The leader–member relationship has been identified as a key determinant of successful working relationships and business outcomes in China. A high-quality leader–member relationship helps managers and employees to meet the demands they face and gives them the opportunity to develop socially, emotionally and morally. Such relationships form the basis of the overall well-being and success of the organisation. This article contributes to relationally oriented leadership theories and more specifically to the leader–member exchange theory by examining (...) the theory in the context of Western expatriate managers and Chinese employees in China. The first aim of the study is to analyse the similarities and differences between the LMX theory, which owes its origins to Western corporate experience, and the social and moral norms of guanxi, a crucial element in the Chinese value system. Since Westerners and Chinese people can give different interpretations to guanxi, the second aim of the article is to discuss the ethical challenges to the Western manager arising from guanxi. The findings of this study have implications not only for China, but also for other Chinese communities where guanxi is endorsed and practised. (shrink)

In this article, drawing from a relational perspective, we explore the relationship between moral leadership and employee creativity, treat employee identification with leader and leader–member exchange as two mediators, and develop a new theoretical model of employee creativity. Our data collected from 160 supervisor–subordinate dyads in the People’s Republic of China demonstrate that moral leadership is positively related to both employee identification with leader and LMX. Further, employee identification with leader partially mediates the relationship between moral leadership and (...) LMX. In particular, employee identification with leader greatly enhances LMX which leads to high creativity. Overall, the relationship between moral leadership and employee creativity is mediated by not only employee identification with leader but also LMX. Our findings offer a new theoretical framework for future theory development and testing on creativity as well as practical implications for researchers and managers in business ethics. (shrink)

We draw from ego depletion and leader–member exchange theories to provide nuanced insight into why abusive supervision is indirectly associated with supervisor-directed destructive voice. A multi-wave, multi-source field study demonstrates evidence that abusive supervision has a positive conditional indirect effect on supervisor-directed destructive voice through subordinates’ relational ego depletion with their supervisors that is stronger for higher LMX differentiation contexts than lower LMX differentiation contexts. We make novel theoretical, empirical, and practical contributions by providing a parsimonious explanation for (...) why relational aspects of supervisory treatment drain subordinates’ capacities for controlling their volitional actions during interactions with their supervisors and how this relationship impacts subordinates’ supervisor-directed destructive voice. Overall, our study extends the application of ego depletion and LMX theories to the examination of abusive supervision and destructive voice in order to meaningfully inform researchers’ attempts to build cohesive streams of research in these areas and practitioners’ attempts to promote ethical workplace environments. (shrink)

This article addresses the impact of leader psychological need satisfaction on employees. We draw on the self-determination theory and leader-member exchange theory to investigate if and how leader psychological need satisfaction trickles down to employee psychological need satisfaction. Adopting a multi-actor, multilevel design, results from 1036 leader–employee dyads indicate that employee-rated LMX mediates the trickle-down effect of leader psychological need satisfaction. Additional analyses of leader psychological needs show that leader competence is the main psychological need that underlying (...) this relationship. We also found an unexpected negative association between leader autonomy need satisfaction and employee competence need satisfaction. Overall, this study shows the importance of both leaders’ psychological need satisfaction and employee perceptions of the relationship quality for employee psychological need satisfaction. (shrink)

Driven by the cognitive-neoassociationistic model of aggression, this study examines how supervisors’ negative affect at work influences their interaction with subordinates, which further affects subordinate outcomes. Drawing upon research on power/resource interdependence and victim precipitation theory, we also test whether the positive relationship between supervisors’ negative affect and abusive supervision is moderated by leader–member exchange. Using one hundred and eighty supervisor–subordinate dyads from five hotels, we found that, supervisors’ negative affect at work was positively related to abusive (...) supervision, LMX buffered the positive association between supervisors’ negative affect and abusive supervision, and the indirect effects of supervisors’ negative affect on subordinate outcomes via abusive supervision was buffered by LMX, such that the indirect effects were only found in dyads with lower LMX, but not in dyads with higher LMX. Theoretical contributions and practical implications for managers and organizations were also discussed. (shrink)

