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

Although counterproductive work behaviors can be extremely damaging to organizations and society as a whole, we do not yet fully understand the link between employees’ organizational attachment and their intention to engage in such behaviors. Based on social identity theory, we predicted a negative relationship between organizational identification and counterproductive work behaviors. We also predicted that this relationship would be moderated by ambivalent identification. We explored counterproductive work behaviors toward the organization (CWB-O) and other individuals (CWB-I). Study 1, a survey of 198 employees, revealed that employees who identified strongly with their organization reported lower levels of CWB-O, but as predicted, only when ambivalent identification was low. Study 2 involved a manipulation in the form of a scenario presented to 228 U.S. employees, generally replicated the findings of Study 1: the link between organizational identification and CWB-O was stronger for participants in the low ambivalence condition than for those in the high ambivalence condition. The interaction effect of ambivalent and organizational identification on CWB-I was only marginally significant in the second study. These findings provide new evidence for the positive influence of organizational identification under conditions of low ambivalence on counterproductive behaviors toward an organization.

Keyword

Ambivalent identification ;  Counterproductive work behaviors ;  Organizational identification

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."

Keyword

Abstract

Fit is generally conceptualized as a dynamic construct, but most research on person‐environment fit has focused on fit in the current moment. We addressed this oversight by examining the dynamic relationships among person‐job (PJ) fit, demand‐ability (DA) fit, need‐supply (NS) fit, and employee work attitudes over time using a three‐wave survey design over a 12‐month period. Results from 168 employees revealed that change in PJ fit was significantly related to changes in job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment. In addition, DA and NS fit changes were significantly and indirectly associated with job satisfaction and commitment changes through PJ fit change. We also found that increases in job demands and employee abilities significantly decreased DA fit, and increases in employee needs significantly decreased NS fit whereas increases in job supplies significantly increased NS fit. Finally, we examined age as an important moderator for employees’ reactions to PJ fit changes, and found that younger employees reacted more strongly to increases/decreases in PJ fit than did older employees.

Keyword

change in fit ;  job satisfaction ;  organizational commitment ;  person‐environment fit ;  person‐job fit

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 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

We contribute to the understanding of the relationship between organisational identification and work-related stress by examining the role that expanded forms of organisational identification play in explaining the nature of this relationship. The current study explores the extent to which organisational identification and other expanded forms of identification predict employee strain. We hypothesise that ambivalent identification, neutral identification, and disidentification will moderate the negative relationship between organisational identification and exhaustion and ego depletion, such that the link between identification and strain will be stronger when the other dimensions are low. We tested these predictions in a survey among 228 employees of care homes for the elderly (72% social-sanitary operators, 27% nurses). Results largely supported the hypotheses and show reliable interactions for ambivalent, neutral identification, and disidentification on both exhaustion and ego depletion. Results showed a significant moderation by ambivalent identification for exhaustion but not for ego depletion. We discuss limitations and future implications for research and practice of the expanded model of organisational identification in organisational interventions that deal with work-related stress.

Keyword

rganisational identification ;  exhaustion ;  ego depletion ;  disidentification ;  ambivalent identification ;  neutral identification

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

Although it is an increasingly popular assumption that leader mindfulness may positively affect leader behaviors and, in turn, employee outcomes, to date, little empirical evidence supports this view. Against this backdrop, the present research seeks to develop and test a serial mediation model of leader mindfulness. Specifically, we propose that leader mindfulness enhances employee performance and that this relationship is explained by increased leader procedural justice enactment and, subsequently, reduced employees’ emotional exhaustion. We conducted three studies to test this model. Study 1 involved employees from a wide range of organizations in the USA (N = 275 employees). Study 2 used a sample of leaders and employees from China and measured our model variables at three different points in time (N = 182 employees and 54 leaders). Both studies provide consistent support for our hypotheses. Finally, Study 3 involved a laboratory experiment in which 62 senior executives were assigned to either a mindfulness induction or to a control condition. Again, results revealed a significant and positive link between leader mindfulness and leader procedural justice enactment. In sum, these findings expand our understanding of mindfulness to the domain of leadership, a key area of organizational research. Moreover, they complement prior studies by showing that mindfulness dynamics go beyond intrapersonal effects but also influence the attitudes and behaviors of others. We discuss our findings in light of their contributions to the mindfulness, ethics, and leadership literatures and point out implications for practice.

Keyword

Emotional exhaustion ;  Employee performance ;  Experiment ;  Field study ;  Justice rule adherence ;  Leadership ;  Mindfulness ;  Procedural justice enactment ;  Serial mediation