ABSTRACT
Visionary leadership is widely regarded as an effective tool for motivating followers. However, two influential theories make opposing predictions about what happens when women enact agentic leadership behavior. Role congruity theory predicts that such behavior can produce backlash effects, whereas expectancy violation theory predicts especially favorable evaluations. Integrating an identity-based perspective on leader-follower relationships (Sluss and Ashforth 2007) with expectancy violation theory, we argue that when female leaders engage in visionary leadership—an agentic behavior that aligns with followers’ prototypical expectations regarding the leader role while exceeding gender-stereotypical expectations regarding agentic behavior—the effect of visionary leadership on perceptions of competence is more strongly positive than when male leaders do so. We argue that these competence perceptions are then positively related to follower identification with the leader and, in turn, to follower support for change. Moreover, building on research showing that men tend to hold more traditional gender stereotypes than women, we propose that these effects are particularly pronounced among male followers. We test our hypotheses using an experimental vignette study and a three-wave leader-follower field study. Our findings advance understanding of how gender shapes the effects of visionary leadership on follower support for change.