The relation between role overload and work performance remains insufficiently understood. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, we expected role overload to negatively relate to performance through psychological strain and this relation to be buffered by leader–member exchange. Study 1 examined depression as a severe type of strain that mediates between role overload and in-role performance, job dedication, and voice behavior. Study 2 used generic, perceived strain as a mediator between role overload and in-role performance and reward (...) recommendations. Both studies tested LMX’s buffering effect, controlling for role ambiguity and conflict. A supplementary panel study assessed the temporal relationship between role overload and strain. Role overload triggered psychological strain, which undermined performance, and LMX acted as a buffer on role overload, but not on role ambiguity or role conflict. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice. (shrink)

Fostering subordinate moqi is a significant method to improve the cooperating quality and promote positive outcomes. However, little is known about the influencing factors and mechanisms of subordinate moqi. To address this issue and explore the influencing factors of subordinate moqi, we draw on self-categorization theory to develop a mediation model to examine whether and how deep-level similarity affects subordinate moqi, casting the leader-member exchange as a mediator. A two-wave online survey was conducted and 316 data was collected. (...) A Structure Equation Modeling analysis was used to test all hypotheses with Mplus 7. Results showed that the deep-level similarity could positively predict subordinate moqi and LMX, respectively. Additionally, LMX was a significant predictor of subordinate moqi as well as it mediated the positive relationships between deep-level similarity and subordinate moqi. These findings expand our understanding of the antecedents of subordinate moqi. It is suggested that developing subordinates’ deep-level similarity with supervisors and LMX relationships are instrumental in cultivating subordinate moqi which promote positive outcomes. Organizations should integrate effective management programs into managerial strategies to enhance deep-level similarity and LMX, in turn, fosters subordinate moqi. (shrink)

Drawing on team creativity literature and social comparison theory, we investigate how leader-member exchange differentiation influences team creativity. Using a survey based on 91 R&D teams from Chinese companies, we observe that LMX differentiation is negatively related to team creativity. More importantly, we demonstrate that team behavioral integration mediates the relationship between LMX differentiation and team creativity, and team emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between LMX differentiation and team behavioral integration, such that LMX differentiation has a weaker negative (...) influence on team behavioral integration when TEI is higher. These results provide relevant suggestions for organizational team building, management, and development. (shrink)

Job characteristics play an essential role for the well-being of employees. When job characteristics are unfavorable, the experienced exchange relationship with one’s supervisor may become relevant to weaken negative consequences. We conducted a diary study over ten consecutive working days with 112 academics. Based on conservation of resources theory, we assumed that daily LMX constitutes a resource for employees that moderates the link between job characteristics and job satisfaction as well as emotional exhaustion. Additionally, we proposed lagged-effects of (...) morning job characteristics and LMX on next-day morning job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Findings from hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated that on the day-level higher perceived levels of job control in the morning were associated with higher perceived job satisfaction and lower perceived emotional exhaustion in the afternoon. The experience of increased time pressure in the morning was negatively related to perceived day-level afternoon job satisfaction and positively to perceived day-level afternoon emotional exhaustion. Within one day, perceived LMX moderated the relationship between perceived job control and perceived job satisfaction in the afternoon. We only found lagged effects of the interaction between afternoon job control and afternoon LMX on next-day morning job satisfaction. We discuss daily LMX as a resource for employees both within one day and from day-to day, along with future research directions on the buffering role of LMX. (shrink)

Using a sample of 32 work teams (32 work team leaders and their 321 followers) in Chinese cultural context, this study investigated the relationships between leaders’ and their followers’ psychological capital and the multilevel multiple mediation effects of social exchange and emotional contagion. Structural equation model and hierarchical linear model were applied to analyze the survey data. The results revealed that leaders’ psychological capital had a positive influence on their followers’ psychological capital. Leader-member exchange was the cross-level mediator (...) between leaders’ psychological capital and their followers’. The cross-level mediating effect of leaders’ positive emotions perceived by followers was not significant. The results of this study extended the social exchange theory and enriched researches on leadership. The implication was discussed in details. (shrink)

