Abstract
Building on the trait activation theory, we developed and tested a multi-level moderated mediation model between leader’s need for achievement and authoritarian leadership and between authoritarian leadership and subordinate task performance. Multilevel, multisource, dyadic data from 76 supervisors and 246 subordinates was taken from private sector organisations in Pakistan. Analyses of the data showed that at higher levels of competitive psychological climate, the leader’s need for achievement resulted in authoritarian leadership. Moreover, a significant three-way interaction shows that in conditions of high subordinate’s conventionalism, subordinate’s authoritarian submission more strongly enables the conversion of authoritarian leadership into positive task performance of subordinates. These counterintuitive findings have significant implications for future research and practice.