Search results

This study aims to investigate the situational factors that intensify the impact of leader bottom-line mentality (BLM) on employee pro-self-unethical behavior. In particular, the moderating role of contingent rewards and punishments is evaluated under the lens of situational strength theory.

Data were collected from 218 full-time employees working in the USA in a time-lagged study and analyzed using SPSS Process Macro.

Statistical analysis reveal contingent rewards and punishments significantly moderate the positive relationship between BLM and pro-self-unethical behavior.

This paper highlights the need for more balanced reward systems that incorporate moral conduct into work performance. It also emphasizes the role of robust accountability and monitoring systems in minimizing employees’ unethical behavior.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the moderating role of contingent rewards and punishments on the relationship between leader BLM and subordinate pro-self-unethical behavior. Moreover, it provides significant empirical support to situational strength theory.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to examine a customer orientation mechanism through which abusive supervision influences retail salespeople’s job performance; and second, to investigate how abusive supervision’s effects may be moderated by the same leader’s use of contingent punishment and contingent reward.

Two studies provide consistent findings. Study 1 used the field survey data from 129 salespeople in 42 retail stores. The proposed moderated mediation model was estimated using the random coefficient modeling technique. Findings were replicated in Study 2, in which data were collected from a sample of 679 US retail salespeople recruited through M-Turk.

Results from both studies show that abusive supervision reduces salespeople’s job performance through lowering their customer orientation. Furthermore, the use of contingent punishment from the same supervisor buffers abusive supervision’s detrimental effect, whereas the use of contingent reward augments it.

The issues the authors address in this research have significant implications for the literature of abusive supervision and retail selling. First, the authors contribute to the abusive supervision literature by pointing it out that the negative effect of abusive supervision can spill over to organizations’ external stakeholders, namely, customers. Previous research on abusive supervision has mainly focused on how abused subordinates exhibit hostile acts directed against the supervisor, coworkers and the organization (Tepper et al., 2017), with little attention paid to abusive supervision’s impact on organizations’ external stakeholders such as customers. This research fills the void by placing impaired customer-orientation as a critical consequence of abusive supervision. Second, this research tests a contingent self-regulation impairment model of abusive supervision and advances our understanding about how the same supervisor’s functional leadership behaviors (contingent reward/punishment) may set contingencies for the effect of abusive supervision on employee outcomes. This investigation clears the doubts about whether the use of functional leadership behaviors along with abusive supervision buffers or aggravates the detrimental effect of the latter. Finally, this study’s findings shed new insights to marketing practitioners, especially in understanding how salespeople may vent their stress on the customers when being abused by their supervisors. Without this in mind, supervisors may not be aware of the consequences of their abusive behavior and may even develop an illusion that such a practice worked. This research shows that abusive supervision can lower employees’ customer orientation, which will hurt the company in the long run.

The findings intend to provide important guidelines for companies to develop effective workshops and training programs to combat the detrimental effects of abusive supervision in the retailing industry. For example, the findings shed new insights in understanding how employees may vent their stress on the customers when being abused by their supervisors. Without this in mind, supervisors may not be aware of the consequences of their abusive behavior and may even develop an illusion that such a practice worked. Another important managerial implication of this research is that the use of contingent reward after mistreating subordinates can backfire. Supervisor abuses, followed by a contingent reward, send an inconsistent signal to the employee that creates confusion and strain. Inconsistent actions from the supervisor also produce ethical tensions that reduce customer-oriented behaviors and a company’s ability to serve the customer (Friend et al., 2020). These training programs are important methods to combat the detrimental effects of abusive supervision in the workforce.

This research draws on the contingent self-regulation impairment model as an overarching framework to unpack the relationship between abusive supervision and salespeople’s job performance. Integrating three research streams (i.e. abusive supervision, leadership reinforcement and retail selling), this study proposes customer orientation as a novel mechanism and sheds light on how abusive supervision interplays with contingent punishment/reward to impact salespeople’s outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the applicability of transformational leadership and substitutes-for-leadership theories in Malaysia’s and Pakistan’s work settings.

This study employed a survey-based approach using professional employees in both countries as respondents. In total, 215 responses to a web-based survey in Malaysia and 523 responses to a survey administered using personal methods in Pakistan were used for the analysis.