Business scholars have recently proposed that the virtue of personal wisdom may predict leadership behaviors and the quality of leader–follower relationships. This study investigated relationships among leaders’ personal wisdom—defined as the integration of advanced cognitive, reflective, and affective personality characteristics (Ardelt, Hum Dev 47:257–285, 2004)—transformational leadership behaviors, and leader–member exchange (LMX) quality. It was hypothesized that leaders’ personal wisdom positively predicts LMX quality and that intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration, two dimensions of transformational leadership, mediate this relationship. Data (...) came from 75 religious leaders and 1–3 employees of each leader (N = 158). Results showed that leaders’ personal wisdom had a positive indirect effect on follower ratings of LMX quality through individualized consideration, even after controlling for Big Five personality traits, emotional intelligence, and narcissism. In contrast, intellectual stimulation and the other two dimensions of transformational leadership (idealized influence and inspirational motivation) did not mediate the positive relationship between leaders’ personal wisdom and LMX quality. Implications for future research on personal wisdom and leadership are discussed, and some tentative suggestions for leadership development are outlined. (shrink)

This study applied an artifact-centric view to investigate the consequences of enterprise social media usage. It investigates how enterprise social media usage influences employee creativity. A moderated mediation model is developed based on social exchange theory. The empirical sample of 238 employees is used to test the proposed model. Results of the empirical analysis performed using PROCESS macro of SPSS indicate that enterprise social media usage positively impacts employee creativity via the mediating mechanisms. Furthermore, social media usage frequency (...) negatively moderates this impact of enterprise social media usage on employee creativity via leader-member exchange. Interestingly, the empirical analysis reveals that the impact of enterprise social media usage frequency strengthens the indirect effect that enterprise social media usage has on employee creativity via perceived support for innovation. (shrink)

We examine the effects of leader–member exchange differentiation on team members’ outcomes by using team moral disengagement as a psychological mechanism mediating this relationship and LMX differentiation bases moderating the relationship. Analysis of multilevel data collected from 289 frontline employees organized into 76 finance-related customer service teams shows that LMX differentiation significantly reduced team moral disengagement only when the performance basis was high, and that the negative relationship between LMX differentiation and team moral disengagement was significant only when (...) the personal liking basis was low. Furthermore, we found that the LMX bases moderated the indirect effect of LMX differentiation on team members’ outcomes through team moral disengagement. The findings advance team moral disengagement as a novel mechanism for cross-level relationship between LMX differentiation and team members’ outcomes at the individual level, and project differentiation bases as a condition under which LMX differentiation unpacks the reasons for team members’ favorable or unfavorable responses. They reveal LMX differentiation as a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, whose essence can only be understood if examined from multiple levels. We also contribute to the literature by revealing the cognitive pathway through which LMX differentiation may be associated with team members outcomes. (shrink)

Despite the growing attention on the topic of abusive supervision, how abusive supervision affects individual and team creativity have not yet been thoroughly investigated. Drawn from the perspective of leader-member exchange (LMX), the current study develops a multilevel model to describe the relationships between abusive supervision and creativity at both team and individual levels, with a focus on the roles played by team-level leader-member exchange (TLMX) and LMX differentiation (DLMX). Based on data collected from 319 team members and (...) their team leaders in 71 teams, the results show that abusive supervision has a negative relationship with TLMX, a practice that is conducive to both team and individual creativity. At the team level, the negative relationship between abusive supervision and TLMX is lessened by a higher level of DLMX. In addition, the positive relationship between TLMX and team creativity is weakened by a higher level of DLMX. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. (shrink)

The study of voice behavior examines the inclination of staff and team members to speak up and contribute ideas to the team. In this article, we investigate how factors such as leader-member exchange (LMX), psychological safety and psychological empowerment influence such behavior. Our findings, which are based on a sample of 308 employees working for a state-owned telecommunications company on the Chinese mainland, indicate that ethical leadership promotes employees’ voice behavior through enhanced leader-member exchange, which also leads to (...) greater feelings of psychological safety and psychological empowerment. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. (shrink)

Previous empirical studies have shown that perceptions of organizational politics are negatively related to individuals’ affective commitment. The key contribution of this study was that it found the interactive moderating effects of political skill and quality of leader–member exchange (LMX) on the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and affective commitment. Our results indicated that politics perception affective commitment relationship was weaker when both political skill and quality of LMX are high. When only political skill is high and (...) the quality of LMX is low, or LMX quality is high but political skill is low, the negative relationship between politics perception and affective commitment was not mitigated. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed. (shrink)

