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When Your Leader Just Does Not Make Any Sense: Conceptualizing Inconsistent Leadership

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Listed:
  • Jan Schilling

    (University of Applied Administrative Sciences)

  • Birgit Schyns

    (NEOMA Business School)

  • Daniel May

    (Free University of Berlin)

Abstract

Perceived consistency, and even more so inconsistency of behavior is an important factor in the evaluation of other people. This is especially true for leaders, whose behavior is typically closely monitored and interpreted by their followers. While perceived consistency is typically rewarded, behaving inconsistently as a leader can be ethically problematic, as it violates fundamental ethical principles. To theoretically capture how followers interpret and react to unexpected, ambiguous and/or confusing leader behavior, we introduce the concept of inconsistent leadership. We define this new concept as a process in which over a longer period of time the activities, experiences, and/or relationships of an individual or the members of a group are repeatedly influenced by their leader in a way that followers cannot make sense of in light of prior behavior or traits of that leader. We propose that a sensemaking process is triggered in followers whenever they register salient/important leader behavior that is novel, ambiguous and/or confusing when compared to behavioral expectations for that leader. Ascriptions of inconsistent leadership arise when followers’ sensemaking strategies temporarily or permanently fail to resolve the behavior–expectation discrepancy. Moreover, we clarify the relationships to other leadership concepts and delineate relevant follower and environmental influences on the sensemaking process. In doing so, we offer a clear conceptualization of inconsistent leadership and provide a solid base for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Schilling & Birgit Schyns & Daniel May, 2023. "When Your Leader Just Does Not Make Any Sense: Conceptualizing Inconsistent Leadership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(1), pages 209-221, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:185:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s10551-022-05119-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05119-9
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tony Simons, 2002. "Behavioral Integrity: The Perceived Alignment Between Managers' Words and Deeds as a Research Focus," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(1), pages 18-35, February.
    2. Stanley G. Harris, 1994. "Organizational Culture and Individual Sensemaking: A Schema-Based Perspective," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 5(3), pages 309-321, August.
    3. Tony Simons & Hannes Leroy & Veroniek Collewaert & Stijn Masschelein, 2015. "How Leader Alignment of Words and Deeds Affects Followers: A Meta-analysis of Behavioral Integrity Research," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 831-844, December.
    4. Dennis A. Gioia & Kumar Chittipeddi, 1991. "Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 433-448, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fürstenberg, Nils & Booth, Jonathan E. & Alfes, Kerstin, 2023. "Benefitting or suffering from a paradoxical leader? A self-regulation perspective," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120369, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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