Two roads to effectiveness: CEO feedback seeking, vision articulation, and firm performance

• Author: Susan J. Ashford,Ned Wellman,Melody Wollan,Mary Sully de Luque,Katleen E.M. De Stobbeleir
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2211
• Published date: 01 January 2018
• Date: 01 January 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Two roads to effectiveness: CEO feedback seeking, vision

articulation, and firm performance

Susan J. Ashford

1

|Ned Wellman

2

|Mary Sully de Luque

3

|Katleen E.M. De Stobbeleir

4

|

Melody Wollan

5

1

Ross School of Business, University of

Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A.

2

W. P.Carey School of Bu siness, Arizona State

University, Tempe, Arizona, U.S.A.

3

Thunderbird School of Global Management,

Glendale, Arizona, U.S.A.

4

Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School,

Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

5

Lumpkin College of Business and Applied

Sciences, Charleston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Correspondence

Susan J. Ashford, Ross School of Business,

University of Michigan, 701 Tappan, Ann

Arbor, Michigan 48103, U.S.A.

Email: sja@umich.edu

Summary

Humble leadership is attracting increased scholarly attention, but little is known about its effects

when used in conjunction with less humble leadership behaviors that rely on a perception of the

leader as confident and charismatic. This study contrasts the effects on top management team

(TMT) potency and organizational performance of a more humble (feedback seeking) and a less

humble (vision) CEO leader behavior. We hypothesize that CEO feedback seeking increases

TMT potency and firm performance by communicating to TMT members that the organization

values their input and encouraging their own feedback seeking, whereas CEO vision articulation

influences these outcomes by fostering greater clarity about the firm's direction, and an enhanced

ability to coordinate efforts within theTMT. CEOs who have not developed a vision can achieve a

similar positive impact onTMT potency and firm performance by seeking feedback. In a sample of

CEOs and TMT members from 65 firms, both CEO feedback seeking and vision articulation

exhibit positive direct relationships with firm performance. However, only feedback seeking dis-

plays an indirect effect on performance via TMT potency. Finally, CEO feedback seeking has its

strongest effects on firm performance and TMT potency for CEOs who are not seen as having

a vision.

KEYWORDS

CEO, feedback seeking,humble leadership, vision

1|INTRODUCTION

I seek feedback because that's the only way you can grow

as a CEO, which is a very isolating job. And so if you don't

create mechanisms to get authentic feedback, you won't.

Kevin W. Scharer, CEO, Amgen

Interactions between a CEO and his or her top management team

(TMT) are increasingly recognized as important determinants of a

firm's success (Finkelstein & Hambrick, 1996; Hambrick & Mason,

1984; Lin & Rababah, 2014; Ling, Wei, Klimoski, & Wu, 2015). In par-

ticular, CEO actions that encourage a sense of potency among TMT

members are viewed as critical for CEOs seeking to enhance firm per-

formance (Carmeli, Schaubroeck, & Tishler, 2011; Ensley, Hmieleski, &

Pearce, 2006). Defined as team members' “generalized beliefs about

the capabilities of the team across tasks and contexts”(Gully,

Incalcaterra, Joshi, & Beaubien, 2002, p. 820), potency captures a

group's confidence on the basis of their perception of its ability to

overcome challenges and perform its tasks (Pearce & Ensley, 2004).

If the group in question is a company's TMT, then that confidence

and those tasks are essential to the fulfillment of the organization's col-

lective mission (Barnard, 1938; Bass & Avolio, 1994).

There are multiple means through which CEOs might enhance

TMT potency and thus firm performance. Traditionally, scholars have

suggested that developing and articulating a clear and appealing vision

of where the firm is heading is one of the best ways for CEOs to foster

potency among their direct reports (Pearce & Ensley, 2004; Tosi,

Misangyi, Fanelli, Waldman, & Yammarino, 2004). CEO vision articula-

tion is thought to foster perceptions of value congruence between fol-

lowers, the CEO, and the organization and to motivate individual and

group performance (Bono & Judge, 2003; Jung & Avolio, 2000; Shamir,

House, & Arthur, 1993; Tosi et al., 2004). Scholars have noted that

vision articulation relies on followers' perception of the leader as a

capable, confident, or even larger‐than‐life entity able to lead the firm

to success (Conger & Kanungo, 1994; Grant, 2012; House & Shamir,

1993; Weber, 1968).

Received: 1 July 2016 Revised: 31 May 2017 Accepted: 5 June 2017

DOI: 10.1002/job.2211

82 Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J Organ Behav. 2018;39:82–95.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job