Given the prevalence of corporate frauds and the significance of whistle blowing as a mechanism to report about the frauds, the present study explores the impact of ethical leadership and leader–member exchange (LMX) on whistle blowing. Additionally, the article also explores the moderating role of the moral intensity [studied as magnitude of consequences (MOC)] of the issue on this relationship. The article reports results of three experimental studies conducted on the postgraduate students of a premier technology institute in (...) India. Ethical leadership, LMX, and moral intensity are manipulated through scenarios. Study one ( n = 81) manipulates ethical leadership (ethical/unethical) and quality of LMX (low and high) as independent variables; study two ( n = 80) manipulates ethical leadership and moral intensity (high and low MOC), and study three ( n = 87) manipulates LMX and MOCs to assess their individual and joint effects on whistle blowing. Results show that not only do ethical leadership and LMX predict whistle blowing, but these relationships get moderated by the moral intensity of the issue as well. (shrink)

Previous research has shown that virtuous leader behavior in the form of benevolent leadership has considerable impact on employee creativity. However, little is known as to how and under what conditions these constructs are linked. In the current research, we proposed and tested a moderated mediation model positing leader–member exchange as a mediator, and employee power-distance orientation as a moderator of this relationship. Two studies were conducted to test our hypothesized model. In Study 1, repeated measured data collected (...) from 284 Chinese employees in an information technology company demonstrated that benevolent leadership had a lagged effect on LMX. In Study 2, analyses of multisource and lagged data from 391 Chinese employees in 42 research and development teams, and their direct supervisors indicated that benevolent leadership was positively related to supervisor-rated employee creativity via LMX. In addition, the relationship between benevolent leadership and LMX was stronger for employees high in power-distance orientation. Theoretical implications of benevolent leadership’s research and practical contributions concerning promoting creativity in organizations where benevolent leaders prevail are also discussed. (shrink)

This study investigates why and when employees’ observations of supervisors’ ostracism of coworkers elicit their own feelings of guilt. In this connection, observers’ silence might function as a mediator, and leader–member exchange quality could moderate the process. The tests of these predictions rely on two studies, undertaken in Pakistan: a temporally separated field study using three-wave data (N = 219) and a scenario-based experiment (N = 118). The combined results indicate that employees feel guilty for remaining silent when (...) they witness supervisor ostracism of other colleagues. The positive relationship between such observations of supervisor ostracism and silence behavior is more pronounced among employees who enjoy high-quality relationships with their supervisor. In addition to establishing key theoretical insights, this article alerts organizations to a critical mechanism (silence to avoid upsetting supervisors) by which employees’ observations of how supervisors ostracize others can escalate into their own sense of guilt. (shrink)

Recent studies have documented the relationship of leadership behavior with employee performance and workplace behaviors. Yet, little attention has been directed at the impact of leadership behavior on the aspects of workplace behaviors such as value congruence and relationship conflict. The goal of this study is to examine the influence of leader-member exchange (LMX) regarding the outcomes of relationship conflict, organizational commitment, and citizenship behavior among employees with value congruence as a moderator. Data was collected using an online questionnaire (...) with a total of 429 valid responses. The results of our study showed that relationship conflict had a mediating effect between LMX and organizational commitment. Employees working with supportive supervisors had relatively good relationships with coworkers as well. The research results of this study offer significant findings for the meaning of leadership behavior in the Chinese culture. Discussion focusing on the influence of collectivism culture and the forces in reshaping Taiwan’s culture is also included. (shrink)

The performance appraisal process is increasingly seen as a key link between employee behaviour and an organization’s strategic objectives. Unfortunately, performance reviews often fail to change how people work, and dissatisfaction with the appraisal process has been associated with general job dissatisfaction, lower organizational commitment, and increased intentions to quit. Recent research has identified a number of factors related to reactions to performance appraisals in general and appraisal satisfaction in particular. Beyond the appraisal outcome itself, researchers have found that appraisal (...) reactions are affected by perceptions of fairness and the relationship between the supervisor and the employee. To explain the relationships among these factors, the present article proposes a moral cognition perspective. We suggest that employees judge a performance appraisal from the perspective of its moral justifiability, and that appraisal reactions will be determined, at least in part, by the perceived moral justifiability of the process. The proposal was supported by results from a survey of government employees using measures of performance ratings, leader–member exchange, perceived utility, and organizational justice. (shrink)

