Abstract

The ability to respond appropriately to employees' work-related well-being requires leaders to pay attention to their employees' well-being in the first place. We propose that leaders' stress mindset, that is, the belief that stress is enhancing versus debilitating, may bias their perception of employees' well-being. We further propose that this judgment then influences leaders' intention to engage in or refrain from health-oriented leadership behavior, to express higher performance expectations, or to promote their employees. We expect this process to be stronger if leaders strongly identify with their team, increasing their perceived similarity with their employees. In three experiments (N-1 = 198, N-2 = 292, N-3 = 250), we tested the effect of participants' stress mindset on their intention to show certain leadership behaviors, mediated by their perception of employee well-being (emotional exhaustion, somatic symptoms, work engagement) and moderated by their team identification. Our findings largely support the association between stress mindset and the perception of well-being. The results for the proposed mediation and the moderating function of identification were mixed. Overall, the results emphasize the critical role of leaders' stress mindset and may, thus, improve health promotion in organizations by helping leaders to adequately recognize employees' well-being and respond appropriately.

Keyword

emotional exhaustion ;  leadership ;  stress mindset ;  team identification ;  work engagement

Abstract

Considering recent corporate scandals, organizations have increased their efforts to curb unethical employee behavior. However, little is known about whether leaders comply with these efforts and how they respond to unethical employee behavior, especially when unethical actions benefit the organization. By integrating arguments from social identity and moral disengagement theories, we develop and test a model to explain how leaders respond to unethical pro-organizational behavior (UPB) among employees. Results from one multi-wave, multi-source field study and one experiment showed that leader perceptions of employee UPB were positively related to leader trust in employees when leaders identified strongly with their organization or when they had a strong propensity to morally disengage. Moreover, the results revealed an important three-way interaction effect. Leaders put considerable trust into UPB-enacting employees when leaders both identified strongly with the organization and showed high levels of moral disengagement. In contrast, they put little trust into UPB-enacting employees when leaders identified weakly with the organization and reported low moral disengagement. Furthermore, results showed that leader trust ultimately translated into perceived leader justice toward employees. These findings provide new and important insights into when organizations can(not) rely on their leaders to manage unethical employee behaviors.

Keyword

justice ;  leadership ;  moral disengagement ;  moral disengagement theory ;  organizational identification ;  social identity theory ;  unethical pro‐organizational behavior

Abstract

The majority of extant leadership research has focused on leaders’ stable traits and experiences in adulthood to understand the antecedents of leadership behaviors. By taking a developmental perspective, our research builds on implicit leadership theory and goal orientation theory and proposes an integrated model of leadership development that specifies the link between parenting styles received by leaders while growing up and leadership behaviors exhibited to their followers in their adulthood. In a survey conducted among Chinese executives and their team members working in a variety of different organizations, we found that authoritarian parenting leads to authoritarian and autocratic leadership styles through the mediating role of performance prove-goal orientation while authoritative parenting leads to developing and benevolent leadership through the mediating role of learning goal orientation. These findings suggest that parenting styles have far-reaching effects on leadership behaviors. We hope that our study provides a platform for future research by drawing attention to the previously under-examined developmental antecedents of leadership development."

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Abstract

Although researchers and practitioners increasingly focus on health promotion in organizations, research has been mainly fragmented and fails to integrate different organizational levels in terms of their effects on employee health. Drawing on organizational climate and social identity research, we present a cascading model of organizational health climate and demonstrate how and when leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate are linked to employee well-being. We tested our model in two multisource studies (N-Study 1 = 65 leaders and 291 employees; N-Study 2 = 401 leader-employee dyads). Results showed that leaders' perceptions of organizational health climate were positively related to their health mindsets (i.e., their health awareness). These in turn were positively associated with their health-promoting leadership behavior, which ultimately went along with better employee well-being. Additionally, in Study 1, the relationship between perceived organizational health climate and leaders' health mindsets was moderated by their organizational identification. High leader identification strengthened the relationship between perceived organizational health climate and leaders' health mindsets. These findings have important implications for theory and practice as they show how the dynamics of an organizational health climate can unfold in organizations and how it is related to employee well-being via the novel concept of health-promoting leadership.

Keyword

employee health ;  health mindset ;  health-promoting leadership ;  organizational health climate ;  organizational identification

Abstract

Studies have started to examine factors that explain when and why leaders enact procedural justice. However, these studies have not considered the idea that justice enactment can be a self-serving instrument for leaders. In this paper, we propose a threat-based tripartite model of procedural justice enactment. Specifically, we examine how leaders in unstable (vs. stable) power positions combine information from the two fundamental dimensions of person perception-that is, their perceptions of a follower's competence and warmth-to shape the level of procedural justice they enact toward the follower. In support of our model, the results of a multisource organizational field study and a laboratory experiment show that leaders in unstable power positions enact procedural justice, particularly toward followers whom they perceive as highly competent but low in warmth. We discuss our findings in light of their implications for the justice and leadership literatures.

