Another noticeable issue is the extent of the cascading-down effect. It has been argued that lower-level leaders mimic senior
leaders' behavior , causing that behavior to have an impact on first-line employees. However,
the opposite phenomenon also exists. More specifically, intermediate leaders sometimes choose “contrasting” leadership behavior,
actively seeking to reverse the impact of messages (and in particular, negative messages) from higher-level leaders . To understand the relationship among higher-level managers, lower-level supervisors, and employee behavior, we draw on
social identity theory to examine how higher-level manager authoritarian leadership cascades down to trigger lower-level
supervisor authoritarian leadership and in turn, to influence employee voice behavior. In particular, we examine the contingent
effect of leader identification on the link between higher-level manager authoritarian leadership (hereinafter referred to as
manager authoritarian leadership) and lower-level supervisor authoritarian leadership (hereinafter referred to as supervisor
authoritarian leadership). Additionally, we explore the effect of power distance orientation on the association between supervisor
authoritarian leadership and employee voice behavior