane & Galinsky, Adam D., 2019. "The gravitational pull of expressing passion: When and how expressing passion elicits status conferral and support from others," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 41-62.
    20. Erthal, Alice & Frangeskou, Marianna & Marques, Leonardo, 2021. "Cultural tensions in lean healthcare implementation: A paradox theory lens," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:124:y:2021:i:c:p:86-99. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.