Good cop, bad cop? How (in-)consistencies in dual leadership shape employee strain and commitment

Although previous research has mostly examined positive and negative leadership separately, or less often within the same leader, little is known about how these leadership styles interact within dual leadership structures when subordinates have two leaders and how their (in-)consistency affects employees. This cross-sectional study with N = 2,602 employees from the German Federal Armed Forces examines profiles and interactions of abusive and transformational leadership from two leaders (i.e., an upper and a lower leader) and explores their relationship with employee strain and commitment. Five distinct dual-leadership patterns were identified: (1) a consistent positive profile, (2) a moderate positive profile, (3) a consistent negative profile, and (4) two inconsistent profiles. Employees in the consistently positive profile reported the lowest strain and highest commitment levels, while there were only rare differences in strain and commitment between the other profiles. Moreover, neither high levels of transformational leadership nor low levels of abusive leadership from a lower-level leader were sufficient to counteract the negative impact of an upper-level leader on employees. Instead, negative leadership from one leader undermines the effects of positive leadership of another leader. Although the cross-sectional design limits causal inferences, the reliance on self-reported data may introduce common method bias, and the specific organizational context may restrict generalizability, the findings highlight the importance of aligned leadership behavior when someone reports to two leaders simultaneously to foster employee strain and commitment. Importantly, dual leadership can only have positive effects on employees if both leaders pull in the same positive direction, as one leader cannot compensate for the negative behavior of the other. By integrating transformational leadership and abusive supervision within a dual leadership framework, this study advances leadership research by examining patterns of consistent and inconsistent leadership across two leaders.