Graf, M. M., & van Quaquebeke, N. (2007). Respected Leaders: A Question of Accepted Influence, Perceived Legitimacy and Personal Identification. Paper presented at the 13th European Congress of Work and Organizational Psychology, Stockholm, SWE, May 9th – 12th.

Within organizational science, it is generally recognized that the main function of leaders is to influence others. Whereas most of the organizational studies concerning this issue were conducted to analyze and identify strategies for executing influence, few of them concentrated on the subordinates’ perspectives of accepting influence.
The present work thus introduces the scale of ‘Respect for Leaders’. It was developed to encompass the phenomenon of

subordinates’ conscious and voluntary openness to leadership. Several studies (N1 = 145, N2 = 539, N3 = 542) investigated the convergent validity to other constructs, such as personal identification with the leader, affective commitment towards the leader and the personal power/legitimacy attributed to the leader. Consequences for organizational science and practices are discussed.

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