Leadership consensus as a cross-level contextual moderator of the emotional exhaustion–work commitment relationship

Consensus constructs are a common topic in level-of-analysis research and, yet, leadership researchers have failed to consider their theoretical appeal as a contextual factor in the explanation of work-related attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on a sample of 27 naturally occurring occupational groups composed of 828 U.S. Air Force personnel, we examined the degree to which consensus in group members' perceptions of various leadership-climate constructs moderated the relationship between emotional exhaustion and work commitment. Results showed that group members' consensus regarding transformational leadership and laissez-faire leadership were both cross-level contextual moderators that interacted with individual member's emotional exhaustion to explain individual-level work commitment, even after controlling for mean group-level ratings of leadership climate.