Phillips, James S.2019-09-182019-09-18August 2012017-08August 201https://hdl.handle.net/10657/4763In order to make sense of the social stimuli encountered on a daily basis, individuals employ implicit theories, which are knowledge structures or cognitive frameworks that encompass information about the stability or malleability of the nature of a thing. Implicit theories provide individuals with a relatively stable, grounded framework of knowledge, experience, and assumptions through which to understand, interpret, and create meaning from social information and to predict the social world. A growing body of social psychological research has identified individuals’ beliefs about the nature of relationships (separate from beliefs about relationship partners) as an important driver of relationship-directed affect, cognition, and behavior (e.g., Knee, 1998). The goal of this dissertation is to develop a valid, psychometrically sound measure of implicit theories of leader-follower relationships (ITLFRs), which are defined as the implicit beliefs one holds about the malleability or fixedness of leader-follower relationships. A series of five studies were undertaken to test various forms of validity and reliability, in order to provide organizational researchers with a useful tool to enhance understanding of leader-follower relationships.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).LeadershipFollowershipImplicit theoriesScale developmentSocial cognitionWorkplace relationships2019-09-18Thesisborn digital