To read this content please select one of the options below:

When a leader is seen as too humble: A curvilinear mediation model linking leader humility to employee creative process engagement

Ling Yuan (Business School, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Leilei Zhang (Business School, Hunan University, Changsha, China)
Yanhong Tu (Hunan University, Changsha, China)

Leadership & Organization Development Journal

ISSN: 0143-7739

Article publication date: 15 May 2018

Issue publication date: 29 May 2018

2543

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how leader humility affects the engagement of employees in creative processes, using perceived organizational support (POS) as a mediator and leader competence as a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from a two-wave sampling of 113 dyads of leaders and subordinates in China.

Findings

A curvilinear relationship was found between leader humility and employee engagement in creative processes. Further, POS partially mediates this relationship, and leader competence positively moderates the relationship between leader humility and POS.

Practical implications

First, organizations should select and train leaders who show humility as a character trait and foster a supportive organizational climate. Second, managers should study the benefits of moderate and harms of superfluous humility, especially in the Chinese cultural context. Third, competent leaders are more effective as humble leaders.

Originality/value

Few studies have concentrated on leader humility in the eastern cultural context. The results challenge traditional views of the impact of leader humility and shed light on its mechanism and the conditions under which it promotes employee engagement in creation. This study also clarifies the nonlinear influence of leader humility, building a fine-grained theoretical framework integrating the motivation-opportunities-abilities model and Chinese Zhong-Yong theory.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos 71502056; 71673082), Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project from Ministry of Education of China (16YJA630071).

Citation

Yuan, L., Zhang, L. and Tu, Y. (2018), "When a leader is seen as too humble: A curvilinear mediation model linking leader humility to employee creative process engagement", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 39 No. 4, pp. 468-481. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-03-2017-0056

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles