Eyes on the Leader: Gaze Behavior as a Cue for Follower Conscientiousness

ABSTRACT A key to a leader's effectiveness lies in their ability to convey information about their traits and abilities to their followers by means of charismatic signaling. The traits followers might signal in turn have, however, not yet been observed. Focusing on one of the most salient and potent nonverbal behaviors and the most valued follower trait in the organizational context, we investigated the potential of eye‐directed gaze behavior to signal follower conscientiousness. Using mobile eye‐tracking we unobtrusively measured participants' gaze behavior in a naturalistic yet standardized leader‐follower interaction. Our findings indicate conscientiousness to shape followers' eye‐directed gaze behavior which, in turn, affects observers' impressions of conscientiousness. While other traits were also related to gaze behavior, they were not inferred from gaze. Importantly, more conscientious followers appear to specifically instrumentalize their gaze when speaking and direct it at the leader to support their own arguments. Thus, this study underscores the importance of investigating followers' signaling of their traits and abilities, identifies eye‐directed gaze as a potential signal of conscientiousness, and further emphasizes the significance of gaze behavior as a particularly potent social cue in the organizational context.