Who trusts charismatic leaders who champion change? The role of group identification, membership centrality, and self uncertainty
We question the longstanding assumption that charismatic leaders who initiate change are especially effective under uncertainty. Instead, we argue both change focused and stability focused leadership can be effective styles under uncertainty. Based on the social identity perspective of leadership and on uncertainty identity reduction theory, we argue followers' feelings of self uncertainty and the psychological meaningfulness of the team to one's self concept are important moderating variables of the relationship between change focused (vs. stability focused) leadership on perceived leader effectiveness. In 3 studies (2 experiments and 1 time lagged field study) we investigated how uncertainty and group membership importance affect followers' trust in change or stability focused leadership. We argue, and present evidence showing where a group is psychologically meaningful to a person's self concept, people express greater trust in change focused (charismatic) leadership when they feel uncertain, but followers for whom the group is less psychologically important trust stability focused (noncharismatic) leadership more when their uncertainty is low. Implications for leader rhetoric and the role of uncertainty in organizational and political settings are discussed.