The lion's share: The impact of credit expectations and credit allocations on commitment to leaders

In this paper we examine how the relationship between leaders' credit allocation behavior and subordinates' commitment to their leader is influenced by the fulfillment of subordinates' expectations (i.e., expecting one type of behavior and having that behavior occur). We predicted that subordinates would display less commitment to their leader when their leader took credit for the subordinates' work. However, based on expectancy violations and psychological contracts research, we also predicted that expectation fulfillment would moderate this relationship. In two experimental studies we found that the negative effects of leader credit taking on commitment to the leader were mitigated when the subordinate expected the leader to take credit. However, when subordinates expected to receive credit and did not, the negative impact of leader credit taking was enhanced. We discuss the implications of these results for both theory and practice.