The relationship between leaders' self-regulation strategies and employees initiative taking and objective task performance

In this research we focus on the self-regulation strategies (promotion and prevention focus) that leaders use to influence followers. We propose that both self-regulation strategies are necessary for leaders in addressing followers. However, each self-regulation strategy is useful to enhance different work behaviors in employees. These assumptions were tested amongst 42 work coaches in four employment services organizations in the Netherlands. The results confirm that a promotion focused leadership style is positively related to initiative taking in employees (hypothesis 1), while a prevention focused leadership style is positively related to objective task performance in employees (hypothesis 2). These results suggest that leaders should balance the use of both foci in their work in order to function optimally.