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Des études antérieures montrent que l'influence des leaders sur leurs suiveurs est plus ou moins efficace selon que leur style de leadership corresponde (‘fit’) ou non avec l’orientation d’autorégulation des suiveurs. Les présents travaux s’intéressent à ce ‘fit’ sous l’angle du mode régulateur (MR). La théorie du MR définit deux orientations d’autorégulation : l’évaluation, qui reflète une préoccupation pour l’analyse critique et la comparaison, et la locomotion, qui traduit une préoccupation pour le mouvement d'un état à un autre et le changement. À ce jour, la recherche sur la théorie du MR révèle certaines incohérences. Dans certains cas, les suiveurs avec un mode d’évaluation (vs. locomotion) préfèrent un style de leadership participatif (vs, directif ; cf., Kruglanski et al., 2007) alors que, dans d’autres cas, les préférences s’inversent (cf., Pierro et al., 2009). Nous avons tenté de réconcilier ces résultats contradictoires concernant l’influence du MR des suiveurs sur leurs préférences de style de leadership en investiguant le possible rôle modérateur de deux caractéristiques contextuelles : la perspective temporelle d’une tâche (i.e., si elle est accomplie à court ou à long terme) et la définition des critères de qualité (i.e., s'il existe ou non des normes prédéfinies pour évaluer la performance à une tâche). Dans trois études préenregistrées, nous avons mesuré le MR des suiveurs et manipulé la perspective temporelle de la tâche, en intra- (Étude1a, N=305 ; Étude1b, N=368) ou inter-participants (Étude1c, N=371). De plus, dans deux autres études préenregistrées, nous avons mesuré (Étude2a, N=503) et induit expérimentalement (Étude2b, N=497) le MR des suiveurs et manipulé inter-participants la définition des critères de qualité. Contrairement aux prédictions, ni la perspective temporelle ni la définition des critères de qualité ne modèrent la relation entre le MR des suiveurs et leurs préférences de leadership. Indépendamment des caractéristiques contextu

Leaders are often presented as the main targets followers seek orientation from. However, depending on their characteristics and motives, followers might also prefer to seek orientation from other targets, such as their peers. Regarding characteristics, we considered regulatory mode (RM), that is locomotion mode (a concern for movement from state to state and maintaining action flow) versus assessment mode (a concern for critical analysis and comparison) of followers. Regarding social orientation motives, we considered their self-evaluation, self-improvement, self-enhancement, and emulation motives. We investigated how they jointly influence who followers prefer to seek orientation from. In three preregistered studies, we measured participants’ RM and manipulated the social orientation motives within-subjects. Participants indicated if they would rather seek orientation from their leader or a peer (Study1, N=280; Study2, N=280), or from their leader, a peer or nobody (Study3, N=272). Supporting our predictions, locomotion positively predicted preferences to seek orientation from a leader rather than a peer – independently of the social orientation motives. In addition, and also in line with predictions, assessment mode and social orientation motives interacted, such that assessment positively predicted preferences to seek orientation from peers rather than leaders for self-enhancement motive, whilst not predicting leader or peer preferences for the other motives. Implications for how different targets are relevant to motivating followers at work are discussed.

Prior work showed that leadership preferences depend not only on followers’ characteristics, but also on contextual features. We investigated how regulatory mode (assessment – a concern with “getting things right” vs. locomotion – a concern with “getting things done” in goal pursuit) and the definition of quality criteria (i.e., whether or not there are predefined standards to evaluate task or work performance) jointly influence followers’ preferences for directive and participative leadership. We measured (Study 1, N = 503) and experimentally induced (Study 2, N = 497) followers’ regulatory mode before presenting them with task instructions that either clearly defined quality criteria or left them undefined. In both studies, participants were led to believe that they would work on a task with a supervising leader and indicated their preferred leader style for the task. Contrary to predictions, results do not suggest that the definition of quality criteria moderates the influence of followers’ regulatory mode on their leadership preferences. Independent of quality criteria conditions, both chronic assessment and locomotion predicted preferences for directive leadership; additionally, chronic locomotion strongly predicted preferences for participative leadership. However, induced regulatory mode did not influence leadership preferences. Further work is needed to better understand the role of context on self-regulatory dynamics and leadership style preferences.