Summary

In order for leaders to respond flexibly to today's rapidly changing world, they must have a wide variety of behaviors at their disposal and be able to switch quickly depending on what the situation requires. At the same time, they are expected to behave consistently and predictably, something that seems problematic after the first statement. The solution to this problem seems to lie in distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate variation. In the first variant, the reasons for variable behavior are clear (the new behavior fits the situation) or leaders explain why they exhibit certain behavior. However, not every leader is able and/or willing to demonstrate this behavior. In such cases leaders might be perceived as inconsistent: they exhibit varying behavior without a clear reason in the eyes of the follower, inappropriate variation. While the positive side of behavioral variability has received a lot of attention in research, research into the negative, dark side is scarce.
In four empirical chapters, this dissertation shows that inconsistent leader behavior is an important construct that shares overlap with, but is not identical to, other constructs on the dark side of the leadership literature. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of perceptions of inconsistent leader behavior and provide insight into factors that strengthen or attenuate the relationships between antecedents, inconsistent leader behavior, and outcomes.