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The purpose of this study is to map different kinds of tensions in product innovation and investigate how top managers use communication to shape subordinates' attention and thereby respond to these tensions.

This study adopted an embedded case study of four innovation centers within a Nordic multinational firm.

This study identifies three kinds of tensions that reside in product innovation, namely dilemma, paradox and trade-off. Further, this study reveals how joint attention (among top managers and subordinates) as a response to tensions can be achieved through different aggregates of top managers' communication efforts.

In opening the black box of tensions in product innovation and identifying multiple tensions, this study contributes to advancing the understanding of the attention-based view. Different from previous studies that simply consider communication as channels for information processing, the findings indicate that the contents and practices of communication can help top managers to shape subordinates' attention and thereby respond to tensions. This study also extends the research focus of attention from top managers to the whole organization, by revealing the importance of building a joint pattern of attention among top managers and subordinates.

Examines the relationships between subordinates′ ratings of boss‐subordinate relationships and supervisors′ overall performance ratings. Data were collected from 3,232 managers (499 work groups) in a large North American information systems firm. Shows that supervisor and subordinate performance ratings were significantly, but not highly‐related. Moderators of this relationship included agreement among subordinates, organizational level, and function. The results have implications for the likely value of upward feedback to managers in different units and the need to educate supervisors in broader aspects of subordinate performance.

This article reports the results of a field study that aims to investigate the differences, if any, that exist between Saudi Arabian and U.S. supervisors, as perceived by their subordinates. It is assumed that any differences that exist are culturally bound and have a positive or negative effect on subordinates by making the work environment pleasant or unpleasant. The findings point to the existence of differences between Saudi Arabian and U.S. supervisors with regard to the subordinates' welfare, claiming subordinates' original ideas, performance evaluation, control, knowledge of the job, willingness to explain job duties to subordinates and motivation. Suggestions have been provided to reduce these differences in the work climate.

One of the most important role conflicts with which organization members are concerned is when a supervisor does not agree with a direct subordinate about what the latter ought to do. It is therefore surprising that this type of role conflict has seldom been systematically studied. In order to gain insight into and be able to control the role conflict situation, it is important to know which Factors cause the role conflict between supervisor and subordinate and which factors are allowed by the subordinate to determine his role behaviour in such conflict. Empirical data have been collected on both issues, which will be presented after a review of the theoretical basis and the research done.

Drawing on knowledge-based view, social exchange theory and leader-member exchange, this study examines how exploitative leadership (EL) influences knowledge management (KM), its processes, and further investigates the moderating role of organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB) on the relationship between EL and KM.

Using a quantitative approach, survey data were collected from 356 faculty members in Iraqi public universities, and the direct and moderating relationships were assessed through Hierarchical regression by PROCESS v.3.3 macros in SPSS.

The study found a significant negative impact of EL on KM, including its processes, especially on knowledge utilisation. The assessment also revealed that OCB has a significant moderating impact on EL, particularly its effect on knowledge creation.

The empirical insights of the study are valuable and precious for policymakers, managers and academics in education sectors of developing countries, to enrich their managerial and scientific performance through addressing EL behaviours while considering the moderating effect of OCB.

The relevance of the study stems from the scarcity of research on EL, while studies on the negative behaviours of leaders as a predictor of KM process failures are significantly limited. Additionally, studies on the moderating impact of OCB on the linkage between EL and KM processes remain limited. This study is one of the earliest studies that investigate these inter-relationships amongst EL, OCB and KM processes.

Based on the social exchange theory, this study explores the mechanism of leader–subordinate power distance orientation (PDO) congruence with employees' taking charge behavior (TCB) and also verifies the moderated mediation effect of employees' promotion regulatory focus (PROM-F) on leader–subordinate PDO congruence and on employees' TCB through trust in the leader (which is the mediator).

Based on 296 questionnaires from 46 teams of Chinese enterprises, the authors use cross-level polynomial regressions and response surface techniques to analyze the effect of leader–subordinate PDO congruence on employees' TCB and use the block variable technique to test the mediating effect of trust in the leader.

(1) When leader–subordinates' PDO is congruent, the leader–subordinate low-low PDO matching pattern leads to more employees' TCB than the leader–subordinate high-high PDO matching pattern. (2) When leader–subordinate PDO is incongruent, the leader–subordinate low–high PDO matching pattern will lead to more TCB than the high-low PDO pattern.

