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Subordinates’ Resistance And Managers’ Evaluations Of Subordinates’ Performance, Bennett J. Tepper, Mary Uhl-Bien, Gary F. Kohut, Steven G. Rogelberg, Daniel E. Lockhart, Michael D. Ensley

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

The authors explored the validity of two perspectives as to how managers evaluate subordinates who resist downward influence attempts: a uniformly dysfunctional perspective (i.e., managers regard all manifestations of resistance as indicators of ineffective influence and rate subordinates unfavorably when they resist) and a multifunctional perspective (i.e., managers regard some manifestations of resistance as more constructive than others and rate subordinates more favorably when they employ constructive resistance tactics). The results of two studies provided support for an interactive model, which predicts that the uniformly dysfunctional perspective is characteristic of lower quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships and that the multifunctional …