How does paradoxical leadership affect employee adaptive performance? A moderated mediation model

Abstract

Purpose

Drawing on the paradox perspective and the Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R), we investigate how paradoxical leadership behavior (PLB) affects employee adaptive performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Conducted a multi-wave field study with a sample of 64 leaders and 224 subordinates (study 1), and a quasi-experiment involving 156 participants (study 2). The collected data were analyzed using ANOVA and HLM techniques.

Findings

Both studies reveal that (1) PLB exhibits a positive association with employee adaptive performance, (2) employee paradox mindset and role stress partly mediated the relationship between PLB and employee adaptive performance, (3) the indirect effects of PLB on employee adaptive performance through employee paradox mindset and role stress are moderated by employee gender-role identity (GRI).

Originality/value

This research developed a moderated mediation model to examine the potential impact of PLB on employee adaptive performance, which contributes to the literature by integrating the paradox perspective and emphasizing the effectiveness of combining “top-down” and “bottom-up” leadership approaches. Moreover, we elucidate the underlying mechanisms through which PLB facilitates employees in effectively managing work role tensions to enhance adaptive performance Finally, this study also extends the investigation of the contextual efficacy of PLB by incorporating GRI as a moderator.

Citation

Tan, L., Hao, P., Gao, H. and Wojtczuk-Turek, A. (2024), "How does paradoxical leadership affect employee adaptive performance? A moderated mediation model", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 37 No. 7, pp. 1535-1558. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-03-2024-0152