Is Laissez–faire Leadership Always Ineffective? Testing Employee Autonomy Need and Employee Feedback Need as Moderators

Abstract

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The purpose of this study is to test whether laissez–faire leadership can also be an effective leadership style. Laissez–faire leadership has often been associated with negative leadership styles. However, recently some literature has argued for the positive side of laissez–faire leadership. According to contingency theory, whether the leadership is effective depends on the fit between the leader and the environment. This study assumes that the effectiveness of leadership should be defined by different kinds of situations such as employees’ competencies and characteristics, external environment, etc. Thus, this research attempts to find the employee–related conditions to determine the effectiveness of laissez–faire leadership. Two employee characteristics, employee autonomy need and employee feedback need, were chosen in this study as the employee–related conditions and the moderators on the relationship between laissez–faire leadership and employee job satisfaction. A quantitative approach was conducted and 242 responses were collected in this study. All participants had worked with their direct supervisors for more than six months. SPSS 23.0 was adopted to perform statistical analysis. Hierarchical regression was conducted to test the hypotheses. The results reveal that employee autonomy need does not have a moderating effect, whereas employee feedback need does have a small moderating effect. Employees with low feedback need have better job satisfaction under laissez–faire leadership. This study confirms the importance of fit between supervisors and employees. The main implication for the organizations is finding the right employees to work under laissez–faire leadership.