Leader behavior: gatekeeper to voluntary upward feedback

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of leader behaviors on follower attitudes and intentions toward providing voluntary upward feedback to their leader. Design/methodology/approach – This experimental study exposed subjects to one of three different descriptions depicting a relationship‐oriented leader, a task‐oriented leader, or a leader who displays a high level of task and relationship behaviors. Surveys assessing both follower attitudes and intentions toward voluntary upward feedback were administered based on pre‐existing scales that were modified for the study. Findings – As hypothesized, a leader displaying a high level of relationship orientation did foster significantly higher attitude scores. In contrast, perceptions of a leader displaying high task orientation in conjunction with a high relationship orientation were not found to significantly differ from a high relationship‐oriented leader. Finally, the results of the study indicate that positive attitudes toward providing voluntary upward feedback are likely to result in positive intentions to actually provide this feedback. Originality/value – The paper's findings indicate that leaders who emphasize relationships with followers may increase followers' propensity to provide voluntary upward feedback. Leaders may utilize these findings to alter behaviors in order to promote greater amounts of voluntary feedback from followers. Potentially beneficial behaviors are addressed in the paper.