How to make use of the leaders’ psychological capital to improve the innovation behavior of employees is an important issue for the talent management of enterprises today, and it is also the goal that enterprises must pursue if they want to stand out in the fierce competition. Therefore, in this study, 154 enterprises in high-tech area were selected for questionnaire survey. The correlation between lead-member exchange (LMX) relationship (emotion, loyalty, contribution, professional respect), leaders' psychological capital (confidence, hope, optimism, tenacity), (...) and employees' innovation behaviors were analyzed by multivariate regression. Hierarchical regression method was used to examine the mediating effect of the LEX. It was found that confidence, toughness, and contribution were significantly positively correlated with employee innovation behavior (P<0.000). The positive correlation between hope, optimism, emotion, and loyalty with employees' innovation behavior was significant (P<0.05). Emotion, loyalty, and contribution had mediating effects on the leaders’ psychological capital and the innovation behavior of employees. In conclusion, the leaders’ psychological capital can have a significant positive effect on the innovation behavior of employees directly, and it can also have an indirect positive effect on the innovation behavior of employees by maintaining high quality LMX. (shrink)

Knowledge is considered an essential resource and key to competitiveness. The behavior of sharing knowledge is an essential activity for the prosperity of the organization. For individuals, however, sharing knowledge can present a dilemma by giving up the exclusive right to certain knowledge that they own. This study identifies the psychological well-being as a leading factor in facilitating knowledge-sharing in dilemma situations. The author classified knowledge management behavior into sharing, hiding, and manipulating behavior, and studied them as mediators linking psychological (...) well-being and performance. And to check the influence of the quality of the exchange relationship, leader-member exchange was used as a moderator. For the empirical analysis, 333 members from 12 organizations were surveyed by using different sources and times. Hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping analysis were conducted for verification of hypothesis. Results demonstrated that the psychological well-being influence directly on knowledge-sharing, -hiding, and -manipulating behaviors and indirectly on performance. In the multi-mediation test, only knowledge-sharing behavior mediated the relationship between psychological well-being and performance. And the moderating effect of leader-member exchange was significant only in the relationship between psychological well-being and knowledge-sharing behavior. This study contributes to the performance, knowledge management and positive psychology research fields, and suggests practical implications. (shrink)

Aiming to reduce the difficulty of managing and motivating knowledge workers, and promote the psychological well-being of them in Chinese hospitals, this study examines how k-workers’ leader–member exchange influences their task performance and the mediation effect of organizational citizenship behavior. Through a self-administered survey, valid questionnaires were collected from 384 k-workers in Chinese hospitals, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis. The findings show that LMX is positively related to OCB and task performance, (...) and that OCB mediates the relationship between LMX and task performance. This research has theoretical implications and also provides practical suggestions on how to manage, motivate, and inspire k-workers, and promote the psychological well-being of them, and finally enhance the organizational performance in Chinese hospitals. (shrink)

This study examines whether and how the qualities of newcomers’ interpersonal relationships [i.e., leader-member exchange (LMX) and coworker exchange (CWX)] relate to their initial performance and how changes in the qualities of these relationships relate to the changes in performance. To test a latent growth model, we collected data from 230 newcomers at six time points over a 6-week period. The results showed that LMX quality is positively related to initial newcomer performance; however, changes in LMX quality are (...) not statistically significantly related to changes in newcomer performance. In contrast, an increase in CWX quality is positively related to newcomer performance improvement, but the initial quality of CWX does not predict newcomer performance. Furthermore, newcomers’ psychological entitlement moderates the relationship between LMX quality and newcomer performance; newcomers’ conscientiousness moderates the relationship between increases in CWX quality and improvements in newcomer performance. The findings increase our understanding of the newcomer exchange relationship-performance link over time and suggest that future newcomer socialization research explore the initial level of and the changes in these relationships simultaneously. (shrink)

