Since the concept of psychological safety was introduced, empirical research on its antecedents, outcomes, and moderators at different levels of analysis has proliferated. Given a burgeoning body of ...empirical evidence, a systematic review of the psychological safety literature is warranted. As well as reviewing empirical work on psychological safety, the present article highlights gaps in the literature and provides direction for future work. In doing so, it highlights the need to advance our understanding of psychological safety through the integration of key theoretical perspectives to explain how psychological safety develops and influences work outcomes at different levels of analysis. Suggestions for future empirical research to advance our understanding of psychological safety are also provided.
•Reviews the extant literature on psychological safety•Highlights gaps in the existing literature and issues with measurement of psychological safety•Concludes with directions for future research on psychological safety
To advance understanding of leadership in the public sector, this article examines the link between accountability, rule‐following, political loyalty, and network governance approaches to leadership ...and employees' public service motivation (PSM) and individual job performance. Using a sample of 300 civil servants and their 64 managers in China, the study finds that accountability, rule‐following, political loyalty, and network governance leadership are all significantly positively related to employees' PSM levels and job performance. The results of multilevel modeling show that network governance leadership has the strongest positive relationship with both PSM and job performance, suggesting that managers should encourage public employees to initiate and maintain contacts outside their organizations to access relevant information, technical expertise, and resources that may be not be available internally.
This study examines whether the exhibition of entrepreneurial leadership by CEOs within entrepreneurial ventures fosters higher levels of top management team performance and job performance of team ...members, and whether psychological safety explains such effects. Utilizing four waves of multisource, multilevel data from 262 team members across 56 top management teams, we find that the exercise of entrepreneurial leadership by the CEO leads to higher levels of performance at the team and individual levels, and that psychological safety mediates such relationships.
This paper reports the validation of a 6-item short form of the original 35-item Servant Leadership Behavior Scale, a widely used measure of servant leadership behavior. The holistic perspective of ...servant leadership and the inclusion of spirituality are two distinctive features of the SLBS relative to other servant leadership measures. Psychometric properties of the SLBS-6 were examined on the basis of seven studies. In the preliminary scale development, the factor structure of the new measure was tested using a combination of all samples (n = 3072). The subsequent seven studies were aimed at building further its construct validity relative to observed variables within the servant leadership nomological network in direct, mediating, and moderating relationships. Analyses of all datasets using MPlus with maximum-likelihood estimation provided support for the 6-item structure and demonstrated its internal consistency reliability, criterionrelated validity, and construct validity. As such, the study presents the SLBS-6 as the shortest holistic measure of servant leadership to date that can be used with confidence for research and training purposes.
Despite growing work on the positive outcomes resulting from ambidextrous leadership, limited research has examined whether ambidextrous leadership always has desirable consequences on followers. In ...order to achieve explorative and exploitative innovation, ambidextrous leaders are required to perform two styles of leadership behaviors, namely opening and closing leadership behaviors. The present study argues that as followers are reliant on their leaders to provide them with information and clarification about the tasks, by engaging in ambidextrous leadership behaviors to try and foster innovative behaviors amongst their followers, the leader may unintendedly increase the follower’s job stress and role ambiguity. Drawing on a sample of 416 leader–follower dyads, we established that while ambidextrous leadership contributes to the innovative behaviors of followers, it also increases followers’ job stress and role ambiguity, which subsequently reduces innovative behaviors. The results suggest that ambidextrous leadership has two faces, enabling and burdening, which can both enhance and stifle innovative behaviors.
Drawing on social exchange theory, the present study seeks to understand how ethical leaders channel followers' responses to positive treatment from the organization into a dutiful mindset, resulting ...in in-role and extra-role performance. Specifically, it examines the influence of perceived organizational support on both followers' job performance and organizational citizenship behaviors, and the mediating effects of duty orientation on such relationships. In addition, it examines whether the mediated effects are contingent on the ethical leadership exhibited by the team leader. Based on multi-source, multi-level data obtained from 233 employees in 60 teams from the Chinese public sector, we found that ethical leadership moderated the mediated relationship between perceived organizational support and follower work behaviors through duty orientation, such that this relationship was stronger in the presence of higher ethical leadership.
