Satisfied with red tape? Leadership styles and career intention in the Federal Armed Forces Germany

This study examines how subordinates’ satisfaction and career intentions are affected by the coerciveness of leadership styles and personnel development procedures in public organizations. Within the broader framework of the... [ view full abstract ]

This study examines how subordinates’ satisfaction and career intentions are affected by the coerciveness of leadership styles and personnel development procedures in public organizations. Within the broader framework of the HRM-performance chain, we draw on leadership and motivational theories to propose relations between career red tape, leadership styles, job satisfaction, and career intentions. We account for employees’ intrinsic motivation by including a measure for public service motivation. Based on 1,313 responses from an online survey in the federal armed forces Germany (conducted in September 2015), we test the proposed relations in a structural equation model. We elaborate our understanding of the interplay of leadership styles and followership behaviors under varying degrees of organizational coerciveness.