The impact of leaders' implicit theories of employee participation on tests of the Vroom-Yetton model

The Vroom-Yetton model of decision-making specifies an appropriate level of employee participation based on an analysis of important situational attri butes. However, much of its validity evidence has relied on managers' self- reports of both their behavior and decision outcomes. An experimental study was conducted to test whether performance information can activate leaders ' implicit theories of performance and bias leaders' self-ratings of their decision-making behavior. The design was a 2 x 3 between-groups factorial m anipulating leader decision-making style (autocratic or participative) and level of performance feedback (high, low, or none). The data indicated that , when given high performance feedback, leaders' self-ratings are biased by their implicit theories of effective decision-making. This result suggests that studies relying on managers' self-reports are likely to inflate valid ity estimates of the Vroom-Yetton model. Group members' ratings of leader d ecision-making behavior were also affected by highperformance feedback, but only when they rated leaders who were instructed to use a participative de cision-making style. The theoretical and practical implications of these fi ndings are discussed.