AN EXAMINATION OF SUBSTITUTES FOR LEADERSHIP WITHIN A LEVELS-OF-ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK

The goal of this study was to examine the relative impact of individual-level and group-level effects of several leader behaviors and substitutes for leadership on employee attitudes, role perceptions, and ''in-role'' and ''extra-role'' performance. Data were collected from 1235 employees from 265 work groups across a variety of organizational settings. The presence of group-level effects was tested with ANOVA, and clear evidence of both group-level and individual-level differences was found. Multiple regression procedures, which controlled for all of the leader behaviors and the substitutes for leadership at both the individual and group levels of analysis, generally showed that: (1)the combination of leader behaviors and substitutes for leadership accounted for substantial amounts of variance in the subordinate's attitudes, role perceptions, and performance; (2) the leadership substitutes accounted for more variance in the subordinate criterion variables than did the leader behaviors; and (3) although the effects of within-group variation in leader behaviors and substitutes for leadership were substantially stronger than between-groups variation on subordinates' attitudes and role perceptions, both within-group and between-groups variation in the leader behaviors and leadership substitutes had important effects on subordinates' in-role and extra-role performance. The implications of these findings are discussed.