Recently, both Hollander (1978) and House and Baetz (1979) have stressed the importance that a leader's competence or expertise has on a leader's effectiveness. Despite this, however, few empirical studies have been conducted in the past decade to examine the potential impact of leader expertise. The present study was designed to test for the moderating effects of leader expertise on the relation-ships between instrumental and supportive leader behaviors and subordinates' perceived role ambiguity. The results show that leader expertise moderated the effects of both instrumental and supportive leader behavior on role ambiguity.
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