Keyword

competence ;  instrumentality ;  person perception ;  position stability ;  procedural justice ;  warmth

Abstract

Although the topic of value congruence has attracted considerable attention from researchers and practitioners, evidence for the link between person–supervisor value congruence and followers’ reactions is less robust than often assumed. This study addresses three central issues in our understanding of person–supervisor value congruence (a) by assessing the impact of objective person–supervisor value congruence rather than subjective value congruence, (b) by examining the differential effects of value congruence in strongly versus moderately held values, and (c) by exploring perceived empowerment as a central mediating mechanism. Results of a multi-source study comprising 116 person–supervisor dyads reveal that objective value congruence relates to followers’ job satisfaction and affective commitment and that this link can be explained by followers’ perceived empowerment. Moreover, polynomial regression and response surface analyses reveal that congruence effects vary with the importance that leaders and followers ascribe to a certain value: Congruency in strongly held values have more robust relations with followers’ outcomes than congruence in moderately held values.

Keyword

Empowerment ;  Person–supervisor value congruence ;  Polynomial regression

Abstract

Despite increased interest in health promotion in organizations, research has mostly been conducted in a fragmented manner, and fails to integrate different organizational levels with regard to their effects on employee health. Drawing on organizational climate and social identity research, we present a multilevel cascading model of organizational health climate and show how and when organizational health climate is linked to employee health. We examine how organizational health climate influences leaders’ health-promoting leadership behavior by raising leaders’ health mindset for employees’ health-relevant issues and eventually enhancing employees’ health. Our results based on multilevel data from leaders and employees working in different organizations support these mediation hypotheses. Additionally, in line with social identity theory, the relationship between organizational health climate and leaders’ health mindset was moderated by leaders’ identification with the organization: strong leader identification strengthened the relationship between organizational health climate and leaders’ health mindset. Our inquiry extends the understanding of how organizational health climate flows through an organization. The results support a multilevel cascading effect of health-promoting actions in organizations and highlight the crucial role of leaders, passing on the effects of organizational health climate to employees. Implications for theory and research are discussed.

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Abstract

Research on value congruence rests on the assumption that values denote desirable behaviors and ideals that employees and organizations strive to approach. In the present study, we develop and test the argument that a more complete understanding of value congruence can be achieved by considering a second type of congruence based on employees' and organizations' counter-ideal values (i.e., what both seek to avoid). We examined this proposition in a time-lagged study of 672 employees from various occupational and organizational backgrounds. We used difference scores as well as polynomial regression and response surface analyses to test our hypotheses. Consistent with our hypotheses, results reveal that counter-ideal value congruence has unique relations to employees' trust in the organization that go beyond the effects of ideal value congruence. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this expanded perspective on value congruence.

Keyword

Counter-ideal values ;  Ideal values ;  P-E fit ;  Person-environment fit ;  Value congruence

Abstract

Organizations increasingly depend on employee efforts to innovate. However, the quality of relationships between leaders and employees may affect the recognition that employees receive for their innovative work behaviors. Drawing from a social cognition perspective, we tested a model in which leader-member exchange (LMX) moderates the impact of employee innovative work behavior on supervisory ratings of employee performance. Results from two multisource studies combining self, colleague, and supervisor ratings consistently showed that employees receive more favorable performance ratings by engaging in innovative work behavior when they have high-quality LMX relationships. Moreover, we found that this interactive relationship was mediated by leader perceptions of innovative employee efforts, providing support for a moderated mediation model. Implications for the literatures on performance appraisal, LMX, and innovation are discussed.

Keyword

employee innovation ;  innovative work behavior ;  leader-member exchange ;  LMX ;  performance appraisal ;  performance ratings

Abstract

Although the topic of person-supervisor value congruence has attracted considerable research attention, evidence for the link between person-supervisor value congruence and subordinates’ reactions is less concrete than often assumed. This study addresses three central issues in our understanding of person-supervisor value congruence (a) by assessing the impact of objective rather than subjective value congruence, (b) by examining differential congruence effects of moderate versus extreme values, and (c) by exploring mediating processes. Results of a multi-source study comprising 116 person-supervisor dyads reveal that objective value congruence relates to subordinates’ job satisfaction and affective commitment and that this link can be explained by subordinates’ perceived empowerment. Moreover, polynomial regression and response surface analyses reveal that congruence effects vary with the importance that supervisors and subordinates ascribe to a certain value: congruency in extremely important or extremely unimportant values have stronger relations with subordinates’ outcomes than congruence in moderate values.

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