This project involves an experimental test of the effects of formal authority and legitimacy on leader-subordinate interaction in organizations. Previous field and experimental studies on leadership and legitimacy in organizations suggest that the legitimacy of individuals in authority positions affects the nature and quality of interaction with their subordinates. However, we know little about how superiors lacking in legitimacy interact with their subordinates compared to highly legitimated superiors, and how a leader's legitimacy affects the subordinates' responses to their superior or the subordinates' perceptions of the leader's competence and power. An experimental study will test the effects of formal authority and legitimacy of the superior on leader-subordinate interaction within an organizational context. The objectives are to: 1) develop new measures of legitimacy of formal leaders; 2) separate the effects of formal authority from those of legitimation; and 3) test theoretically-derived predictions for the effects of formal authority and leader legitimacy on leader-subordinate interaction. Results should inform (1) the effects of leader legitimacy on leader-subordinate interaction independent of the effects of formal authority; (2) the relationship between a superior's legitimacy and the subordinates' perceptions of the superior's competence; (3) how legitimacy affects leader-subordinate conversations.
