Within- and between-entity analyses in multilevel research:: A leadership example using single level analyses and boundary conditions (MRA)

This article demonstrates the use of within- and between-entity analysis (WABA) to investigate the common data set used in this special issue ( N=2042 individual soldiers and J=49 Army companies). The purpose of this paper is to illustrate traditional WABA techniques and extend their use in terms of “boundary condition” analysis using multiple relationship analysis (MRA) so as to compare and contrast their results with the other techniques highlighted in this issue. Given a loose interpretation of WABA I, the results indicate that entire companies reporting a positive leadership climate had low levels of psychological hostility. However, the relationship between task significance and psychological hostility appears conditional upon leadership climate. Under poor leadership conditions, the level of task significance in the unit as a whole was negatively related to levels of psychological hostility. In contrast, under good leadership conditions, a lower level of analysis appears to be operative: Individual reports of task significance were negatively related to psychological hostility.