ABSTRACT
Leadership theories have shifted over the last few decades from focusing on objective measures of performance towards subordinates’ evaluation of their leaders’ behavior, relevant to team performance. Behavioral integrity, which refers to subordinates’ perception of the patterns of word-deed alignment, is one of the most important factors that influence subordinates’ evaluation of their leaders’ effectiveness. We extend previous research by arguing that the importance of behavioral integrity on leader effectiveness is mediated by two forms of trust: cognitive trust, which refers to trust that is based on performance-relevant cognitions such as competence, reliability, and dependability; and affective trust, which refers to the emotional bonds between individuals that are grounded upon the expressions of genuine care and concern for the welfare of the other party. To test the hypotheses, we collected data from 215 employees in the service industry. Using parallel multiple regression by PROCESS, we find that the relationship between behavioral integrity and leader effectiveness is fully mediated by cognitive trust (b = 0.73, p < 0.01) and affective trust (b = 0.60, p < 0.01), suggesting that behavioral integrity only takes place when subordinates have cognitive and affective trust towards their leaders. This research is particularly important because it delineates the mechanism under which behavioral integrity affects leader effectiveness.