Employees' knowledge hiding behavior has an essential inhibitory impact on organizational innovation and employee knowledge sharing. Accordingly, studying the antecedents and influencing mechanisms of employees' knowledge hiding behavior is quite necessary. In the perspective of leader–member exchange theory and resource conservation theory, the leaders' bias tendency will lead to the workplace marginalization perception of some employees and promote the generation of employees' knowledge hiding behavior. Thus, this research is intended to discuss the influence of leaders' bias (...) tendency toward employees' knowledge hiding behavior, and to analyze the mediating effects of employees' perception of workplace marginalization and the moderating role of emotional commitment to the organization. The sample of this study covered 500 Chinese full-time corporate employees. The conclusions of the research indicate that the following: Leaders' bias tendency is vitally and absolutely correlated with employees' knowledge hiding behavior; Workplace marginalization perception plays an intermediary role between leaders' bias tendency and employees' knowledge hiding behavior; Emotional commitment to the organization plays a negative moderating role between leaders' bias tendency and employees' knowledge hiding behavior; Emotional commitment to the organization plays a negative moderating role between workplace marginalization perception and employees' knowledge hiding behavior. These findings will help organizations and managers to recognize the harm of bias tendency, regulate their own behaviors, and effectively reduce the generation of employees' knowledge hiding behaviors, thereby promoting knowledge sharing and innovative behaviors in organizations. (shrink)

Corruption devours profits, people, and the planet. Ethical leaders promote ethical behaviors. We develop a first-stage moderated mediation theoretical model, explore the intricate relationships between ethical leadership and employee ethical behaviors, and treat ethical climate and organizational justice as dual mediators and leaders’ moral attentiveness as a moderator. We investigate leadership from two perspectives—leaders’ self-evaluation of moral attentiveness and members’ perceptions of ethical leadership. We theorize: These dual mediation mechanisms are more robust for high moral leaders than low moral leaders. (...) Our three-wave data collected from multiple sources, 236 members and 98 immediate supervisors in the Republic of Iraq, support our theory. Specifically, ethical leadership robustly impacts organizational justice’s intensity and magnitude, leading to high employee ethical behaviors when leaders’ moral attentiveness is high than low. However, ethical leadership only influences the ethical climate’s intensity but has no impact on the magnitude when leaders’ moral attentiveness is high than low. Therefore, organizational justice is a more robust mediator than the ethical climate in the omnibus context of leader moral attentiveness. Our findings support Western theory and constructs, demonstrating a new theory for Muslims in Arabic’s emerging markets. Individual decision-makers apply their values as a lens to frame their concerns in the immediate and omnibus contexts to maximize their expected utility and ultimate serenity-happiness. Ethical leadership trickles down to employee ethical behaviors, providing practical implications for improving the ethical environment, corporate social responsibility, leader-member exchange, business ethics, and economic potentials in the global competitive markets. (shrink)

In light of continuing corporate scandals, the study of ethical leadership remains an important area of research which helps to understand the antecedents and consequences of ethical behavior in organizations. The present study investigates how social distance influences ethical leadership evaluations, and how in turn ethical leadership evaluations affect leader-member exchange (LMX) after a leader's moral transgression. Based on construal level theory, we propose that higher social distance will lead to more severe evaluations of immoral behavior and therefore (...) entail lower ethical leadership ratings. Moreover, we hypothesize that ethical leadership will positively affect LMX. Participants read a scenario describing a moral situation in which a leader, who was presented in either high or low social distance, behaves unethically toward an employee. We tested our predictions using a structural equation modeling approach. As expected, participants in the high social distance condition judged leaders more harshly (i. e., they gave lower ethical leadership ratings) than in the low social distance condition. Thus, social distance moderated the extent to which leaders are perceived as ethical leaders after moral transgression. Moreover, in accordance with our proposition, ethical leadership ratings had a positive influence on LMX. (shrink)

Individuals with high levels of narcissism often ascend to leadership positions. Whereas there is evidence that narcissism is linked to unethical behavior and negative social outcomes, the effects of leader narcissism on an organization’s most important resource—its employees—have not yet been studied thoroughly. Using theoretical assumptions of the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept and social exchange theories, we examined how leaders’ narcissistic rivalry was related to follower outcomes in a sample of matched leaders and followers. Followers of leaders high (...) in narcissistic rivalry reported less perceived supervisor support, lower quality leader-member relationships, lower performance-based self-esteem, and lower job engagement. These effects were only found when follower-rated leaders’ narcissistic rivalry was used in the model but not when self-rated leaders’ narcissistic rivalry was used as a predictor. This implies that the negative effects of leaders’ narcissistic rivalry on followers are driven by the expression of narcissistic tendencies. Leader development should thus focus on changing destructive leader behavior. We propose that leaders high in narcissistic rivalry can be motivated to make such changes by showing them that by hurting their followers, they will eventually undermine their own reputation and status. Furthermore, selection and promotion practices should incorporate objective measures to weaken the effects of narcissists’ self-promotional tactics in these contexts and thus prevent people high in narcissistic rivalry from rising to leadership positions. (shrink)

