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How leader bottom-line mentality relates to employee innovation: a cross-layer model mediated by psychological contract breach

Longjun Liu (School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)
Qing Fan (School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China)
Ruhong Liu (School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)
Jing Long (School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China)

Leadership & Organization Development Journal

ISSN: 0143-7739

Article publication date: 12 April 2022

Issue publication date: 23 May 2022

896

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine how and when leader bottom-line mentality (BLM) affects employee innovation (EI) in the context of Chinese organisations in which psychological contract breach (PCB) is a mediator and moral identity (MI) is a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors distributed the questionnaires to technology and culture firms in 2 waves and obtained a sample of 308 employees in 56 teams. The authors used the hierarchical linear model (HLM) and bootstrap method for the hypothesis testing.

Findings

The authors conclude that leader BLM negatively influences EI. Specifically, leader BLM leads mainly to low EI by increasing PCB amongst employees. Moreover, MI plays a moderating role in the above mechanism, i.e. the higher the MI degree of employees, the stronger the mediating role of PCB and the stronger the negative impact of leader BLM.

Practical implications

This study argues that BLM is necessary for firm development, but paying too much attention to BLM may achieve the opposite effect. Reducing BLM or buffering the negative impact of BLM through various measures (e.g. human resource management) is appropriate for managers.

Originality/value

The authors discover a new mechanism and boundary condition, i.e. leader BLM has a negative impact on EI through PCB and MI strengthens the effect of leader BLM.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editors and reviewers for their valuable contributions to the improvement of the manuscript. Here, the authors also sincerely thank Professor Wenhai Wan for his funding support.

Funding: This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71672080; 72072086) and the MOE Layout Foundation of Humanities and Social Sciences (Grant No. 19YJA630070).

Citation

Liu, L., Fan, Q., Liu, R. and Long, J. (2022), "How leader bottom-line mentality relates to employee innovation: a cross-layer model mediated by psychological contract breach", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp. 580-595. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-04-2021-0156

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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