Positive together? The effects of leader-follower (dis)similarity in psychological capital

Abstract This study aims to examine how similarity and dissimilarity of positive psychological capital (PsyCap) between leaders and followers predicts followers’ outcomes. Drawing upon the similarity-attraction theory, it is hypothesized that similarity in psychological capital will increase the quality of the leader-member exchange (LMX) as well as the adoption of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) by followers, while dissimilarity will lead to lower LMX and OCB. Polynomial regression analyses were performed with data from 420 leader-follower dyads. As expected, results reveal that the effects of dissimilarity are asymmetrical, such that the lowest levels of LMX and OCB are observed when the psychological capital of leaders is high, and the psychological capital of followers is low. On the other hand, the effects of similarity are symmetrical, such that similarity leads to high LMX regardless of whether the leader and follower share a similar high or low level of PsyCap. A high frequency of interaction was found to be a condition for the effect of (dis)similarity in psychological resources.