We examine deceptive impression management's effect on a supervisor's ratings of promotability and relationship quality (i.e., leader-member exchange) via the mediating role of the supervisor's recognition of deception. Extending ego depletion theory using social information processing theory, we argue that deceptive impression management in a supervisor-subordinate relationship is difficult to accomplish and the degree that deception is detected will negatively impact desired outcomes. Data collected from a matched sample of 171 public sector employees and their supervisors supported (...) this model and indicated that recognition fully mediated the negative relationships between deceptive impression management with supervisor's rating of promotability and relationship quality. (shrink)

Given that work teams have been widely used in a variety of organizations to complete critical tasks and that the use of social media in work teams has been growing, investigating whether and how team social media usage affects team creativity is imperative. However, little research has empirically explored how TSMU affects team creativity. This study divides TSMU into two categories, namely, work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU. Basing on communication visibility theory and social exchange theory, this study (...) constructs a moderating mediation model to understand how TSMU affects team creativity. In this model, team knowledge sharing is used as mediating role and team-member exchange is used as moderating role. Two-wave research data collected from 641 employees in 102 work teams in Chinese organizations are used for regression analysis. Results show that Work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU are positively affect team creativity. Team knowledge sharing plays a partly mediating effect on the relationship between work-related TSMU and team creativity and that between relationship-related TSMU and team creativity. TMX not only positively moderates the indirect effect of work-related TSMU and relationship-related TSMU on team creativity through team knowledge sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. (shrink)

Business ethics has been emphasized throughout the past decade and organizations are aware of the influence it has on the organization’s performance. As a result, ethical leadership is important as it influences the employees profoundly. This study aims to address this issue and explore the influence ethical leadership has on employees by examining job satisfaction, subjective well-being at work, and life satisfaction. Two groups of independent data were collected and a multi-group analysis was conducted before pooling together for a two-step (...) structural equation modeling test. The results revealed that ethical leadership has a negative direct effect on employee well-being which offers significant findings for the meaning of ethical leadership in the Chinese culture. Useful managerial implications are provided for managers and supervisors at the end of this study. (shrink)

The question of how to become and remain an effective leader has been discussed for decades, and the answers that have been proposed have led to numerous theories and taxonomies of leadership behavior. By taking a critical approach to a contemporary integrative model of leadership behavior, this theoretical research proposes an alternative approach that can supplement both the integrative model and current leader–member exchange theory. Our approach is sensitive to both objective and subjective aspects of leadership behavior. (...) We argue that perceptions of leadership behavior are influenced by interpersonal relations and contextual variables in an organization. We further argue that multilevel aspects must be investigated to understand leadership behavior and that the perceptions thereof shape and are shaped by relations and contextual variables. A distinct methodological approach based on mixed methods is then proposed to better understand what influences perceptions of leadership behavior. The article discusses the conceptual, epistemological, and methodological consequences of studying leadership behavior and perceptions of such behavior. (shrink)

Enhancing teacher leadership is not only one of the approaches to improving teaching and learning, but it is also essential to the success of education reform. Based on leader-member exchange theory, 294 preschool teachers in China were surveyed, and a structural equation model was established to explore the relationship between the participating teachers' principal leadership style, teacher leadership and psychological capital. The findings revealed a significant positive correlation between transformational and transactional leadership styles and preschool teacher leadership. The (...) laissez-faire leadership style had no correlation with preschool teacher leadership. The transformational leadership style and transactional leadership style were significantly and positively correlated with psychological capital, while the laissez-faire leadership style was significantly and negatively correlated with psychological capital. The transformational leadership style can positively influence preschool teacher leadership directly and indirectly through psychological capital; and the transactional leadership style can only positively influence preschool teacher leadership indirectly through the mediating role of psychological capital. Preschool teachers' leadership can neither be directly influenced by a laissez-faire leadership style nor be indirectly influenced through the mediating role of psychological capital. (shrink)

