Effectiveness of authoritarianism: When it comes to have-to and willing-to situations

This study aimed at revealing under what circumstances authoritarian leadership exerts less harmful or even beneficial influences on employees in organizational change. We proposed two boundary conditions of effectiveness of authoritarianism: low perceived job mobility involved employees in have-to-exchange situation; and high cognitive trust in leader let them in willing-to-exchange situation. A sample of 203 employees from 39 work teams in China provided support for negative main effect between authoritarian leadership and employees' behavioral support for organizational change, and supports for the hypothesized moderating effects of perceived job mobility and cognitive trust in leader. Our findings contributed to the literature on authoritarian leadership and exchange theory by using a have-to perspective to understand leadership effectiveness, in addition to the general willing-to perspective. Furthermore, we discussed practical implications of the present study and directions for future research were provided.