By integrating social network theory and leader–member exchange (LMX) theory, we explore the effects of three types of social relationships on employee innovative behavior: weak ties outside the ...group, LMX, and strong ties within the group. The results from a sample in a high-tech firm showed that LMX fully mediated the positive relationship between out-group weak ties and innovative behavior. Furthermore, within-group strong ties negatively moderated the second stage of this indirect relationship, such that LMX was positively and significantly related to innovative behavior only when the number of within-group strong ties was low. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
We theorized and tested an integrated model for the relationship between cognitive diversity and team creativity. This model involves team intrinsic motivation as a mediator and transformational ...leadership as a moderator. The Hierarchical Linear Modeling results using 62 teams revealed that transformational leadership moderated cognitive diversity's direct effect on team intrinsic motivation and indirect effect on team creativity via team intrinsic motivation, such that the effects were positive when transformational leadership was high, but negative when transformational leadership was low.
Integrating empowerment and creativity theories, this study simultaneously explores the context‐specific (i.e., access to resources AR and access to information AI) and actor‐related (i.e., ...organization‐based self‐esteem OBSE) mechanisms in the relationship between empowering leadership and employee creativity. Furthermore, drawing on the interactionist perspective of creativity, it examines how AR and AI may interact with OBSE to influence creativity. Multisource data were collected from 217 employees and their supervisors using a three‐wave, time‐lagged research design. The results reveal that OBSE and AR mediate the relationship between empowering leadership and creativity. Moreover, AR moderates the relationship between OBSE and creativity, such that this relationship is significant only when AR is high. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Practitioner points
Empowering leaders may stimulate creativity by impacting their employees' OBSE and access to resources.
A possible way for leaders to facilitate creativity is to simultaneously promote employees' OBSE and provide them with the necessary resources
Despite the importance of leader vision communication to effective leadership, little is known about what prompts leaders to communicate a vision in the first place. Drawing from construal level ...theory, we examined the within-person relationship of leader construal level in the morning with vision communication during that workday. Leadership self-identity, or the extent to which “being a leader” is central to one’s self-concept, was specified as a cross-level moderator of the daily construal level–vision communication relationship. We tested our predictions using an experience sampling design across 15 consecutive workdays. In total, we obtained a total of 394 matched morning and afternoon surveys from 44 mid- to high-level managers. Results revealed that a high-level construal level in the morning was positively associated with vision communication during the day but only when leadership self-identity is high (vs. low). We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings, in particular with regard to the emerging field of visionary leadership as well as the emerging literature that uses construal level theory to explain leadership phenomena.
We developed a dual-level transformational leadership scale to measure individual-focused behavior at the individual level and group-focused behavior at the group level, and we validated the scale ...using a sample of 203 members from 60 work groups in a Canadian company. Results show that individual-focused leadership behavior, at the individual level, was positively related to task performance and personal initiative; group-focused leadership behavior, at the group level, was positively associated with team performance and helping behavior. Implications for leadership theory and practice are offered.
Using a sample from a large diversified company, this study examines the influence processes of transformational leadership (TFL) at both the individual and group levels concurrently and explores ...cross-level relationships. Results showed that, at the individual level, followers' personal identification with the leader mediated the effects of individual-focused TFL behavior on individual performance and empowerment. At the group level, group identification mediated the effect of group-focused TFL behavior on collective efficacy. Results also supported two cross-level effects from the group level to the individual level. The paper addresses the implications for leaders of motivating individuals and teams, at the same time.
PurposeProactive career behavior (PCB) is an effective form of career self-management that has positive impacts on individual career development and career success, and therefore, the purpose of this ...paper is to explore the driving factors of PCB.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the interactionist perspective and situational strength theory, this study examined the independent and joint effects of role commitment and pay-for-performance (PFP) on employees' PCB based on data collected from 298 Chinese private enterprise employees at two time points.FindingsThe authors found that occupational role commitment (ORC), parental role commitment (PRC) and PFP were positively related to PCB. Furthermore, PFP moderated the relationship between ORC/PRC and PCB, such that the two relationships were stronger when PFP was low.Originality/valueDrawing on the interactionist perspective, the authors contribute to the literature on PCB by revealing novel antecedents of PCB: ORC, PRC and PFP. The authors also contribute to the situational strength theory by examining how role commitment and PFP may interact to impact employees' PCB. Finally, the authors are among the first to consider the effects of role commitment on individual career behaviors, thus extending the nomological network of role commitment.
Bootlegging behavior is an innovation activity that an individual privately engages in and that has the contradictory characteristics of deviant behavior and positive purpose. Drawing on social ...learning theory, the authors examine the influence of paradoxical leadership behavior on employee bootlegging behavior through two studies. Study 1 reveals that psychological safety mediates the positive effect of paradoxical leadership behavior on employee bootlegging behavior. Study 2 replicates the mediating role of psychological safety in the relationship between paradoxical leadership behavior and bootlegging behavior. Furthermore, the results of Study 2 show that leader trustworthiness moderates the effect of paradoxical leadership behavior on psychological safety, and the indirect effect of paradoxical leadership behavior on employee bootlegging behavior through psychological safety, whereby the two effects are stronger when leader trustworthiness is high. We discuss the implications and limitations of this study.
Drawing on conservation of resources theory and event system theory, we explored the relationship between empowering leadership and leader’s psychological well-being. Multiwave data were collected ...from 190 leaders of a variety of companies in Mainland China. We found that empowering leadership was positively related to leader recovery, which mediated the positive effect of empowering leadership on leader’s psychological well-being. Event disruption moderated the positive relationship between empowering leadership and leader recovery, such that the relationship was significant only when event disruption was low. Furthermore, event disruption moderated the indirect effect of empowering leadership on leader’s psychological well-being via leader recovery, such that the effect was significant only when event disruption was low. Implications and limitations of our study are discussed.
Drawing on the notion that felt obligation is an important motivation variable that drives employees’ behavior, this study examines how leaders can evoke felt obligation in followers and to what ...extent such obligation can subsequently promote follower voice behavior. Using data from 384 Chinese employees and their 130 managers, we find that followers’ felt obligation to the leader (FOTL) serves as a mediator in the relationship between transformational leadership and employee voice behavior and that the mediation effect of FOTL is moderated by followers’ power distance orientation (PDO), such that the mediation effect is significant only for employees with low PDO. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
PDF