Although empowering leadership is central to employees, leaders, and organizations, few studies have examined follower behavior and its role in incentivizing leaders to engage in empowering leadership. We use an exploratory, sequential mixed methods approach to explore comprehensively the influence of employee characteristics (i.e., work performance and ethical behavior) and leader-perceived threats on empowering leadership. We conducted two studies—the first entailed in-depth interviews of 24 managers from different industries to identify (i) the primary employee factors that determine empowering leadership and (...) (ii) the types of leader-perceived threats. The five employee factors and three leader-perceived threats identified lay the groundwork for the quantitative research in the second study. We used leader–member exchange theory and social dominance theory in analyzing data from 357 pairs of employee–supervisor questionnaires. The analysis confirmed the importance of employee ethical behavior (versus work performance) in predicting empowering leadership, and the crucial role of leader trust in connecting employee ethical behavior and work performance with empowering leadership. Leader-perceived power threats negatively influence empowering leadership and mitigate the positive impact of leader trust on empowering leadership. Thus, this study extends the literature’s perspective about empowering leadership to include ethical concerns and leader–member interaction. (shrink)

The possibility of accomplishing sustainable objectives is largely connected to the management and flourishing of an organizational system which keeps human capital engaged and committed. Our study investigated the association of inspirational leadership and innovative communication with employee engagement and commitment under the lens of leader member exchange theory. Specifically, we emphasized the mediating role of mutual trust in connection to social sustainability facets. A survey of data from employees in the manufacturing sector of Yunnan, China was utilized (...) to test the hypothesized model. The study findings reported a significant association and came to the conclusion that a leader’s inspirational behavior coupled with innovative communication is a significant predictor of engagement and commitment in socially sustainable organizations. Moreover, mutual trust significantly mediated the relationship of innovative communication and inspirational leadership with employee engagement and commitment reaching the social perspective of sustainability. The current study added to the literature of sustainable organization by pointing out the social dimensions of sustainability. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:Regulatory focus theory is proposed as offering an explanation for the influence of ethical leadership on organizational citizenship behaviors and employee commitments. The prevention focus mindset of an employee is argued to be the mechanism by which an ethical leader influences extra-role compliance behavior as well as normative commitment, whereas the promotion focus mindset of an employee is argued to be the mechanism by which an ethical leader influences extra-role voice behavior as well as affective commitment. Moreover, leader-member (...) class='Hi'>exchange is proposed as a moderator of the relationship of ethical leadership to regulatory focus mindsets and employee behavior and commitments. Using the data collected in two waves from 250 working adults, we tested the proposed relationships with moderated mediation bootstrap procedures. The findings generally support the hypothesized relationships and point toward important implications for ethical leadership in work settings. (shrink)

With the increasing demand for ethical standards in the current business environment, ethical leadership has received particular attention. Drawing on self-verification theory and social exchange theory, this study investigated the effect of leaders’ core self-evaluation on the display of ethical leadership and the moderating role of employees’ exchange ideology in the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ job performance. Consistent with the hypotheses, the results from a sample of 225 dyads of employees and their immediate leaders (...) showed a positive relationship between leaders’ core self-evaluation and ethical leadership. Moreover, the results showed that ethical leadership mediates the effects of leaders’ core self-evaluation on employees’ job performance. Furthermore, we found that employees’ exchange ideology moderates the relationship between ethical leadership and job performance. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (shrink)

The current study proposes a novel conceptual model in which Islamic work ethics has a mediating role in the relationship between servant leadership and employees’ life satisfaction within Pakistan’s banking sector. The model draws on the theory of leader-member exchange. Data from a sample of 240 were evaluated using structural equation modeling using SmartPLS 3.2.7 software. The findings indicate that servant leadership significantly impacts employees’ life satisfaction. Furthermore, Islamic work ethics mediated this effect. This study introduces ground-breaking bank (...) inputs by creating a new integrated model based on LMX theory. While the impact of several dimensions of Islamic work ethics on employees’ life satisfaction has been widely investigated, the present study is the first to explore the roles of servant leadership and Islamic work ethics in leveraging bank employees’ life satisfaction. The results suggest that bank managers should enact servant leadership in their business and serve their employees ethically to improve their life satisfaction. Additionally, this study provides key theoretical contributions to the literature on Islamic banking. (shrink)