The results revealed that Malaysia’s leaders were rated high on the dimensions of transformational and transactional leadership. The transformational leadership dimensions produced desirable effects on subordinates’ outcomes in both samples, but the contingent punishment dimension of transactional leadership produced especially undesirable effects on subordinates’ outcomes. Substitutes for leadership also independently affected subordinates’ outcomes and produced similar effects on subordinates’ outcomes in both samples. In general, the effects in the Malaysian sample are larger than those in the Pakistani sample.

The results suggest that the transformational leadership style is effective in both cultures, but the transactional leadership style is culturally contingent. While leaders in collectivist cultures like Malaysia and Pakistan should practice more transformational leadership than transactional leadership, leaders in Pakistan should be particularly careful while practicing transactional leadership because of the society’s high level of collectivism and moderately high-power distance orientation.

The results suggest that the transformational leadership style is effective in both cultures, but the transactional leadership style is culturally contingent. While leaders in collectivist cultures like Malaysia and Pakistan should practice more transformational leadership than transactional leadership, leaders in Pakistan should be particularly careful while practicing transactional leadership because of the society’s low power distance orientation.

Since this study is the first to compare the applicability of western theories in collectivist cultures that differ significantly in their power distance orientation, it contributes meaningfully to the cross-culture leadership field.

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the effect of cultural and social acceptance on CEO leadership.

Several instruments were used to capture key concepts (i.e. Organisational Culture Profile, Marlowe‐Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Transformational Leadership Inventory, and Leader Reward and Punishment Questionnaire), which were examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Data were collected from 635 Australian CEOs.

The results of hierarchical multi‐regression analysis clarified the importance of self‐deception and impression management as influential context factors, and how both operate at the pinnacle of organisations. The study also identifies that transformational and transactional leadership behaviours were uniquely influenced by specific cultural dimensions, and suggests that CEOs use combinations of these behaviours to respond to four cultural dimensions (i.e. emphasis on rewards, performance orientation, innovation, and stability) in order to produce competitive advantages.

The study highlights how CEOs are still vulnerable to conforming to the social norms of their organisation and also how CEOs use a repertoire of leadership behaviours, in response to the importance of different cultural dimensions.

The paper contributes to the leadership literature by directly addressing how context impacts on CEO leadership in three specific areas: social acceptance needs, demographics and culture. Further, the study investigates CEO transformational and transactional leadership behaviours rather than global constructs, and directly addresses the common method variance issue.

Extends the transactional‐transformational model of leadership by deductively developing four theoretical behavioral types of leadership based on a historical analysis of leadership literature. Then, in an exploratory empirical phase, uses two data sets to inductively develop alternative models of leadership types. Finally, with a third data set, tests several theoretically plausible typologies using second‐order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the CFA generally support the existence of four leadership types: directive leadership, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, and empowering leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the quality of the leadership competencies of first-level military leaders according to three behavioural dimensions: task, change and relational competencies.

The study was conducted in the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) among first-level commanders (N = 89), whose leadership competencies were assessed by their subordinates (N = 1,655). The Leader Reward and Punishment Questionnaire was used to assess task competencies, the Transformational Leadership Behaviour Inventory was used to assess change competencies and the Extended Authentic Leadership Measure was used to assess relational competencies. Cluster analyses were conducted to identify the level of leadership competencies in the sample and to determine the commanders' leadership profile.

The study reveals that in terms of leadership competencies, only two competencies from task, two from change and none from the relational dimension are sufficient. In addition, the results highlight that the relational competencies of leadership are connected to each other, while task and change leadership competencies are not.

The study results make it possible to work out the main principles for a leadership development programme for first-level commanders. In addition, the developed methodology makes it possible to assess the leadership competencies of individual commanders using the three-dimensional framework.

This paper demonstrates how quality of the leadership competencies and profiles of first-level EDF commanders are determined within three behavioural dimensions: task, change and relational competencies.

This research aims at investigating, for the first time in the Arab world, the influence of leadership behaviors on organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) in the Islamic banking sector. Also, it explores the role of OCB in affecting work outcomes.