(1) Encourage and promote the development of diverse cultures in enterprises. (2) Respect the power and status of employees and encourage a low-PDO leadership style. (3) Increase credibility by developing and establishing a good corporate leader image.

(1) The unique background of this survey offers important cross-cultural information on the effects of leader–subordinate PDO congruence. (2) The results of this research enrich the theoretical understanding of the factors that influence TCB. (3) Reveal the internal mechanisms of CPD congruence with TCB and demonstrate an indirect effect of trust in leader. (4) The discussion of the moderating role of employee's PROM-F will also deepen the understanding of the exchange relationship between leaders and subordinates.

The authors investigate when and why a subordinate's expressive suppression facilitates workplace creativity, building on the conservation of resources theory and considering the effect of the supervisor's expressive suppression and time pressure as boundary conditions.

Multisource data were collected from 132 teams in northwestern China, including 132 supervisors and 648 subordinates. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the effects.

The subordinate’s expressive suppression was positively related to their workplace creativity. Challenge time pressure was positively related to workplace creativity, and the subordinate’s expressive suppression was positively related to workplace creativity when challenge time pressure was lower and the supervisor's expressive suppression was higher. Hindrance time pressure was negatively related to workplace creativity, and a positive relationship between a subordinate's expressive suppression and workplace creativity was also found with less hindrance time pressure and greater expressive suppression by their supervisor.

By examining the role of the supervisor as a source of downward spillovers in various time pressure contexts, the study explains why a subordinate’s suppression facilitates workplace creativity from the conservation of resources perspective.

This chapter provides a multilevel perspective on the impact of leaders’ emotional display and control on subordinates’ job satisfaction.

This multilevel study investigates how the association of employees’ perceived immediate leaders’ servant leadership and their job satisfaction is influenced by leaders’ emotional labor. Participants in this study included 180 employees and 40 immediate leaders from 40 groups across 16 firms. To avoid of common methods of variances, multiple ratings were employed. Servant leadership of immediate team leaders and subordinates’ job satisfaction were rated by subordinates.

The results showed the positive relationship between perceived team leaders’ creating value for community (one dimension of servant leadership) and team members’ job satisfaction is strengthened by an increase in leaders’ deep-acting of emotions, but is decreased with an increase in leaders’ surface-acting and expression of naturally felt emotions.

This study confirms that a team leader’s emotional labor is likely to affect team members’ job satisfaction, which is also related to employees’ perceived servant leadership. Although how leaders display their emotions in organizations has a significant influence on the association between leaders’ creating value for community and subordinates’ job satisfaction, this study did not identify the explicit mechanisms to explain why this happens.

These findings will enrich the practice of leaders’ emotional management in organizations.

This chapter is the first to provide a perspective to understand leaders’ emotional labor from cross-level analysis. This study also extends our understandings of the effects of servant leadership and its relationships with subordinates’ job satisfaction through an exploration of each dimension of servant leadership on job satisfaction rather than relying on an overall measure servant leadership.

Building upon relational leadership theory, we develop a theoretical model examining the association between leader-follower congruence in follower role orientation and manager and subordinate relational and well-being outcomes. Follower role orientation represents individuals’ beliefs regarding the best way to enact a follower role. We predict that managers and subordinates who share similar role orientations will experience higher quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships and greater eustress than those who differ in their follower role orientations. Propositions are presented for direct effects between congruence and stress and indirect effects through LMX. Our theoretical model contributes to nascent research on followership by offering greater understanding of manager and subordinate beliefs regarding how followers should enact their roles, and the importance of considering leader (i.e., manager) as well as follower outcomes in the workplace. It also extends current thinking about stress as an important outcome of leader-follower relationships.

The aim of the present study was to examine the association of subordinate-oriented strengths-based leadership (SSBL) with subordinates’ job performance (task performance and innovative behavior) as well as the meditating role of supervisor–subordinate guanxi (SSG) in these relationships.

Self-report data on SSBL, SSG, task performance and innovative behavior were gathered from 642 Chinese employees working in various Chinese enterprises. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The results indicated that SSBL is positively related to subordinates’ job performance (task performance and innovative behavior). Furthermore, SSG partially mediated the relationship of SSBL with task performance and with innovative behavior.

This study is the first to empirically examine the relationship of SSBL with job performance. In addition, this study adds to the knowledge on the SSBL–job performance linkage by investigating the mediational effect of SSG on the relationship.