Summary
Thriving at work is a notable construct given its role in individual health and developmental outcomes. According to the Socially Embedded Model of Thriving (SEMT), individuals thrive at work ...when embedded in environments that support agentic behaviors and can self‐sustain this state through positive spirals of agentic behaviors, resources, and thriving. The SEMT is inherently multilevel, yet there are two unarticulated but critical multilevel issues in existing scholarship: a paucity of research reflecting these multilevel features of the SEMT and an incipient multilevel conceptualization of thriving that has little theoretical justification. As a catalyst for progress, we present an integrative review drawing from the SEMT and other supplementary theoretical perspectives to define a multilevel conceptualization of thriving at work. Through this lens, we organize, synthesize, and evaluate the body of evidence, integrating the multilevel view of thriving within established scholarship. To substantiate our framework theoretically, we articulate how lower level processes unfold to develop higher level collective manifestations of thriving at work. We identify opportunities for theoretical and empirical advancement, coupled with specific, actionable recommendations, to deepen a multilevel conceptualization of thriving. Altogether, we advance thriving at work as a multilevel construct meaningful at three levels—individuals, dyads, and collectives.
A growing body of research explores human resource management practices that encourage employees to innovate. In this study, we examine the links between different sources of feedback (supervisor and ...coworker) and employees’ innovative behavior. Drawing on social exchange theory and the job demands‐resources theory, we first propose that work engagement and psychological contract breach mediate the relationship between supervisor feedback and employees’ innovative behavior. Second, we propose a moderated mediation model in which coworker feedback attenuates the relationships between supervisor feedback and employees’ innovative behavior through the mediating mechanisms of both work engagement and psychological contract breach. Using three waves of multisource data from 300 Chinese employees and their 64 supervisors, we found a dual‐mediation pathway by which employees’ work engagement and perceptions of psychological contract breach mediate the influence of supervisor feedback on innovative behavior. Our results also show that coworker feedback can be used to supplement the lack of supervisor feedback when required. Organizations are advised to ensure that employees obtain regular feedback from multiple sources because such feedback can promote employees’ work engagement and perceptions that the organization is upholding its side of the psychological contract, which fosters employees’ innovative behavior.
This study examines the mediating effects of reflective moral attentiveness on the relationship between ethical leadership and subordinates’ unethical pro‐organisational behaviour (UPB). Based on ...two‐wave survey data obtained from 233 employees in 60 teams from Chinese government agencies, we found that ethical leadership was positively related to reflective moral attentiveness. In addition, we found that reflective moral attentiveness mediated the relationship between ethical leadership and UPB, such that ethical leadership negatively influenced subordinates’ unethical pro‐organisational behaviour through enhancing reflective moral attentiveness.
Purpose
Drawing from the cognitive evaluation theory, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between student volunteers’ narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and commitment ...to university volunteer programmes through the mediating mechanisms of self-orientation and pro-social motivation. Further, it investigates the roll of servant leadership in mitigating these personality types and encouraging student volunteers to become more pro-socially motivated.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses data collected via questionnaire from 156 student volunteers across Australia. Hypothesis testing was conducted using ordinary least squares regression with the path-analytic conditional process modelling (PROCESS) macro for SPSS.
Findings
The study’s analysis indicated that self-orientated motivation mediated the relationship between narcissism and normative commitment, and pro-social motivation mediated the relationship between both Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and affective commitment. Further, servant leadership was found to moderate the relationship between both Machiavellianism and psychopathy, and pro-social motivation, such that the negative relationship became weaker under a servant leader. These findings suggest that servant leaders play a significant role in encouraging “dark” personalities to see the light.
Originality/value
This research is the first to examine the use of the Dark Triad in a student volunteering context. It extends the cognitive evaluation theory by revealing that extrinsic (in contrast to intrinsic) motivations are “crowded out” as intrinsic (in contrast to extrinsic) motivations develop within individuals. The study also refines the social learning theory, by examining the influences of “positive” leadership attributes (servant leadership) on “darker” (Dark Triad) personalities.
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