The study consists of two core concepts: leadership behaviors and OCB. The sample population for the study was drawn from 150 employees working for several Islamic banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A self‐administered questionnaire was developed by combining two instruments.

The findings revealed that transformational and transactional leadership styles tend to play a significant role in employees' OCB. Nonetheless, passive/avoidant leadership style plays no role of statically evidence in the relationship.

The theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed in the paper, together with some recommendations for managing leadership and OCB in the service sector.

The paper examines for the first time the links between leadership and OCB in the Islamic banking sector of the UAE and the Arabic context.

A critical assumption of the organizational leadership literature is that leaders want to engage in effective leadership behaviors (Gilbert and Kelloway, 2014). However, leaders may vary in their motivation to be effective in a leadership role, leading to different levels of performance. Drawing on self-determination theory, the authors address the question of what motivates leaders to engage in transformational leadership behaviors (Gilbert et al., 2016). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The current study examined the effects of self-determined leader motivation for transformational leadership on aggregated follower leadership ratings using a sample of 37 leaders matched with 179 followers in two organizations.

Results show how leaders’ own motivation relates to followers’ perceptions of leader behavior, and specifically that, across contexts, some autonomous levels of leader motivation are positively related to follower perceptions of leaders’ active-constructive leadership and negatively related to follower perceptions of passive avoidant leadership.

The research is limited by a small level-two sample size and cross-sectional design. The results suggest that some forms of leader motivation relate to follower ratings of leadership behavior.

This study is the first to examine how self-determined motivation for transformational leadership predicts follower perceptions of leadership behavior using a multilevel design.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of advancing theory and research in China through identification of unique aspects of Chinese organizational behaviors, which can lead to expanded, robust organizational behavior and human resource management models and theories that transcend national boundaries.

This is a conceptual paper and does not employ research methods.

The results of studies included in this special issue suggest that researchers can identify elements unique to China in constructs such as psychological capital, work‐to‐family spillover, work‐family conflict, performance appraisal process, and expatriate interactions that further expand theory and research in organizational behavior.

The review of articles in the special issue suggests that managers in organizations in China may want to: develop individuals' psychological capital; train managers on the importance of eliminating abusive behaviors and developing employees' heartiness; adopt family friendly practices; employ performance appraisal process to encourage commitment and organizational citizenship behaviors; and train local country nationals on working with expatriates to enhance organizational effectiveness.

This review provides a unique perspective on employee behavior because it considers such behavior in a Chinese context.

Transformational leader behaviors are defined as those behaviors that make followers more aware of the importance and values of task outcomes, activate their higher-order needs and induce them to transcend self-interests for the sake of the organization (Bass, 1985; Yukl, 1989a, b). These behaviors primarily include six types: articulating a vision, intellectual stimulation, demonstrating high performance expectations, providing an appropriate model, fostering collaboration and providing individualized support. Transactional leader behaviors, on the other hand, are founded on an exchange process in which the leader provides rewards/ punishments in return for the subordinate's effort and performance (Burns, 1978). They often include four types: contingent/non-contingent reward and contingent /non-contingent punishment. We examined the effects of these leader behaviors on subordinates' job satisfaction, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in Chinese organizations. Data from 410 subordinate-supervisor dyads (287 in Taiwan and 123 in the PRC) suggest that while transformational leader behaviors in both samples have a more profound impact than transactional behaviors on employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment, the effects of each specific transformational and transactional behavior are different in the PRC and Taiwan. In particular, among the six types of transformational behaviors, ‘providing an appropriate model” and “demonstrating high expectation of performance” significantly influenced PRC employees' job attitudes and OCB, whereas “providing individualized support” and “fostering collaboration” had significant influence on Taiwan employees' job attitudes and OCB. Furthermore, among the four types of transactional behaviors, contingent reward and punishment had significant positive impact on PRC employees' job satisfaction and organizational commitment, whereas the job attitudes of the Taiwan employees were not significantly affected by contingent punishment. Instead, it was found that non-contingent reward had significant positive impact while non-contingent punishment had significant negative effect on their job attitudes. In addition, both contingent and non-contingent punishment had significant negative effects on Taiwan employees' OCB, whereas only non-contingent punishment had such negative effects in the PRC. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the contingent nature of leadership effectiveness.